Page 58 of Hear Me Roar

“You think he’ll be stupid enough totry?”

“Possibly, but he’ll definitely be waiting for some prime moment, keeping us on edge with sporadic points of contact as a way to build the suspense. He’s closingin…”

“So, let’s run,” Maya inserted, instantly grabbing our attention. “My dad’s house, remember? It’s obviously not far but we can move there, throw him off. It’s not the house I grew up in either, so Dimitri won’t know where itis.”

I glanced at Manny, who nodded, a pleasantly surprised expression etched on hisface.

“That’s actually a really good idea,” I said, and Hazel nodded besideme.

“When should we leave?” sheasked.

“Right about now, I’d say,” Manny answered, pulling out his phone from the pocket of his slacks. “Pack light; one suitcase per each of you.Go.”

Maya bolted from her spot on the couch, down the hallway, and Hazel followed suit, belting out she’d pack for me too. Kilo wasn’t far behind them either, wagging his tail playfully, because to him, this was a game. When I turned my attention to Manny once more, he was typing away on his phone, presumably to our tagalong buddiesoutside.

“Alright,” he started as I dropped onto the couch, “we need to play this smart. So, with that being said, while we’re away, I’ll have these guys drop by at different times to turn the lights on and off. If Dimitri notices everything goes dark from one day to the next, it’ll give us away and he’ll start sniffing again. Hopefully this move will throw him off completely. We might even be able to catchhim.”

“You think running is the right thing to do?” I askedwearily.

“I don’t know I’d call it the right thing, but it’s definitely smart. He won’t be expecting this atall.”

Or wouldhe....

Either Dimitri hadno plan whatsoever or the drawn-out silence between his points of contactwerepart of the plan. We couldn’t figure out what he was doing, if and when he was going to strike again, and what it would take to put an end to it. Another two weeks had rolled by since the note in the mailbox startle – bringing us halfway through October – and this Russian bastard was nowhere to be found. None of us had spotted him. Anywhere. Manny had even gone as far as asking every hotel within a fifty-mile radius if “this man” had checked in at any point within the last month, and each time, he came up empty-handed.

Where the hell was this guy hiding? In the sewer? Had we thrown him off by actually running and hiding somewhereelse?

Ironic how he’d saidwecouldn’t hide, and yet here he was, doing the samething.

So, what if we lure him out? That’s what Maya had suggested. Naturally, Manny shot her down with a simple no, but his reasoning more than made sense. Men like Dimitri weren’t easily cajoled, and it was more than likely he’d know what we were up to if we tried.Thatcould end very badly and there was no way Manny – or Knox, for that matter – would allow that. The only way to even possibly tempt him would be to use Maya, and although she’d made it clear she was up for the challenge if that meant we’d be free of him, even I wouldn’t let her do that. Point blank, this dude was crazy, and I could guarantee, given his in-depth background check, this wasn’t his first rodeo. Waiting this shit storm out was really all the choice we had. The downside to waiting was the constant worry; fear at some points too. We were always looking out of the corner of our eyes, always watching our backs. It was really starting to take its toll, and all I wanted was for it to be over, preferably before my nextfight.

The fight that would make me or break me. If I lost this one, too, I could kiss my short-lived pro careergoodbye.

Talk aboutpressure.

I’d worked so hard to get here and since arriving, I hadn’t really proven myself. My first fight was simply beginner’s luck, just as I’d told Reyna. It's what came after that would pave the way for this chapter in my career, and as of now, there wasn't much of a path. I didn't know what the hell was wrong with me. Explaining what happened when I stepped foot in the cage was difficult to explain. I just couldn't...focus. I knew what I was doing, I just couldn't fucking focus. Knox labeled it as stress. Everything that had knocked our world off its feet was piling up on my shoulders, and I was exhausted. There was no other way to putit.

As a result, Knox had set a limit on my cage time. Three days a week was all I was allotted. He’d even cut out routine workouts, to ensure I wasn’t over-exhausting myself. No crazy hours were allowed either; half hour to warm up and a full hour of sparring. That’s it. Nothing less, nothing more. Of course, I didn’t care for this new method, wondering how the hell I was going to prepare to take down Nuñez on such a curbed regimen, buthewas the coach, which meant he called the shots. So, I rolled with it because, at the end of the day, I trustedhim.

“Harder,” Knox demanded as I slammed my fist into one of themitts.

“Thatwasharder,” Igrowled.

“Not hard enough, kitten. Come on, bringit.”

We’d been at it for almost an hour, and he’d been critiquing me – more like picking on me – through ninety percent of it. I'd about had enough. His snippy attitude since coming home from work was on my last nerve, mostly because I knewwhyhe was acting this way. He didn't even have to tell me. I just knew. Woman's intuition again. Let's just say Brie Dawson wasn't the brightest crayon in the box. Despite my warning, she chose not to heed it. The woman would not fuck off, and I was a thread away from taking out every bit of anger, anxiety, and frustration onher.

“You’re gonna regret that,” I warned, bouncing around on the balls of my feet, to which he smirked as he ripped off the mitts and waved his handschallengingly.

“Proveit.”

One ass whooping, come rightup.

I threw it down on him like a hailstorm, alternating between punching and kicking with such speed, he could barely cover himself. Every strike pushed him back a bit more until I thrusted him into the cage and busted out the hammer punches. He struggled in an attempt to free himself, but I didn’t relent, clocking him three, four, five times. After a few blows to the head, he managed to roll me over his back and fling me around, the unexpected defense sending me right into the spot he’d occupied not ten seconds ago. My back hit the chain links, and I lost my grip, allowing him to slip away and retreat to middle of themat.

“Damn, baby,” he panted. “I said prove it, not killme.”

“You asked for it,” I quipped, taking deep breaths of myown.

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