Bounty (36 page)

A
s much as
Amber enjoyed being able to help nurse Joel back to health during the last couple of days, it wasn't how she wanted to spend the rest of her life. There just seemed to be some sort of self-destructive streak in that man that she couldn't seem to figure out how to shut down.

She hated that he had lied to her, but she understood why he'd done it. Or at least, she understood why he felt that 
he
 had to do it, although she still didn't really understand why he felt that way in the first place. To understand that, she would really need to know more about his past.

The last time she had dug into his family life had ended up in a huge fight, but they'd gotten through that. During the last few days, Joel had actually started to open up a little bit about his childhood. Nothing major, but enough that Amber could see he was making an effort to let her in. Nevertheless, she was worried that it wasn't going to be fast enough. There was no telling when the next time would come that he'd self-destruct.

After finding out about his father, she had hoped it would change things. One demon of his past was vanquished, but something else still hung over him. There was still a part of him that wouldn't give himself over to her completely. He still seemed to be waiting for the other shoe to drop. As if he was surprised any time he came home to find Amber still there, waiting happily to greet him. It broke her heart to imagine what could have caused such hurt in the man she was growing to love so much.

So although she knew the potential to completely backfire was high, she still felt like she needed to dig a little bit deeper. She needed to go somewhere that Joel may never forgive if he found out, but if what he'd said about his past was true, he probably would never find out anyway. He'd left all that behind, and it didn't seem like he was ever going to go look for it again.

She picked up the piece of paper that she had written the number on and picked up the phone. She held it in her hands for a few minutes before her shaking fingers started to dial.

"Hello?" came the voice on the other end.

"Is this Mrs. Slater," Amber asked.

"Yes. Who is this?"

"Do you have a son named Joel?"

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. She was about to say something, thinking she may have been disconnected, when she finally heard the other woman answer quietly. "Yes. Is he...?"

"No, oh god no, he's fine," Amber said. She hadn't even thought about what a call like this from a stranger, out of the blue after so many years, might sound like to Joel's mother.

"I'm a friend of his. His girlfriend, actually. I was wondering if I could come and talk to you?"

D
arien drove
them back to the club where he'd first met Carlos, the Golden Dragon Dojo. He had a bad taste in his mouth surrounding the place, still believing them to be a bunch of crooks after they had required him to pay $300 to join just so he could fight in the tournament. That was one membership he never planned to use.

Darien dropped him off at the door. "He's just inside, the door should be open. The club is officially closed right now, but Carlos has special after-hours privileges."

Joel watched as he drove off, wondering if coming here was such a good idea after all. He'd promised both Shawn and Amber that he would behave, and he couldn't afford to break that promise again. But if he was going to meet up with Carlos alone in an empty dojo? There was no telling how that would play out.

The sign on the door said closed, but when he gave it a yank found that it was unlocked, as promised. Inside he was surprised at how different the place looked than it had when he'd last been here. Of course, at that time it had been set up for a tournament, with bleachers and a ring. Those were all gone now, and instead the floor was covered with mats. There was some seating along the side of the room, but there were only fold up chairs. Unlike Rock House, there was no workout equipment in sight. It was a more typical Dojo than MMA training house, which made sense. The tournament he had fought in had been co-sponsored by Tiger Strike. That training camp had their own facility.

The main part of the Dojo was empty, but he heard laughing coming from one of the rooms at the back so he made his way across the mat. There were a few doors along the back wall which looked like they led to offices and change rooms. The men's room had a light on and the door was not closed all the way. The sounds were coming from in there.

"Hello?" he called through the opening. There was laughter coming from inside, both male and female voices. He wasn't sure anyone heard him so he said it again, louder.

"Come in," yelled the male voice. He recognized the accent as Carlos immediately.

Joel wasn't prepared for the sight before him as he stepped through the doorway and turned toward the source of the voices.

Carlos was sitting on a long bench that he'd pulled up next to the lockers and he was leaning on them. His long pony tail was still slicked back, but he was only wearing pants. What surprised Joel, though, was that he wasn't the only one shirtless. There were three women sitting with Joel, all of them only wearing bottoms.

The first girl, a brunette, was in jeans and on his lap. Carlos had his arm around her bare chest, covering only the nipples of her very large breasts.

There was another brunette on the bench leaning against them on their left side who was in a short black skirt. As she saw Joel enter she giggled and put her hand over her smaller breasts, covering both of them completely.

The third girl, a blond, was sitting on a second bench that had been pulled perpendicular to the first. She was facing the other three with her bare back toward Joel. She looked over her shoulder as he came in and smiled.

