Hunter came down the stairs before I could throw a punch. I looked at him. Maybe I should punch him instead.

Hunter looked between the two of us as he stepped into the living room.

"Ava, what are you doing here?" he asked.

Ava frowned, glancing at me. "I'm here to talk about Milton."

Hunter rubbed his face. "Alright. Talk."

"Now?" she asked, glancing at me again. I sat down on the couch and got comfortable.

"Yes. Now. I don't have much time. What is it?" Hunter asked.

Ava blew out a breath and crossed her arms. "I talked to his team. The rumors are as bad for him as they are for you. We thought maybe having you seen together in a friendly set up would be good."

I snorted. A friendly set up. Scott and Hunter together would punch the friendliness right out of any set up.

Ava looked at me. "What?"

"Nothing. Carry on," I wave my hand. She glared at me.

"A friendly set up," Hunter mumbled. "Does Scott know about this idea?"

"His team knows. They'll convince him."

I snorted again. "Good luck with that," I mumbled.

Hunter chuckled and looked at me. "He'll do it if you ask him, Sapphire."

I made a face. Getting between the two stubborn idiots would be a headache.

"What?" Ava asked me, smirking. "Did you sleep with Scott as well?"

"Ava," Hunter snapped. Ava pursed her lips and rolled her eyes.

"No," I said, standing up, temper flaring. "I don't know about you, but incest isn't my thing."

Ava frowned. "You're Scott's sister?"

"I am," I said, slinging my bag over my shoulder and heading for the door. "I'll leave you guys to discuss business."

I couldn't help my feelings. They had been together. Hunter had moved on at some point of his life, obviously. I shouldn't hold it against him. But I just couldn't help my feelings.

"Sapphire, wait!" His heavy footsteps followed behind me. I pulled out my phone and called Scott.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

I stopped at the bottom of the steps, phone in my ear. "I'm calling Scott. You don't have to drive all the way-"

"No." He plucked my phone from my ear and cut the line. 

I glared at him. "Give me my phone back."

"No. We're driving in my car," he said, tucking my phone inside his pocket. "Let's go."

I pointed to Ava, standing at the top of the steps, watching us. "You have business to take care of."

"I don't have any business more important than you."

"Well, you obviously had at some point," I snapped.

He gritted his teeth. "It didn't mean anything."

We were no longer talking about business. I narrowed my eyes. "It doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does. Otherwise you wouldn't be angry."

My head was going to explode. The fact that he was right only made me angrier. I took a deep breath. "I'm not angry." I totally was. "I don't appreciate being lied to."

"I never lied to you," he said, taking a step closer. "Yes. I screwed around. But I never thought that we would have a chance again."

"Hunter-" Ava said.

"Not now," we both snapped at her, without looking.

"Why now?" I asked. "After fooling around and doing half the female population of the country, you want to have a second chance now?"

"I told you, it's complicated-"

"Then explain. I'm not an idiot," I said.

Hunter took a deep breath. "Fine." He took his keys out of his pockets, unlocked the car, and gave them to me. "I'll tell you on the way."

"Give me my phone," I said.

"No," he replied, already moving to the car.

I had the urge to stomp my foot. "You stubborn asshole!"

"I heard that," he said. "Ava. We'll talk later."

I stomped to the car and got in the driver's seat. Ava was still frozen at the top of the stairs, looking like she'd just learned that the earth was round.

I lowered my window and stuck my head out. "Move your car out of the way!"

She jumped, glared at me, but moved to get her car out. She drove out and we followed, then Hunter closed the gate through the control panel in the car.

Ava's car sped away. The road was empty. It was a Sunday morning. But I had a feeling that even during the weekdays, this place was quiet.

I glanced at Hunter. Was he... smiling?

"Why the hell are you smiling?" I asked, glaring at the road ahead.

He leaned back in his seat. "Stefan told me you never get angry anymore."

"And you're happy because you made me angry?"

"Yep."

I'm not going to punch him. I'm not going to punch him. I'm not going to punch him.

Maybe the urge would pass if I repeat it enough times.

Wait a second. "I thought you just bumped into Stefan. You had the time to speak about me?"

He cleared his throat. "Who else would we speak about?"

Hmm. There was something there. I had to talk to Stefan. But Stefan wouldn't tell me anything he didn't want to. I had a better idea. I would just sic Lia on him. She'd get me all the information I wanted.

