Ryley's Revenge (Gloves Off #2)(3)

Breathing hard, I stepped away and looked down at my hands. They were bloody and split wide open.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but you better figure it out soon. Surely, it’s not because of the title fight is it? I know you and your brother will be battling it out soon, but that’s no reason to let it f*ck with your mind.”

Bursting out in laughter, I shook my head, fisting my hands by my side. My knuckles split open even more and I welcomed the pain. The fight with my brother was the last thing on my mind. “Trust me, Danny. I’m not worried about the f*cking fight. I have other things on my mind right now.”

“Oh, don’t worry about him, coach,” Camden called. “He just needs a good lay or two.” He winked at me and smiled, thankfully drawing the attention of our coach.

Danny sighed and waved me off. “All right, I’ll back off. But I want you to soak those hands and get them healed. I don’t want to see you around here tomorrow. You got that?”

Turning on my heel, I grumbled, “Yes, coach,” before waltzing off toward the locker rooms. He knew I wasn’t going to stay away.

Luckily, no one was in the showers. The only people who ever used the locker rooms were the fighters who trained in the gym, which happened to only be a handful of us. After turning on the shower, I stripped out of my blue and white fighting shorts and tossed them on the bench. A little blood smeared on the white cloth, but I didn’t care.

Once the room was filled with steam, I stepped into the near scalding water and hissed as it hit my open wounds. Hanging my head, I placed my sore hands against the wall and let the water run down my body, washing away the sweat and tension. It wasn’t long before my muscles began to relax. However, they tightened back up when a set of soft, feminine arms wrapped around my waist from behind. Her hands slid down, one cupping my balls while the other wrapped around my cock, massaging me.

“Don’t tell me you forgot me already?” she whined in my ear.

Her touch did nothing but piss me off. Pulling her arms away from my body, I turned off the water and stalked past her to my locker. She was naked, her body glistening as the shower head dropped its last few drops on her skin. I wished I wanted her, but I didn’t. For the past couple of weeks she’d been mine . . . but not anymore. The only reason I kept her around was because she looked like Ashleigh, with her dark hair and wide-set green eyes. But no matter how I diced it, she just wasn’t the same.

“I’m not in the mood today, Natalie.” Grabbing a towel, I ran it over my body quickly and reached into my locker for a clean T-shirt and jeans.

“Not in the mood? Since when are you not ready for me? We’ve been doing this for how long now?”

Almost every day for the past couple of weeks.

Arms crossed over her chest, she glared at me with anger radiating from those emerald green eyes of hers.

“It doesn’t matter,” I replied, “I’m done.”

“You’re done?” she scoffed. “Just like that?”

Zipping up my jeans, I nodded my head and started for the door. “Yep, just like that.”

I’d been told by many women I was an ass. It didn’t bother me. Not even when Natalie called me every single name in the book as I walked away from her, screaming as loud as she could. Today was shaping up to be one spectacularly shitty day.

My prediction was confirmed when I walked out of the locker room and locked eyes with the one person I’d been avoiding. Dressed in her tiny black shorts and red sports bra, Gabriella was ready to train. It was amazing how fast her body had transformed from slim to outright muscle. But from the looks of her, she didn’t know I knew about Ashleigh.

She was up in the ring talking animatedly to Camden and my coach. When she spotted me, I didn’t smile back at her. She said her goodbyes to my brother and hesitantly walked down to me, stopping a couple of feet away.

“Why haven’t you answered my calls?” she asked.

About that time, Natalie stormed out of the locker room, her hair dripping water all over her tight, white tank top. “Get used to it, honey. I wouldn’t waste your time on this dickwad.”

Biting her lip to keep from smiling, Gabby watched Natalie walk away before turning back to me. “Um . . . o-kay. It looks like you’re not having a good day.” She set her gym bag down and stretched her arms over her head.

“More like the past few days,” I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest. “Is there something you need to tell me? Or maybe something you forgot to tell me?”

Nervously, she laughed. “Not that I know of. Can you give me a hint?”

“Vegas.”

Sighing, she closed her eyes and hung her head, her midnight hair covering her face. “Tyler told you?” When she looked up, I nodded once. “Goddammit,” she hissed, grabbing my arms. “She made me promise, Ryley. What was I supposed to do? She’s my best friend.”

“Well, so am I.”

“I know you are, but it’s not the same. Tell me what I can do to make it better.”

“You can start off by telling me what the f*ck’s going on.”

Letting my arms go, Gabriella flung hers in the air. “I wish I could, but she keeps brushing me off. I’ve been trying to get her to talk, but she won’t confide in me.”

Taking her elbow, I pulled her along beside me and out the front door. “Well, right now she’s not going to have an option.”