His Love, My Choice (Book 2) [Completed] - book 1 on Inkitt dot com

Chapter 7 - Liam

1 week ago

I watched as Max backed away to go through the same door that Laera had just exited from not too long ago.

But I knew he'd be back.

Looking over at the bar set up on the other side of the room, I contemplated fixing myself a drink, then decided against it. I was going to need a clear head.

Max returned within a few minutes and immediately began taking off his jacket. Since he took over for me in my former life, he no longer wore tailored suits except on certain occasions. He and the men that worked for him still wore all black but were dressed for ease of movement like when fighting.

The split from that organized network had been as clean as it could be, but I was still privy to the happenings around that world. And from what I'd been hearing, Max ran a ruthless operation. He never had the constraints of leading a double life to contend with, so the mechanisms he used were blunt with a finality that left no questions and no evidence. I expected nothing less of him. There was more honor in that man's pinky than in any other person I'd ever met.

So, I knew that his interjection between Laera and I wasn't about challenging me. He'd made a promise to her and was intent on keeping it.

But that didn't mean that there'd be a negation of consequences.

I should've taken that drink.

Entering the darkened room, the sensors immediately caused the fluorescent lighting to turn on.

"You made a replica." Max said while unbuttoning the top of his shirt so that he could slide it over his head.

"You know me well enough," was my short answer as I too removed the clothing from the upper half of my body.

Reaching a landing jutting out from the wall, I picked up one of the remotes laying there and pressed one button. The room was immediately flooded with the sounds of heavy metal music.

I couldn't stand it personally, but whenever I was in training mode with Claude, my ex-paramilitary guy, I found it helped to channel my explosiveness into every move while we fought hand to hand.

And that was exactly what was going to happen right now between Max and me.

Stepping out into the middle of room, both of us circled the other.

Clean hits to the body and none to the face.

"On your go." Max said as he stopped moving.

Recognizing what he was about to do, I swung half-heartedly towards his shoulder but corrected quickly to block his first jab to my chest.

Landing a jab to his side before he could recover, I knew I'd winded him.

"Is that all you got brother?" I was taunting him because I knew the moniker would get under his skin. He'd always hated when I referred to him with any type of familiarity, thinking that it weakened his ability to protect me. But he wasn't my protector any longer.

And at the word, he finally looked like someone who was about to 'get in the phone booth', because I could tell earlier that there was a reluctancy to follow me downstairs when he knew this would be the result. But we had a code we lived by, and it had saved our lives more times than I could count. We'd fight and move on.

I'd been moving to his left to put some distance between myself and that right hook I knew was coming, but I'd missed the left hand which he swung and connected easily to his mark. The blow had me spitting up on the floor.

"Fuck!" I exclaimed as I took a moment to recover. A moment was all I needed as I went on the offensive and connected to him with several body shots that had him spitting up blood too.