Page 68 of Until You're Mine
Pieces started to fall into place. Remarks they’d made; the way Finn had asked about learning her lesson; and Brooklyn’s reluctance and constant assertions this would be a disaster. It made sense her and Conrad’s breakup would cause some friction, and obviously they heaped a great deal of the blame on her instead of the crybaby asshole. All this time I thought they’d kicked him off because he’d hurt her. I hated that they would even want him on the team after he’d treated her so shitty. But I was looking at it from a different perspective, instead of factoring in how much money the guy would’ve made them, something I knew made a huge difference in this world.
I got the message loud and clear. Win that fight, make us money, and if Brooklyn leaves you, we don’t want to hear a single complaint about it.
“I’ll stay no matter what happens between us,” I promised. They’d taken a risk on me, and I didn’t mind giving them loyalty they probably wouldn’t return if I didn’t win some fights, and soon. “And any type of training you’ve got to get me where I need to be? Bring it on.”
“I think we better get that first part in writing,” Blake said.
I returned his stare. “I’ll sign it right now.”
“Yeah, I’m super happy, Dad. Shane treats me really well, too. Thanks for asking.” Brooklyn had turned to Finn, then. “I kept my promise. So glad our relationship’s out there for everyone to crap on, and that you guys are getting to it as soon as possible. Now I better go get my work done so I can keep on being useful to the team.”
I’d wanted to go after her, but Liam had strode past and ordered me to follow. Now here we were, one training session from hell later and miles to go before I was through.
Brooklyn had put herself on the line for me today, and I figured since I was already in hell, I might as well settle in and enjoy the heat. So on my way back to the cage, I stopped by her desk. “You okay, bruiser?”
“I’m fine. What about you? You’re the one who’s getting the worse end of the deal with all the physical torture. Not that I haven’t enjoyed watching some of it, if I’m being totally honest.” The appreciative sound she made as she ran her gaze over me made the horrific workouts worth it.
“Let’s just get one thing cleared up right now.” I folded my forearms on the top of the half wall encasing her desk and locked eyes with her. “When it comes to me and you, I’m getting the deal.”
She cracked a smile, her brother called out that I had ten seconds left in my break, and as I slowly backed away, she blew me a kiss.
I spun on my heel and headed toward the cage. In five more seconds, I’d turn my thoughts to every submission and takedown maneuver I knew and how I was going to use them on Conrad Rochenski. Until then, I was going to enjoy the fact that everyone now knew Brooklyn was mine.
She made me want to be a better person, and while I knew I was a long way from deserving her, I was going to give my all to change that.
Starting with winning the fight that I was going to turn every ounce of my focus on in three, two, one…
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Brooklyn
“Two meetings in one day?” Liam asked, crossing his arms over his sweat-soaked T-shirt. He’d pushed Shane hard, which meant he’d pushed himself hard, and in an effort to show that I could be an asset, despite “distracting” one of the fighters, I’d worked right on through lunch.
My mind spun over what I’d found, and while I wanted Liam to tell me he knew exactly where to find the missing money and that there was a lot of it, he wouldn’t be so stressed if the outlook wasn’t dire.
He shook the hair out of his eyes. “I swear, if you complain that I pushed your boyfriend too hard, I’m going to—”
“We’re going bankrupt,” I said, and the unfinished threat died on his tongue. “I’m finally up to date with our finances, and it’s not pretty. We were already circling the drain, but from the looks of it, the last lady who worked for us embezzled money—at least twenty grand, if not thirty.” Her numbers didn’t add up, and since she’d covered her tracks fairly well until right up to the end, it took me a while to figure it out.
I wanted to ask how he and Dad could let it happen, and why they hadn’t been checking up on her closer, but it wouldn’t do any good. “We could try to press charges, but it’s been months and she’s seemed to drop off the planet. I’m not even sure if the proof I have is solid enough, and hiring a lawyer would be more expensive, and…”
“And we’re going bankrupt,” Liam finished, and I nodded. “The truth is, we’ve been behind on the gym’s mortgage for months, along with several of the other bills.”
“Yeah, I didn’t get to them until I reached bottom of the pile, but we’ve received a couple of those red letters that threaten to cut off electricity and water.”
“I’ve been making partial payments here and there, giving them just enough to keep the bill collectors at bay and the utilities on, hoping that the next month’s intake would allow us to catch up.” Liam lowered himself onto the sofa and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I was afraid it was going to be bad.”
“It’s past bad. We might lose everything.”
He looked up at me, every raw emotion he’d tried to keep hidden fully visible on his features now.
“Does Dad know?” I asked. “Or has he been too focused on training and whatever he does here in the office?”
“He’s never been good at the business side. He thought the money would never run out. He knows it’s getting tight, and his plan is to make up everything he can with Knox’s fight. It’s supposed to get us over the rough patch.” Liam’s eyes met mine. “That’s why we need him to win so badly. We need the money and the publicity so that more fighters will sign up with us. We need every penny we can get.”
I sank onto the couch next to him. “Even then, it’s going to take us a while to climb out of the red.”
“I’ve thought about taking out loans. Dad’s mentioned taking out a second mortgage.”
