Free Fierce by Kathryn Thomas Page A

the idea immediately, but there was one problem. “It’s a men-only gym. Everyone knows it. Won’t this be, you know, bad for business? Won’t they all mutiny? They threatened to the other day over Ross. What do you think they’ll do over Rose ?”
     
    “Ah, but it’s still a men-only gym. You won’t be a member. You’re an employee, an administrator. They’ll just think of you as a receptionist who also helps around the gym a little bit.”
     
    “Okay, cool. But why do all this for me?”
     
    “Good question,” said Luca. “Let’s just say we want to give you a chance. You’re where we were a decade ago, before we started up our first fight club. The only thing we had going for us was that dream of making our mark; we just needed someone to give us a shot. When that happened, we gave it everything we had and, luckily, hit big.” He paused, looking away. They both did. “But we lost somebody because of it. Somebody we owe everything to. And she’d want us to give you this shot. Right, bro?”
     
    Avery didn’t answer right away. He gazed into Rose’s eyes, perhaps trying to see something in her that reminded him of this mystery girl they’d lost along the way. It melted her a little, seeing him this open, this exposed. She could almost picture the teenage boy of a decade ago, all macho and foul-mouthed and secretly in love with a girl he’d never admit it to but would die to protect. It made sense now, why he’d gone out of his way to be so understanding last night, and why he wanted to keep her around.
     
    They were giving her this second chance, but maybe, in some sweet but twisted way, she was their second shot.
     
    By helping me, are they atoning for something? That was what her intuition told her, and it could be dead wrong. But it was something to hold onto. She’d never played a damsel in distress before.
     
    Frankly, she didn’t have the wardrobe for it.
     
    “Bro?” Luca woke Avery from his daydream. “You okay?”
     
    “Mm? Yeah, yeah. I was just thinking…”
     
    “Penny for your thoughts,” said Rose.
     
    “I was thinking…about taking shots.” He turned to his brother. “I reckon maybe it’s time you got me another fight.”
     
    Luca’s face lit up with surprise. “For real?”
     
    “Yeah. That run today nearly killed me, but I kept looking round, and there she was. She didn’t give an inch. She kept coming no matter what it took. That’s what I’ve been missing.” Then, addressing Rose, he said, “Okay, if you still want to learn MMA, and you don’t mind several more months’ worth of today, I’ll train you. I’ll get you in fighting shape. Where you go from there is up to you.”
     
    She fidgeted in her seat and went to bite her nails but checked herself again. With nothing to do and nowhere to go, she just sat there, looking for an angle she’d missed, some ulterior motive for why these two men were being so nice to her for no good reason. In her experience, it didn’t compute. However, she kept going back to the mystery girl who’d helped set them on their path, and maybe there was something real in that…
     
    Maybe they just wanted to help change her life for the better. Like someone had done for them. And maybe that was all there was to it.
     
    The thorn pricks behind her eyes seemed to hold the tears at bay, but she did feel like crying. Not now, but definitely later, in her room, when the lights went out.
     
    “Thanks a lot,” she said.
     
    “Don’t thank me yet. I’ve never fought a girl before,” Avery replied with a wink.
     
    “Don’t worry…”—in Rose’s mind, the image of him pinning her on the mat after a sweaty training session was reason enough to say yes—“…I’ll take it easy on you,” she said.
     
    They all agreed she should have the next day off for a little R&R, but Rose hated her apartment; it was a tiny, decaying hole in a rundown wart of a building on the armpit neighborhood of Mitre. She slept