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“Fuck you,” he mumbles around his mouth guard before charging forward. I expected the move, but I still let him force me up against the side of the cage. He gets a decent hit against my stomach, making me bow forward some from the force. Thankfully, I have some pretty strong ab muscles that take the hit without making me feel like my insides were being rearranged. With that move, he lands a hit to the side of my face and I’m almost positive he gives me a laceration near my eye. Shaking my head, I try to clear my sight and focus on him. It’s a little blurry at first but I catch him looking directly at where he just hit at the same time his fist comes back in my direction.
Knowing that I’m fucked if I take another hit to the head, I duck low under his punch wrapping my arms around his waist, and bringing him to the ground, grappling until I get him completely pinned underneath me. He still continues to try to get out of the hold but it’s impossible. I give him a couple of good punches to the face, bloodying him up and definitely breaking his nose. The way his nose felt as it broke under my hand was elating. The crunch was definitely deserved after the things he said about Emma and even Rachel. He howls in pain but I don’t stop, instead switching my hold around to place him in an arm bar and headlock. I can feel him struggling to breathe against my arm as I keep pressure on his windpipe urging him silently to just tap out. Of course, the man doesn’t and instead within seconds he is passed out, the ref is tapping us out calling me the winner.
As the lights come up some I turn to look up at the box Robert and William had claimed for themselves during these fights. When I do I realize the mistake that was made tonight. Robert was nowhere in sight. Only William was sitting in the box with a guard behind him. His expression was tight and I have a feeling he was hoping that Aiden would come out the winner tonight instead of me. When he catches me looking at him, his expression darkens and a wicked, knowing smile takes over.
He knows exactly who I am and clearly, he knows something that I don’t. That thought alone sends my anxiety skyrocketing. Every inch of me wants to bolt out of here and get to my girls but I can’t. I’m stuck here and have to trust that Steel will protect them with his life.
“Congratulations to Parker Ryan!” April climbs into the cage to announce while Aiden is being dragged out of the cage by his team. The small female walks to my side and raises my right arm in the air in victory. “Mr. Ryan is one fight away from winning Miss Delcoure’s hand in marriage. Come back next week to find out if he can be successful!”
The second she drops my forearm, I’m turning to leave and head directly towards Rome. His eyes widen when he sees my expression but shakes his head reminding me not here or now. Focusing on my breathing I tune out everything April is saying as she starts to announce a short intermission.
Rome is beside me as we take the path back to the locker rooms. Once we’re away from the crowd I found a bathroom on the route back to the locker room and pull Rome inside. “Call Steel now and get a report,” I command, my voice hard with panic.
“He checked in thirty minutes ago and isn’t due for another thirty,” Rome starts to argue as he pulls his phone out.
“I don’t care. Something is wrong, I know it.” I shake my head and run my hand through my short locks. “William recognized me, I know he did, and Robert wasn’t in the box.”
“Fuck,” he curses. “I didn’t even notice that I was focused on you and Aiden. One sec.” Rome hits Steel’s name and places the phone on speaker as he calls. The sound of the phone ringing echoes around the small bathroom. After several rings, it finally goes to voicemail.
“GET EVERYONE NOW!” I growl. “Meet me outside in five.” I rush out of the restroom and straight to the locker room to gather my shit. Steel always answers on the first dial, the fact that he didn’t doesn’t bode well. If anything fucking happened to Emma or Alexis I will murder everyone who stands in my way to get to them and I don’t care who they are.
When I finally get the hands up wrapped I reach into my bag, pull out my phone and type out a 911 to Shadow. He and his men are a lot closer than I am to the safe house and can get there first to give us an update. Throwing the rest of my items into my bag, I don’t bother to change clothes, knowing I can do that once we get on the road. Within three minutes I’m out back and Rome is waiting with the car.
The kid definitely knows how to follow orders. I'll give him that.
“Get us to the safe house!”