"Hey ese, it's been a while," Carlos said. He had a little smile on his face, but his attention was clearly split between Joel and the girl on his lap. His hands were moving around her chest as he spoke, and she brought her own hands up to grab his to keep them in place. There were two empty wine bottles on the floor, and double that many beer bottles. A half-filled bottle was on the bench to Carlos' right.

"Carlos," Joel nodded. He still hadn't a clue what the man wanted, although he was fairly sure it wasn't to join him in an orgy.

"I hear you've been talking trash about me at one of those little underground fight clubs," he said. His fingers squeezed the girl on his lap and she let out a little yelp.

"I wouldn't say that," Joel said carefully.

"Darien tells me that you said I was lucky that we didn't get to fight. He said you wanted to kick my ass. What do you think girls? Do you think this little runt could kick my ass?"

The girls all giggled. The brunette on his lap shook her head.

"Maybe we should find out, eh ese? We could go right now, let the girls judge the winner?"

"You're drunk," Joel said. "It would be easier than normal and then you'd have an excuse about why you lost."

Carlos' eyes darkened and his hand flattened against the bench as he launched himself to his feet, throwing the brunette off of his lap, her big breasts bouncing freely for a moment before she covered them up and scampered off to sit on the other side of the bench. The other brunette slid over to sit next to her.

"Even drunk I could take you," he roared, spit flying from his mouth.

"I'm not here to fight you, Carlos," Joel said. "Is that all you wanted to talk about?"

"Darien told me you got your ass handed to you the other night. Your pretty face doesn't look so pretty anymore," he laughed, his earlier anger already dissipated. "I wonder, how did you explain that to Mr. Rock? From what I hear, he has a zero tolerance policy for after-hours fighting. Maybe I should call him and ask him why he made an exception for you?"

This time it was Joel who could feel the temperature in his neck and face start to rise. "Is that your plan to get rid of me? Sabotage my training? You didn't strike me as the type to be scared of a fight."

"Scared? Of you?" Carlos threw his head back in an exaggerated laugh. "Like I said, if you want to fight right now, let's do this." The big Hispanic started to open and close his fists by his sides, as if loosening them up.

It took every ounce of willpower that Joel possessed not to leap forward and knock Carlos in the teeth. "And like I said, I'm not here to fight right now. But I think it's a great idea. It's time we got in the ring."

"Name the time and place," Carlos said. "Do you think your master will even let you off your leash?"

That was the problem. Shawn Rock would be furious if he fought Carlos outside of an official fight, and he'd probably kick him out immediately. But perhaps there was a way he could swing it.

"You let me worry about Rock House. You worry about Tiger Strike and Golden Dragon."

Carlos laughed again. "Neither of them have any rules about what I do outside of training hours," he said. Joel's eyes quickly shifted around the room to the three women he was partying with in the Dojo, the blond winking at him as he met her gaze. 
Clearly
.

"Fine," Joel said, turning on his heel and exiting the way he'd come. "I'll set it up. It's finally time we do this." He left before Carlos could say another word. If he hurried, he could make it back to the club before Shawn left.

A
mber almost drove
through a red light, the honking horn of a passing pickup the only thing pulling her mind back to driving. She was already late, although it wasn't as if there was a set time she needed to be at the club. There were only a few times a year that Rock House allowed spectators in to watch training, ostensibly to entice new sign ups, but on those days it was open the entire day. Still, she had told Joel she would be there in the morning, and it was already almost lunch.

She hadn't expected Linda Slater to call her and want to finally talk, but after a month of only getting bits and pieces out of the woman, she had been reluctant to turn her away. When Amber met her that first time at a coffee shop in Joel's old neighborhood, his mother had been wary. It had been a long time since she had heard anything about her son and although she seemed eager to hear about his life, which seemed strange after what Joel had said about her, she was also very close lipped about the past. Amber figured that after what the family had been through, she had been reluctant to talk to a stranger about it.

But Amber had been relentless, going to visit or calling Linda on the phone at least once or twice a week, always when Joel was training, and slowly she could tell that the older woman was becoming more and more comfortable with her. She certainly never turned Amber away, and asked a lot of questions about Joel. She was very interested in what had happened to him that night that he'd left, how he'd gotten by over the years, and what his feelings were about his mother. Amber didn't think there was a reason to soften the blow in regards to that last issue given how they'd treated Joel, and yet Linda seemed to take the news of his hatred very hard. It was perplexing.

But as much information as she asked of Amber, she was reluctant to give anything back. That is, until this morning when she called Amber's cell phone out of the blue. She said that it was because Joel's birthday was coming up, and that was always a particularly hard time for her. She didn't want to go for another year without seeing him again. Amber told her that meeting him wasn't a good idea, and that was when she decided to open up.

