Page 38 of Hear Me Roar

I hugged him tightly, gripping the back of his tee in my fists. “Maybe, maybe not. No point in dwelling on it, though. His silence is a positivething.”

“We can onlyhope.”

The breeze rolled by once more and I hugged him tighter, taking a deep breath. “Can you at least give the girl a break now? I know she senses your reservations, and I don’t want her to feel out of place or like she’s notwelcome.”

Knox sighed and rested his chin atop my head. “I’ll try. I guess I just have to get out of my ownhead.”

“You really do,” I said, watching the waves crash ashore, feeling no less restless than I had when we firstarrived.

“Roll and drop, roll and drop,”I yelled at Hazel like a madman from thesidelines.

We were halfway through round two and so far, it was a tie. My girl had demolished Janice Patino in the first round, but Janice had made a swift comeback for round two. She was fast, her fists were brutal, and she was a beast on the mat. That didn’t mean I wasn’t confident Hazel could win overall, but with Maya and Manny sitting front row – neither one looking pleased to be seated beside the other – I was afraid she’d be too distracted, kind of like she was rightnow.

Janice flung her into the cage, and rather than put her full focus into turning this thing around, she kept glancing toward Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dumb, her browfurrowed.

God damnit.

I was starting to get really pissed, and I knew that if I didn’t do something, the outcome would not be good. Pivoting away from the cage, I stalked toward Manny and dropped down beside him on myhaunches.

“She’s distracted. I need you to get Maya out of here, or at least to the back where Hazel can’t seeher.”

Manny didn’t quite seem to understand what I was getting at, but nonetheless, he nodded dutifully and turned to Maya, who sat with her arms crossed, eyes staring blanklyahead.

“We need to move back,” he said to her, but she didn’t acknowledge him, boiling my blood all themore.

Thisis exactly what my girl had been referring to and since coming to Seattle, it had only gotten worse. I couldn’t understandwhyMaya was acting like this. Yes, she’d been in an abusive relationship, but Manny wasn’t her husband, and he certainly wasn’t abusive. She’d asked for protection and that protection was sitting right beside her, but she wouldn’t give him the time of day, regardless of all the effort he put in. Now wasn’t the time to worry about that, though. I had a girl who needed to get through a fight, and to do that, she needed me present as hercoach.

“Maya, we need to move back,” Manny said again, and with a roll of her eyes, she shot out of her seat and started up the aisle to the back...withouthim.

“Handle it, please,” I pleaded, snapping my head toward the octagon when the crowd around us groaned pitifully. Hazel was down on the mat underneath Janice,again.“I’ll buy you however many beers you want once we get out ofhere.”

I didn’t stand around to wait for his response. My girl was struggling and I needed to be as close to her as possible if I was going to help her through this. Grabbing onto the cage, I watched the madness unfold before my very eyes. Janice loomed over her, tossing her fists in Hazel’s face like lightning speed. Despite the fact she was covering, Janice was still getting them in, each one packing more of a punch than thelast.

“Fling her off, baby! She’s upright, fling her off,” I roared, my heart pounding a little faster with each hit shetook.

Swinging her legs to one side, Hazel followed my command and flung Janice off of her. She mounted her with a quickness and returned the same brutal favor, smashing her face once, twice, three times, before Janice bucked her off, her nose bleeding once again from the force of Hazel’s fists. My girl rolled some ways, stumbling onto her feet. She was panting heavily and her stubborn brow had split anew, brown trained firmly on heropponent.

“Li-on-ess, Li-on-ess,”the arena chanted as she and Janice prowled around eachother.

“Give it up,”I saw Janice mouth, which only kicked my girl into high gear. She came out with a feral growl, jabbing in a one-two combo that would’ve caught Janice had she not dodged. The problem with her dodge was that she threw an arm out, grabbing Hazel around the waist, and with quick footing, they were back on the mat with a loudthud.

JesusChrist.

I gripped the chain links tighter, my knuckles white from the strain, as they went back and forth with a dominating position. Janice was up, then Hazel, then Janice again, and then Hazel once more. All she had to do was take a hold of that arm and drape herself across her opponent's body, but then she looked over to where Istood.

No.

Her eyes flared and I knew what she’d seen. The two seats up front were empty now and although I was right beside the cage, panic flooded her. Before the warning could even leave my mouth, Janice slammed Hazel onto her back, wove her arm between her legs,and pulled.My girl howled in pain, the sound almost bursting me through the cage walls. Her eyes bulged and I knew it was over before it even happened. Janice pulled, and pulled and, with a quick hand, Hazel tapped themat.

Fuck.

Janice shot up to her feet, throwing her arms in the air gleefully while my girl laid there, out of breath, staring at the ceiling. I ran like a bullet to the door and threw open the lock, bounding my way inside as the announcer and the ref worked together to deem Janice thevictor.

Dropping beside Hazel in a flash, I took one look at the defeated expression on her face, and hoped with every fiber of my being that the aftermath of this loss wouldn’t send her into downwardspiral.

Just two daysafter returning home from Seattle, Amari’s PA reached out again to inform me Mr. Dorsette wanted to proceed with a putting together a contract. When she'd called, I was on the way toSteel Inkfor an appointment I'd made with my tattoo artist over a month ago. Quite the way to celebrate, huh? New ink to kick off this new chapter of my career. If all worked out well with him, who knew what this meant for the future. I’d already had an influx in clients when the media named me as Hazel’s coach, but none of those clients were on this level. Being exposed as Amari’s trainer could be absolutelyhuge.

I was a ball of energy as I pulled open the familiar glass door and bounded inside the shop, the telltale door chime sounding off loud enough to be heard in the tattoo rooms at the very back. I hadn't even called Hazel yet because one, I didn’t want to rub the news in her face after her loss in Seattle and two, I didn't want her knowing I was here. All I'd told her this morning before I left was that Luis and I were going out for a couple beers, and that was that. She never asked questions, which in this case was obviously a good thing. This tat would be a complete surprise to her and I wanted it to stay that way until I got home. I could hardly wait to hear what she’d have to say about the new addition and of course, with the right words, the news of my new client. Hopefully both would pick up her spirits abit.

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