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As the two women took up their sides of the ring and the fight began, I could see my friends’ eyes go wide.
“Shit, they’revicious,” Preston said, and the fact that he looked totally out of place in a sweater vest made his comment even funnier to me.
Actually, none of us fit in among the crowd, even though Daire had insisted I wear his leather jacket and a hat again. But the fact that everyone came—minus East, who was doing his own form of punishment—meant the world to Daire, even though he’d never say it. He was finally coming to understand that even with all the hell we gave each other, we’d always be there to support or bury the bodies.
Even though I worried someone would one day take the latter too literally.
Someone tall stepped in front of us, camera flashing and blocking our view.
“Hey, asshole,” Travis said, “You’re in the w—” His words cut off as the guy turned around, his face an all-too-familiar one. Surprise lit Travis’s eyes before his expression darkened. “Caleb? What the hell are you doing here?”
The guy lifted up the badge he wore around his neck. “I was hired for the event. Calm down.”
“How about you and your camera fuck off somewhere else?”
Caleb stared at him with inscrutable eyes for a long moment, and it looked like he wanted to say something before he shook his head and snapped his mouth shut. He backed away without another word, heading over to the other side of the ring, while beside me Travis practically vibrated with some emotion I couldn’t understand.
“You okay?”
He forced his shoulders down and blew out a breath. “Yep.”
It was strange to see Travis of all people so worked up, since he was such a damn flirt with everyone who crossed his path. All but one.
The crowd shouted suddenly, and I looked back up to the ring to see one of the women pinned with her leg behind her head.
“Viciousandflexible,” Preston murmured as the referee counted down and then declared the woman on top the winner.
“Regretting switching sides already?” I teased.
“Uh, no. I’d actually be terrified to lie in a bed beside either one of them.”
I couldn’t blame him for that. The womenwerefierce and could certainly kick any of our asses. Then again, Preston was best friends with Serena, and if he could survive her finding out he was dating her dad, I was pretty sure he could handle the two down on the mat.
I was about to tell him so when the fairly calm crowd erupted in a chant: “Reaper! Reaper! Reaper!”
I stiffened, knowing I must’ve missed Daire’s announcement.In just a pair of shorts and sparring gloves, he stepped into the ring as the announcer introduced his opponent.
Daire had already been in amazing shape, but all his weeks of training had added a few pounds of muscle that I’d definitely taken advantage of.
“Reaper?” West reached over and shoved me in the arm. “Isn’t that what’s inked on your boy’s back?”
He got his answer when Daire turned away, the tattoo on his back on full display.
Nearby, a couple of the guys I recognized from the underground blew out whistles, and then one said, “Holy shit, he’s even bigger than he was at the last fight.”
“Twenty bucks says he forgets the rules and accidentally murders this guy.”
The guy snorted. “They don’t call him the Reaper for nothing.”
Donovan wasn’t shy about eavesdropping on their conversation, and as he looked between Daire and the two in the crowd, he whacked me in the arm.
“What’s he mean, ‘last fight’? I thought this was hisfirstfight.”
I wasn’t touching that. I kept my lips zipped and ignored my brother staring a hole in the side of my face.
“Wait,” Travis said. “That tattoo is anickname? I thought he was into some weird-ass voodoo shit on the roof or something.”
Leave it to him to butt into a stranger’s conversation.
