Page 115 of The Beast

“Gabe...I, I mean, wow.”

He almost laughs. “From you, that means a lot.”

Since there’s a ring in front of us, I’m about to ask him when the fight will start, but I’m silenced by the incongruous sound of my name echoing off the walls.

I turn, looking for the source, and find Anissa, waving and calling out, “Bella!”

I wave back and gesture for her to come over. She trots up, then sidles against Gabe and gives him an easy hug. I know there’s nothing but friendship between them, but little green-eyed monsters start a protest march in my belly anyway.

Which means I guess I owe Gabe a slice of apology for being pissy about David.

“Dad didn’t say you were coming.” She grimaces at a look from Gabe, then rolls her eyes. “Sorry, Travis didn’t say. Referring to him as my father isn’t professional.”

“No, it’s not,” Gabe says, but there’s affection in his voice.

I shoot a sidelong glance at Gabe as I speak to Anissa. “I kinda had to twist his arm.”

“I’m surprised he let you. I mean, your first time and it’s tonight?” She glances toward Gabe with a disbelieving shake of her head. I look at him, too. My expression hopefully demanding an explanation.

“Take her to the Owner’s Box,” Gabe says to Anissa. “ I need to go warm up.”

I look between them. “Warm up?”

Anissa’s eyes go wide. “You didn’t know? He’s on the card tonight.”

I’ve never heard the term before, but I’m pretty sure he’s going to be in that ring soon. “What? Seriously?” I cross my arms and aim a mock glare at him. “You’d been planning on bringing me here tonight all along.”

He chuckles, kisses my forehead. “Busted,” he says, then slides through the crowd, pausing only to say a few words, sign a few cards, and shake a few hands.

“This really is Oz,” I mutter as Anissa takes my arm. “Come on. Best seats in the house.”

She leads me through the crowd—already rowdy enough that a private box sounds just peachy—then up a set of stairs to a raised platform overlooking everything. There’s a leather couch, comfy chairs right at the edge for prime viewing, a video feed, presumably for playback, a small bar, and freedom from the jostle and shove below.

Pretty damn cool, actually. “So,” Anissa says, settling onto the couch beside me. The crystals around her neck catch the light—amethyst, quartz, and a few others I don’t recognize. “You’re really going to watch him fight?”

“As of about forty-seven seconds ago, yes.”

“Good.” She stretches her legs out, utterly at ease in this place. Of course, she is. She’s been part of Gabriel’s world for five years. Longer than me, in some ways. The thought stings more than it should.

“You were there,” I say. “In Colorado. After.”

She nods, then pulls her feet up onto the seat and hugs her knees, as if the memory is one she doesn’t want to get too close to. “Dad found him in the woods. Half-dead, burned, out of his mind with fever.” Her voice is low, and she’s looking at her toes, not me.

“You didn’t call the police?”

She shakes her head. “Dad didn’t want to. Told me he’d heard some chatter.” She shrugs. I don’t know how. Just that he got wind that there was a hit out on someone in the area. He figured it was for the guy who owned this ramshackle old cabin through the woods from our place.”

She shrugs again. “Somehow, Dad learned that the owner was one of the Grimm brothers. I found out later that one of his ‘hunting mornings,’”—she makes quote marks with her fingers—“was really a jaunt to meet him and warn him. Except he was too late.”

My heart is racing. “Does your dad know who tried to kill Gabe?”

She shakes her head. “He tried to meet up with his informant guy later to ask that. But the guy was dead.” She shudders. “Honestly, I don’t even know how he survived Dad dragging him home,” she adds. “But he did, and we nursed him back. Took months. He’d wake up screaming your name, and I’d sit with him until he stopped shaking.”

Jealousy flares through me, hot and irrational. She was there when I wasn’t. She saw him broken, held him together.

Comforted him.

Anissa must see something in my face, because she puts her hand on mine. “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t. I love Gabriel like a brother. That’s it. And trust me, even if I’d wanted more—which I didn’t—it never would have happened. There was always someone else. Someone he couldn’t let go of, no matter how hard he tried.”