UNDYING: A Bad Boy MMA Romance (Midwest Alphas) (Book 3) (11 page)

I turn back to Pike and stare up into his eyes with a white-hot fury. “I need to have a word with you,” I say, refusing to even blink. I step out of the ring without bothering to wait for his response and charge towards the back hallway. His feet follow me until we pass into the abandoned women’s locker room. It sits in the exact same condition as it was the last time I saw it six months ago; pristine, pink, and unused.

I cross my arms about my chest as Pike walks over to the sink in the corner and wets a paper towel to dab against his bleeding nose. “What the hell were you thinking? Did you think that was
funny
?!”

“Of course not,” he says before hocking his red spit down the drain.

“Pike, I promised you he’d play nice. I promised that he’d stop trying to get justice for Mary — which
for the record
, you absolutely
deserve
to be locked up for — but I can’t keep that promise if you keep poking him like a damn lab rat every time you want to get a rise out of him.”

“Claire…” He smashes the towel in his palm before tossing it to the floor. “If he’s really going to beat Rick, then he’s going to have to go to a
very
dark place. Rick has already proven he’s willing to kill to take back what he wants and we have to make sure Tobias is just as willing to do the same.”

“Tobias
is
willing to kill.”

“No, he’s not.”

“He almost slit your throat last year, Pike. Or have you forgotten about that?”

“Exactly, Claire…” He pushes in close, so close I feel his breath on my forehead. “
Almost
, but
you
stopped him.” I counter with a step back, but he just closes the distance between us with a quick stride. “If we really want Tobias to be ready for this, then he has to be pushed farther than even
you
are capable of pulling him back from.”

I pause as my heart lurches in my chest. “I can’t lose him again, Pike…” The words fly through my lips, passing every filter before I can stop them. “I don’t want him to become
you
.”

“Well, I’m sorry, Claire,” he whispers. “But when all of this is finished, he may not be the same man you know now.” He turns around and moves towards the door.

“I have to believe there’s another way…” I mutter.

Pike lets his hand rest on the door knob. “I’m all ears to you, Claire… but
for the record
, you’re wrong.” He pulls the door open but stops as Amy appears and blocks the doorway.

“Guys…” she says, her eyes wide. “Veronica is here.”

We follow her back to the main room to find Veronica standing at the entrance. Tobias and Ryan stare at her like a ghost. Her face is so pale and white. It nearly blends with the winter world falling down outside the window. She wears the same white fur coat she wore two nights ago to our meeting. As I draw closer, I notice dark stains discoloring it from top to bottom. She holds a small shoe box in her hands, clenched tightly against her chest.

“Veronica?” Amy asks, the only one of us daring enough to step closer to her.

Veronica’s face flicks upward. I cringe as her short, blonde hair pushes back and the dark red markings stand out on her face. She extends her hands, passing the box into Amy’s quivering grip.

“Are you okay?” Amy asks her.

Veronica steps around her, passing by Tobias and even Pike before settling in front of me. She silently reaches into her coat pocket and pulls out a heavily creased envelope and slaps it against my hands.

“Veronica.” Pike moves beside her, but she jerks away from his grasp before rushing out the front door again and fading away into the heavy snowfall. He darts forward, only to stop in the doorway as a gust of harsh wind holds him back. He sighs and closes the door to keep the snow outside.

I turn the envelope over in my hand, noticing the dark smear of dried blood along the sides, no doubt left behind by Veronica’s ghastly fingers.

Amy sets the box down on a bench and pulls the lid off. “Oh—!” She covers her mouth with her palm and steps away from it with tears in her eyes. The lid slides from her hand and clatters to the floor.

Tobias steps forward and looks inside the box, his expression blank and firm. He grabs the box off the bench and bends over to pick the lid up. “It’s Rick’s knife,” he says before closing it.

“We’ll get rid of it,” Pike says. “At least Rick kept his word — about
this
anyway.”

I pinch the envelope’s corner with my fingers and tear it open. The sound startles Amy and she flinches in my direction as I rip the hole a little bigger to look inside. I pull out a sheet of paper, folded down into a near-perfect square.

“What does it say?” Tobias asks me.

I unfold it slowly, delaying the answer to that question for as long as I can.

“No…” I whisper, reading it to myself. I scan it again, wishing that I somehow have it wrong, but it reads the same each time.
“No no no—”

“Claire—”

I feel Tobias in front of me, but my eyes refuse to focus on anything else. His bruised fingers enter my vision, reaching for the paper in my hands, so I take a quick step back to keep it from him.

“Claire, what does it say?”

I crumple it into a tiny ball, pushing it hard against my palms. “I need to talk to Charlie…” I inhale a quick breath, suddenly realizing that my body has forgotten to breathe.

“Why?”

“It’s—” I hesitate, feeling their eyes on me. “It’s my mother.”

Tobias grabs my shoulders to hold me steady in front of him. “Claire, what did it say?”

I let my tears fall down my face. “The address to our apartment.”

Chapter 9

Fall Back Into You

The hotel bed is soft and warm, but I can’t feel the comfort against my skin. I can barely even remember how I got here. I can recall Tobias’ voice telling me everything would be all right before he left me here.

Amy’s nearby. I can hear her feet pacing back and forth and the gentle whisper of her voice as she talks into her phone.

