The Fighter and His Tiger (Unexpected Love #1)

46. Sunday Evening Week Nineteen

46. Sunday Evening Week Nineteen

"You really love watching me train," he turned to look at me standing in the doorway, "don't you tigru?"

I shrugged carelessly and stepped into the room, a small smirk dancing on my face, "it's alright to look at I guess."

He raised a brow at me "just alright?"

Nervous, pulled the fraying sleeves of Noah's oversized sweatshirt down over my wrists, "I actually wanted to thank you, Eli, you know, for arranging the meet up with the girls. You didn't have to do that and you definitely didn't have to tell them about everything that's going on."

Casually, he lifted his bottle to his mouth, taking all the time in the world to grace me with a reply, "I got you into this whole mess with your friends, it's only fitting that I somehow get you out of it."

My smile stretched across my face, it was gentle and hopefully conveyed how much I loved this boy. I nodded my head in the direction of his sparring mats, "we haven't trained in a long time, boxer boy."

"You wanna fight, tigru?"

Smirking at him, I stepped forwards, raising my fists playfully but I stopped when I spotted the frown marring his features.

His hands reached out and he fisted the ends of the tatty sweatshirt I had thrown on this morning, "this," he stated before giving is a firm tug, effectively pulling me closer to him, "this is not mine."

I smiled up at him cheekily, "um, that's cause it's Noahs."

"Noahs?" He growled, "you're wearing pretty boys clothes? In my apartment?"

"It was the first thing I grabbed, Eli."

"I don't like it," he stated through gritted teeth, scowling at the jumper as if he wanted it to just turn to dust under his hateful gaze.

"So what do you want me to do Elias?"

"Throw it in the bin. Throw it out the window. Burn it. I don't give a fuck as long as you're not wearing it anymore."

Biting my lip to contain a smile, I lifted my hands to wrap around his neck, "relax, baby, it's just a sweatshirt."

Instantly, his scowl moulded into a smirk, "baby? I've missed that."

I rolled my eyes but any witty response was stolen from me when Eli started to lean down towards me, bringing his lips closer to mine with every movement.

But my hands fell from his neck to his chest and I gently pushed myself away from him before he could make blessed contact.

"What is it?"

"It's just that things moved so quickly for us before and I don't want that to happen again. I want this to work out this time and I guess I'm worried that if we rush it, it's going to fall apart.

As softly as he ever had, Eli cupped my cheeks and stared deeply into my eyes, "do you remember what I said to you that day on the couch?"

I nodded as well I could in his grip, "yeah, you told me that this will never end."

He leant forward to rest his forehead against mine, the moment felt so intimate, "and I meant it, tigru. Sure we fight a fuckload but I know that we will always come back to together, that's just what we do."

Before I had a chance to respond, there was a knock on the door.

"Dante is here to talk about Mikael," Raven's voice carried through the gym.

Eli released me and I stepped out of his embrace, spinning on my heel to confront the problem of his father.

As expected, the whole group was sat around the circular table, Cayden, Raven, Max, Raf and Dante. They were chatting in hushed whispers which silenced immediately when Cayd spotted me and nudged the others.

Immediately, I frowned, "what's going on?"

"Mikael's reached out," Dante informed me, "we have a meeting with him on Thursday night."

"Great," I took a seat at the table, "so what's the plan."

Everyone peered at each other across the table, locking eyes and sharing an unspoken message with each other.

"What are you guys hiding?"

"We aren't hiding anything Rei," Cayd said, "we just don't know how to tell you."

"How to tell me what?"

"Mikael wants to talk to you, bellissima," Dante informed me, he was sat to my right and reached across to grip my hand comfortingly, "he said that if you aren't in the office with him on Thursday, then he is going to go after your family."

Abruptly, I tugged my hand out of Dantes and voiced my outrage, "what?!" I pinned Rafael with a glare, "you said that my family would be safe if I stayed away from them."

"And they will be, bonita," Rafael reassured, "like Cayd said on that first day, we protect our familia, we won't let anything happen to them, I assure you they are safe."

"We won't send you in there alone, obviously," Cayden revealed, "Dante, me and, of course, Eli will all come with you."

"If we could all come, we would, but it is best to keep numbers small," Raven explained whilst giving me a soft smile, "the rest of us will be waiting downstairs, in the club section of Staircase."

Max nodded from where he was stood on my right, "yea, princess, we'll all be right there with you."

"This isn't just for me though," I breathed out, "everyone in this room has been manipulated or played by Mikael in some way, we are taking him down so that we can all rest easy. This is for all of us."

My eyes flickered behind me to catch sight of Eli who was leaning casually on the breakfast counter. He winked at me and I couldn't help but smile and nod my head confidently, "this is going to work. I know it is."

"Family isn't who you are born with. It's who you would die for."

Thank you for reading, lovely people! You are so amazing for being so patient!!

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