Power Play: Upper East Side (Greisbach Academy #2) Read online

  “Show?” I crinkled my nose up at Damien. “What in the hell?”

  “Maybe he’s a stripper?” Damien joked, or at least I think he was joking, it was hard to tell sometimes with him.

  I wasn’t sure if I could see Jaxson as a stripper. He certainly had the body for it, but he certainly didn’t need the money and despite being the undisputed king of the school, he wasn’t what I’d call the exhibitionist type. He very much liked to keep to himself. The thought of him on stage shaking his ass for women to put dollars in his G-string seemed ludicrous and made me laugh.

  “Wouldn’t mind to see that show.”

  “Damien!” I gave him a swat on the shoulder, shaking my head.

  “What? I can look.”

  “I’m sure he’s not a stripper.” Walking into the club, at first, you’d have thought it to be a regular dance club, because the first part was indeed a dance club. As we walked deeper, we noticed a second door with a bouncer. So far there was no sign of Jaxson.

  “He might have a side chick.”

  “He does not have a side chick.” I really hoped that wasn’t the case; I’d be crushed if he did.

  We searched for a solid ten minutes and there wasn’t a hint of Jaxson. Looking over at the door, which people were slowly filing in through, I determined that was where he had to be. “We need to get inside there.” I pointed to the door.

  “You got more cash on you?”

  I gave him a side hug. “I come from the trailer park; of course I keep cash on me.”

  He frowned, confused. “Why would that matter?”

  Laughing, I shook my head. “It’s a stupid joke. I’m sorry. Forget it.” Leading him to the door, I smiled at the bouncer. “We’d like to get in.”

  He nodded and put out his hand. Looking down at his hand, I smiled a little wider, flipping my hair over my shoulder. “I’m sorry I’ve totally forgotten how much for the two of us.”

  “One hundred…. Each.”

  One hundred each! Ouch! “Of course.” Digging into my purse, I pulled out my wallet and produced a couple of crisp hundred-dollar bills.

  He nodded and opened the door ushering us in. “The betting booth is to your direct right.”

  Betting booth? I turned to Damien and we exchanged confused looks as we entered. The first thing I noticed was the ring in the center of the room with benches set up on all four sides. The benches were all full. All that was left was standing room.

  “Oh you gotta me effing kidding me.”

  “What?” Damien asked.

  “Don’t you get it? The bruises, the fractured rib…. Jaxson is fighting.” My stomach did a little flip flop. “He hasn’t even fully healed from the fractured rib! What is he thinking?”

  “Maybe he needs the cash? Maybe his folks aren’t as rich as they let on anymore?”

  Considering the amount of money his mother just made as a commission on the sale of our house to us, I highly doubted that was the case. “Or he’s some sort of adrenaline junkie…” The idea made me sick. What if he got hit in the ribs again? He could puncture a lung! Was he insane!

  “One way to find out.” Taking my hand, Damien led to the booth. When we approached the woman behind the bars, pointed the board behind her. “Those are the fights for the night. Five fights in the card.”

  I scanned the list and sure enough, Jaxson was scheduled to fight some guy named Adam Capello on the fourth fight of the night. He was classified as the underdog.

  “So, what’s your bet?” On a whim, I grabbed my wallet from my purse and pulled out three hundred dollars. “Three hundred on Jaxon.”

  “Sure.” She printed up the ticket and passed it to me, taking the money in return. “Good luck.”

  “Thanks.” I looked down at the ticket and then back at Damien. “I don’t even know what to think right now.”

  “Well at least he’s not giving lap dances for twenties,” Damien joked.

  I groaned inwardly. “Yeah.” We found a spot to stand at the back of the room just in time to see the first fight.

  We quickly discovered that it was an MMA fight competition. And the participants were brutal with each other. Blood, broken bones…. It was insanity.

  “For the fourth fight on the card we have the challenger, Jaxson Weiss!” the announcer proclaimed, his voice booming over the speakers.

  The curtains drew back and there he stood, bare-chested with a pair of tight-fitting silver boxers. He hesitated a minute before jogging to the stage and hopping on.

