Training the SECRET (Corrigan & Co #6) (11 page)

We exchange looks as
we’re directed to the penthouse, but I shrug to let my friend know
that I’m not sure what to think either. “If he’s an ass, we
walk.”

“Thank God.”

The guy who greets us
when the elevator opens is just under six feet tall, and the very
definition of a pretty boy. He’s got the lean muscles of someone
who knows his way around a gym, but he’s not cut like me, or Matt.
Or even Aiden. He’s dressed in a t-shirt and basketball shorts, but
I have the sense that it’s not what he’d wear if given a choice.
I’m definitely on high alert, and I can feel the tension coming off
of Aiden, too.

“Welcome to my humble
abode,” Brent says with a laugh.

We don’t laugh back.
“Scott Griffin vouched for you, and I take his word as gold, but
you don’t seem like you’ll be the right guy for the job.”

“Aww, are you worried
about your girl wanting me instead?”

I can’t hold back my
own laugh at that question. “No. I’m worried that one of those
gym rats is gonna kick your ass, and then the whole place is going
down.”

“I have an excellent
track record in Chicago.”

“This isn’t
Chicago.”

“No it isn’t. But a
gym’s a gym. I can pull any of them out of a gutter.”

“Garrett’s isn’t
in the gutter, and by you even saying that, I can tell that you’re
the wrong guy for the job. Thanks for wasting our time.”

Aiden nods at me and we
turn to go. “Wait. I’m sorry. I have to put on the ‘asshole’
act for most people I meet because I don’t look the part. I
should’ve known I couldn’t bullshit the great Nate Anderson.”

“I’m just a guy,
Brent.”

“One who only lost
two bouts in two years. They don’t make them like you every day.”

“Thank God for that,”
Aiden says with a grin. I flip him off.

“What I did as a teen
has nothing to do with this job.”

“Actually, it does.”

“Excuse me.”

“If you want me to
take this job—and trust me, you
do
want me to take it—you need to fight for me next month.”

“No.”

“I need to train you,
and see how everyone reacts to it. I don’t want a gym full of
jealous pricks. If I take this job, I plan to have some fighters who
are just as good as you, and I want to know that the other guys can
support them while still being competitive.”

“Even if I did agree
to this, I don’t have final call in hiring.”

“Hunter Garrett will
want me. I
am
the
best, and everyone in the fighting world knows it.”

“Really? Because all
I see is a ‘jealous prick’ who’s trying to mess with my best
friend. I would seriously advise you to dial it back.”

Brent turns to Aiden
with a smirk. “You think you can stop me?”

Aiden’s blue eyes
turn to ice, and his voice is even colder. “Without even breaking a
sweat.”

“For two guys who
came here looking for help, you’re not being very accommodating.
I’ve only asked for one thing.”

“You’re not our
only option,” I remind him.

“But I
am
your best option. We all know it. And you want the best for your
woman, don’t you?”

I don’t want to admit
that he’s right, but he is. There are other people we can hire, but
no one with his kind of track record. I can hate him all I want, but
it won’t change that fact.

“If Jade and Hunt
approve you, I’ll fight.”

“Nate.”

“It’s fine, Aiden.
I can do this.”

I can. Because it’s
for Jade. I’ll do anything for her, including facing even more of
the demons that haunt me day and night. She deserves at least that
much from me.

Nate

The three of us walk
into the gym and find a crowd gathered around one of the sparring
mats. The crowd parts to let us through, and I immediately see what
the attraction in. Jade is sparring with a well-muscled kid, and
she’s looking fucking hot doing it. Seriously. The compression top
molds to her tits almost as well as my hands do, and her tight pants
are showing off that ass of hers to perfection. I know she needs to
wear something form fitting while fighting, but if I hear one
disrespectful word thrown her way, I’ll be in jail tonight.

The fight would seem to
be evenly matched to anyone who doesn’t know her, but I can see the
way she’s toying with him. I don’t know what the little fucker
did to piss her off, but I know he did something. She’d just take
him out fast otherwise.

