Gio walked in, looking confused. “Why are you guys up?” He turned to Noah. “I thought you said we were gonna let those guys sleep in a little because they have such a long flight today?” Then he turned back to Felix. “And who’s assaulting someone?”
“This guy,” Noah said, pointing at Felix.
“What are you talking about?” Felix asked, attempting to look amused by that, but he was still too worked up from thoughts of Grayson.
“We both know what’s gonna happen, Felix, if you go talk to his ass and he says something stupid. You go from zero to ten like that.” Noah snapped his fingers. “I say cool off first. The last thing you wanna do is have something happen that’ll mess up this rematch. You have too much riding on the line here, man. Think about it.”
Felix shook his head. “I can’t just let this go, Noah. But I’ll be cool. I swear to you.”
Noah frowned and brought Gio quickly up to speed since he was looking at them so confused.
“Oh, hell no,” Gio said, turning back to Felix. “Most cops carry guns even off duty.”
“He can’t carry it on a cruise ship that ports internationally,” Felix said, picking up his phone to check the time.
“How and why do you know that?” Noah asked immediately.
Now Felix did smirk. Maybe he should’ve kept that little tidbit to himself. Truth was, as pissed as this made him and as much as he’d like to give Grayson a good Quasimodo makeover, he had every intention of staying cool—for Ella’s sake.
He started out toward the front door, ignoring Noah’s question but explaining about the car he had coming to pick them up later. “Don’t worry about shutting things down. I have someone coming to clean and take care of all that later.”
“Damn it, Felix!” Noah said, walking after him. “What time is she coming in so I can at least know what time to start checking the news?”
Again, on another day Felix might’ve laughed at that, but the heat was building again just thinking about everything that asshole had said to Ella.
“Three o’clock.”
“Well, at least you have some time to calm your ass.”
“I will,” Felix assured his worried trainer, but his fast heating insides said otherwise.
Last night’s conversation had gone long. Felix had wanted to know everything the asshole had been saying to Ella all this time. He’d punched his mattress a few times, and the more he thought about it now, the hotter it made him. He pushed the front door open, saying goodbye one last time to his worried friends as he stalked out.
He was halfway down the stairs when Gio called out for him from the door. “Dude, all the freeways are fucked up right now in Long Beach for construction. And there’s some festival going on this weekend that’s probably gonna make traffic in that area an even worse nightmare. Why don’t you wait and do this another day?”
Nice try. He turned and attempted a smile even through his black mood now. “She’s coming into San Pedro. Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.” Noah walked out behind Gio, not looking at all convinced of this. “I know what’s at stake here, guys. But I gotta do this.”
He waved one last time before heading out. It was late enough that he could call Ella. He needed to hear her voice now more than ever. She answered on the first ring.
“Hey, baby.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked immediately.
“Nothing’s wrong.” He was almost amused that she picked up on his sour mood from just his greeting, but he did ease up. “You on your way back to me?”
“Yes,” she murmured. “And I can hardly wait.”
That’s all it took. He was instantly in a better mood. This was exactly what he was counting on. If the sound of her voice alone was enough to pacify him so easily, seeing her would be that much more effective in helping him keep his cool later.
It was a short talk because she was on her way up to have breakfast, another thing that quickly had Felix grinding his teeth. She’d already told him last night that Grayson had managed to get them all assigned to the same table in the dining room for all meals. It wasn’t mentioned and Felix refused to even bring up the guy’s name. He was going to have a hard enough time staying cool. He didn’t need to add fuel to the already smoldering fire.
~~~
With a loud kachink, the keys landed on The Great Preston Style’s desk. Felix sat down in the chair in front of Preston and waited without saying a word. Preston took one look at them and sat back in his seat, looking almost bored.
“Okay, I’ll bite. What is this?”
“If you think I’ll be doing any crawling, you’re out of your mind,” Felix said. “But I do need you back on my team, so those are the keys to my Lamborghini.”
Preston chuckled, picking the keys up and examining them for a second before tossing them back on the desk toward Felix. “I don’t want your car, Sanchez. I can’t say I even want your business, but I am curious. To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you have to come back and worm your way into my good graces?”
Felix barely lifted a shoulder, staring at him straight-faced. “I need a publicist, a good one, and with this fight just a few months away, I don’t have time to break in a new one.”
Preston nodded, taking that in for a moment. “What happened to the hot little Ms. Lazardi?” He lifted his hand up quickly with a smirk. “Wait. Let me guess. You fucked her too, and now you can’t get away from her fast enough?”