  “My God!” I gasped my hand going to my mouth. “He’s really doing it!”

  Chapter 7

  Jaxson’s opponent, the current champion of the club, was announced and came rocketing down the aisle and up and into the ring. Considering Jaxson was six-foot-four it would be hard for the opponent to be taller. Standing near Jaxson he looked to be about six foot. He had a thicker build than Jaxson, but Jaxson seemed quicker and more agile.

  Taking Damien’s hand, I chewed at my lip as the two in the ring bumped gloves and began to dance. I didn’t want to watch and found myself constantly going back and forth from watching the action to looking away. My anxiety increased with every blow Jaxson took.

  But Jaxson seemed to be holding his own against his opponent. Just when I thought he might be ending it without getting too beat up, the champion hit Jaxson with an uppercut that sent him flying backward, blood spewing from Jaxson’s mouth.

  “Ohmygod!” I starting to run to the ring, only to have Damien grab my arm and pull me back, holding me tight to his chest.

  “Calm down. He doesn’t need you distracting him,” Damien barked at me, refusing to let me turn and look at the ring again. Damien’s tone threw me off—he was never this forceful with me—distracting me momentarily from the fight.

  Looking back to the fight, I was relieved to see that Jaxson was back on his feet and once again exchanging blows with Adam. The crowd around us was going wild. The more blood that seemed to flow, the more chaotic the audience got. By the final round the crowd was in a frenzy.

  Toward the middle of the final round, Jaxson managed to get the upper hand, wearing his competitor down and beginning to own him. My fear for Jaxson evaporated and I became one of the frenzied fans, screaming with excitement, no longer scared I’d interfere with the fight. Damien released me.

  That was a mistake.

  The moment Damien released me, Jaxson took a blow to the ribs, just where he’d previously fractured a rib. I could see the pain in his eyes and expression as he stepped back, gasping.

  I momentarily lost my mind! With an ear piercing scream I tore off in the direction of the ring. “Jaxson!”

  Hearing me, Jaxson’s head turned and his gaze locked onto mine, his expression turning from pain to confusion.

  And that’s when the fight ended. He was distracted long enough that it gave an opening for his opponent to finish him off with a roundhouse kick to the skull. Next thing I knew Damien was grabbing me just before I reached the ring and the announcer was announcing a knockout win by reigning champion, Adam Capello.

  “Ohmygod!” I fought against Damien’s hold, desperate to get to my man. “Let me go, Damien!”

  “No. Absolutely not.” Damien, being much stronger than me, pulled me away from the ring, his arms pinning mine to my sides as he walked be backward. “He’s fine.”

  “He’s not fine!” I screeched. My heart was thudding so hard in my chest I feared I was going to pass out myself. “Let me go!”

  “If you don’t calm your woman down, then you’re both out of here,” I heard someone say. Looking toward the sound of the voice, I set eyes on a massive man, with the word SECURITY written across his chest.

  “I’m sorry.” I forced myself to calm down. The only thing worse than not getting to Jaxson was being kicked out of here before I knew he was okay.

  “Can I let you go without you doing something stupid?” My eyes went back to the ring. Jaxson had regained consciousness and was slowly get
ting up, but his gaze was burning into me.

  Uh-oh. The look he had on his face when he looked at me wasn’t that of happiness, but rage. For an instant I wondered if there was a place to run and hide.

  Jaxson rolled under the ropes and leapt from the ring, storming down the aisle toward me and Damien. He winced slightly with each step, but the pain didn’t seem to be slowing him down, let alone stopping him.

  “Oh, I don’t think he’s happy to see me.” The fear I’d been feeling seeing him fight wasn’t nearly as strong as the fear I was feeling right now.

  “You lost him the fight, I don’t imagine he is,” Damien replied.

  When he reached us, he was panting heavily, his dark eyes ravaged. Well, one dark eye; the other was starting to already swell and turn a nasty shade of purple. “What in the fuck are you doing here, Keira?”

