12 Rounds

Chapter Six

"You never answered my question, bro," Happy called out from the shower stall he'd stepped into. "Somethin' goin' on I don't know about?"

Clay's words echoed in his head from the day before: Unless, of course, you got somethin' going on up there I don't know about...

"Nah, Hap," he called back, and then grabbed some body wash from his bag before heading to the shower stall next to Happy. "Maybe I'm just gettin' better in the ring. You ever think of that?"

His club brother's amused laugh bounced off the tiles between them as Jax stepped into the scalding hot water and closed his eyes, letting the steam soothe the burning in his face and in his knuckles.

"You're right," Happy was saying now above the running water. "I really do think you're gettin' better. You just gotta watch your feet, bro, and you'll have the other guy down in two rounds instead of three next time."

"I know, I know," he laughed and then shook his water out of his eyes. "I hear ya. I gotta work on that this week."

"Monday morning, bright and early, bro - you better be ready to train."

"Oh, I'll be ready, Hap."

At this point, some voices bounced off the walls, signaling that the other fighters from tonight's match-up were back in the locker room now too. Pretty soon, money would exchange hands, and the afterparty would start. That last thought followed him all the way back to their lockers, and he was still mulling it over when he pulled a fresh T-shirt over his head and smoothed his leather kutte over his chest.

When the locker room doors opened and closed, Happy leaned in, muttering, "Here come the suits."

Jax glanced up, and caught a glimpse of Viktor Putlova's greying head moving down the aisles, with Valentin Putlova's hulking figure right on his heels. Val was a helluva lot harder to miss than his father, but they'd been through this routine enough times already to know what to expect. Putlova and his son would make the rounds, hand out their cash, give their little pep talks and congratulations, and then they'd feel like they were the masters of the universe. And, for all intents and purposes, in this locker room and in this basement, they pretty much were.

"You gonna stick around for the afterparty tonight?"

He shifted his head toward Happy, momentarily caught off-guard by that question. Happy didn't usually ask questions like that, personal or otherwise, to just about anyone, but then again, he'd never really had this kind of time with just Happy, away from the clubhouse and the politics and all the other bullshit that went on in that place.

"Yeah, I think I'll hang out for a little bit," or, at least, as long as Liv needed to without causing problems with her boss, and then he tipped his chin to Happy, "How 'bout you? Or are ya gonna sneak off with that redhead when no one's lookin'?"

Happy just shrugged. "She said her and her friend gotta work the afterparties now, so I guess I'm hangin' around as long as she is."

"Got it," and then, he glanced down at the cement floor with his hands hitched on his hips in thought. The words left his mouth before he really had a chance to think about them, "I'm gonna meet up with Liv later tonight - you know, Jo's friend?"

He waited long enough to see Hap's head dip down in a nod, a frown creasing his forehead as he listened - and probably wondering why in the hell Jax was telling him this. They didn't necessarily need to keep tabs on each other when they were here, and while he knew the last person who was gonna spread gossip around the clubhouse was a guy like Happy, he figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

"If anyone asks, you think you could keep that on the downlow for me? In the clubhouse, I mean - and it's not like I'm tryin' to keep her a secret or anything, I just don't..." Jax trailed off and scrubbed a hand over his face, ignoring the stinging in his knuckles.