But I never lost Lennon.
She was there, behind me. I caught the movement of her hair in the periphery of my vision. Dark brown with gold mixed in that caught the sunlight. Her hairreminded me of dessert, the way shades of chocolate, caramel, and honey swirled together.
Focus, dumbass. This wasn’t the time to get a craving for something sweet.
And then I heard it: Lennon’s triumphant voice rising above the grunts and groans, crack of wood, and slap of flesh.
“Home!”
“Areyou going to do something about that, or am I?” Holly folded her arms over her chest and scowled at me. Her dark eyebrows pushed together over even darker eyes.
“Do something about what?” I asked, like Lennon wasn’t doing some obnoxious victory dance, gyrating her hips like a complete dork, her green mallet held high above her head.
“I won! I won!” she sing-songed.
She had no right looking that fucking adorable.
There was no way in hell she had won, of course. I did not look forward to telling her that.
“Jay.” Holly snapped her fingers rapidly in front of my face.
I reluctantly dragged my gaze away from Lennon. “What?”
“You know she didn’t win! Make her stop.”
“What do you care, Holly? In fact, Blood Ball is the only thing youdon’tcare about winning.”
Holly gave me a look that suggested she doubted my intelligence. “That’s because I alwaysletyou win. You, or Liam, or Seb. Sometimes even Mateo, if I’m feeling generous.”
That got my attention. I frowned down at her. “What do you mean, youletus win?”
She batted away my question with a flutter of her hand. “The important thing is, I didnotlet Lennon win. You wouldn’t even let me get close to her. That’s bullshit, Jay, and you know it. The game is very clear. It’s every man for himself. Or herself.”
“Yeah?” I arched my brows. “Then how do you explain Mateo running interference for you every chance he gets?”
“That’s different.” I snorted. “Youknowshe didn’t win. For starters, unless she tripped over her own feet, she didn’t make anyone bleed?—”
“She didn’t trip,” I ground out. I would have noticed.
“Secondly, she didn’t win because there’sno fucking way.” She leaned in and jabbed me in the chest to punctuate each word. “No one’s ever beaten one of us at Blood Ball before. Not even that SEAL from Lodestar Ranch.”
“He was injured,” I pointed out. “That probably slowed him down some.”
“Is Lennon a SEAL?” Holly demanded, and then immediately answered her own question. “No. She is not. I don’t think she’s military at all. The truth is, we don’t know what she did, where she’s from, or why she’s here.”
My gaze flicked to Lennon, who was still doing that stupid dance.Who are you?I hated that I didn’t know. But I hated even more that I cared so damn much.
“But we do know she didn’t win Blood Ball. If you don’t want to tell her, I will. In fact, I’d love to see the look on her face. A spoiled little city girl taking down a team of Tier 1 operators? I don’t fucking think so.”
“Aren’t you from Seattle? That’s a city, last time I checked.”
She glared at me, and I sighed.
“Liam and Mateo are reviewing the video. There’s no point in telling her she lost until we know who actually won,” I said.
Holly’s lower lip pushed out. “She’s pissing me off, Jay.”
“Live with it, Holly. She’s not the only one who has a victory dance,” I said pointedly. Holly wasn’t known for being a gracious winner, either.
