“At least we’re a hot mess.”
“Speak for yourself.”
The bullhorn that was my phone went off again, two more times in a row. We looked at each other, and burst out laughing.
“You’ve got to give that guy credit for effort,” Harper said.
“Seriously.” I got up and grabbed my phone off the nightstand.
One of Maverick’s enforcers was texting me from his phone, letting me know that the first fight had started.
“Is he okay?”Harper asked.
“Yeah. Fear aside, he’sreallygood, and he doesn’t lose.”
We pulled up the notes on my phone and made the fun part of our plan—what we were going to do over the next few days—followed by a list of what we’d need to do it. When I opened the door and gave it to the enforcers, they didn’t bat an eye.
Ryker even asked if we wanted company.
I looked at Harper, and she shrugged. “Might as well.”
Since Maverick and Rhone already thought she was sick and dying, we could blame her zoning out on that.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
maverick
For once in my life,I was tired of fighting.
Every time I went back to Harper’s apartment, she and Bloom were doing something else that looked a hell of a lot better than bleeding and making someone bleed.
The first time my mate opened the door, she was dressed in some clothes Harper had brought for her. They were in the middle of a dance party, sweating and laughing through it.
They’d talked the enforcers into joining them. Elise was sitting in a chair off to the side, stony-faced and uncomfortable, but Ryker was busting a move.
I joined them for a few minutes before one of my other enforcers showed up with an army’s worth of food and fortified protein shakes and I forced myself to get in as many calories as I could. The day was just getting started, and I needed to be ready for tomorrow, too.
The second and third time they opened the door, they were pounding popcorn, then ice cream, while watching a dramatic romance movie that made them cry more than once. Ryker wason Harper’s bed with her, holding my mate’s best friend in his arms.
I didn’t give a shit if there was something between him and Harper as long as he didn’t touch my female.
When I noticed how close Bloom was to the potential couple, I dragged the dog bed from my room over and pulled her onto it with me. She fussed over the cut on my arm for a few minutes, but when she accepted that it was healing well, she calmed down.
The movie sucked, but taking a power nap with Bloom in my arms was exactly what the doctor would’ve ordered. If I ever bothered to see one.
After the fourth fight, I video called Rhone for an update, since he was still in Vast City.
I had to meet with a smaller Alpha who was in attendance but not challenging me, after that. His brother was my upcoming fight, and he didn’t want me to kill the guy.
I didn’t make any promises, but when I fought him, I let him live.
Barely.
The other Alpha was so grateful, that he talked my ear off instead of letting me get away, so I didn’t make it back to my mate after that either.
When I threw Harper’s door open after the seventh fight, the women were attempting to make crème brûlée but refusing to wait for it to chill like Elise was telling them to. Ryker was lounging on the bed on his phone while Elise tried to help them. I was pretty confident she had gone to culinary school at one point, quitting after she realized she hated cooking under stress.
She looked like she was having fun, though, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen her smile.
