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“I’m scared,” Raine whispered.
“Don’t be,” I said. I tightened my grip around her. “I’ve got you.”
“I’m more scared for you than for me,” she admitted. “You might get hurt, or…or…”
“Shh, baby.” I pulled her against me. Seeing her so upset tore at me inside, making me wish I hadn’t told her anything at all. If I hadn’t gotten myself drunk, maybe I could have avoided putting her through this.
I’m such an asshole.
“I’m going to be fine,” I told her. I tilted her head so she was looking at me. “I always win.”
“You haven’t played in years,” she reminded me. “You have been exhausted after working out with John Paul. What if you can’t…”
Her voice trailed off, and tears started to form in her eyes.
“Nothing is going to happen to me,” I told her as I stared intently into her eyes. “I’m going to be just fine. I’m going to win this tournament, and then we’re going to take Alex as far away as we can. Landon said this was it—they’d never ask anything else of me. Soon, it will all be over.”
I could still see doubt in her eyes, but she sniffed and nodded her head. Though I didn’t want to remind her of her attackers on the island, it occurred to me it might be a good idea.
“Remember the guys on the beach?” I asked. “The ones who went after you?”
It was kind of a stupid question. It wasn’t like she was going to forget being attacked.
“Yes.”
“You remember what I did to them?”
She shuddered a little. I could see in her eyes that she was remembering the whole thing—how they’d come up to her on the beach, and she had mistakenly thought they were a rescue party. They’d grabbed her, and when I got to them on the beach, I’d beaten every one of them to death with my hands. She’d been terrified, and I hated making her recall the memory, but I needed her to remember what I was capable of doing.
“I didn’t even have a weapon then,” I reminded her. “I hadn’t played in the games for years then, either. I’m in much better shape now than I was on the island, and this time I’ll be armed.”
“With what?” she asked. “Will you have a…a gun?”
I shook my head.
“Don’t need one,” I responded. “I like the silent weapons. Guns just tell everyone where you are.”
Raine considered this information for a moment with narrowed eyes and creased forehead. She didn’t ask for more details, and I was glad for that. Instead, she ran her fingers up my arm, squeezing a little at my bicep. I flexed, giving her a little smile in the process.
Yeah, baby—I’m that good.
I wiggled my eyebrows at her, which made her smile and shake her head. She didn’t let go of my arm, and her smile faded quickly. She didn’t want to think about some of the things I had done in the past, but it seemed more important for her to know I would be all right than to think I was going to get myself killed.
Hurt was a whole other thing. I’d get hurt, no doubt about it. It would be a rare thing to escape a tournament without some kind of injury—a broken bone, a nasty cut, or even worse. That didn’t matter though. Staying alive was the only thing that counted.
Raine was apparently thinking the same thing.
“You could still get hurt,” she said. “You could get cut again.”
She ran her hand up my side, tracing some of the many scars on my body. Some were from knives, some from fists, and others from bullets. I’d had my skin torn open so many times there was no point in trying to count the scars.
“I’ll be careful,” I told her. “There are only five others, and I’ve got a lot more experience than any of them. Some of them have never even competed before. No one is going to touch me.”
She didn’t seem convinced, so I sat up and reached for her wrists. I pulled her up into my lap and grasped her face with both hands.
“I have you at stake,” I told her. “You and my kid. There is nothing out there that can stop me from doing what I need to do. You understand me? Nothing.”
Raine’s eyes widened a little as she looked at me and considered my words. For once, I must have said something right, because she ran her hands up my arms until she was gripping both biceps.