She sees me as they
circle each other and her lips turn up. She steps forward a little,
and lets him pull her into a hold. He thinks he’s won, but he’s
very, very wrong. I know exactly what she’s about to do. She leans
forward, but instead of flipping him, she uses the momentum to pull
herself up into a handstand on top of his shoulders. Then she flips
them both onto the ground, and cuts of his oxygen until he taps the
mat. It’s a thing of beauty, and it makes me so hard that I don’t
know if I’ll be able to walk over to congratulate her.

I don’t have to worry
about that. She lets him go, hops up and runs to me, jumping into my
arms as she wraps her legs around me and captures my mouth. I hold
her tight against me, letting her feel how turned on I am, while I
kiss her back. We go at it for several minutes, not caring that we
have an audience. She finally pulls back and leans her forehead into
mine.

“How many boys got
their asses handed to them today?”

“Just ten. Five from
each of us.”

“Are you hurt at
all?” She doesn’t seem to be, but I have to ask.

“I’ll have some
bruised ribs, and I took another hard kidney punch. Nothing a good
soak won’t cure. Especially if my boyfriend’s in the tub with
me.”

“Well, that’s a
given. And since I haven’t said it yet, I’m loving that my girl
kicked some ass today.”

“I can tell,” she
says, biting her lip. “But it’s nice to hear.”

“If you two are done,
can we talk now?” Brent asks, sounding annoyed.

Jade lowers herself out
of my arms and turns to face him. “If you have a problem with a
little PDA, you should probably leave now. I don’t like to go too
long with my lips or hands off of Nate.”

“I agreed to come
here because I thought you were serious about this business.”

“Fuck you, asshole.
You know where the door is.”

“If I walk out that
door, I’ll make sure no one else walks in.”

Is he serious right
now? Jade looks ready to kill. “Are you really trying to threaten
me?”

“No. He’s not.
Because that would be a very stupid thing to do, and from all I’ve
seen and heard, he’s not stupid,” I say, glaring at Brent.

“This is a gym and
not a fucking dating service. So, if you want me here, I don’t want
to see any of that shit again. Especially while you’re training,
Anderson.”

“Training for what?
What’s he talking about?” Jade asks.

“As a condition for
him managing the gym, Brent wants me to fight.”

“No. You said you
don’t want to fight anymore.”

“One fight won’t
hurt him. I need to see how the gym handles someone like him training
here.”

Jade pulls me close and
leans up so only I can hear her. “You don’t have to do this. We
can find someone else.”

“He’s the best,
Angel. I’ll be okay.”

She looks into my eyes,
and I do my best to show her the love I feel for her. In her eyes, I
see the fight that’s such a big part of her. She’s going to do
this her way. “I’m training him if he’s fighting.”

“That wasn’t our
agreement.”

Hunt answers before she
can. “You have no agreement at the moment. Neither one of us has
agreed to take you on. If Jade says she’s doing things her way,
then that’s the way it will be. You can walk your little boy ass
out my door if you want, but remember that I have some clout in the
fighting world, too.”

“You really think you
can train him?”

“I
know
I can. I grew up in this gym, and when it comes to Nate—well, no
one knows his body like I do.”

A look of anger, or
something else that I can’t identify, passes across Brent’s face,
but he recovers quickly. I look at Aiden, and he nods. He saw it,
too. We’ll both be keeping an even closer eye on him.

“Fine. But no making
out. You can do that at home.”

“You are not the boss
of me, Brent. You need to be really clear on that. I would like
someone to manage the gym, but I am fully capable of doing it myself.
And I will, if need be.”

“What kind of message
do you think it sends to the guys around here if the owner is getting
it on with a fighter?”

“Pretty much everyone
in the city knows by now that Nate is my boyfriend. If they don’t
expect us to be affectionate, then that’s their problem. I’m not
dating a fighter, I’m dating
Nate
.
He’s so much more than any label you want to give him.”

My heart feels like it
just grew more than three times in size. Because those aren’t just
words. I know Jade, and I
know
that she means what she just said. I also can hear the unsaid—but
implied—message, telling him to have more respect for me. I know he
hears it too, because he doesn’t try and hide his anger this time.

“Only time will tell,
but don’t blame me if you’re disappointed.”

