Fight for This

Chapter One

TRISTAN

"Jesus Christ—you know you're insane, don't you?"

I grinned at the guy standing opposite of me, his fists raised, his feet darting across the floor, trying to stay out of reach of me.

I knew it was pointless for him to try, but I let him pretend for a little longer. Lloyd wasn't really a fighter; he'd just seen enough fights go down inside the Man to think he could carve out a little action for himself. I didn't mind. It was a little bit of easy sparring for me, something to get my blood pumping before the other guys got here.

"Seriously insane," Lloyd went on, panting a little. His feet were beginning to slow, which was always a mistake in the ring. "You're way too fast..."

"No, you're just slow," I taunted.

He scowled, not arguing, but I chose to prove it anyway. I jumped forward, catching him off guard with a jab to the chest, and then sweeping his feet out from under him.

He hit the mat with a solid thwap.

"God damnit," he groaned, not making a move to get up. He shook the gloves off his hands and then rubbed the bruise already forming on his chest.

I was laughing as I pulled my own gloves off, tossing them into the corner of the ring. "No hard feelings, right?"

Before he could answer, a familiar voice cut through the room. "Lloyd, what the hell are you doing in there?"

All the hair on my body stood on end, but I refused to turn around.

"Being murdered," he called back, clearly not as affected by the source of the voice as I was.

That irritated me. I didn't like being affected by anything, especially not by Ainsley McAllister.

As if summoned by my thoughts of her, she suddenly appeared at the side of the ring, grabbing hold of one of the ropes and hauling herself up. I really wished she hadn't done that, because now it was impossible for me not to look at her.

"We've got work to do, asshole," she chided Lloyd, not even looking at me. Even though her tone seemed serious, her huge, green eyes held a playful sparkle.

I knew that I shouldn't take her dismissal of me so personally—she seemed to treat all the fighters in here with the same level of vague disinterest—but I really, really did. I tried to tell myself it was because she was Toby's little sister, and as the guy who owned this fighting joint, his respect and interest was vital to my career.

But really, it was her eyes. The greenest, most vibrant eyes I had ever seen. Everyone she trained them on seemed to be caught in her gaze. And I was ridiculously jealous of each and every person she looked at, especially since she made a habit of ignoring me completely.

"Hey, Ainsley," I said, unable to resist any longer.

"Hart." It burned that she called me by my last name, but I refused to show weakness.

"How are you?"

"Better before you beat the shit out of my bartender." Her gaze flicked to me, only briefly, before returning to Lloyd on the floor.

"Can't say he didn't deserve it," I joked, hoping to draw a smile from her.

She didn't give in, but her lips did twitch a little, so I knew my comment handed somewhere close to her funny bone.

"I'm sure he did," she said to me, and then to Lloyd, "You've got fifteen minutes to get cleaned up and behind the bar or I'll kick your ass. Got it?"

"Got it, mistress," Lloyd intoned, not even looking at her. It was beyond me how he could do that—ignore her, not go all gooey with her eyes pinned to him.

Ainsley didn't reply to him but did flip him the bird before she hopped off the rope and stalked across the room, toward the bar.

"God, she's a real peach," Lloyd said, mostly to himself.

"Sorry, man." I stood over him, offering a hand. "I didn't mean to get you in trouble."

Begrudgingly, he let me pull him to his feet.

"I'm not in trouble yet," he said, shaking out his body. "She'll get over it. She always does."

I wondered if that was true. As far as I could see, Ainsley seemed like the type to hold grudges. But what did I really know? I'd been hanging around the Man for three years now and I still knew next to nothing about the McAllister siblings. I knew marginally more about Toby since he was a centimeter more open to conversation with me than his sister, but even he wasn't a stunning conversationalist. The dude could go mute at the drop of a hat.

It seemed like no one really knew them. From what I'd heard, they'd showed up in town four years ago, plopped down a hefty chunk of cash to buy the Manchester apartments, and had quickly made a name for themselves as the best fighting arena/training center in the whole city. Hell, maybe the state.

After buying the Manchester, they'd completely renovated the place. They left the upstairs part of the building a regular apartment set up, updated with new paint and appliances, and let some fighters stay there for a cheaper price. Mostly, it was a façade for what they did underground. The entire bottom level had been converted into a gymnasium, while the basement had been disemboweled and turned into a huge arena.

The rest of the world only saw a giant, hulking apartment building called the Manchester when they walked by, but those unlucky enough to be privy to the darkness inside knew of it as Coil. 

For the past three years, Coil had been my home. I didn't live here like the other fighters, because I still had some familial obligations, but I spent more time here than I did at home. Whether I was in the gym or the arena, or even hanging out with another fighter upstairs, this place felt familiar. Safe.

Maybe that's how Ainsley felt about it, too.

"What's she like?" I asked Lloyd, unable to stop myself as I watched her throw open the double doors on the other side of the gym.

Lloyd cocked an eyebrow as he grabbed his water bottle from the floor.

"Pretty much like you'd expect," he hedged.

Once she was out of eyeshot, I turned to him. "I don't expect anything when it comes to her."

He laughed. "That's probably for the best. She's...unpredictable."

"What does that mean?"

"Hell if I know." He dried off his sweat with a towel. "She's quiet, but when she does talk, she says a lot."

Hmm. "Are you guys friends outside of work?"

While I had been expecting a joke, his answer caught me completely off guard. "Outside of work, she doesn't exist."

"What does that mean?"

"It means what it means." He shrugged as he moved to leave the ring. "She works for Coil, she lives in the Manchester. Other than that...She doesn't exist."