“I
was wondering… those fights you’re involved in. I’ve never seen anything like
that before—the underground stuff, I mean. I’ve seen MMA with the cages and the
rules and all, but I was sitting here thinking that some of that might make for
some amazing photos.”
I’m
glad I was done eating, or else I might have choked. “Dude, you go into a place
like that with a camera and people will start thinking you’re a cop. Believe me
when I tell you that you do not want any of those people mistaking you for the
law.”
He
laughed at me. Goddammit, I was being serious, and the fucker had the nerve to
laugh at me.
“I
wasn’t planning to walk in there with a big-ass camera around my neck and a
giant telephoto lens, if that’s what you were thinking. I figured those sorts
of places wouldn’t take kindly to someone taking pictures; it has to be all
kinds of illegal. I’ve got cameras that are small enough that no one would ever
notice what I was doing.”
“You
hope.”
“There
is that, but I’m pretty confident they’d all be too busy watching and gambling
to notice me. I was thinking that the next time you’re going to fight, why
don’t you let me come with you?”
My
jaw dropped. There was no way in hell he was serious. “Not a single chance in
hell.”
“Asher,
come on, those kinds of shots could really get me noticed. Hell, I might even
get something good enough for a gallery. Help me out here.”
“I
am helping you, Conner; I’m telling you no. And it’s not to be an asshole about
it, it’s to keep your ass from getting shot while trying to get your pictures.
It isn’t a game. Those people are dangerous.”
“Like
you?”
“When
I need to be.”
“Fine.
I’ll find another way in, but I’m not going to drop it.”
I
scrubbed my hand down my face and groaned. “Dammit, Conner.”
“Is
that a yes?”
He
was grinning at me, the little shit. “Not like you’re leaving me much choice.
I’d rather you come with me than fuck around in one of those places on your own
and get killed. I don’t need your death on my conscience.”
“Gee,
thanks.”
“You’re
welcome. You could thank me more by changing your mind.” Funny, that’s not
exactly how I wanted him to thank me. No,
you want him to thank you by pinning you down and fucking you until you can’t
think. I blew out a deep breath and ordered myself to get my mind out of
the gutter.
“Yeah,
that’s not gonna happen. Look at it this way: you get me in and out in one
piece and we’re even.”
“It
doesn’t make us even when I’m the one taking you into the danger in the first
place.”
“You’re
the one who said you owed me one; I was just giving you a way to pay your
debt.”
He
was grinning, joking when he said it, and I knew that deep down, but the image
that flashed through my mind was of Catfish and the way my debts were usually
paid. That wasn’t the way I wanted to picture things with him. I didn’t realize
I was glaring at him until he stopped smiling.
“Hey,
it was a joke. Damn, you look like you wanna knock my head through the wall.”
I
shook my head, trying to clear away the memory of Catfish. “Sorry, was thinking
of something else is all. I gotta go. I’ll, uhh, stop by your place when I know
when the next fight’s gonna be.”
“No
rush. You might not want to fight again until that hand heals.”
No comments:
Post a Comment