“I swear to god, if you go near my sister again, I’m going to kill you,” he snarled.
I held up both of my hands, trying to keep the peace, and gave him a mild look. “Yeah, yeah, I get it.”
To be honest, I didn’t really care that she was his sister. Or at least, I wasn’t worried about what Bobby might or might not do to me. I was more concerned about Lucy not giving me a chance because she was worried about how her brother would take it.
I was pretty sure I could take on whatever Bobby threw at me. Then again, did I really want to get involved in any kind of drama? I was here to win, after all.
“Seriously man, if I hear you’re sniffing around her one more time, you’re gonna get fucked up,” Bobby the lowered his voice before saying, “outside the ring.” This kind of threat could get a guy thrown out of a tournament and from the look in his eyes, he was dead serious. He didn’t care about jeopardizing his position in the tournament if it meant keeping me away from his little sister.
I couldn’t relate. I didn’t have any siblings of my own, and although I’d spent quite a bit of my childhood living with my cousins they were all boys. I didn’t really understand what he thought he was protecting her from.
I guess I wasn’t really the kind of guy that you took home to your parents. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that I was pretty much only solid muscles. Could I do some major damage? Sure. There was also the tattoos and the motorcycle…
Still, it wasn’t like Lucy was some innocent girl to be corrupted. With her brother so involved in the boxing scene, I bet she had grown up around guys like me. She probably knew how to protect herself and didn’t need her brother stepping in like some white knight.
I wondered what she would have said if I’d told her about her brother interfering in her dating life, warning guys away from her. Would she be pissed or did she enjoy being treated like a child?
“I’m not sniffing around her,” I told Bobby. “I just happened to help her friend out with some creep at the club last night—or didn’t she tell you that part?”
“She didn’t tell me anything,” Bobby said smugly. “People know me here. This is my turf, so you better watch your back.”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. He sounded ridiculous, straight out of some overly dramatic Hollywood movie. He didn’t realize that the more he warned me to stay away, the more I wanted her. Not that I was stupid enough to tell him that.
He thought that he had eyes everywhere? Let me find the one place that he didn’t. Or better yet, let me take advantage of her right in front of all of them. I doubted Bobby could really cook up the shitstorm that he was so desperately threatening me with.
“Whatever, man,” I said, shrugging as if I didn’t care. “Can I get back to work now? You done?”
Bobby looked like he still had more to say, but he checked himself. He would have looked stupid to continue this one-sided pissing contest, and people around the gym were starting to notice. He stalked off and started working out on the other side of the gym. I kept catching him glaring at me, though.
James, a guy who wasn’t exactly my friend but with whom I had trained for years, came over to me. He gave a low whistle. “What was that about? You stirring up shit, already?”
I snorted. “Nah, but someone else is. What else is new?”
James raised an eyebrow at me. “Bobby isn’t the kind of guy that I’d want to get in trouble with.”
“Why not?” I grunted as I picked up my weights to start another set.
James shrugged. “Just got a bad feeling about him, is all,” he said noncommittally. I wondered if there was more to the story than that, but to be honest, I didn’t care.
Maybe this whole coming back from an injury thing was getting to my head, but I was high off a win in the first round of the tournament and I felt like I could take on the world. And Bobby. It was a heady feeling after so many months of barely being able to do anything normal. I knew better than to overdo it and I knew that Bobby wouldn’t actually make good on his threats. He might be a boxer, but that didn’t make him a thug.
James started telling me about the dude that he was up against next. It was probably the reason why he’d come over in the first place: he sucked at sizing up his opponents and was looking for any advice that might help him. It wasn’t the first time.
I mostly tuned him out, thinking about the curvy blonde who plagued my dreams. Bobby’s sister. Maybe she’d have some advice for me on how to handle her brother. Not that I would stoop to something like that. I could fight my own damn battles and be fair.
I glanced over and Bobby was still scowling at me as he trained. I definitely wasn’t afraid of him. In fact, I was pretty sure that I could take him in a match. It might be a close call, but I could handle him.
Then again, if Lucy was showing up to all of his matches, she clearly was his biggest fan. If I KO’ed him, she would never sleep with me. But no way was I throwing the match just so that I could sleep with
