Page 105 of Fighting Fate

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Fight Club :)

In true Rory form,the note is optimistic and light. He’s my sunshine, and nothing will be right until I have him with me again.

“How is he…really?” I ask Marcus, looking him in the eyes so I can read whether he’s just going to pacify me like everyone is.

The debate inside him is palpable as he paces the foot of my bed before he stops and asks, “Honestly?”

“Please.”

He nods, sucking in a breath that causes my chest to tighten. “Pissed. I’m not sure letting him out of jail is a good idea until the dude has a chance to hide.”

A giggle pushes out of me. It’s the first time I’ve laughed in days. And maybe it’s not the best time or conversation, but it’s the first true Rory update I’ve had, and it somehow feels like we’re that little bit closer right now.

“And?” I coax him to go on, needing more.

“And he needs a wash,” he chuckles. “Aside from that, he’s eager to get out of there.”

“The Vegas fight? What happens now?” I’m still tied up in knots about the fallout of this for Rory’s career…his business.

“It’s a waiting game, but so long as we resolve everything with the law, there won’t be a problem. It’s not in the sport’s interest to make rash decisions. There’s too many people making too much money for the worst-case scenario to be a possibility.”

“What is the worst-case scenario?”

“Fuck.” A pained expression screws his face as he braces himself on the footboard and gives me a full once-over before he says, “It’s not even a worry at this point. Rory didn’t instigate the attack—”

“It wasn’t an attack!” The twist of my insides causes me to hiss. I’m still on edge from the detective’s insinuations. When I try to sit up, the couple of stitches on my hip threaten to pull open. “He was protecting me and our baby…Rory did nothing wrong.”

“We all know that, and it’s why worst case isn’t even worth worrying about right now.” Marcus stands straight and levels me an unwavering stare. “It’s not even a conversation.”

“What would happen?”

“Willow,” he groans.

“Spit it out, Marcus!”

With a shake of his head, he tells me, “Titles, belts…they’d all be stripped.”

Everything he’s worked for…

“Like I said, the likelihood of that happening is pretty much zero.”

Pretty muchisn’t absolute, and it makes my decision to trust Dorian’s plan a hell of a lot easier to live with. “It won’t happen. I won’t let it. My solicitor is meeting with Peter’s today…we’re making a deal.”

“What kind of deal?” he asks, pacing again like I’m causing him more stress than everything else going on. “Does the legal team know?”

“Do you want to get on Dorian’s bad side?”

“Fuck.”

“My solicitor is taking care of it for now.”

“Willow…what’re you doing?”

“I’m protecting him the same way he protected me. The best and only way I can.”

“You don’t need to do anything. The lawyers have it under control.”

“That’s just it, Marcus,” I chuckle when he stands at my side, imploring eyes boring into mine. “I’m not doing anything. I’m offering not to press charges against Peter so long as he drops the charges against Rory.”

“Are you crazy?” Exasperation grits his words as he rubs his hands over his face. “You’re letting him get away with what he did? What’s to stop him from doing it again?”

That’s the question that’s been hanging over me for the last two days. I’m so fucking scared that it’ll all backfire and I’ll end up looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life. Terrified as I am of that, it has nothing on how I feel about losing Rory to all this.

“Willow!”

“Stop freaking out, Marcus.” I shrug, popping an olive into my mouth and enjoying the buttery taste. “Peter will get his just desserts.”

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