Meant for Me (A Second Chance standalone) by L.P. Dover Page B

arm around my waist and took the
bottle of water in the other. “Of course, it’s getting late anyway. We need to
get some sleep before tomorrow.”
    “Why is that?” I asked, furrowing my brows.
    “Because you both are coming to the gym tomorrow,” Tyler
interrupted. He strolled up beside Jake with a huge grin on his face and
pointed to Mason. “Your boyfriend here is going to spar with me. Maybe he can
teach me some things, or better yet, maybe he’ll learn something from me.” He
bent down closer to me and whispered a little too loud, “I think he
underestimates my talents.”
    Mason snorted and rolled his eyes, but then Jake cut in and
asked Mason, “So you’re a fighter? Claire never mentioned that to me.”
    “That’s because it was a few years ago,” Mason pointed out.
    Pursing his lip, Jake glanced at the cage and then back to
Mason with a gleam in his eye. “Would you ever consider getting back into it?
Even though you don’t fight anymore it’s obvious that you still work your body
for it. I’ve already gotten Claire to agree to dance for us this coming
weekend, so …”
    Turning to me, Mason lifted a brow and grinned. “So I’m
finally going to get to see you dance, huh?”
    “It appears so,” I breathed. “It’s been a while so hopefully
I won’t fall flat on my face.”
    “Not possible,” Jake stated warmly.
    Seeing his kind eyes as he gazed at me made me doubt
everything. I never felt like I had to watch my back with him, but if he was a
part of what’s been happening then I was in just as deep as Mason … if not more
because Jake was like family.
    “So, Mason, are you in for Friday night? You can fight Ty.
He’s on the list of fighters for that night,” Jake announced. Tyler winked at
me before lifting a questioning brow to Mason, waiting on his answer.
    Mason groaned and blew out a heavy sigh. “Okay, fine, I’m
in. Friday night it is then.”
    Jake smiled triumphantly. “Great, well then I will put you
down.” He kissed me on the cheek and squeezed my arm gently. “You two have a
good night. I’ll see you again on Friday.”
    Mason and I said our quick good-byes, but they weren’t quick
enough for me. I needed air, and I needed it bad.
     

     
    As soon as we got back into our suite, I couldn’t keep
silent any longer. “Do you think Jake is the one responsible for all of this?”
I blurted out. “When I walked into the room and saw the arena I about lost it.”
    Sighing, Mason shrugged his shoulders and sat down on the
bed to take off his boots. “Claire, I don’t know anything yet. Tyler told me
that every Friday night they have fights, and they fight by the sanctioned
rules. They even have it available to watch on pay per view. Whatever happened
to the fighters it didn’t happen at the club.”
    I sat on the bed beside him and kicked off my heels. “What
makes you so sure of that?” I asked, laying my head on his shoulder.
    “Well, for starters, the bodies weren’t found anywhere near
the club. In fact, they were found across town. Also, with the time of deaths
and when their bodies were discovered they would have been killed late on the
Saturday nights. So if the club only has open fights on Fridays and not
Saturdays then we’re looking at a different location. If Jake is at the club
every Saturday night then either he’s doing that for an alibi or we’re looking
at someone completely different. Jake must have been the club owner who the
Chief of Police stopped investigating.”
    Quickly, I lifted my head off his shoulders. “Wait, what?
What do you mean? Jake was investigated?”
    “Before we came to Vegas, Ryan Griffin, who’s the Chief of
Police out here, said they investigated a club owner who had ties in the
fighting community, but everything about him was legit. I’ll give him a call in
the morning and get the details. I’m surprised that information wasn’t in the
file. I guess they ruled him out completely and didn’t feel it was