Undefeated - A New Adult Romance Novel Read Online Free Page B

people that act in a manner contrary to what I believe to be moral. Line every one of them up – every one of them that abuses a woman, child, or the elderly, and I’ll beat them senseless one person at a time.
    “So, what did you decide? Did you buy them?” Mike asked.
    “No. I’m going to wait until the price goes down to something more affordable,” I answered as I set my sandwich back onto the plate.
    I wiped the mayonnaise from my mouth with my napkin and looked down at my boots.
    “Dude, those fuckers are raggedy. Shit, I can see your socks through the bottom of the sole,” he laughed.
    “Yeah, but a hundred thirty bucks is a hundred thirty bucks,” I shrugged my shoulders as I picked the sandwich up.
    “You’re one weird motherfucker, Dekkar. One weird motherfucker,” he shook his head and laughed.
    Mike was my first fight when I arrived in Austin t wo years ago. Even though I knocked him out for the first time in his career, we had become the best of friends, and never discussed that particular fight with others. I had no desire to be disrespectful to him or to his talent as a boxer.
    Any man, on any given day, can be beat en by any other man. When the time comes, I will be beaten. Until then, I will remain grateful for my successes.
    “Why you go and say that, Ripp?” I mumbled, my mouth half full of sandwich.
    “Well there are maybe a handful of people here that know you, because you’re a fucking hermit. But I do, remember? Your father, no disrespect, died in Afghanistan. Your grandfather died two years ago – right before you came here. You inherited everything from both of them. I don’t have any idea how much it was, but your father was a year from retirement. Your grandfather was retired. I’m just going to guess you have a hundred and thirty bucks for a new pair of boots,” he said over the top of his beer bottle as he drank what was left in the bottom.
    “Well, but I hate to pay a hundred thirty if they’re gonna go on sale for a hundred - or maybe ninety. Shit, that’d buy me a lot of turkey sandwiches,” I responded, smiling.
    “I’ll have one more Ultra,” Mike said to the waitress as he held his index finger in the air.
    “You need anything, Dekkar?” he asked, tilting his head back slightly.
    “Water, please. Thank you, ma’am,” I responded.
    From the perspective of an outsider, Mike looked rather intimidating. He was a little taller than six feet, and weighed two hundred ten pounds. His head was shaved and he had tattoos on his upper arms, back and chest. His body was constructed entirely of muscle. Maintaining a perfect body and having an actual life outside of training is almost impossible. Some fighters have flab or fat on certain places. Mike wasn’t one of those fighters. He trained and he trained hard. It was one reason we had become such close friends. He had my level of desire to maintain a healthy body and mind.
    “Water , please. Thank you, ma’am ,” Mike joked as the waitress walked away.
    “You’re so fucking proper and polite to women - a nd men - as long as they’re old men. But you clench your jaw and look like a mean prick to everyone else. You crack me up, dude,” he shook his head.
    “Well, you look like a mean prick all the time ,” I smiled as I picked up the pickle from my plate.
    Mike smiled an exaggerated smile, exposing his single gold tooth.
    “That tooth is ridiculous. I’ll never understand that,” I said as I slid my plate to the side of the table.
    “I told you already,” he responded, still smiling.
    “Yeah, I know. But it’s horrid. Who wants to draw attention to the fact that they lost a tooth?” I pulled my hood over my head.
    “Well, I have a gold tooth, and you wear a fucking black hoodie everywhere you go. And in Austin, Texas of all places. So, tell me more about this girl,” he said as he picked at his teeth with a toothpick.
    “There’s nothing more to tell. I think she was a receptionist. I saw her sitting