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I flashed to the meaty fist heading toward my face. The fist that stripped Paris in the dirt.
It was you.
Neither one of us moved.
“Be warned,” Jacques hissed. “I’m the worst one.”
Asher stopped dead—huffing and puffing, knuckles whitening inches from Jacques’s face. Maybe there was a single working brain cell in that caveman skull. Roaring, he shoved away, returning to the Crows.
“You’re not,” I whispered. I slipped my hand under his shirt, stroking him the way he did me. “Thank you.”
“It’s not done yet.”
That much was true.
Cairo and Jeremy squared off, practically dancing around the circle, sidestepping in time with each other.
Roan took his place between them. “On my signal,” he said, raising his phone. “Fists up... Riot Royale!”
A loud ding sounded, and Roan raced out of the way—just in time for them to fly at each other.
Cairo went for his signature throat punch. His fist sailed past Jeremy’s ear.
To be fair, he’d be an idiot to be caught out with that hit three times. The quick duck and rebound jab to Cairo’s ribs was the expected move. Didn’t stop me gasping and clutching tight to Jacques.
Cairo wasn’t kidding about the rules of Riot Royale. Most likely why people didn’t initiate one nowadays. If he lost, people he’s known his whole life will pick up the pitchforks and torches and chase my boys to the border. Paris would suffer further humiliation, and the Crows would have another hold on me.
Everything was riding on this.
The punch doubled Cairo over, wheezing— No. He was laughing.
He popped up, grinning away. “Little Jer-Bear came to play.”
“Fuck you!”
Jeremy flew at him. Cairo spun, dropped to his knee, and swept his leg. Jeremy hit the ground with an audible thud, skidding to land at Paris’s shoes.
“Finish him,” she screamed.
This was a new side of my sweet best friend, and if anyone was going to bring it out of her, it was the Crows.
Cairo seized his shoulders and tossed Jeremy on his back. Down and dazed, he didn’t see Cairo’s fist flying at his gut till it bent him in two.
Jeremy popped up head and feet, clutching his stomach as he rolled on his side, struggling to stand.
“Get up,” Micah shouted. “Come on, bro. Get up!”
The Crow got up on his hands and knees, and Cairo kicked him in the face. His head snapped around, squirting blood as far as three feet away.
“Who exactly are you rooting for?” Jacques asked, raising a brow at my latest gasp.
“You know who I’m rooting for. But Cairo’s not pulling his punches. What if he kills him?”
“One,” he said. “Don’t spare any sympathy for that vermin.” His fingers dug into my hip. “Anyone who hurts you doesn’t deserve it.”
I blinked at him in surprise. An extraordinary statement from someone who belted my ass raw without hesitation. Extraordinary because he meant it, and he was angry.
Jeremy rolled to his feet, head lolling. He shook himself hard. I could almost hear him shouting at himself to get in the fight.
Cairo came at him again. Jeremy hit him with a one-two double punch in the face. Cairo dropped, and Jeremy was on him in an instant—pummeling his skull.
The scream trapped in my throat.
Forget the consequences of Jeremy winning. The torture of watching him hurt Cairo was ripping my heart to shreds all on its own.
Cairo abandoned protecting his face. He reared and grabbed Jeremy’s forearms. He flipped and the roles were reversed. Cairo fisted his hair and punched Jeremy once, twice, three, four times in the face.
“Stop,” Micah hollered. “He’s had enough.”
“Not nearly.” Standing up, Cairo hoisted the half-conscious man above his head. His roar was only a fraction higher than the baying crowd. Sweat glinted off his muscles in the firelight. “Bedlam now.”
“Bedlam forever!”
He threw him.
Jeremy sailed shrieking through the air. I jerked as he hit the ground, my bones jarring with the impact.
That was it. It had to be. No one got up from a hit like that.
Jeremy got his knees under him and stood.
Canine glinting, Cairo waved him over. Come and get me.
Jeremy didn’t so much run as he did stagger across the circle. He punched wildly, missing Cairo by a mile. Cairo straightened, and his not-quite-right eyes flashed.
“Don’t,” Micah screamed, knowing exactly what was coming. “He’s had enough. Don’t!”
Jeremy swung again.
Cairo snatched his fist and wrenched it back. Jeremy roared as his bone crackled like tinder. My love shoved the sobbing gangster to his knees, his wrist secure in his hold. Cairo raised his fist for the final punch. Jeremy would not get up from this.
Bang!
A gunshot shattered the scene.
“Ah!”
Students ran in every direction, stampeding from Buller’s Den. Shoving, screaming, limbs flailing, and Jacques lifting me up and running us away from it all. Riot Royale was over.
And there was no winner.
Chapter Six
“It was the Crows. I bet you anything it was one of them,” Paris said. She paced the length of the room. “They knew their boy was about to lose, so they shot off a gun to end the fight early.”
