Page 10 of Falling for the Forbidden Fighter
Now, I do look at her. Catherine’s green eyes are boring into me like two lie detectors. Not that I’d bullshit her…
“You really wanna know?”
She turns in her seat, waving her hand at me like a knife as she speaks, “Here’s the deal: My dad thinks you’ve got it, all right?Nobodygets a fight this fast. I want this to work out for you and him. If you need a place to stay until your first big paycheck, I don’t mind you sleeping on my couch—“
“For real?”
I practically dive over the center console. What sort of New Mexico magic has blessed me? I’ve been here for two days, and I’ve already got a coach, have a fight scheduled, and now the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met wants me to stay with her.
Catherine puts her hand up. “Butwe need to keep it a secret. If they find out you’re crashing at my place, it’s over. They’ll flip, and you’ll need to be on the first bus out of here to dodge a beating.”
“Your old man is really serious about…” I try to keep my eyes above her lips. “You know.”
“You have no idea,” she says. “And my brother is worse. Even if nothing is going on between us, they can’t find out about this little arrangement.”
Ishouldask if her dad or brother would let me stay with them, but I’m not throwing away this chance to get closer to Catherine. Part of me wants to believe that she’s avoiding that question, too.
“So, we keep this between us. You can help out with groceries as payment.”
“Oh, of course. I got you.”
“And.” She puts that hand up again. “You tell me what happened in the Navy. Why are you here, Louis?”
I drop my head back against the seat. She’d find out sooner or later, and now I can give it to her straight.
“I had a friend on my ship. Sharpe. She was cool. I don’t know, we just clicked.” Catherine’s eyes register this assomething it’s not. I correct her. “It wasn’t like that—she was into girls.”
“Oh.” Catherine nods.
“We were just really tight, had each other’s backs. We were in the gym, and I caught this guy taking pictures of her while she was bent over. I saw him in the mirror—the creep was right there with his phone, snapping shots of her ass.”
I close my eyes, feeling that anger again.
“I confronted him. He lied. He kept lying to me, that fucking weasel.” My hands ball into the fists that beat him. “Someone grabbed me from behind—one of his buddies—and I swung. Man, everything justhappened. Not just fast—it was over before I even realized what I’d done. That creep and his guy were on the ground, and my hands were raw, bloody. Both of them were officers.”
“Fuck,” Catherine sighs.
Of course. She’s a military brat. Anyone who knows the life knows an enlisted guy knocking out two officers is a career killer—usually worse.
“They tried to lie again in court,” I say. “Those two had each other’s backs, like Sharpe and me. A bunch of brass came out to bat for them. It was two good-ol boys versus the kid barely a year into his enlistment. But we had witnesses. Really, the only thing that saved me from jail time and a dishonorable discharge was the fact that we grabbed his phone while they were on the ground crying. We had the evidence, and there was no avoiding that.”
I find Catherine looking at me sympathetically when I open my eyes.
“That’s it.” I shrug. “The judge decided that it was a fucking mess, and all three of us got the boot. Neutral discharges for everyone to avoid a bigger scandal.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“It could have been worse. If we hadn’t grabbed his phone, or if the witnesses hadn’t said that one officer grabbed me before I threw the first punch, I’d probably be in a military prison. Those guys had all the pull. I was just some enlisted punk with bloody knuckles to match their bruises.”
Catherine slaps the steering wheel, shaking her head.
I smile.
“What?” she laughs. “You tell me anotherhorriblefact about your life, and you’re all smiles?”
“You believe me.”
“Should I not?”
