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“What about you?” Shannon asked Angel.
“Umm.”
Shannon’s eyes narrowed. “Who did you tell?”
“I might have mentioned it to Cole.”
“Angel!”
“What? I’m sure he didn’t say anything.”
“Right. That’s just why they’re all staring over here.” She nodded toward some of the MC that was standing off to the left.
Crystal looked Shannon up and down, taking in her sparkling silver sequined tank top and jeans, and she grinned. “Yeah, that’s got nothing to do with how you look. Right.”
Shannon rolled her eyes.
They watched three five-minute rounds with one minute of rest in between. Rusty was playing referee, an actual whistle around his neck and everything. Shannon looked over noting they had a red digital time clock that counted down each three minute round. “They take these things seriously, huh?” she asked Angel.
“Oh, yeah. They have some b
ig money down on these fights.”
“Really?”
“They drew names a couple of days ago to see who would fight who. Then there’s time for the bets to be placed.”
“How often do they have these fights?”
“Once a month, maybe.”
The clock counted down the last thirty seconds of the final round as Wolf and Shane circled each other. They were closely matched. Shane was younger and quicker, but Wolf was more skilled and stronger. Shannon wasn’t sure who she wanted to win. She just hoped neither was hurt too badly. As the time wound down, the level of crowd noise rose.
Wolf had Shane pinned against the cage, wrestling to get a hold and bring him to the mat. Shane was evading and finally was able to push Wolf back and move from the cage to the center. Wolf was immediately after him and before he saw it coming, nailed him with a spinning kick to the head that brought him to the mat.
Shane lay there, out cold.
Rusty grabbed Wolf’s wrist and yanked his arm in the air, declaring the winner.
The crowd roared.
Shannon looked toward Shane’s unmoving body, hoping he was okay. As she watched he began to move, and then pulled himself to his feet. He and Wolf embraced, pounding each other’s back. When they broke apart, Wolf turned, not toward Misty, but toward Crystal, his eyes connecting with hers. Shannon looked from Wolf to Crystal. They were so not done with each other. Then Crystal spun and pushed through the crowd, disappearing.
On her left, Angel cheered on Wolf, whistling and clapping, totally unaware of the subtext of what had just happened.
Crash moved up behind Shannon. He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him, murmuring, “She’ll be fine.”
A few minutes later, Rusty yelled from the center of the cage, “Crash. Green. You’re up in fifteen minutes.”
Crash’s arm dropped from around Shannon.
Cole offered, “Come on, brother. I’ll help you with your hand wraps and gloves.”
Crash looked down at Shannon, his hands catching both of hers. “Can I get a kiss for luck?”
She looked up at him and swallowed. “If you promise not to get hurt.”
He chuckled. “Oh, I guarantee he’s gonna try and hurt me, babe. You gonna kiss it and make it better later?”
