The F King: A Bad Boy Romance(119)

The announcer declared Austin the new heavyweight champion of the MMA world, as the Head of NHBFC secured the belt around my husband’s waist and Brenton Southgate started to show signs of consciousness. One of the commentators approached Austin with microphone in hand and waited for the noise to die down a little before beginning his interview.

“First of all, Austin, congratulations!”

“Thanks, Pete.”

“Thanks for sticking around this time!”

Austin laughed. “No problem.”

“Obviously a classic submission victory for yourself. Could you walk us through what happened here?”

“Uh, yeah, sure. I learned from the first fight that Brenton’s best defense against the ground game was avoiding it as much as possible. That’s not to take anything away from him, he knows his sh-… stuff, he knows his stuff, but I figured that if I could take him into the later rounds by standing with him for that long, my conditioning would see me through, and I’d spot the opening I needed to take the fight back to where I had the advantage, and I could tie him in knots.”

“Well, mission accomplished, right?”

“Yup.”

“So who do you see yourself fighting next? A rematch with Coles maybe?”

Austin laughed again. “No. No, I don’t think that would be a healthy move for him.”

“So, who then?”

“Um…” Austin looked in my direction again. “Actually, I’ve decided that I’ve now done everything I could in the sport. I’ve beaten the best, and it’s time to move my life in a different direction. As of, let’s say, tomorrow, I am officially announcing my retirement from MMA.”

The cheering immediately went from rapturous cheering to stunned whispers, slowly building up to a cacophony again. Even the commentator did a goldfish impression for a while.

“But… but you’re only twenty-four…?”

Austin shrugged. “I’ve got some other work I need to do.”

The heavyweight champion walked over and helped his fallen opponent to his feet, before exiting the decagon and leaving a stunned crowd in his wake.

He’d just closed the door on a big chapter in our lives. Now it was time to concentrate on the next one.



The corner of the room I’d been sitting in was cloaked in shadows. Gavino didn’t even know I was here. Yet.

He looked somewhat worse for wear. That was to be expected, considering the special attention Austin and Jace had been giving him for the past few weeks.

“You’re looking good, Gavino,” said Austin. “You been trying that paleo diet? You’ve got the jowls of a man twenty years your junior.”

Austin sank a fist into the former boss’ still-considerable gut, forcing all the air out of him along with a groan of pain.

“No more,” he pleaded. “I’ve told you everything I-”

“I don’t know,” said Jace. “On one hand, you’ve been very cooperative. After that first wild goose chase, you learned quick and stabbed pretty much everybody you know in the city in the back, they’re all dead or working with us now by the way, and given up all those stockpiles of cash, drugs, guns, whatever we wanted. I’m especially happy about the information. On the other hand, it sure was a pain in the ass to hunt you down for all those months. I don’t know how you got away from that house in the first place. It’s not even at the top of a hill, so I know you didn’t roll away, motherfucker.”

Jace struck Gavino just below the eye, and his head rocked to the side, dripping blood on his shoulder.

“I’m inclined to just keep on beating you until you’re nothing but a stain on the floor. But Austin here, he wants to let you go.”

“I’m a real nice guy,” said Austin.

I could see Gavino’s head turn from one man to the other and I could almost imagine the incredulous expression through the blood and bruises on his face.

“Please! Let me go! I’ll disappear! You’ll never hear-”

“Shut the fuck up,” said Jace. “We’ve decided we needed to call somebody in for a tie-breaker. It’s somebody you can answer one more question for.”

I stood and checked my gun. The safety was still on, just like Jace had taught me. Leave it on until you’re ready to use it. That time was soon.

Hearing my footsteps, Gavino struggled to crane his neck, but couldn’t get a good view of me. I looked down at the gun in my hands, and at the bump in my stomach, feeling my heart starting to pound.

I was a mother-to-be. I was going to bring life into the world. Could I also bring death?

I held the gun to the back of his head as the two brothers moved to the sides. “Are you shaking in fear?” I asked.