Mason:Inked Reapers MC(93)

"Try and stop him now you bastard," Kait whispered to herself as she  stood before the restocked refrigerator, gazing smugly at the water  filled sports bottles which were back on their relevant shelves and  seemingly never touched.



Before heading back to bed, Kait cleaned up any spilled water and made  sure that the kitchen looked pristine. It was like she'd never been  there which was exactly her intention. With the energy drinks taken care  of, she'd almost won her war against Carl Santino and his evil ways.





Chapter 106



"There's only two days until your next fight," Carl was beside Jasper in  the car as they drove over to the gym, Carl was driving. He kept  stealing glances away from the road to look at his client.



"Two days," Jasper nodded, "I know." He felt pleasantly rested after his  night's sleep which had eased some of his previous tension.



"You need to commit one hundred percent now, Jasper. No distractions."



"Okay."



"And by that I mean the girl."



Jasper tensed.



"Kait?" He blurted out her name in disbelief.



"Jasper, she's a distraction; you know she is," Carl said, his voice  level. "Before a fight, she shouldn't be engaging in  certain … activities."



"You can say sex, Carl, we're both adults here." Jasper scoffed.



"Okay," Carl nervously cleared his throat, "you shouldn't be having sex  before a big fight. I also think she's a negative influence on you."



"That's not the case." Jasper stated defensively.



"Oh?" Carl glanced at him from the corner of his eye as he waited at some traffic lights.



"You're telling me she doesn't harp on about what a bad guy I am and how I'm trying to cause you to mess up?"



Jasper was silent.



"See," Carl was nodded to himself in satisfaction. "And you don't need  that kind of negativity around you, Jasper. You need to focus now and be  positive. You don't need the girl stressing you out. You can see her as  much as you want after this fight."



"Just not before?" Jasper muttered sadly.



"This is standard, Jasper, you'd know that if you'd ever had a serious  girlfriend at the start of your career. Built up sexual energy will fuel  your performance; you know that."



"What if I see her and don't sleep with her?" Jasper ventured.



"Are you capable of that?" Carl asked, his hands tightening upon the wheel.



"No," Jasper admitted with a cheeky laugh. "I'm not."



They arrived at the gym, and Carl pulled in to a vacant parking space and killed the car's engine.



"So, we have a deal?" He was fully focused on Jasper now, his eyes  bright and alert. "You don't see Kait again until after the fight?"                       
       
           



       



"Sure," Jasper shrugged nonchalantly. "We have a deal; anyway, it's only two days."



"Exactly," Carl grinned like a Cheshire cat. "After this fight, you can spend your free time however you like."





Chapter 107



"I don't understand," Kait uttered despondently, drawing her legs up beneath her as she sat on the sofa in her apartment.



"We just can't see each other," Jasper repeated, his voice brittle. "At least not until after my fight."



Kait felt a large, awkward lump form in her throat which she struggled  to swallow against. She had feared that this would happen, that Carl  would try to drive a wedge between them. At least she'd already tampered  with the sports drinks; for that she was extremely grateful as it  looked like she wouldn't get the chance to be near them again. Not until  after the fight anyway, and then it would have been too late.



"Was this your idea or Carl's?" Kait demanded angrily, already knowing  who would have suggested she and Jasper be apart for the next forty  eight hours.



"Kait," she heard Jasper sigh her name on the other end of the line.



"Look," Kait straightened and hugged her knees up to her chest. "If I'm  right about him, will you walk away from him for good? Can you promise  me that?"



Silence.



"Jasper?"



"If you're right about him then, yeah, I'll walk away," Jasper  reluctantly agreed. "But you're not right, Kait. You just don't like  him."



Kait bit her tongue, holding in her barbed words and all that she had  learned about Carl Santino. If only it was simply that she didn't like  him, but the man was crooked and looking to bring down the man she  loved. Hate seemed too tame a label for how she felt towards Jasper's  agent.



"I'm going to miss seeing you before your big fight," Kait admitted  softly, some of her anger thawing as she felt the next two days stretch  out before her. She was really falling for Jasper, so much so that two  days away from him felt like an eternity and made her heart ache.



"Me too," he told her gently. "Kait?"



"Yes?"



"I love you." He said the words so tenderly that Kait wanted to record  them and play them over and over in her mind on a never ending loop. The  most wonderful thing was that she knew he meant it. He wasn't the sort  of man to tell a woman what she wanted to hear; he was too noble for  that.



"I love you, too."



"I'm going to win this next fight," Jasper promised her. "Just you wait  and see. And then when all my sponsors came crawling back, I'll take you  away on holiday to somewhere with a white sandy beach and clear blue  ocean."



"Sounds perfect."



"It will be, but only because you'll be there."



Kait dropped her head against her knees. She wished Jasper were there so  that she could pepper his face with adoring kisses. She wanted nothing  more than to escape with him to some distant tropical shore. But one  last fight stood between them and their happiness.



"I know you're going to win this next fight," Kait told him sincerely.  And she truly felt that way. Now that she'd removed Carl's tainted  drinks from the equation, there was nothing stopping Jasper was storming  to victory. Unless of course Carl realized what she'd done and altered  the drinks again. The thought had crossed her mind when she lay in bed  unable to sleep and tortured by her mounting concerns. She just had to  hope and pray that Carl didn't anticipate what she'd already done.



"I appreciate your belief in me," Jasper told her, his voice warm and teasingly close through the phone.



Kait imagined him sprawled out on his sofa, probably shirtless. Her body  tingled with the desire to be there with him, to be able to lean her  head upon his strong, broad chest.



"I'll always believe in you," she promised him.





Chapter 108



Kait was about to prove her belief to Jasper. It was Friday, the day of  his big fight, and she'd used her lunch hour at work to go in to town.  The morning had already been an eventful one. Kait had learned that  she'd got the promotion she'd been working so tirelessly for. Usually  such news would fill her with joy and excitement, but her feelings were  overshadowed by her concerns over the fight that night.



With her promotion, Kait could now afford to buy a house and leave her  apartment. Her boss had given her a generous bonus to compensate for all  her hard work. Kait had eyed the check she'd been given with keen  interest. She could use that as a down payment on a new house or could  buy a new car. But instead, she was standing outside the booking office  looking comically out of place.                       
       
           



       



In her tight pencil skirt and patent black shoes, Kait took a steadying  breath and then walked in to the bookies. Bleary eyed men were leaning  up against the counters which bordered the shop, their necks keenly  craned up towards the wall mounted televisions showing horses streaking  across a grass track.



A few of them dared to look away from the screen to ogle Kait, but their gaze soon lifted back to the horses.



With her heart hammering in her chest, Kait approached the glass window  at the far end of the shop and smiled at the assistant on the other side  of it.



"Good afternoon," she greeted the acne ridden man politely. He nodded a pushed a hand through his greasy hair.



"What are you in for?" He asked in a surprisingly deep voice.



"I want to put this," Kait slid her check through the relevant slot in  the glass, "all on tonight's fight for Jasper Duboix to win."



The assistant snorted and picked up the check.



"What?" Kait frowned at him.



"Lady, I'm not going to tell you what to do with your money, but Duboix  went down in the second during his last fight. There's no way he will  win. The odds are literally," he had a quick check on the computer  screen beside him, "fifty to one."