Theirs to Keep (Tangled Hearts Trilogy #1)(56)

Merrick grinned. “I’ll make the call to Dakota and let him know I’m back in and we’re going to go hard to make up for lost time.”

Chapter Thirty

“GO HARD AT HIM!” DAKOTA shouted from the corner. “Come on, Merrick, you aren’t concentrating.”

Elle watched from the far side of the room, her brow furrowing as Dakota slapped his towel down onto the mat. She knew Dakota loved Merrick. They’d been friends for a long time. Nearly as long as Cade and Merrick. But he always got so worked up. It made her cringe because everything was always an emergency, and nothing Merrick ever did seemed to be good enough.

Maybe that was the way of it in the fighting world, but Elle hated it.

“If this was a real fight, he would have wiped the mat with you, and he’s in a different weight class, for Christ’s sake,” Dakota said in disgust.

Merrick turned his head just enough that he could look at her. Their gazes connected and held, and she held up her thumb in a ridiculously silly manner, but it was all she could think to do to let him know she believed in him.

His lips quirked up into a smile just about the time his sparring partner hit him. She flinched as Merrick reeled back and then focused his attention back in the ring.

Dakota’s face drew into a scowl, and he looked directly at Elle, shaking his head. Then he walked around the ring and took position in front of Elle so Merrick couldn’t see her and she couldn’t see Merrick.

For a moment, Elle sat in stunned silence. Dakota was blaming her for whatever he perceived as Merrick’s problem today? She’d been going to his training sessions since the very start. Merrick had missed several days after the fire. What did Dakota expect on his first day back? Perfection?

But then, really, would anything ever be good enough for Dakota?

When two of the other fighters who were standing ringside also turned to look at her, her cheeks burned, and she fidgeted self-consciously in her chair.

Was she a distraction? Should she have stayed at home? She just wanted Merrick to know he had her support.

A few minutes later, Merrick left the ring to go into the locker room, and Dakota immediately stalked in her direction. He tossed Merrick’s keys onto her lap, startling her as she scrambled to catch them before they fell off and hit the floor.

Dakota looked pissed off—and determined.

“Look, why don’t you head home for the day. I’ll bring Merrick home when we’re done. His concentration is shot to hell, and I need his head in the game before he gets himself hurt. With a month left before this fight, an injury could be devastating.”

She stared at him and then glanced down at the keys in her hand. The hostility in Dakota’s voice made her uncomfortable. What was she supposed to do? The last thing she wanted was to make a scene and wreck Merrick’s training session.

Without saying a word or giving Dakota the satisfaction of seeing how nervous he made her, she simply got up and walked away, her fingers curled tightly around those keys.

The sunlight nearly blinded her as she came from the much darker gym. She blinked, thinking she saw someone close to Merrick’s Hummer, but when her eyes adjusted, she didn’t see anything.

She climbed into the vehicle and turned the key in the ignition. It was another beautiful day with a crispness to the air that was welcome. She punched the button to open the sunroof and then contemplated her options.

Cade was in a meeting with clients, and Charlie was meeting with the insurance adjuster to get the check for the damage to the office building. She could either go sit in the newly appropriated, cramped office space, or she could go home to an empty house.

Either place she’d be alone, so she figured it was more welcome to just head home. She’d make lunch and wait for Merrick to finish and get home. And hopefully Dakota would just drop Merrick off and not stay.

Dakota had become testier and testier as it drew closer to the fight. Catherine had confided in Elle that Dakota was intense and that he didn’t mean anything by it but he took his role very seriously, and she admitted that he became unbearable even to her when it got down to the last weeks before a major fight.

Catherine, at least, had remained as sweet and supportive as she always had. But lately, Elle had felt like an intruder when she went to Merrick’s sessions with him. Even the other fighters looked at her like she didn’t belong.

Maybe she was being overly sensitive, but she hated the way she’d been made to feel today. She was embarrassed to have been kicked out of the gym like an unwanted nuisance.

She pulled into the drive of the house and sat there a moment before turning off the engine. She left the path into the garage open because the Hummer didn’t fit and it was where Cade parked his slightly smaller SUV.

She got out, fiddling with the keys to find the right one for the door and walked through the open garage toward the kitchen door.

Just as she started to insert the key into the lock, an arm slid around her neck and yanked her back against a hard chest. The grip on her neck was so firm she couldn’t breathe, and before she could scream, a hand clamped down hard over her mouth.

She began to kick wildly as she was dragged backward against the wall. Pain shocked her into silence when her attacker punched her in the side.

“Shut the f**k up and listen to me,” the man hissed in her ear. “I have a message for your boys, and I want you to deliver it word for word. You got me?”