  “I…. Umm.” I shifted nervously from foot to foot. I’d never seen him so angry and it killed me that the anger was directed at me.

  “I’m so sorry. I just…”

  “I want you to leave. Now. I’ll talk to you when I’ve calmed down,” he growled, sending genuine fear through me.

  “Jaxson, please.” I stepped forward, despite my fear, and reached out to touch his arm. “I’m sorry. I just—”

  He recoiled and stepped back. Looking over at Damien, he added, “Take her home. She’s not welcome here. Neither of you are.”

  “Come on.” Damien attempted to pull me away from Jaxson, but I dug my heels in, “Wait.”

  Looking over at the security guard, Jaxson said, “Get her out of here.”

  “No problem.” The security guard stepped forward, bent and tossed me over his shoulder as if I were a ragdoll.

  “Put me down!” I attempted to scramble from his shoulder, but his hold on me was firm. Brushing my hair out of my eyes, I looked up to see Damien trailing behind us, his head bowed, and Jaxson staring at me. The rage hadn’t faded from his eyes.

  Shit.

  I tried to ignore the fact that people were staring at me as I was being carried through the club, but it was hard. The security guard didn’t set me back down until we were in the cold night air. When he did set me down it was as if I was a sack of potatoes, making me stumble backward and right onto my ass.

  “Ouch! How dare you!”

  The security guard didn’t even blink an eye as he grunted, turned and disappeared back into the club, slamming the door behind him.

  “Well, that was embarrassing. And you may or may not have a boyfriend after this.” Damien offered me his hand. Frowning, he pulled me up and onto my feet.

  I grimaced, rubbing my fanny. “What was that? How dare they! I could buy that entire place like this!” I snapped my fingers and glared at the open doorway. “Maybe I will!”

  “Or…” Damien placed a hand around my shoulders, steering me away from the club, “Or we can walk away before you kill me the rest of the way with embarrassment, how ’bout we try that instead?”

  With a sigh, I began walking with no real direction in mind. “He hates me, doesn’t he?”

  “Girl, I don’t know what he’s thinking right now. I don’t think he’s happy with you. He lost the fight because of you. That’s the harsh reality.”

  Tears formed in my eyes. “I didn’t mean to screw that up for him. I just…” I was at a loss for words. I’d been stupid, that was a fact.

  “How about this?” Grabbing his phone from the inner pocket of his jacket he ordered us an Uber. “We get back to Manhattan, call Olivia and Gabriel and get some drinks. After some drinks and with a clear head, maybe we can sort this out.”

  “Yes, maybe.” I sniffed. My nose was running and of course, I had no tissue so had to use my jacket sleeve. Disgusting.

  “I have a handkerchief.”

  I grimaced. “You weren’t supposed to see that.”

  “It wasn’t the worst thing I’d seen today. I’m texting them now, they said they’d meet us at Moon Palace.”

  “How much longer before the Uber gets here? I need to get out of here ASAP.”

  Damien smiled. “No doubt.”

  “Not helping. You’re supposed to be my friend and cheering me up right now.” Despite my words he was cheering me up a little bit. His sense of humor was brutally honest, but at the same time it put me at ease.

  Grabbing my phone from my purse, I looked down at the display, hoping to have something from Jaxson; there was nothing.

  “Stop, right now.” Snatching my phone from my fingertips, Damien turned it off.

  “Wait, give it back!” I lunged for the phone, but Damien was quicker, shoving the phone down the front of his pants. “You want to get it now?”

  My eyes traveled to the front of his jeans, which now had a rectangular bulge, then quickly back up again. “I can’t believe you just did that. My phone is resting on your sweaty ball sack.” I was suspended between being furious and buckling over with laughter.

  “You’ll thank me in the morning.”

  “I’m going to need to get yet another new phone in the morning after it spends the night soaking in your man juices.”

  “Honey, you’d be lucky to get my man juices.”

  Laughter won over. “Okay. I’m done. I can’t even talk to you right now.”

  The Uber pulled up to the curb beside us. The passenger-side window lowered and the driver leaned over. “You two call the Uber?”

