“What?” I gasped.
“Two fighters have suddenly stepped forward about Davenport pulling the same shit he did on Liv with their women. Loman and White. Loman had a surveillance video, but considering his girl was actually his mistress, he wasn’t all that excited about releasing the footage of her being assaulted. Davenport’s manager paid off the chick, and then, after White lost the fight, it all disappeared right along with him. However, Loman’s footage magically landed on the boxing commissioner’s desk last night.”
My jaw ticked, but my smile grew. “Apparently, Leo’s been really fucking busy over the last month. Good to see my dollar’s being well spent.”
Flint narrowed his eyes. “You knew about this?”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “No. I knew that Davenport was a piece of shit. There is no way that motherfucker hadn’t pulled this shit before. I only funded Leo’s efforts to take him down. Liv would have stroked out if I’d ripped his dick off the way I would have liked to, but no fucking way I was letting him get away with the shit he did to her.”
He blew out a frustrated sigh. “Fucking hell. I guess this is a good thing, seeing as to how it doesn’t end with you in prison, but bad news—fight’s off.”
I shrugged arrogantly. “Shame. I was looking forward to it.”
Flint laughed. “I’ll make sure you’re in the ring to claim his vacant title.”
“Twenty-two percent of sixty million? I bet you will.” I playfully jabbed at his shoulder.
“Hey! Feeding all of Ash’s stray dogs is expensive as fuck.”
I arched an incredulous eyebrow. “Thirteen million dollars’ worth of dog food?”
He threw a hand to his heart in mock surprise. “Dear God. The dumbass can do math! I should probably stop padding my fees now.”
I laughed and kicked his cane, but he didn’t even stumble. “Shit. Between you and Liv skimming off the top, it’s a wonder I have any money at all.”
He started toward the living room. “Have you spoken to your accountant recently? You might not.”
“So then he dropped to a knee, and obviously, I said yes. I’m thinking a summer wedding. My mom is already chomping at the bit though. We’ll see if I can hold her off that long.” I lifted my phone to see that Don and I had been chatting for well over twenty minutes. “Shit! I need to get out of here.” I pushed to my feet.
Don stood with me. “Well, congrats. I’m glad to see he finally did it.”
I smirked. “Finally? We’ve only been together for a few months. This was fast.”
He sheepishly glanced down at the ground. “Right. Well. Since, it’s Christmas and all, I have a bit of a confession. When I first came in for my interview, I recognized you. I’m a huge boxing fan, and I’d seen you in pictures with him. Everyone thought you were his girlfriend. I forget sometimes that you two were just friends at first.”
My eyes went wide, but a laugh bubbled from my throat. “You rat! I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”
“Like you would have hired me if I’d spent the entire interview talking about boxing.”
“If you were signing, I doubt I would have cared. I was desperate. What else have you lied about? Do my cookies suck too?”
“Uh, no. But I will admit your brownies are better,” he teased.
I started collecting my phone and my charger in preparation to leave. “You know, now, I don’t feel so bad about basically abusing your volunteer assistant services.” I smirked. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. I need to get home before Quarry sends in the SWAT team to look for me.”
“Smart girl,” Don said, turning the lights off.
After flipping the Christmas music off and arming the security alarm, I was digging my keys from my purse when Don clicked the inside lock and pushed the door open. The alarm started beeping our warning that we had sixty seconds to exit the building just as the cold, biting wind rushed in.
I was still focused on my purse when Don’s back suddenly collided into me, sending us both to the ground. I was in such shock that I didn’t even have time to get my hands under me to break my fall. My head cracked hard against the tile floor, and my vision tunneled.
Then I heard a deep malicious voice roar, “Where the fuck is he?”
Don climbed off me.
I couldn’t get my bearings to figure out what the hell was going on, but my questions were soon answered.
“Back the fuck up, Davenport!” Don growled.
My eyes came into focus just as the icy metal edge of a knife landed against my throat. I froze as panic overwhelmed me.
“Where the fuck is Page?”
“I-I don’t know,” I lied, my eyes filling with tears.
Dropping to his knees over me, he gripped the crown of my hair and pressed the knife even deeper into my throat until I felt the warm trickle of blood slide down to my collarbone.
“Where is he?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but it was too late.
I ran out of time.