The conversation spun through her head, distracting her from everything else. She needed to just focus on getting to the club and what, if anything, to tell Joel. She hadn't agreed with Linda about seeing him just yet, although the woman was quite adamant. Amber wasn't sure how much longer she could put her off, but she definitely didn't think right before his big fight this weekend was the best time.

She arrived at the club and pulled into the busy parking lot, stopping in the shadow of the towering Rock House sign. She was impressed with the building, it was a lot bigger than she had pictured it.

"Hello," said a friendly looking young woman who was standing at the door to greet her as she walked in. "Are you a friend of someone at the club?" The good looking blond had her hair tied back in a ponytail and wore a tight fitting tank top that showed off her very muscular arms. Amber wondered whether she trained there. Joel had never mentioned any women at the club.

"Um, yes, hi. I'm with Joel. Joel Slater. I'm his girlfriend." She hated that she felt the need to add that last part in, but the blond intimidated her and she wasn't happy that Joel hadn't mentioned that there were girls here. He did spent a 
lot
 of time at this club, after all.

"Great. I think he's over on the mats, doing some sparring. You can just follow behind the ropes to the far end of the facility," she said with a smile, pointing. "Just stay on this side of the ropes so as not to disturb the training, and try to keep any noise to a minimum. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me or anyone on your side of the ropes wearing a Rock House shirt or uniform."

"Okay, thanks," Amber said, returning the smile and heading toward the fighters. The girl seemed very friendly, and Amber felt guilty about her earlier twinge of jealousy.

She had to press through a number of spectators, mainly men, to get to the other end of the club. The size of the place was impressive, and there were fighters everywhere. Some were lifting weights or kicking a heavy bag, others were stretching, and there were even some fighting within the full size rings that she had noticed when she first came in.

The majority, however, were sparring on the mats and all of them wearing similar outfits and headgear. It was impossible to even determine which one was Joel.

"Amber!"

She turned to see Shawn Rock approaching , walking just inside the rope to keep out of the way of the fights.

"Hi Shawn," she said, smiling broadly. She'd always have a soft spot for Shawn Rock after what he'd done for Joel.

"My wife Sarah mentioned you'd just arrived," he said. "Does Joel know you're here yet?"

His wife? Amber let out a little relieved breath. "No, I don't even know which one he is?"

Shawn laughed and turned to scan the fighters behind him. It took him a moment, but then he pointed. "Over there. He's fighting with Blake. He's definitely come a long way in the last couple of months."

"Do you think he's... I mean, the fight this weekend..."

Shawn nodded, still looking out at the men on the floor. "I think he's ready to fight Carlos. Certainly a lot more so than he would have been during that first tournament. And even then it would have been a pretty interesting match to watch.

"You know, when he first approached me with the idea of setting up a match between Rock House and Golden Dragon, I was hesitant. I knew what his initial motivations were. But then he explained how we could turn it into a big event, a rivalry between the two training camps that would drive business to both... well, I'm glad I listened to him." Shawn gestured at all the people standing around.

"Last time we had an open house, we didn't have half these numbers. I think anticipation about this weekend has been very good for the club. I think Joel has a good head for promotion. Anyway, if you'll excuse me." Shawn gave her a quick smile as he returned the way he'd come.

Amber nodded back and then turned to watch Joel spar with the bigger man he was up against. She wasn't so keen on the idea of him matching up with Carlos either when she had first heard the idea. The difference was, she hadn't come around to it much more since then. Carlos seemed like a mean son of a bitch, and every time Joel had to fight anyone she felt sick with tension and worry. The one saving grace was that this time it wasn't a tournament. Joel would only fight once, as would everyone else who fought that night. Less fights meant less chance of injury. 
At least I hope that's what it means.

She saw his opponent, Blake, hit Joel with a right hook and then pounce, taking her boyfriend to the ground. The two rolled around a bit, but then Joel somehow ended up on top with the other man's arm between his legs as he twisted. Blake tapped firmly on Joel's back and then Joel let go. The two men parted and stood up, loosening their helmets.

As their heads became visible she saw them talking to each other. Blake didn't have a very happy look on his face, but she did see him give what looked like a begrudging nod to Joel as he turned and walked away. Joel turned as well, and she waved to get his attention. He waved back and started to make his way toward her.

Despite the fear she felt any time he stepped up to another opponent, Amber couldn't deny the other feeling she had. There was definitely something thrilling in seeing her man take down someone else, especially when his opponent was bigger and stronger looking. She almost felt ashamed, but she had to admit that it turned her on just a little bit. If he did end up pounding the hell out of that asshole Carlos, he might have another wrestling match to look forward to that night.

Joel looked at her funny as he approached, so she did her best to stifle the silly grin she felt starting to grow across her face.