Free Impact (The Fight for Life #2) by K.A. Sterritt Page A

myself at that point, but I ran my own race and made my own decisions.
    The bell rang for the second-to-last round. I blocked out everyone and everything other than the other player in my game. He was about to go down, and I relished the shot of adrenaline that would take away the pain.
    The knockout was all about the timing. I needed to focus everything I had on one powerful, he-can’t-come-back-from-this blow. I let him do his little dance a while longer. Then I drew him towards me by lowering my gloves for a split second. He would see it as a sign of fatigue and get himself ready for the kill. He was pumped up on ego and I was about to capitalise.
    The next ten seconds happened in slow motion. With adrenaline coursing through my veins, I recoiled my arm, sending every cell of my body into high alert. I slammed my fist into him with all the force I could muster then closed my eyes briefly from pure exhaustion, relieved this nightmare was over.
    Regaining my composure, I looked out into the crowd. Get ready for disappointment , I thought to myself. My eyes found Juliette’s and her expression wasn’t what I was expecting. She looked nervous and had her hands over her face.
    I felt the impact, my knees hit the canvas and then my world went black for a split second. I was on all fours and the referee had started the countdown. Fuck! I pushed off my gloves and struggled to my feet.
    Suddenly, I could hear Nick’s angry voice above the crowd’s roar, and I made a quick sweep of the ring in complete disbelief. My arrogance had definitely cost me the round. If Lucas’s hit had been cleaner, he could’ve knocked me out. I glanced at Nick and he gave me the death stare that said, Pull your head in, you fucking idiot .
    “What the fuck was that?” Nick seethed as he removed my mouthguard at the end of the round.
    “I needed to take him down.” My nonchalant reply enraged him and his face went from flushed to beetroot in seconds.
    “A blind man could see you didn’t have the strength to take him out, you arrogant son of a bitch.”
    “Interesting choice of words,” I snapped.
    Nick just shook his head as I took a seat on the stool in the corner, a towel wrapped around my neck.
    “I’ve got this.”
    “Don’t be so sure. You are not the clear winner and there are two local judges to one interstate.”
    Lucas was bouncing on the spot with his gloves in front of his face, clearly enjoying the moment in the sun. Rage coursed through me and I wanted to flatten him.
    “Stay back.” Nick’s instruction was said with such blatant venom, I reigned myself in.
    Lucas tried to get more blows in and I managed to hold him off and get a few in of my own. I was fighting for my life, and I could still win. One setback would hand the win to Lucas. I dug deeper than ever before and gave that little fucker the very best of me.
    When the final bell rang, the crowd went wild. Granted, it wasn’t clear cut, but I was confident I’d still done enough to take the win.
    Much to my horror, Lucas was declared the winner on a split decision two points to one.
    Check mate.
    When we returned to the change rooms, I paced in front of my locker. “Pete’s a fucking snake.”
    Nick stood in the middle of the room with his arms crossed over his chest. “Pull your head in. It was close, and yes, you probably should’ve won, but the result wasn’t unfair. If you’d listened to me, I could’ve gotten you the knockout at the right time. Lucas was tiring quickly. He was getting sloppy, but he was still okay when you went rogue.”
    I felt the ugly pang of shame.
    “You scared me, Leo.” Juliette pushed her palms against my chest when she was let into my private change room. “You told me not to worry, then you go and nearly get knocked out.” She was trying so hard to be nice to me and it just pissed me off. Reality started to inject itself back into my brain as I tried to process. I had been in a fight I was supposed to win. But I hadn’t