Kicker (DS Fight Club Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

Tiggyman.”
    “Hmph.”
    “Man, what is up with you tonight? You knocked your opponent out less than two minutes into the fight, you got Fight of the Night, and I bet you get Move of the Night, too, for that matter. And you’ve got ring girls eyeing you like potato chips and ice cream at high tide.”
    “Jesus, Dig, and you say I don’t have a filter. Good Lord.”
    Dig frowned. “What’d I say?”
    “Ugh. Never mind.”
    Tig closed his eyes and rolled his neck, making it crack with a satisfying pop.
    “Oh, man, you do need to get you some. How long’s it been?”
    “Too long.” Way too long .
    “Tig, you are The Man tonight. You can have your pick of any woman in this place.”
    Another grunt from Tig.
    Dig’s smile faded into a look of horror. “Oh my God—do you not like women? Man, I’m so sorry—I just assumed. . . .”
    Tig rolled his eyes. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, DiGiacomo. I like women. I like women a lot . These women, though? Maybe not so much.”
    “Huh? Why the hell not?”
    “Because they dismiss me unless I do something like I did tonight, okay, Dig? I mean, at least they’re up-front with wanting to fuck a winner, but damn, it gets old being ignored the rest of the time, never given the time of day because I’m not a beast like the rest of you guys.”
    Dig looked at Tig in a completely new light. Normally the little fighter was quick to smile and joke, and he was definitely the friendliest of the guys on the team. But tonight he had a hollow look in his eyes, eyes that kept searching the room for something, but Dig did not know if Tig even knew what that something was.
    “Man, I’m sorry,” Tig said with a sigh. “I got shit at home that needs to be taken care of and now that the fight’s over, I’m actually thinking about it.”
    Dig nodded. “Anything I can help you with, tell me, okay?”
    Tig nodded.
    “Oh, did you hear?”
    “What?”
    “C’s going to ask Bailey to marry him.”
    “About damn time,” Tig said with a laugh. “Where is C, anyway? He’s usually here by now.”
    “C olocha distracted him,” Junior said as he sat down across from the two fighters. “They’re probably in the bathroom making out.”
    “No, there he is,” Dig said with a jerk of his chin toward the entrance. Tig turned and saw Colin, Bailey, and another woman.
    He sat up straighter, and Junior barked a laugh. Dig swiveled in his seat, trying to see what Junior found so amusing, and then a slow smile spread across his face.
    “Oh, it’s like that, is it, Mashburn?” Dig said, his smile growing wider. “She’s got a pretty face, but man, does she look high-maintenance or what? Damn.”
    Tig did not respond.
    He watched Bailey and the woman perch by the bar, the brunette sliding neatly onto a barstool and primly crossing her legs at her ankles.
    Tig’s eyes wandered from the top of her mahogany head, down her shapely figure, and finally rested on her high heels. Damn. Smoking. Hot.
    Junior could not control himself any longer and burst out with a gale of laughter. “Man, Tig, I’ve found out more about you in the last two minutes than I have in the past two years I’ve been training your obnoxious ass.”
    Tig shrugged and grinned.
    “Well, go talk to her. Damn, man. A woman elicits a response like that, you gotta go to talk to her.”
    “You don’t know who she is?”
    Junior shook his head. “Never seen her before. But if I had to guess, I bet she works for Irish.”
    Ah . That would make perfect sense. She looked like someone who would be part of Rory’s team.
    “Man, I would never get a lick of work done,” Tig murmured. Junior snorted another laugh.
    Tig’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He took a look at who texted him and shook his head. Even from one hundred fifty miles away, his mother could still cockblock him.
    “I gotta take this. It’s Mama,” Tig said, standing up from the table. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
    “We’ll do some recon, Tig,” Junior said