I pulled my hands back. “Thanks.”
There was a brief knock at my front door and I heard it open. Landon had excellent timing.
He strode in, black bag in hand.
I cleared my throat. “Lili, this is my friend, Landon. He’s a doctor. Landon, this is Lili.”
“Hi, Lili.”
“You don’t look like any doctor I know.”
Landon’s teeth flashed white against his dark skin. “I know, God made me handsome and debonair. It’s my cross to bear.”
Lili let out a tiny giggle.
Landon sat on the couch beside her. “I was at the fight tonight.”
Her smile dissolved and her head dropped.
“Don’t know how you ended up mixed up in that fight, but I’m sorry it happened to you. Can I check your pulse?”
She glanced at me, and I nodded. She held out her arm and Landon pressed his fingers to her wrist.
“It was my dad,” she whispered.
I cocked my head. “What?” My voice was sharp.
Landon shot me a look, one dark brow raised.
I attempted to rein in my anger. “Lili’s father is a trainer,” I told him. “Trains Kamensky.”
At the man’s name, Lili shuddered.
“No one is going to hurt you,” I promised her. “Now, explain about your dad.”
“Dad owed the man who runs the fight ring money.”
“Hesoldyou?” I snapped.
She curled in on herself. “Yes. Trust me, if you knew my dad, you wouldn’t be that surprised. He pretty much treats me like a slave.” She pushed a strand of hair off her face. “My mom ran off when I was six.”
Fuck. Her mother had left a six-year-old girl with a fucker like Armstrong?
“He mostly ignored me, unless I was late cooking him dinner or I hadn’t cleaned our apartment.” She shrugged a shoulder. “I got myself to school, I figured out tampons all by myself when I’d got my first period.” Two pink splotches of color hit her cheeks. “Um, which is all irrelevant. The man who pays for Anton’s training wanted Anton…properly motivated, so he cleared Dad’s debt in return for me.”
Landon cursed under his breath.
I breathed through my red-hot rage: at Kamensky, at her father, and at the ultimate asshole pulling the strings.
“Goodyear,” I muttered.
She blinked. “You know him?”
Landon made a low sound. My friend knew exactly who Goodyear was.
I let my hands dangle between my knees. “I know Goodyear is scum.”
Her face lit up. “He is. He gets away with so much, and pretends to be a good guy, but he’s not. I…I saw him hurt another fighter tonight, and his girlfriend. Goodyear shot him.”
