Free The Silencer: A Bad Boy MMA Romance by Aubrey Michelle

Christ, Jason. Just go out there and fight your fight. You’re going to be fine. I’ll get with you tomorrow to go over the specifics.”
     
    Just like that, I had the fight that I needed. Someone to have a warm-up fight with that had a similar fighting style to what I was about to go up against.
     

Shelly
     
     
     
     
    I don’t remember Detroit looking like this.
     
    I remember riding through with my daddy on Saturdays when he would go to the Chrysler plant where he worked to pick up his paycheck.
     
    I was always in awe of that factory. It was so big and when we pulled into the parking lot, I felt like I was entering another world. There were so many new and flashy cars parked throughout the lot, as discounts on vehicles were a big perk for everyone who worked there. Whenever I would bring up the idea of us getting a new car, my dad would scoff at it.
     
    “What do we need a new car for? What’s wrong with the one we have?”
     
    “Nothing daddy, but look at how nice all these cars are.”
     
    “I know they’re nice, sweetie, I build them. Even though this place provides me with a good living, I would rather save my money for important things rather than throw it away on a new car when the one we have drives perfectly fine. When this one starts giving us problems, then we’ll look into new ones. It’s important to be smart with your money because you never know what might come up.”
     
    Since that day, I took the conversation my daddy and I had to heart. Because of him, I save as much of my money as I can. As much as I would love to buy a new car every couple of years, I remember the words he told me and put any extra money I have into savings.
     
    Detroit had changed so much since then. It had even changed a lot in the last five years, which was the last time I drove up for a hockey game. When going to Joe Louis, you don’t see all of Detroit. You just see the highway and the little bit of downtown around the stadium, which the city takes great pride in looking nice.
     
    I certainly wasn’t downtown as I drove to Jason’s apartment. There were more abandoned and boarded up buildings than there were houses that actually had people living in them. The streets were filled with homeless people, and my heart ache for them.
     
    Pulling up outside of his apartment, I noticed the neighborhood may have been even sketchier than the ones I drove through. There were a couple of thugs hanging out by the entrance to the building that were glaring at me as I sat in my car. I didn’t feel safe passing them to get into the building so I called Jason.
     
    “Hey, there are a couple of questionable looking guys hanging out by the front door. Would you mind coming out and getting me?”
     
    “Oh, those are just our friendly neighborhood drug dealers,” he laughed. “I’ll be right out.”
     
    He showed up outside my car door within seconds, ready to whisk me away to his apartment. I got a good look at the two guys as I passed them, you know, just in case.
     
    We got inside safely, even though I wasn’t particularly fond of the looks the men at the door were giving me. I hoped they wouldn’t be here when I left but I had already decided that I was going to have Jason walk me back to my car at the end of the night.
     
    Even though I was already there, he seemed hesitant to let me into his apartment. Looking around, I could see why he might not have wanted me to come over. I took a seat on his couch as I looked around. He wasn’t much for decorating, that was for sure.
     
    “Would you like something to drink?” he asked.
     
    “What do you have?”
     
    “Well,” he said, opening his fridge to survey what was inside. “I can pretty much offer you a beer or water. I don’t recommend the water, though. It tastes like lead. I think the pipes are a couple of hundred years old or something,” he half-heartedly teased.
     
    “I'm all right then,” I said, definitely not wanting to test his water