chapter 3

...Present Time...

Beau

Thwap! Thwap!

Thwap! Thwap!

Sweat dripped down his face as he continuously hit

the heavy punching bag in front of him. Sleep had evaded

him the night before and he had no idea why. Well, okay, he

had a small inkling as to why. Their names were Addie and

Kylie, two Littles who had quickly become part of his family,

yet neither of them belonged to him. Not that he wanted his

brothers’ women. No, that wasn’t it. But the presence of the

two women in the family made the void in Beau’s life all

that more prominent.

So, there he was, punching the shit out of a bag,

trying to work out the aggression and tiredness he was

feeling, hoping by the time he was done that he would fall

asleep for at least a few hours. Sleep had been an issue for

Beau since he was young, especially after Celeste had been

murdered. There were months after her death that he’d

barely gotten two hours of sleep a night. Now he could

usually get four hours, maybe five if he was lucky.

Breathing through each hit, Beau landed punch after

punch onto the bag until his fists ached, and he was

practically swaying from exhaustion. Cinnamon, the dog

that he had rescued a few months back, trotted up to him

with her tail wagging. He brought her to The Cage, the MMA

gym he owned, every day when he went to work. The poor

dog had been a bait dog in a dog fighting ring and had been

left out to die until he and his brother Ash had gone and

rescued her.

Pulling his gloves off, Beau squatted down to the floor

and stroked Cinnamon’s head. She was a reddish-colored pit

bull with white markings on her chest. Her face was scarred

from however long she’d been used for other, stronger dogs

to practice their attacks on but now, other than the physical scars, Cinnamon was just a normal, happy dog. It had taken

a few weeks before she started coming out of her shell after

he had brought her home, but once she did and Beau

started bringing her to work with him, the only thing that

would give off the fact that she had been a fighting dog

were the scars.

Members at the gym loved her, and as much as he

hated to admit it, he had totally fallen in love with the dog.

He had planned on only fostering her until she had healed,

and then he was going to find her a loving home, but the

missing feeling of love in his life had been quickly filled by

Cinnamon.

“Hey, girl,” he said, scratching her behind the ears.

She greeted him back with excited panting and tail

wags. When she tried to lick the sweat off of his face, Beau

chuckled and stood to avoid her slobbery tongue.

“Hey, son.”

Beau looked up to find his dad walking toward him

with a gym bag slung over his shoulder. Despite being in his

late fifties, his Pop was still in as good shape as Beau and

his brothers. Pop had been a boxer all his life, and the years

of training still reflected on his physique.

“Hey, Pop. What are you up to? It’s early for you to be

here.”

Beau looked at the clock on the wall. It was only nine

in the morning. Pop usually didn’t come into the gym until

the afternoon.

“I’m going to lunch and a movie with Claire today, but

I still wanted to get a workout in,” Pop said.

His dad was already wrapping his hands to get ready

to put his gloves on. Cinnamon walked over and sat in front

of Pop, who started stroking her fur and talking gently to

her.

Claire was his brother’s girlfriend’s mom, and though

Pop denied to Ash that he was dating her, Beau was pretty

sure there was something between the two. If it hadn’t been for Pop getting angry when Ash had asked him about it,

Beau would have started asking questions, but he didn’t

really want to get into it with his dad so early in the

morning.

“Why do you look like shit?” Pop asked.

Beau gave his dad an exasperated look.

“I’m not sleeping well,” Beau said dryly.

Pop nodded, studying Beau for a long moment.

“What’s bothering you, son?”

His dad knew him too well sometimes.

He shrugged and grabbed his workout towel from the

bench where Pop was sitting, wiping the sweat from his

face.

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