"So?"

He sighed. "Why do we have all the important conversations in the car?" He mumbled to himself.

"Talk."

"Fine." He hesitated. "I almost died."

I frowned, slowing the car down. "What do you mean? Were you in a car accident?" It was always the first thing that came into my mind.

"No. It happened in a fight."

A fight? I raked my memory. I didn't watch Hunter's fights... okay, maybe I did in my moments of weakness. But I didn't watch all his fights.

However, I followed the news pretty closely. And I didn't remember any mention about a life threatening injury in any of his fights.

"It didn't happen during an official fight," he said.

Slowly, I eased the car to the side of the road. We hadn't yet merged into the main road, so there was enough space.

I turned and looked at him. "You had a fight with someone?"

He shifted in his seat. "There's a tournament. A bare-knuckle tournament."

My eyes widened. "Wait, isn't that illegal?!"

He nodded.

"Why would you participate in something like that?" I asked.

Fighting professionally with bare hands was asking for trouble. Not just from a legal perspective, but the injuries he could sustain would be life-threatening. In fights like those, there wouldn't be any rules or forbidden hits.

He rubbed his cauliflower ear. "I was in a bad place. There was this... emptiness." He hit his fist on the middle of his chest. "Nothing seemed to fill it, no matter what I did. I even tried-"

"What?" I had a suspicion.

"Drugs," he continued, looking out the windshield. "But it was one time. Because I knew if I continued using them, I would ruin my life. So I stopped before it could get bad. Nothing filled the void, though. Then Antonio told me about that tournament. I just went there to watch at first.

"When you fight with no rules, you basically fight for your life. It clears up your mind and makes you focus on staying alive. It helped."

I curled my hands in. He looked so distant and gloomy talking about it, I knew it must have been a difficult time.

"You fought. And you won?"

He gave me an offended look. "Of course."

I rolled my eyes. "Arrogant much?"

He chuckled, the darkness in his eyes receding. "Hey, if there's one thing I know I'm good at, it's fighting."

"So what happened? How did you almost die?"

"Do you know Aiden Cullen?"

"The MMA champion. Your arch nemesis." I said.

Hunter rolled his eyes, but that was true. 

Aiden Cullen was known for his dislike of Hunter. I personally thought it was pure envy. Hunter had stripped Cullen of his champion belt only a couple of years after Hunter went pro. They fought a couple of times after that, and every time, Hunter won. They were close matches, Cullen was very good. But Hunter was better.

"That asshole. Cullen fought in that tournament. We met in a fight one year."

"You won."

"Obviously. But Cullen didn't like that. The tournament could make you what a year's worth of MMA fights could in one night."

My eyes widened. That's a shitload of money. "How?"

"Bets. There are a lot of stinking rich people who like to see people fight for real. People bet millions there. So Cullen was pissed when I took him down. The next year, we had to fight again during the tournament. He drugged me."

"Drugged you?!" What a weasel!

Hunter nodded. "He must've gotten something in my water. I don't know who he bribed or how much he gave them, but my water was laced with something. During the match, I could feel myself slipping."

He curled his fist and stared at it with a small frown. "I don't remember much during the fight. Except the pain. Antonio told me he got into the ring to stop the fight because he knew something was wrong. Obviously, Cullen and his team didn't like that. It evolved into a massive fight between the two teams.

"I was caught in the middle, barely conscious. Antonio said someone hit me with a damn bat upside the head. It must've been Cullen. He's the only one who'd dare hit me. Anyway, I got shipped to a hospital. I had so many bruises and broken bones, they could barely ship me onto the ambulance without jostling me. But the loss of blood was what almost killed me. Antonio said my heart actually stopped on the ambulance."

My breath froze. Hunter looked at me. "When I woke up in the hospital, you know what's the first thing I thought?"

I shook my head.

"You. I thought; it would be really nice if I could see you then. My bones were broken. I couldn't move without being in pain. But the regret was by far the worst."

My heart broke. Imagining Hunter, broken and bleeding and in pain, thinking about me, was too much for my heart. I bit my tongue, hoping the pain would shove the tears back. Hunter continued.

"I stayed in bed for months. It was the first time in ten years when I wasn't doing something; training or fighting or screwing around, and it forced me inside my head.

