Love Tap (33 page)

“I’ll grab the mop!” Cate’s voice muffles through the door and both Tate and me freeze.

The door swings open, and Tate’s face pales as I’m sure Cate just got an eye full. Using my body I try and shield Tate from anyone seeing her.

“Oh shit!” Cate slams the door.

Tate’s face scrunches in humiliation, as I slip out of her.

I can’t help but smile.

Pulling my pants up, Tate situates herself.

“So, what’s bigger my ego, or my dick?” I peer up at her under hooded eyes.

“Wipe that smug look off your face,” she snaps.

Laughing, I shrug. “I told you, I’d fuck you and let them watch as long as I got your head out of the clouds and back here with me baby.”

Grabbing the nape of her neck, I force her to look up at me and she averts her eyes. I can’t help but feel she is hiding something from me. It angers me, and she’s stupid if she doesn’t think I’ll find out.

“I don’t know what you’re hiding, but I’m going to find out.”

Tate

Three weeks come and go. It’s not been easy keeping this from Camden or my family. It’s killing me. I feel like shit, and have almost told Camden on more than one occasion, but then I fear maybe something bad would happen to them if they did know. Thankfully with all the training I’ve been doing with Camden, and fucking, his mission of trying to figure out what I’m hiding has faded. I love being close to Camden when we’re naked and in bed, but it’s a mere Band-Aid to the guilt eating me from the inside out. Paranoia has me on edge, and constantly angry.

I can’t keep doing this.

I’m going to tell Camden about the Underground when I get back. I have to. I love him and don’t want this to come between us. I don’t want to lose him again. Not over this.

“You ready?” Debs asks grabbing her suitcase from the conveyer belt. The sound of airplanes and idle chit chat from the airport near deafening.

I inhale a ragged breath and grab my bags as well.

“As I’ll ever be.”

Nashville is hot, and … full of boots. So many cowboy and cowgirl boots. Everywhere you turn there’s country music. I wish Camden were here to witness it. It’s different from Chicago that is for sure. I cringe thinking about Camden, guilt rushing over me like a tidal wave.

I just want to get this over with.

“Are we staying at a hotel?” I ask Debs, not sure what the itinerary is. Seems we are given information only as we need it.

“Nope, we are to arrive at The Underground and fight and go home. You being with Camden your face is well known, and Silvia doesn’t want someone spotting you,” she informs. I nod, thankful this will be a quick trip.

“Ok, so where is The Underground?” I question, hoping she knows because I don’t.

“I’m not sure, a driver is supposed to pick us up and take us there, so keep an eye out,” Debs replies looking around the airport parking lot. Pursing my lips in thought I look out and find a black car with a driver standing with a sign that reads “Davis”.

“There,” I point.

Debs starts strutting that way as soon as she spots him.

“Morning Mrs. Davis. I’m Ervin, and will be driving you to The Underground. Can I help you with your things?” the man asks, his voice rough and deep. He seems older, but looks tough as nails. His eyes are sharp, his face as toned as his body. I’d think he was young if it weren’t for the gray in his beard and eyebrows.

“Sure.” I hand him my bag. He gives a curt nod before grabbing Debs’ things and mine and heading to the back of the car.

We ride out of the airport and away from the city. The further we get, the fewer city lights there are. It’s pitch black out my window, and I haven’t seen a car drive by in the last twenty minutes.

“Where are we?” I whisper to Debs, but she ignores me looking out of her window. My nails dig into my palm, and my heart races so hard I can hear my heart beat. I’m freaking out. This was such a bad idea.

Finally Ervin pulls the car into a paved driveway that leads down a long path. A tall dark building comes into view over a hill. Sitting on the edge of my seat I find some of the nicest cars parked in rows, and limos everywhere.

Nerves bundle in my stomach as my phone rings for the sixth time since we’ve been in the car. Pulling it from my pocket I glance at the caller - Camden. My fingers hover over answering it, but fear takes over him knowing just yet and I silence it. Closing my eyes, my heart sinks with guilt as I shove it back in my pocket.

“Good girl,” Debs whispers looking over my shoulder.

I glare at her, conveying how much I don’t need her two cents.

Upon driving closer to the building I notice it’s an old tire company. It looks abandoned and old. My brows furrow in curiosity as to how a fight will be held in such a place.

Ervin pulls past some guards, giving them a tip of the hat and they step aside. These are guards you wouldn’t usually see at a fighting event. These guys are dangerous looking. One has a shaved head with tattoos inked along his scalp and neck. The other’s muscles so big he has to be on steroids as the fabric of his black shirt looks like it belongs to a toddler.

Driving by them I notice the black shiny guns placed snugly on their hips and I break into a nervous sweat.

The car stops and the doors open before I can scout out where we are exactly.

Getting out, two guys dressed in black grab our bags from the trunk.

“Ms. Davis follow these gentlemen and good luck,” Ervin smiles, and gets back in the car. I watch him, debating if I should get back in that car and tell him to take me back to the airport. Those red flags going off in my head are now sirens, screaming for me to high tail it out of here.

“Come on,” Debs shoves my shoulder. “We need to get moving so we can get you set up.”

I pull my gaze from the car that is now leaving and glare at Debs.

“Don’t touch me again,” I threaten. I’m pent up with so much aggression from keeping this shit secret I’m in no mood to be messed with.

One of the guys with short blonde hair and a face you wouldn’t remember, pounds on a gray metal door, and it opens.

Inside there’s a long cylinder hallway that goes on for what seems like forever. The lights are dim, and the smell of mold overwhelming. My feet kick what looks like brick dust as we follow, leaving prints behind.

My face frowns in disgust as I try to step around the muck.

