Revenge of The Furtive Billionaire Heir

Chapter 24

24. Adrenaline Rush

“I think your father’s idea has many merits. A person must know how to defend themselves. Given how you have a penchant to end up in fights, it would be prudent to learn how to fight back.” Gerald says after we exit the restaurant, he took me out to for celebrating winning the hearing. Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

It still feels so bizarre to me, because I honestly didn’t expect for the Dean and the school board to take my side in the hearing. I’ve never had that happen to me before. Usually, I would be the one getting the short end of the stick, but this time, I won. I won over Stone and his goons, and I won’t have to be paranoid and watch over my shoulder every time I enter campus grounds again.

However, my victory came with consequences. I did not miss the pure venomous glare I was shot by Stone’s father the last time I caught sight of him. His gaze promised retribution for what I’d done to his son, and I have a feeling that I’d made a powerful enemy.

Which is yet another reason to consider my father’s advice.

“It’s not my fault I always end up in these situations,” I point out petulantly, “half the time I don’t even know what’s happening until I get a fist on my face.”

“And with the proper training, you will be able to dodge that fist, if you can’t escape it,” Gerald smiles.

“You know, Coraline said the same thing.” She actually demanded that I go and register for some class right that day when I called her to tell her about the hearing. Coraline had been ecstatic about me winning as well as Stone getting expelled.

“Serves that bastard well,” she’d muttered darkly, “I hope he won’t get into any other university.”

“Come now, we have to be the bigger people here,” I’d reminded her teasingly, and sure enough, I’d gotten

a snort in reply.

“Yeah, right. I’m too tired of being the bigger person, it’s gotten me nowhere. Let me be petty and spiteful for your sake.”

I couldn’t help but smile as the conversation replays in my head. During the days I’ve been hospitalized, I’d gotten to know Coraline much more, and discovered her wicked sense of humor, which was often dark. Coraline was indeed different from the girl she once was in high school, but boy, she’d grown up to be a fine person. I’m glad to have a friend like her in my corner.

She could not join us to celebrate because of her work, for which I felt bad because she was doing my work as well, but Coraline had brushed it off and told me to enjoy myself.

But without her, it’s not the same, so Gerald and I decided to just have a meal together and call it a day.

“Coraline is a smart girl,” Gerald informs me, bringing me back to the present. We round the restaurant parking lot and wait until the driver pulls up the Maybach next to us.

“She is, and a godsend at that. I don’t know what I would’ve done without her helping me out at Zelt Tech. How is she doing by the way?”

“She is doing well, I would say. Of course, there are some mistakes here and there, and she does have a long way to go in terms of experience. The only reason she didn’t get the internship she applied for is that there were more qualified applicants, otherwise she would’ve landed it in one go. She got the foundations of a brilliant businesswoman You did right in offering her employment.”

I flash Gerald a grin, pleased. “Glad you think so.”

When we settle down in the car Gerald sits next to me rather than taking the passenger seat at the front.

“So, about those self-defense classes,” Gerald begins, “do you have something picked out? Any discipline you want to learn? Martial arts?”

I tilt my head while I think, “I don’t know for sure. I’ve never had an interest in martial arts…to be honest, I kind of find the idea of me with martial arts ridiculous I’m just not cut out to be a martial arts guy.”

“Is that so?”

“Don’t ask me why and I swear it’s not ’cause I don’t like the countries they originate from or anything, I just found it…not to my liking.” I shrug.

“Not even when you were little?”

“Nope.”

“Well, then, how about something else,” Gerald thinks, “I don’t know, like boxing?”

I raise a brow at him. “Boxing?” I want to laugh, “Gerald, do you seriously think I’m made for boxing? I’m a literal twig!”

“It doesn’t matter if you are skinnier than most. I think boxing would be a good fit for you, especially when fighting. I practiced some boxing in my youth as well. It is a good sport, and it makes you strong.”

“You don’t say?”

I cannot see myself fighting anyone, to be honest. All my life, I’ve been the one who had gotten. pummeled, not the one who did the pummeling. In fact, I think the most I fought was when I hit Stone. with the lunch tray on the day he beat up in the cafeteria.

But I can’t deny the idea isn’t tempting.

“You know what,” I muse, “I’ll take you up on it.”

And that is how I found myself, a month later after everything had calmed down and my wounds healed, in front of a boxing club named Adrenaline Rush in downtown Clandestine city, nestled in a peaceful, yet very urban neighborhood, with a sports bag, slung over my shoulder containing a pair of newly purchased boxing gloves, a towel, a bottle of water as well as other essentials that were listed in the website for the club, decked in gym clothes and feeling entirely out of place. I watch the brownstone building as burly- looking men and women enter and exit the club through its glass double doors and gulp.

And then I go inside.

The owner and the head coach of the club Adrenaline Rush is named Brennan Yates, and he is a pleasant man who is about my father’s age sporting a military crew cut and arms that could literally snap me in half. At first, I feel intimidated by him, but his eyes are kind, and he smiles sunnily as he greets me from the reception desk.

“Good evening, son. Welcome to Adrenaline Rush. You must be the Jace Greyson who left me an email earlier today?”

“Yes, sir, that’s me.” I shake hands with him.

“No, no, no, call me Brennan, or even Yates. We don’t have sirs around here. So, you want to learn boxing huh?”

“Yep.”

“Any reason why? For recreational purposes, or…?”

“I want to defend myself,” i answer honestly, “I recently got better after getting beat up quite badly, and I don’t want to go through that again.”

Brannan nods in understanding, “Got it. Well, you’re in just the place for that. Don’t worry, by the end of the training course we provide here for beginners, you’re going to be unrecognizable. And no one will even dare of throwing you a punch.”

I smile, “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

Brennan nods, “Well, I believe you would like to take a tour of our premises before we begin, hu?”

“Of course, Brennan.”

“Great, follow me.”

We enter the Adrenaline Rush training area, and suddenly, I feel like the air has been knocked out of me.

There, right in the ring, fighting a man twice his size without breaking a sweat, is none other than Aiden, Coraline’s creepy, abusive ex-boyfriend.