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His nights had been spent thinking of her and now she was standing in his gym. Zane wasn’t about to let her escape twice.
    Melanie shoved at him, but he didn’t move an inch. “Fuck off, Zane. I’m here because I want you to train me,” Melanie breathlessly replied.
    He stepped back. “What?” He definitely hadn’t expected that for her reason of showing up.
    “I found out that the trainer at the gym was working with Macey Richards to screw up every technique I knew. Tobias had been telling me the wrong adjustments to make to my moves so that I would lose my first fight,” she rushed out the words. It was obvious she was trying to gather her senses. “I also found out that Tobias was sharing my strategies with Macey. They knew I had been watching Nick and Dad all those years and were trying to learn what I knew. I wasted almost two years for nothing. I want to take Macey on and beat her in the cage.” As she became heated and flushed with anger as she spoke, it made her look even sexier than she already did.
    “What does Macey have against you?” Macey was currently undefeated. Tobias, he was ambivalent towards. He was the fighter that had benefited from Zane being banned, while Faye and her gambling habit had been the one responsible for his downfall.
    “She’s another whore that was after Nick. Apparently, something happened between them and she wants to get back at him by watching me get beat up in the cage. She believed that was the best way to get her revenge against Nick. I know it sounds crazy, but I heard them talking in the locker room.”
    “I don’t think it sounds crazy. There is a lot of money involved in MMA fighting. The sport has become more popular over the last several years. If Macey keeps fighting the way she is, she’ll get offered some serious cash,” Zane replied, leaning back against his desk.
    He could see how upset Melanie was over the situation. He also recognized that their plan was a pretty damn good way to get even with Nick. Everyone knew how close Melanie and Nick had been ever since they’d lost their mother. He still believed it had to do more with trying to hold Melanie back than revenge against Nick, though. If Melanie had half of her brother’s talent along with a good coach, she would be a force to be reckoned with. Seems like Macey had taken care of that problem.
    “Why are you coming to me? What about Rex and Nick?”
    Zane couldn’t understand why she had been training with Tobias in the first place. Tobias had created a decent living from his fights, but he never really fought against opponents that were much of a challenge, which was why he had never climbed any higher in the ranks. After winning by default, Tobias was only able to hang onto the title briefly. He had slowly slid backwards in the rankings, eventually switching to coaching before he lost his chance to make any money out of fighting at all. Who wanted to be trained by a loser?
    Melanie’s face went from sad to neutral in a flash. “Dad won’t train me—he doesn’t think it’s a sport for women. I tried for years to change his mind, but he refuses. I’ve had to do it on my own,” she said. “Nick supports me, but you know he’s too busy right now.”
    Zane personally thought it was shitty of both Rex and Nick. Rex , he realized in hindsight, had merely wanted a ready sparring partner for Nick—his golden boy. Still, there was no reason Nick couldn’t have stepped in and taken on his sister’s training.
    Zane didn’t say his thoughts out loud , seeing Melanie’s obvious idolatry for her brother in her green eyes.
    She looked up at him with determination. “I know you’re the one that can get me there. I want the championship. I’m going to make Macey pay for this.”
    Zane looked back at her. She couldn’t do this simply out of revenge against both her father and Macey; she had to want it simply because she wanted it for herself.
    “Are you doing this just to get back at them