  “Yup.” Stepping past me, Damien opened the back door to the car and let me into the back seat before him. Closing the door behind us. Damien rattled off the address of the club as I looked out the side window, my mind swirling with a mix of emotions.

  I didn’t have much to say on the drive back to Manhattan. I just didn’t know how to fix it. Sure, he was still angry and I could understand why. I’d followed him and then made him lose the fight. I’m sure getting knocked out wasn’t a fun experience.

  But on the other hand, it was kind of a big deal what he was keeping from me. If he’d just told me the truth…but then it was true that I’d have lost my mind with worry. Though if he trusted me then he would have told me regardless. He said he loved me, but love meant trust—didn’t it?

  “What is going on in that pretty little mind of yours?” Damien asked.

  “I was just wondering why he didn’t tell me.”

  “I’m sure he had his reasons. I doubt what he does is public knowledge.”

  “Do you think he’ll ever forgive me?”

  “Honey, you’d know better than I would. He did say he’d talk to you later.”

  “Just before he kicked me out.” I slumped in the seat with a sigh, my lower lip jutting out in a pout.

  “Here we are,” the driver announced as we pulled up to a club that had a decent-sized line.

  I groaned. “It has a line, I’m not sure if I want to wait.”

  Damien gave me a pat on the knee. “You won’t have to. My parents own this club. We get VIP access.” Opening the door, he slid out first with me following behind.

  “No shit.” I looked at the club, which had three-stories, with a newfound appreciation.

  “I shit you not.” He placed a hand over my shoulder and led me to the front of the line. As soon as the doormen spotted Damien they unlatched the rope and ushered us in.

  “Damien, good to see you man,” one of the doormen said, giving him a fist bump. “It’s busy tonight, but your booth is open.”

  “Better be.”

  Wow, I’d never seen Damien so self-assured as he led me in and through the sea of bodies. Techno music blasted on the first floor and strobe lights went off on the packed dance floor. Very cool. I’d never been to a real dance club before. Never needed to. There were always house parties if I were ever inclined, which on most occasions, I wasn’t.

  “Can I have my phone back now?”

  “Nope. Not a chance. All you’re going to do is spend the night obsessing over Jaxson and trying not to text him. I’m taking the temptation from you. He’ll get
hold of you when he’s ready. Besides, I thought you didn’t want a phone with all my man juices anyhow?”

  Chapter 8

  Jaxson

  What in the hell happened?

  I had been winning, about to take that pompous asshole down and then I heard her.

  Who could blame me for turning to see if it was indeed Keira? I sure as hell wasn’t expecting it. People were shouting and screaming around me and normally it was easy to drown them out, but her voice was eternally etched in my mind so when she shouted my name it was an instant distraction.

  That’s when he got me. I barely felt the impact before the world went black around me. I couldn’t have been out for long because when I came to, my opponent was still basking in the cheers of his victory over me.

  Son of a bitch! Rage flared up within me. Part of the rage was directed at my opponent, but the other part was directed at Keira. Why in the hell was she here? How did she find me?

  There were a lot of questions I wanted answers to but couldn’t form them properly in my mind with the anger swirling inside of me. Rolling under the ropes, I charged toward her and Damien.

  “What in the fuck are you doing here, Keira?” I demanded as I approached her.

  “I… Umm.”

  She looked like a deer in the headlights as I approached her, demanding to know why she was there. Unfortunately, seeing her fearful reaction reminded me why I’d lost focus in the first place, and only increased my anger. I had to get her out of there before it got the better of me. The adrenaline from the fight was still running through me, after all, and I was jumpy as hell.

  When she touched my arm, I nearly lost it. Taking a step back and out of her reach, I knew I couldn’t reason with her. She was too stubborn and would persist until I said something I didn’t mean. In desperation I turned on Damien, hoping that he’d better understand my mood and get her the hell out of there.

  “I’m so sorry. I just…” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper.

  I needed to calm myself and seeing her before me was only increasing my anger. “I want you to leave. Now! I’ll talk to you when I’ve calmed down.”