I grab her as she
lunges for him, and then lean in to whisper in her ear. “Don’t,
Angel. He’s not worth it. Scott vouched for him, and I don’t take
that lightly. He’s also the best. I hate to admit it because he’s
obviously one of the biggest assholes I’ve ever met, but it’s
true. Try him out and see if he can do the work you need, but just
ignore him otherwise.”

“Oh I plan to,” she
says, turning her face and taking possession of my lips once again.

“This is bullshit.”

Jade breaks away from
me, and turns to him, holding my hands. “
If
we decide that you’re the person for the job, you’ll need to
adjust your attitude. Now, do you want us to show you around, or
not?”

His jaw is clenched so
tight that I think his teeth might crack, but he gives her a small
nod. I squeeze her hands before letting her go, and then watch her
walk off with him and her dad. Ellie and Aiden come to stand next to
me, and they both look the same way I probably do right now.

“There’s something
wrong here. Just something—off—about that guy,” Aiden says.

“And the way he was
looking at Jade, like she was a prize he wants to win.” Ellie says,
and then quickly looks at me. “You have nothing to worry about, you
know. She’s all about you.”

I smile at her. “I’m
not worried, El. He should be, if he tries anything with her. She’ll
take him out before I could even make a move.”

“I’m glad you know
that.”

I pull her into a hug
and kiss the top of her head. “I do, but thanks for being such a
good friend to my girl.”

“Now let me have
my
girl. I haven’t had a chance for any of that PDA you’re
advertising so well yet.”

“What if your girl
doesn’t want any PDA?” Ellie tells him, as she moves away from
me.

“Babe. You’re
killing me here. And in front of all these guys.”

“Like the way you’ve
been killing me for all these years.” Her hip is cocked and her
hand is firmly placed on it.

“Yeah,” he says,
looking ashamed.

I understand how he’s
feeling. I was just there a couple of days ago. And a couple of years
ago. We both had our reasons for staying away from these women. I
have even more of a reason to stay away from Jade now that I know who
she really is. Aiden’s reasons are fucked up, but still valid to
him. Yet just like me, he’s taking that jump and hoping a net will
catch him at the same time that his past does.

“Kidding, Mr.
Serious. I was
totally
kidding.”

Ellie walks up to him,
and lifts his chin for a kiss that has every guy in the gym jealous
of my buddy. Well, all of them exceptfor me. Life is good right now,
but I know it won’t last. So let’s hope for that net.

* * *

Jade

This guy is an asshole.
One hundred percent complete and total asshole. But we need him. It’s
obvious from the questions he’s asking that he knows what he’s
doing. My dad even looks impressed, which is not something I expected
to see when I came up with my plan. I knew he’d have to accept
whoever it was, but “impressed” was just something I hadn’t
even considered. My dad’s a tough nut to crack, but Brent seems to
have achieved the impossible. Which means I have to play nice and
pretend to get along with the prick.

“I think you’ll
work out well here. It might be best if we have some kind of
temporary arrangement, though. Maybe a 30 day trial to see how
everything works out.”

“That’s a great
idea, Jade,” my dad says, beaming at me like I just solved world
hunger.

“Sure. How about
we’ll all decide once the fight is over. That will be a major
selling point—or leaving point—for me.”

“Sounds like a plan.
Let me introduce you to everyone, and then Jade can get started with
Nate.”

“I’m pretty sure
she’s already started,” Brent mumbles.

“Did you have
something to say?”

“Nothing that I
haven’t already said. It seems I’m to be ignored where your
boyfriend
is
concerned, so I’ll save my breath.”

“Good call.”

After we’ve shown him
around, Brent and my dad go back to the office to hash out all the
details. We told Brent that we’ll be having our lawyers draft the
contract, but in actuality, it will be the Corrigan legal team
handling it. I trust anyone that Matt and Reina hire more than I
would trust some lawyer we’d find on the internet. Brent doesn’t
need to know that whoever’s taking care of things isn’t
specifically our lawyer, but we do need him to realize that no one’s
going to pull anything over on us. Which is why I’m extra thankful
for who I work for, and with.