The men stop, opening another metal door. One of them holds the door open, not making eye contact.

Debs walks in, and I follow suit.

The locker room has one lone locker in the back, and a metal bench sitting in front of it. The toilet is sitting to the left with no walls or doors for privacy. It looks like something that belongs in a prison.

“So it’s not the best of conditions, but I’ve seen fighters start out worse and get paid nothing.” Debs tosses the gym bag on the floor, and starts pulling out the tape.

Placing my hands on the back of my neck I blow a breath through hollowed cheeks. I’m anxious, and second guessing all of this.

I can do this.

Can I do this?

I feel like without Camden standing ringside I’m doomed to fail. I need him cheering me on. I need him by my fucking side.

Not just as my lover, but my fucking coach.

A knock sounds at the door and I jeer. Fuck I’m on edge.

Silvia walks in. Her hair sleek and trim, her body shoved into an expensive black dress. She reminds me of a Black Widow.

“Tatum, so happy to have you.” Her smile is fake as she sashays inside the locker room.

I don’t respond as I grab my bag to switch into my fighting gear.

“I just want to remind you that whether you lose or win this fight you signed a NDA and you are not to speak or discuss of this fight.”

I glance up. “I know the rules,” I reply dry.

“Right, I just want to make sure you know that you’re dealing with the some of the top profiles in the country.” With her monotone you’d think she read that off the inside of her palm. “The people bidding here tonight rather enjoy their entertainment in The Underground and will not take threats lightly. If their entertainment is at risk of someone breaking the only rule we have, they may… shall we say… do what comes natural to them.”

My eyes flick to hers as anger begins to fill my veins for the evening.

“You mean someone might kill me if I tell someone?”

“Oh I’m sure they’re much more creative than that.” A sly smile crosses her face, as my heart skips a beat. That is exactly why I didn’t want to tell Camden. I feared for his life.

“Don’t break the rules, and you’ll be fine,” she quips.

Biting my cheek, Camden sets heavy on my mind, a question I’ve wanted so bad to ask him but can’t because I’ll be disclosing that I myself am fighting in The Underground.

“One question, did Camden Steele fight in The Underground?” Slowly I lift my head as I ask my question. His fight seemed sketchy, like this one.

A tight lipped smile crosses her tight face, her eyes flashing with the answer as she replies.

“I can’t disclose that information.” But she already did with the look on her face. This is the fight that Camden killed someone in, the one that ruined his career. That ruined him.

“Got it,” I mutter.

Sitting on the bench I rest my elbows on my knees, the pre-fight jitters getting run over as fear begins to strike up a storm in my chest. I could die here tonight. Hell, I could kill someone tonight.

“Who am I fighting?” my voice cracks with fear.

She smiles so big wrinkles form around her eyes.

“You’ll see… and good luck Mrs. Davis, and remember. All is fair in fighting and surviving.”

Camden

Pissed that Tate hasn’t even texted me back I throw the fucking phone across the gym as a roar erupts through my throat.

“Dude, what the fuck?” Cate lifts her hands up as she eyes my shattered phone.

Swiping my hands through my hair I exhale an angry breath.

“I can’t find Tate anywhere and she’s not answering her phone,” I inform frantically. I know she didn’t leave town because all of her stuff is still at my place and her dad’s place.
So where the fuck is she?

Cate’s eyes flick to the left way too quickly. Her parted mouth and sudden tension telling me she knows something.

“Do you know where she is?” I ask more aggressively than I intended.

She rubs at her forehead.

“Look, I heard Debs and Tate talking the other day and I heard she was fighting in a place in Nashville—”

“A fight?” I step forward my heart skipping a beat. I didn’t hear anything about a fight, surely Tate would have told me, why would she not?
“Yeah, an underground one or something. I thought you knew so that is why I didn’t think twice about it.”

Like a lightning bolt to the chest a rush of energy spreads through my arms as my world spins. My heart beating so wildly I think I may erupt into the fucking antichrist right where I stand.

“What else, what else did you hear?!” I have to ball my hands into fists from reaching out and shaking the information from Cate.

“That’s all I heard man,” she shrugs. My eyes land on Thomas’s office. If Tate is with Debs, then Thomas knows where Debs is.

Pushing past Cate I kick open Thomas’s door and he nearly falls from his desk chair from the sudden noise. Not giving him a chance to recoil I grab him by the throat and lift him from his seat, slamming him against the wall.

Rage pounds in the vessels in my neck.

“Where the fuck is she?” I seethe.

His eyes flash with fear as he claws at my tightening grip.

“Camden, I don’t—”

“WHERE!” I squeeze so hard his jugular may snap beneath my fingers.

“She deserves her shot too, just like—” Keeping a tight grip on him I wipe the desk using his head. The contents flying across his shitty office. The violence doing nothing to settle the fire building in my chest.

“Debs said an old tire company just outside of Nashville, that’s all I know!” his voice cracks from his bruised throat.

I point at him. “I warned you both not to put Tate in that fucking underground.”

“I love Debs, but she was hell-bent on getting Tate in that fucking underground, son,” Thomas tries to explain, but I ain’t hearing it.

“Don’t fucking call me that! If you didn’t open your fucking mouth about The Underground to Debs, this never would have happened!”

His brows furrow as he stares at me with confused eyes.

“Camden, I never told Debs, she already knew about The Underground.”

“How?” Only people that know are those who are bidding, fighting, or coaching.

He shakes his head. “I don’t know, but she did.”

Not having time to dive into this I grab my keys, and text Kaley to find me a flight to Nashville and now. Pulling up the browser on my phone I Google every tire company outside of Nashville as I speed to the airport.