"It was so damn difficult. But after a few weeks, it cleared my head like nothing else. I realized I'd been a coward. I was so afraid to reach out to you. Because maybe you wouldn't forgive me. Maybe you'd even forgotten about me. Maybe you'd moved on. The simple thought was..." his chest heaved with a deep breath. "Anyway, that's around the time I met Stefan. He told me where you were. And he told me you weren't dating anyone and..."

"I bet that's not all he told you, is it?"

Hunter smiled. "No. But that's between me and your brother."

I shook my head. When we were eighteen, Scott liked Hunter more than Stefan did. 

Now, it was the opposite. Scott hated Hunter's guts. And now I'm finding out that Stefan might have had a hand in bringing Hunter back into my life. Life was so odd sometimes.

I leaned my head against the seat and closed my eyes for a minute, getting myself together. The thought of Hunter laying broken and almost dead on a hospital bed made my stomach churn. Thank God he was okay.

After a couple of minutes, I opened my eyes, started the car again and rolled forward. 

"Why didn't Antonio try to stop you from fighting in that tournament?" I asked, moving to safer topics. My heart was too raw for another emotional conversation. "It's going to end your career if you get found out."

"The people who organize the tournament and the loyal fans of it are some pretty influential people. You'd be surprised," he said. "So the tournament won't get cancelled anytime soon. And any mentions of it publicly are quickly silenced. Antonio couldn't have stopped me even if he wanted to. But he thought it was a good way to polish my skills."

"I bet he got a cut out of your winnings as well," I mumbled.

"He did. But he gets more than enough from my official fights," Hunter said. "Antonio is a good guy."

Hmm. Maybe my view of Antonio was skewed by the past. I didn't like him simply because he'd taken Hunter away.

And that was very unfair to the man. He'd simply helped Hunter do what he would've done anyway. Hunter was right, Antonio was probably a good guy.

"Are you going back to the tournament again?" I asked. Hunter shifted in his seat. I glanced at him like he was crazy. "Seriously? You're thinking about going back?"

"No. Not to participate. But I did go back to watch a few fights," he said. "Why? You don't want me to fight there?"

"Of course I don't," I snapped. "You could seriously get hurt. Wait a second. That asshole, Cullen. He didn't get arrested or anything. I've seen him on TV just a few weeks ago."

"Of course he didn't get arrested. The entire thing is illegal, Sapphire."

"Which is why you shouldn't go back. You could die there and they'll just bury you in some ditch, for goodness sake."

"I'm not going back to fight."

I could hear the smile in his voice. "Why are you smiling?"

He chuckled. "You're worried about me."

"I'd give anyone I met on the street the same advice, don't think you're special."

"Am I not?" he asked. "Special? To you?"

I opened my mouth and closed it. He was special to me. Because of our past but also because he was... him. Hunter.

I didn't reply, and Hunter left me to my thoughts.

What was I doing? Hunter wanted to get back together. Obviously, I wasn't going to agree. Ever.

We weren't the same people. I couldn't give him what he wanted. But more than that, what if my cancer came back? What if I couldn't fight it this time around? I couldn't put Hunter through the pain of losing me.

Yet here I was, riding his car, sleeping at his house, agreeing to meet with him, talking to him.

I was stringing him along, and it wasn't fair, to either one of us.

The car rolled into the city traffic. A red light. I stopped.

"So, are you going to come back to the gym?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I'll give it a shot, see if I like it."

"Good," he smiled.

I sighed. "Hunter. Look. This is not going to work."

His smile dimmed. "What do you mean?"

I pointed between us. "This. Us."

He frowned and opened his mouth. I shook my head. "No. It's not fair to let you believe otherwise. You should stop."

He snapped his mouth shut and looked out the windshield. "Why?"

"It's complicated."

He glanced at me with a smirk. "Well, then Explain. I'm not an idiot."

Throwing my words right back at me. I chuckled despite myself and shook my head.

Hunter sighed. "Okay."

I did a double take and narrowed my eyes at him. "Okay?"

He nodded. "Okay. You don't want a relationship."

Slowly, I nodded. What was he on about?

"How about friendship?" he asked.

I frowned and opened my mouth. He held up his hand. "Just friends. You know you enjoy my company. I enjoy yours. Just friends."

Someone honked. The light had turned green. I drove forward, suspicious of his quick agreement. "Just friends? Are you sure you're not going to expect anything else?"

"Nothing else."

This was a bad idea. A really bad idea.

"Just friends."

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M.B.