Page 76 of Fight
“Yeah,” he rumbles. “I need to get the fuck out of this apartment, though. Let’s hit the store and then go for a run.”
Groaning as I sit up, I glance wearily at Tommy as I get dressed. He looks stressed as he jerkily pulls on his clothes, his eyes being drawn continually to Cerenity’s bedroom door.
“Come on, out,” I mutter as I push him toward the front door to leave.
“She smells so good,” he whines as he stomps out of the apartment in his combat boots.
“Trust me, I know,” I grumble as I take Augustine’s apartment key to lock up. There’s no way I’m leaving the others unprotected while we’re gone.
The light is barely in the sky as we leave, and while I’m used to getting up early, I would much rather have been able to sleep a little later. Tommy unlocks the doors to his truck, allowing us to climb in.
We’re both fairly quiet as he drives to a big box store we saw on the drive in.
“I’m not trying to get ahead of myself,” he finally begins, “but the apartment is too small for the five of us. I want to talk to the leasing office and see if the place next to theirs is open. I also need to check in with David to make sure Arthur’s men were put down and disposed of like the dogs they are. I have a mile long list of shit… I want my shot to make things right with Cerenity too.”
“That’s incredibly well thought out,” I say with a smirk. Tommy is the boss because every move is usually planned out, but everyone has their moments where things don’t work out according to plan.
Tommy rolls his eyes, though his lips twitch in amusement as he drives. I’m glad he’s coming down from the high of having his omega around. Fuck, we really do need our own place just to be able to think.
“The fights are in five days,” I rumble, thinking. “The fighters can manage for a bit through calls and virtual reminders to keep their asses on track. I can be just as scary from here as I am there. I don’t see this affecting the men. Your job, however…”
“Lots to think about,” he says with a nod. “She has a business here, Jasper. I don’t expect her to move, so I need to have a meeting with Corbin to see about moving our hub of operations. Maybe we can work out a way for us to live here and run the fights from Minneapolis. People will drive in for these, and it’ll liven up the city. Most of our fighters don’t have permanent roots.”
Look at him, thinking with his big brain. I’m nodding along as he speaks, because to be honest, any drug running can be passed to David to continue with a raise for his troubles. The fights won’t encroach on anything the Irish mafia packs have going here, and it’ll allow us to possibly expand north of here.
“It’ll also allow us to find new fighters to train, too. Having a back up, or debuting someone are huge draws for crowds,” he continues as he pulls into the store parking lot.
“I was recently asked if I would consider training women,” I tell him, remembering a conversation I had a few weeks ago with a fighter in passing. “I told him I’d ask you, but to be honest, it slipped my mind until now.”
“Bah, you have a lot on your plate, and it wasn’t pertinent until now,” Tommy forgives as he parks the truck. “If they’re serious, yeah, I don’t see the issue. We don’t do the mud wrestling bullshit. Unless that’s what we’re planning to market it as. In that case, we’d need to have security in place.”
His mind is pivoting and plotting to take care of his people while still being close to Cerenity. While Tommy did kidnap her, he’s still attempting to figure things out. His plans are happening to make her happy, but I don’t know if she’ll see it that way if she seems to be overwhelmed and terrified by us.
Heaving a heavy sigh, I get out of the truck to walk across the lot to the store. Tommy hits the lock on his key fob and his heavy footsteps sound as he walks beside me. It’s quiet for six in the morning, but the store opened half an hour ago.
“You’ve been thinking a lot about this,” I murmur as we walk through the store with a cart.
“A lot of people depend on me,” he says with a sigh. “I don’t want to let anyone down, but I also don’t want to be that angry bastard down the road staring down at my scotch every night wondering where I fucking went wrong.”
Dark. Fuck, did he sleep at all?
“Well that’s a depressing thought,” I admit. “You planning on telling her any of this?”
“I don’t want her to worry about this,” he grunts. “I want to win her over on my own merit, not what I'm willing to do for her.”
Ugh, so damn stubborn.
As we toss things into the cart, I continue to grumble in my mind. If he would talk to her, this would all be easier. I’m currently kicking myself for handcuffing her to the damn bed after her night of terror, especially since she seems to have some kind of issue with alphas in general.
Not all alphas, I think as I remember Tiny’s moans.
A slap to the back of my head makes me wince, mostly because I was so buried in my thoughts I didn’t see it coming. Fucking sloppy.
“I can hear you thinking from here and it’s making me uncomfortable,” Tommy grunts as he throws several pairs of boxers into the cart.
Huffing, I do the same, thinking about how this will do until I go home to pack my shit up. I should be freaking out about this, but things move fast when you find your scent match, even if she doesn’t feel the same way right now.
My sister had a rough road of it with her pack, but they still lived together while they worked through it.