Free Fighter Daddy: A Bad Boy Secret Baby MMA Sports Romance by Marci Fawn

this nightmare has a positive ending, I might be able to laugh about it someday. My choice in men is truly magnificent.
    I didn't feel like eating all day, so I'm hungry now. The fridge yields the same unsurprising results as the rest of the apartment. Most of the stuff is meant to be microwaved, half the shelves are taken up by beer, and I don't see a single veggie. Sighing, I pick a slice of pizza. At least it will fill my stomach. Somehow I don't feel as though this is a day to complain about healthy eating options.
    I eat in silence, growing more anxious by the minute. Lee should be back. I don't dare call him out of fear that I might give up his position or something. He's not helpless, he proved that, but how long does it take to shake a car?
    Listen to me here, stuffing my face with pizza and judging my bodyguard for not being quick enough with my rescue.
    When the phone rings, I nearly jump out of my skin. I hope it's Lee, fear it's Ricky, but it's Ed.
    Oh yeah, right. He must have seen us drive away in his car. Boy, he's going to be so pissed. I wonder if I still have a job after all this. Ed really is the best boss, the shit he's putting up with...
    "Hey Ed, I'm sorry, we really didn't mean to take your car. I told him—"
    " Raina ."
    Ricky's voice freezes the blood in my veins, banishing any sense of safety from my mind. I try to speak, but my throat is closed up. I want to ask him how he has Ed's phone, but the answer is pretty clear. I don't want to think about it, but my treacherous mind provides me with a horrifying range of images.
    " Where are you ?"
    He asks calmly, but I hear the change as compared to last night. I'm pushing his buttons. I'm pissing Ricky Gerrard off and I can't do anything about it.
    I can't answer him, no way, but Ed...
    "What have you done to Ed?" I manage to ask, my voice so broken and terrified I can't bear to listen to it.
    " I've asked him to join me in the club ."
    The club, fuck . Ricky owns many businesses, with various degrees of legality. The place where he usually hangs out is a nightclub imaginatively named Ricky's. That's his cover that no one in Boston buys, other than me of course. Officially he's Ricky Gerrard, owner of his own nightclub and a businessman. Ricky'sis his base, the central point from where he controls his entire empire. When we went out, I got to visit the place often, always at his VIP table.
    The moment I realized I had to leave was when I discovered what certain rooms on the floor underneath the club were for. They're soundproof, masked even more by the club upstairs. They're Ricky's interrogating rooms and other things I don't even want to know about.
    Now he has Ed. I can't even guess what he'll do to him. I only know that when it comes to torture, Ricky has a much better imagination than I do.
    "Don't hurt him," I plead, knowing it's futile.
    There is no reasoning with Ricky. I should have known better. He laughs into the phone, but what used to sound deep and sensual to me now merely sounds hollow.
    " You've left me with no other choice ," he says. " This is your doing, Raina. I tried to be reasonable and let you make up your behavior to me, but it seems you insist on being stubborn. "
    His words make me sick, but I can't say a single thing in my defense that wouldn't get Ed killed for it. I wonder if he's even still alive.
    "What do you want?" I ask, trying to sound braver than I am.
    " You, of course ."
    You know, there used to be a time when I believed that. God, I'm such an idiot.
    "I don't believe you. You don't need me. You don't really even want me. Let him go."
    It's amazing how Ricky's voice doesn't change even when he loses his patience. As calmly and as coldly as before, he says:
    " This is how it's going to be. You get here from whatever hole you've crawled into, knowing that for every five minutes you take, I'm going to make a cut on him. A human being is a wonderfully tough object to break, but we both know I'm not working with the