TWENTY-FIVE
EMMA
“Alexis for the last time, leave the poor man alone. Steel isn’t here to just play with you all day. He does actually have a job to do,” I sigh, completely exasperated. Normally I have no issues handling my daughter but for some reason today she has decided to test every little bit of patience that I have. I wish I knew the reason for it but she has barely even wanted to speak with me today, let alone listen to me. She has followed Steel around every damn inch of this house. If she wanted something, she asked him. She was hungry, nope mom couldn’t get it for her, only Uncle Steel could. I’m hoping that her obsession was just because he was a new person and he actually got on her level and didn’t mind playing with her.
I had hoped that by late morning she would have settled down some and I don’t know maybe sat down for longer than ten-fifteen minutes but that wasn’t the case. No, my daughter had a ball full of energy that was just waiting to get out. Maybe it was mine and Trevor’s fault for keeping her locked up in here all week. Sure, we had taken her outside for some short walks but neither of us felt it safe to spend too much time outside.
For the last several hours I had attempted to get Alexis to leave Steel alone but it failed. Even my attempt at putting on Beauty and the Beast, which usually gets her to sit her ass down didn’t work. The poor man said he didn’t mind and was actually entertained by her antics but I didn’t completely believe him. Sure Steel has been a super relaxed guy and a jokester since I met him that first day but he shouldn’t be stuck entertaining my own daughter. With it being Friday, I figured Alexis could have time off instead of coming up with schoolwork ideas for her to do and just have fun today, but by lunchtime, I realized just how much of a bad idea it was.
This morning when I woke up, I was alone in the bed I had shared with Trevor. I knew it was going to happen but I didn’t like it one bit. I had gotten so used to him being around. His side was cold when I felt it, letting me know he had been gone for a while, but there was a cute note and a glass of water waiting on the nightstand for me. He promised to be home late that night and said he loved both of us girls and to give Steel hell for the day. Our daughter was definitely handling that request from him. If Trevor was here to witness it, I’m sure he’d be laughing his ass off while telling me they were fine. It was just hard for me to accept letting Alexis bother him, even if he repeatedly told me that it was fine and to not worry.
Neither Alexis nor I were used to this type of treatment. We never had the free reign of a house to relax, have fun, and just make some noise. I think that’s what had my nerves on edge almost all day. All of this is just different from what my life has always been. Every day I was more concerned with keeping my daughter quiet and out of the way. Now, here, in this cabin, she can be a kid again.
Having gotten lost in my thoughts I realize the house is quiet now, too quiet. Getting up from the couch I take a quick look around. The tv is still on playing Moana, and the front window is open letting in a breeze that Steel insisted the cabin needed. Walking around the edge of the couch I see the dining room table empty. As I head towards the kitchen I glance down the hall and up the stairs and still don’t see a soul.
Weird. Where the hell did they go?
Rounding the wall separating the dining/kitchen area from the hallway, that's when I see them. Steel and Alexis are standing in front of the island both of them covered in flour. From head to toe, the two of them are just covered in white. There are even splotches of something on their faces that I have a feeling is maybe their attempt at making cookies. That was what Alexis had said she wanted after all before Steel chased her, tickling her, into the kitchen. I didn’t think the two of them would actually try their hand at making them from scratch though.
Trevor knew how much of a sucker I was for cookie dough so he had bought several packets of premade chocolate chip cookies and all that was needed was to break them apart and put them on the cookie sheet. I knew there were still two sleeves out of the three had bought in the fridge. I guess that was my mistake for assuming they would just use one of those packets. Nope, go figure the two hooligans decided making them from scratch would be a better idea.
“Ahem,” I clear my throat, staring at the two of them with my hands on my hips. I was trying to give off the look that the two of them were in trouble. I knew I succeeded when they both looked up and gave me guilty expressions. My daughter even slightly moved behind Steel to try to hide from my glare.
“I think we're busted,” Steel whispers, and my daughter giggles some.
“Ya think?” I try to sound firm but it ends with a soft chuckle. I’m not actually mad at them, if anything the sight is hilarious, even if I know I’m the one who will be cleaning this whole mess up. “Either of you cares to tell me what you were doing?”
“Cookies, Momma,” Alexis peeks out from behind Steel. “Uncle Steel said we could make them from scratch and they would taste better than the ones in the fridge.”
“Oh did he,” I glance at him and he gives me a sheepish look. “Did either of you bother to make sure you had all the ingredients needed or look up a recipe?”