I clutch my own phone in my hand, the edges digging into my palm. Tobias told me to keep it close. He’d call me as soon as he knew something. I’m not sure how long ago that was. An hour? Two hours? Four?

“Claire?”

I open my eyes, but I keep still. “What?”

Amy’s small frame settles on the bed beside me and her fingers push the hair back from my face. “I got my dad to look into protective custody for your mom,” she says.

I laugh. I can’t help it. “Okay…”

“Claire…” She leans over. “She’s going to be fine, all right?”

I close my eyes as moisture overwhelms them again. He found her. Of course he found her. I came back and left a trail of perfectly placed breadcrumbs leading right to her. We’ll just add that to the growing list of reasons why I never should have come back here in the first place.

“Are you hungry?” Amy asks me.

I focus hard on the question, grabbing on to anything at all that’s still within my control. “I… don’t know.”

“I’m going to see if this place has something.” She stands up and snatches her purse off the chair by the door. “Probably just a vending machine, but I doubt either of us are too focused on healthy diets right now.”

I nod slowly. “Sounds good.”

“I’ll be right back.” Amy steps out into the hallway and closes the door behind her.

Silence fills my ears, growing louder and louder until I finally sit up and look around the room. The lamp hanging on the wall is far too bright, but the room would be too dark without it. My head throbs. The pain pulsates down my neck, inching closer towards my knees.

I want nothing more than to call my mother and hear her voice, but Tobias told me not to call her.
Let us handle it,
he said. Charlie has a system in place for this kind of thing.
Just stay here with Amy and wait for me.

My phone vibrates in my hand and I lurch with painful joy. I look at the screen and my heart sinks. It’s not Tobias’ number staring back at me.

Rick
.

I shouldn’t answer it. I should set it down and ignore it. Let it ring. Let him get frustrated. If I don’t play into his game, then I can’t lose.

The screen turns black and it settles back into my palm. I drop it onto the bed beside me and hug my pillow against my chest.

Before I can take another full breath, the phone rings again, buzzing softly on the bedspread. I look at it, once against disgusted by Rick’s name on the screen. He’s the cat, dangling a piece of cheese on a string, hoping to lure me out of my hiding place. I reach out and tap the ignore button, silencing the phone once more.

Almost immediately, it rings again.

I sit up in frustration, my fingers twitching towards the phone. I give into my weakness and answer it before I can stop myself.

“Why are you doing this?” I sob.

“Hello, Claire.” I can hear the smirk on his voice; that cool, calm curl of his lip that still feels as familiar as family.

“Why?!
What did she ever do to you?”

Rick sighs. “It’s my insurance policy.”

“Insurance policy?”

“Yes.”

“Against what?!”

“Right now, I have a few of my best men camped out across the street from her,” he says. “She had oatmeal for breakfast this morning. She met a co-worker for coffee afterward—”

“Leave her alone, Rick—”

“She’s been sitting on the couch watching crap TV for the last half hour—”

“Stop it!”

“Even if Uncle Charlie comes to the rescue, they’ll follow her to wherever he whisks her off to next,” he continues, his voice growing louder with each word. “She can’t hide anymore and my father will be
awfully happy
to know where she’s been.”

“Rick, if you love me at all, you’ll call them off,” I plead.

“It doesn’t work like that, Claire. When the Kings win, you’ll come back to me — it’s what we agreed to, right?” I say nothing.
“Right?”

“Yes,” I whisper.

“But if you
don’t…
or if you suddenly disappear again… or even if something mysteriously happens to
me
in my sleep, well… then my father will be receiving a very interesting phone call.”

I sniff, forcing my tears away. “Rick,
please
. I’m begging you. Don’t do this—”

The call drops, filling the room with painful silence once again. I cry out in anger and toss the phone to the floor. It slides along the carpet until finally laying to rest against the wall. It’s a decent play, one that I hate myself for not seeing beforehand. He’s using my mother as a hostage, giving me firm incentive to behave as he wants me to. It’s my choice in the end which one of us returns to them and Rick knows I’d never let my mother take that bullet.

The door opens and Amy steps back inside. “Ugh —
nothing
great to choose from…” She locks the door behind her. “Looks like we’re surviving on cheesy chips and hot chocolate tonight.” She tosses the small bags onto the bed in front of me and pauses as she sees my face. “Claire, what—”

“Do you know where Pike is?” I wipe the tears off my cheeks and stand up off the bed.

She shakes her head. “I can find out…”

“Can you please?” I ask as I bend down to grab my phone off the floor, along with my shoes.

She steps in front of me. “What are you doing?”

“I need to talk to him.”

“Why?”

“I just do—” I sigh. I grab my coat and throw it over my shoulder.

“Not tonight you don’t,” she argues. “Have you seen this weather? Trust me, it can wait.”

I glance at the window, imagining the storm outside behind the closed curtains. “Well, I can’t just sit here…”

“Actually, Claire, I think the best thing for you right now is exactly that. You should sit down and try to relax.”

“I can’t
relax
right now, Amy. My mother is—”

“
Taken care of.”
She puts her hands on my shoulders. “Charlie and my dad and Tobias are all over that right now…”

“It’s not enough,” I say, shaking my head. “She’s being watched. If she leaves, they’ll follow her.”

“How do you know?” Her eyes go wide. “Oh, Claire. Come on. You
didn’t
—”

“He called me.”

“I can’t leave you alone for one damn minute?!”