“Are you kidding me?” Julie’s voice rises in pitch. “I’m going to make an announcement right now.”

    “I hope you don’t mind.” I look up at Jack’s amused face after Julie races away. “I know a couple of the guys here used to be boxers, and I think a few of the residents used to be professional athletes, too.”

    “Not at all. There’s nothing I like better than sharing fight stories, except spending time with you.” He pulls me against him, brushes his lips over mine. “Didn’t like leaving you this morning, all soft and sleepy, cuddled against me.”

    “Didn’t like waking up alone.” I run my tongue over the seam of his lips, and he opens for me with a groan. “But seeing you here kind of makes up for it. This is better than Christmas morning.”

    “You keep doing that, you’re gonna get an unexpected present,” he murmurs.

    “Is it a big present?” I press myself against him, rub my hip against the bulge in his jeans.

    Jack chuckles. “They don’t get bigger.”

    “I’m glad one of us doesn’t have problems with his ego.” I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him down for a proper kiss. If this is the kind of friendship he wants, then I’ll take it, even if I can sense heartbreak ahead.

    “So what’s this about you being a marketing genius?” He pulls away just enough to talk, and I lean against him, soak in the delicious heat of his body. He’s rocking a short-sleeved button-down black shirt over his worn jeans, but then with a body like his, everything he wears looks hot.

    “Just a hobby. My mom was a marketing executive, and I like doodling designs. Sometimes I see a sign or a product and I think I could come up with something catchier or more compelling. I don’t have any training. It’s just something I do for fun. I did the logo you see on the door…”

    “It’s really good,” he says, studying the design. “You’ve got a lot of talent. You ever think of running with that?”

    Clarice meows for my attention, and I bend down and open the cage door to let her out. “I’m not good enough to take it anywhere. Plus, I’d have to go back to school, and I have to work to pay the rent. It’s more of a hobby.”

    “MMA was a hobby for me, and then it became something more.” He tucks a rogue strand of hair behind my ear when I stand. “If you love something, it doesn’t seem like work when you’re learning the ropes. In the beginning, the distillery was paying the bills. Now, it’s gonna be the other way around.”

    “Not everyone is lucky enough to find a talent and make it into a career.”

    “It’s not about luck,” he says. “It’s about going after what you want and not letting anything stand in your way.”

    Julie returns and picks up Clarice to give her a cuddle. “We’re all set. I’m going to steal Jack away for a chat with some of the guys and you and Clarice can visit with Rose.”

    “Why did you name her Clarice?” Jack gives her a tentative pat and gets an unexpected purr in return.

    “Heroine of my favorite movie. She was beautiful, brave, strong, and determined. No matter how bad it got, she didn’t give up. Clarice went through a lot before I found her. I thought she’d earned her name.”

    “She’s not the only one who went through a lot and came out strong.”

    I look up at him to protest but stop at the soft expression on his face.

    Julie coughs loudly, and I bite back a smile.

    “I’ll come and find you after I’m done talking with Rose.”

    Jack frowns. “I thought you said Rose couldn’t talk.”

    I slide my hand into his and give it a squeeze. “Sometimes actions speak louder than words.”

    * * *

    RAMPAGE

    Torment sends one of his minions to drag me to his office as soon as I walk into Redemption after returning from Ambleside. I knew it was coming. No one breaks the rules and lives to tell the tale. Not even me, and I’m one of the founding members of the gym.

    I stalk ahead of the young kid who was unlucky enough to be in Torment’s line of sight when he heard I was back from my break, and my good mood fades. Meeting the seniors at Ambleside was an unexpected pleasure. All professional athletes back in the day, they had some great stories to tell, and damned if they didn’t have a few tips that I plan to implement in the cage. But seeing Penny so happy was the greatest pleasure of all. She expects so little that even the smallest gesture means so much, and it is hard not to be drawn by someone who gives so willingly of herself.

    I don’t bother knocking when we reach Torment’s office. Instead, I go on the offensive and push open his frosted glass door.

    “Sit.” He gestures to the black leather chair in front of his massive cherry wood desk. Torment, being Torment, never does anything by halves.

    Bristling, I sit only because I know I’m in the wrong.

    “Never seen you lose it like you did last night.” No pleasantries. Torment never beats around the bush. “You broke one of our fundamental rules about fighting in the gym.”

    “The rule is that fighting isn’t allowed outside of the practice ring,” I counter. “We were in the ring.”

    Torment’s eyes narrow. “Don’t play technicalities with me. You know damn well what the rule means and the purpose behind it. You wrote it.”

    “It won’t happen again.”

    “Penny is a member of the gym,” he says. “She’s here a couple of times a week. How can you guarantee you aren’t going to flip out again if she gets hurt?”

    Goddamn bastard thinks he knows everything. “There’s nothing between us.”