Fighting Solitude (On The Ropes #3)(86)

He leaned away and frowned. “Is the guard imaginary?”

“Ha! No. Rich just left. I circled back around to grab my charger.” I lifted the cord as evidence when his frowned deepened.

“You shouldn’t be here alone, Liv. It’s dangerous.”

“Well, so is driving in the snow with no cell phone.”

He gave me a you-should-know-better glare that made me roll my eyes then smile.

“Okay, Pops. I’ll be more careful next time. But I’m glad I came back. What are you doing here?”

He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans and rocked onto his toes. “I was on my way home and saw your car. Decided to stop in and see if you’d already replaced me.”

“Replace you? Are you kidding me? No way.” I playfully slapped his arm.

He immediately grabbed my hand. “Holy shit. Look at that rock.”

My cheeks heated. “Quarry proposed last night.”

“Uh, yeah. I noticed.” He lifted my hand to inspect my ring. “Christ. I bet the astronauts on the space station have probably noticed too.”

“Quarry isn’t exactly a simple and understated kind of guy.”

“I’d say not.” He smiled tenderly. “You got a minute? How about you plug in your phone and catch me up on the last month while it charges.”

“Well…” I drawled, glancing down at my watch.

My parents and the Page family would already be waiting for me at our house, but if it meant I got Don back, Quarry would happily keep them entertained.

“Only if you being here means you’re back.”

He patted his stomach. “I don’t know. Are there any Christmas cookies left? I’ve lost five pounds over the last month. I’m borderline emaciated.”

“You happen to be in luck. I brought in a batch tonight.”

Ten minutes of catching up with Don wouldn’t hurt anyone.

It hurt everyone.





“We need to talk,” Flint said when I opened the front door.

Leo and Slate were stoking the fire, and Sarah and Erica were cooking in the kitchen.

“Hey, Q.” Ash pushed to her tiptoes and kissed my cheek. “Where’s Liv?”

I held Flint’s troubled gaze as I replied, “She should be here any minute. She had a class to teach tonight.”

“Babe, can you go call the babysitter and check on the boys?” Flint asked.

She huffed. “We’ve been gone ten minutes. I’m sure they are fine.”

“Humor me,” he ordered dryly.

She rolled her eyes and flittered away.

“What’s going on?” I asked as soon as she was out of earshot.

“This is not public yet, but I just heard from my guy at the boxing administration that Davenport is being stripped of his belt.”

“What?” I gasped.

“Two fighters have suddenly stepped forward about Davenport pulling the same shit he did on Liv with their women. Loman and White. Loman had a surveillance video, but considering his girl was actually his mistress, he wasn’t all that excited about releasing the footage of her being assaulted. Davenport’s manager paid off the chick, and then, after White lost the fight, it all disappeared right along with him. However, Loman’s footage magically landed on the boxing commissioner’s desk last night.”

My jaw ticked, but my smile grew. “Apparently, Leo’s been really f*cking busy over the last month. Good to see my dollar’s being well spent.”

Flint narrowed his eyes. “You knew about this?”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “No. I knew that Davenport was a piece of shit. There is no way that motherf*cker hadn’t pulled this shit before. I only funded Leo’s efforts to take him down. Liv would have stroked out if I’d ripped his dick off the way I would have liked to, but no f*cking way I was letting him get away with the shit he did to her.”

He blew out a frustrated sigh. “Fucking hell. I guess this is a good thing, seeing as to how it doesn’t end with you in prison, but bad news—fight’s off.”

I shrugged arrogantly. “Shame. I was looking forward to it.”

Flint laughed. “I’ll make sure you’re in the ring to claim his vacant title.”

“Twenty-two percent of sixty million? I bet you will.” I playfully jabbed at his shoulder.

“Hey! Feeding all of Ash’s stray dogs is expensive as f*ck.”

I arched an incredulous eyebrow. “Thirteen million dollars’ worth of dog food?”

He threw a hand to his heart in mock surprise. “Dear God. The dumbass can do math! I should probably stop padding my fees now.”

I laughed and kicked his cane, but he didn’t even stumble. “Shit. Between you and Liv skimming off the top, it’s a wonder I have any money at all.”

He started toward the living room. “Have you spoken to your accountant recently? You might not.”





“So then he dropped to a knee, and obviously, I said yes. I’m thinking a summer wedding. My mom is already chomping at the bit though. We’ll see if I can hold her off that long.” I lifted my phone to see that Don and I had been chatting for well over twenty minutes. “Shit! I need to get out of here.” I pushed to my feet.