Chapter 6
Present Day
Cade
I sat in a large leather seat, a stripper coiled round a pole on the stage in front of me. A waitress came over, scantily clad in a little black and red corset, and set down a glass of whiskey on ice beside me.
She smiled seductively as she pranced off back towards the bar, her eyes lingering on me. I was getting used to that sort of attention these days from random girls, so it was nothing out of the ordinary.
But this last week, things had blown up. My fight against Ron Renton on Friday night had gone viral, and not only because of the way I despatched him. It was my gesture to Gem at the end that got people talking, and now half the girls in town were wondering who she was and what was going on between us.
Frankly, I didn't give a f*ck about all that attention. I'd always been good with the girls, and didn't want the spotlight to come down on me any more than it already was. I had a single focus: win my fights, work my way up the ranking and maybe, just maybe, get a shot at the belt some day soon.
Crash had called me over to the casino earlier that afternoon when things started kicking off on Twitter. He warned me not to talk to the press if they came knocking, not to talk about the family at all. There was always a lot going on behind the scenes with Crash that I didn't know about, and he didn't want anyone prying into our family life.
I had a feeling it might have something to do with our father's murder. Crash had been closest to dad, and was desperate to find the culprit and get some revenge. He'd brought us all together a couple of months ago to tell us that that's exactly what he'd done, that the guy who was responsible for his death had been dealt with. If that was true, I could understand exactly why he didn't want anyone peering at us all too closely.
If my profile kept rising, however, that might just become inevitable.
I took a sip of my whiskey and drank in the sight of the stripper now gyrating in front of me. She was impossibly sexy. God knows how Kyle managed to keep it in his pants for so long when he ran this place.
I felt a hand come down on my shoulder and twisted my neck to see Zack fall into the chair beside me.
“So what's going on bro,” he asked, “you sounded pretty serious on the phone.”
I'd always call Zack when I needed advice or had a problem.
“Yeah, it's about Gem.”
“Oh yeah...” he said quickly, his eyes on me, nowhere near the stripper.
“The girl's f*cking crazy bro. When you walked in on us on Friday she turned all weird. We had this fight and she stormed off. She hasn't called all weekend or today. Do you think, like, I should call her?”
He was silent for a moment, the cogs turning in his head.
“Well it depends. Do you still wanna be dating her?”
“Well, yeah. She's my lucky charm, you know that. If I lose her, my form might turn to shit, you know.”
A fairly deep frown appeared on his face. “So that's why you want to be with her? Because you think she gives you luck when you box. Mate, seriously, that's not good enough.”
“Why not? Anyway, it's more than that. I like the girl. She's cool, she's funny, she's f*cking beautiful. I mean, I don't wanna lose her, no.”
“Well call her then dumbass. It's not rocket science.”
“To be fair though, I don't see why I should call her. She's the one who went all psycho on me. I did nothing wrong. Why should I call her?!”
I'd never chased after a girl before in my life. Why the f*ck should I chase her when she was the one who'd caused the problem?
“Well just be the bigger man and grow the f*ck up. Seriously, what actually happened?”
“First of all, f*ck you. Bigger man! I'm bigger than you dickhead. Second, I told you what happened. You walked in – thanks for that by the way – and she just closed down. I guess maybe she got embarrassed or something.”
“Yeah, and then what?”
“I dunno, she started talking about the girls in the audience and how they all wanna f*ck me, or some shit like that. I joked that maybe those girls would like to be in her position and she flipped out.”
Zack sat back in his chair and laughed. “You f*cking moron, how do you think she's gonna take that. You always did have a sensitive side Cade.”
“Hey f*ck you Zack, you're meant to be helping me out here. You know I haven't had serious girlfriends like you. This is all a bit new to me.”
His laugh died down and his voice went serious again, deflating suddenly. “So this is...serious?”
“Well, if not it's as close as I've ever got. Yeah, OK, I don't have a f*cking p-ssy sensitive girly side like you, but that doesn't mean I don't like the girl. I'm just not that good at showing it.”
“Mate, look, it's really quite simple. Talk. Talk to her and tell her what's going on. That's all girls want really – for you to talk to them and tell them the truth.”
My cell suddenly began buzzing in my pocket as he spoke and I reached in to pull it out.
“Oh shit, speak of the devil!”
It was Gem.
“F*ck, what shall I do?” I asked quickly, “I can't answer here.”
“Well go outside then.” He sounded kinda annoyed.
“All right, I'll be back in a minute.”
I stood quickly and rushed towards the exit as the phone buzzed in my hand for the third time. The last thing I wanted to do was answer in a strip club. That would kind of back up the things I'd been saying the other night. Foot firmly in mouth.
I rushed through the door and up the stairs towards the door, picking up the phone and trying to calm my breath as I answered.
“Gemma, how are you?” I said as formally as possible, making sure I didn't sound out of breath from my short burst to the door.
“I'm good Cade, yeah, I'm OK. Are you at the gym or something?”
“Err, no, why?”
“You sound like you're panting and I can hear music in the background.”
F*ck it.
“Um, yeah, I'm just having a drink with Zack.”
“Zack?”
“Yeah, Zack.” Was that so hard to believe?
“OK, well I just wanted to call about Friday. I'm sorry about all that, I shouldn't have reacted like I did.”
F*ck yeah, I win! “Yeah, I'm sorry too. I was a total dick, I guess it was the adrenaline of the fight and all that.”
Be the bigger man. Good advice Zack.
“So, we should get together and talk I suppose? Dinner tomorrow?”
I felt a huge sense of relief surging through my body. Maybe she meant more to me than I realized.
“That'd be great babe. I'll come pick you up from your apartment at 8ish. Does that work?”
“That's great, yeah. I'll see you then.”
“OK baby, sweet dreams.”
I shut the phone down and went back down into the club to see Zack up at the bar ordering a drink.
“So it went well then?” he said, noticing the beaming smile on my face.
“Well you could sound at least a little happy for me bro! What, jealous that it's me with the proper girlfriend for once!” I joked, gesturing to the waitress to fetch me another whiskey.
One more won't hurt.
He didn't seem overly pleased by the comment. Well screw him, he always seemed to be in a bad mood these days.
“Right mate, time to celebrate.”
I raised my hand to usher over the hottest stripper I could see. “You got time for a private showing honey,” I said as she approached. F*ck she was hot.
“For Cade Logan, absolutely.”
My smile widened further. It was great to be me right now.
“You can do my brother next,” I said, winking over at Zack.
He was shaking his head, this disapproving look in his eye.
“What about Gem?” he asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. “What, this is nothing. Just a dance, right?” I said, turning my attention back to the stripper.
“For now,” she said, licking her lips.
“See bro,” I said, turning again to Zack, “look, but don't touch!”