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I liked to think I mainly watched Zander in the fight, silently rooting for him to win, but I couldn’t deny the way my eyes kept landing on Damian, how the man moved so easily, so effortlessly. How he dodged, how he sometimes took a blow to the stomach in order to land his own punch on Zander. How he smiled all the while, gleefully, like he was having the best time of his life.
Needless to say, the nonstop grinning pissed Zander off somewhat fierce. They went back and forth for a while, but it was obvious Damian was inching to the top, and that fact stunned me. My first impression of the guy was wrong, I think, and I didn’t know what the hell to think about that.
“Wow,” Piper mused, “he’s not bad.” As much as I wanted her to mean Zander, she had to be talking about Damian. We’d all underestimated him, judged him by his clothes, his swagger, not to mention that golden chain, and now Zander was going to lose.
Don’t get me wrong, I wanted Zander to win. If I had to choose between Zander and Damian, of course I would choose Zander every single day. But I couldn’t deny how good Damian was. So quick, so quick on his feet.
Inevitable as it was, when Zander’s back hit the ground, I still flinched. I had the insane urge to run over to him and help him up—which was stupid. I wished he would’ve won, but the fight had caused me to see Damian in a new light.
“Good fight,” Damian spoke with a grin, offering Zander his hand to help him up.
Zander didn’t take his hand. He swatted it away as he got up on his own, swearing, “Fuck you.” His cursing only made Damian laugh. He stormed back over to me, huffing, his skin red from the fight. He couldn’t look at me, and I could tell he hated that he’d lost. He’d wanted to win for me.
And so I did something I normally wouldn’t have: I set a hand on his arm, much like I’d done to Nix earlier, only this time, I didn’t pull away after two seconds. I kept my hand on him, squeezing his arm gently. I could’ve said something, but there was nothing to say. This gesture was enough, I hoped.
Zander’s eyes moved between my hand and my face. His mouth opened, but he didn’t say anything, for Damian had already started, “Why don’t we let the girls fight it out now? I don’t know ‘bout you, but I’d love to see that cat fight.”
Piper let out a laugh, and I dropped my hand off Zander, letting my displeasure show. She glanced at me. “How about it, Giselle? Care to show these boys how it’s done?”
Fighting with anyone tonight was not on my list of things to do, but I supposed having a tussle with Piper would be better than fighting with anyone else here. That wasn’t saying much, though. “It’s been a while since I’ve had to fight like this,” I told her. “I might be a little rusty.”
She chuckled. “That’s okay. We can still give them a show.” As Damian waltzed out of the ring, Piper took his place, waiting for me to join her. We had everyone’s attention—everyone’s. Why wouldn’t we? We were the only girls here, and as Damian had said, this was going to be a cat fight. Two pretty blond girls going at it. A sight to see, if you had a dick, I supposed.
Luca peered around Zander to meet my eyes. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, you know.”
“No,” Cade said. “If she wants to prove herself tonight, she will.” He almost sounded pissed off, like he wasn’t expecting much from me—and that, in turn, ticked me the fuck off. After all, who the hell was Cade to act like that? He was no one to me. I had nothing to prove to any of these people.
But a Santos never backed down from a challenge, and that was why I held my head high as I stepped inside the circle, stopping when I stood two feet in front of Piper. She rolled her shoulders, loosening up. Suddenly I wished I wouldn’t have told her that I might be rusty. Way to advertise your weakness, Giselle.
Piper lifted two fists, spreading her knees wide in a fighting stance. I didn’t take up a similar stance; I simply stood there, waiting. I was glad I didn’t wear a dress; fighting would be ten times more difficult while wearing one.
The key to a fight, at least when you fought with a man, was to look innocent. To look as though you didn’t know what the hell you were doing. To give them big eyes, fluttery eyelashes. Basically, to distract them as much as possible, make them think you were not a threat. But this was with Piper, another girl, a girl who’d grown up in much the same situation as me, so that tactic wasn’t going to work.
So instead, I decided to look bored.
“You going to get ready?” Piper asked.
“I am,” I mumbled, flexing my fingers, and hearing the sound of the leather from my gloves gave me a sense of serenity. I could tell Piper scoffed at my response—which was good, what I wanted. She scoffed, and then she came at me.
She was fast. So fast I almost didn’t jump back quickly enough, but when you weren’t trying to act tough, you were better able to judge your opponent, could put more of your energy into it. Piper was strong; I could see her arms and the muscles on them, beneath the tattoo she had.
Piper jumped to the side when I went for her, and she landed a punch on my side. My body screamed at me, as if yelling what are you doing? But I had a plan. I let her hit me so I could sweep my foot beneath hers and trip her. A backhanded way to get her onto her back, but one I thought I’d give a shot.
She fell, but she twisted her body enough to catch herself on her hand. She didn’t fall onto her back; instead, she bounced back up, giving me a look. “Playing dirty, are you?” she asked, a smile growing on her face. “Two can play that game.” She launched herself at me, and I narrowly was able to block her incoming fists.
It’d been a long time since I’d fought someone like this. A long time since I’d trained. My father wanted me to know how to take care of myself, but it was… weird. After that night three years ago, it’s like he’d stopped caring. Almost like he assumed I’d be all used up after Rocco Moretti.
No. I wouldn’t let myself. I might’ve lost who I was for a while, but with Father Charlie’s help, I regained who I was, who I was meant to be. I was freer now than I’d ever been, and maybe it was because of that reason that I started to grin along with Piper.I hadn’t let myself waste away like my father wanted.
This… it was actually fun.
I didn’t care about our audience. I didn’t care that we were giving the men a show. The last thing on my mind was Damian and whatever information he was getting out of this fight. My focus was on Piper. She was pretty good—almost a match for me, but not quite.
Piper’s curled fist landed in my stomach. A hard blow, one that nearly knocked all the breath out of my lungs, but one I expected. A punch I let her land. Before she could withdraw her fist, I grabbed hold of her wrist, jerking her closer to me. Piper didn’t expect that move, for I was able to do the next bit all before her eyes widened at me.
I set a foot between hers and kicked an ankle to the side, while at the same time, I pushed her back with all of my strength, causing her to stumble back, off-balance. I took Piper down to the ground, landing on top of her, pinning her down in the victorious position.
And I was only a little out of breath after that fight.
