Bobby grabbed my arm and held me back, murmuring, “Save it for the little fucker you’re facing off with, Saint. The ref is an asshole, but he’s not worth the fine and possible suspension if you go after him.”
I could have easily broken his hold, but his words sank in and helped me calm down. He was right, I didn’t want to take a chance at not having the opportunity to wipe the floor with the scum that should be protecting their sister and not throwing her to the wolves to save his own pathetic skin.
The announcer began his spiel, and I removed my shirt before climbing into the ring. Bobby situated himself behind me, balancing on the edge of the platform and holding the ropes. His assistant brought over a couple of spare water bottles and towels, ready to pass them up for me when needed.
We discussed a few points of strategy from the little we knew about Vince. Normally, I would have studied my opponent until I felt like I knew his every strength and weakness. It wasn’t like I hadn’t had to unexpectedly fight a new guy. I was known for being adaptable and rolling with the punches. But it wasn’t common when you reached this stage of the competition.
I heard my name being called, and the entire arena erupted with noise. The energy coming from the audience was contagious, and it surged through me. I bounced on my feet a few times and stretched my shoulders and neck.
Vince was just entering the ring when they announced his name, and there was a noticeable drop in volume. The sound lowered to a fervent murmur, and by the expressions of those I could see through the blinding lights, it was clear that they were confused and shocked by the change.
Vince’s face twisted with anger, and it pronounced the sharp angles of his face, making his ugly mug downright repulsive. He glanced around, and his mouth drew down into a deeper frown as he clearly didn’t see what he was looking for. Anger flared in his beady eyes when he caught sight of her sitting with my friends, and I wondered again what the fuck he was holding over his sister’s head to convince her to take a job as a ring girl. I intended to find out and take care of it. Then I’d handle Vince more permanently than the beatdown I was about to give him.
When his eyes finally landed on my face, I saw a flicker of uncertainty before he covered it with a cocky smirk. He spat in my direction and received a chorus of boos.
Tuning everything out, I prowled to the center of the ring where the ref was standing. Vince joined me, and we bumped knuckles. Then the ref gave us the go-ahead before scampering out of our way.
Vince attempted to catch me off guard by throwing a fast jab the second the whistle blew, and I decided to let him have one to build up his attitude. The cockier he was, the more likely he would make a mistake.
We circled each other a few times before he attempted another strike. This time, I danced out of his reach. He’d gone for power over speed and accuracy, so he couldn't catch his footing and stumbled. I caught him as he fell...with my fist. First, his chin and then his stomach. I doled out a few more combos before backing away and giving him a few moments to recover. Taking him down in the first few minutes of the round didn’t seem like much fun.
As far as hits, I took it fairly easy on him in the first round, but I had him running all over the place, and it was clearly wearing him down. He did have decent speed in his blows when he wasn’t overcompensating with an attempt to hit hard rather than fast. But I took a few jabs here and there when he changed up tactics. When the bell rang to signal the end of the round, he was puffing so hard, his face was a little red.
Another girl in a tiny bikini grabbed a white numbered sign and walked around the Octagon, and he dragged his sorry ass over to his corner. I gave him a sinister smile before retreating to mine.
“Playing with your food,” Bobby muttered with an eye roll. I just grinned and shrugged. “When there’s no challenge, might as well have some fun.” I downed a bottle of water and a sports drink. As I wiped the minimal sweat from my brow, I glanced toward my angel eyes and frowned when I saw her worried expression as she stared in the direction of her brother.
Drew caught my eye and shook his head, then glanced down at her knuckles. They were white from tightly squeezing the arms of her chair. Then he discreetly pointed at me and nodded. Her head swung in my direction, and what I saw in her turquoise eyes surprised me. While there was worry swimming in them, there was also a spark of hope. I instinctively knew that she was concerned over what would happen to her brother now that she wasn’t getting paid and if he lost the fight. But it seemed she was also hoping I’d been honest when I’d told her I would take care of everything. It made me even more confident that I would be able to gain her trust quickly, and then her love would follow.
It was time for round two, so I tore my eyes away from my girl and realigned my thoughts, focusing on what I had to do so I could get back to her. Vince mean-mugged me as I approached the center and then snarled, “I don’t know what the fuck you think you’re doing with my sister, but you aren’t going to use her against me. She’ll do anything for me, including giving her cherry to whoever I tell her to, if it will save me.”
Even though I saw red, I had spent the majority of my life learning to control myself, so I managed to stay calm and calculated. I needed something to satisfy the rage I was suppressing, so instead of continuing to string Vince along, I put power behind each and every punch.
Vince was getting redder and redder as his anger built. By the end of the round, he was bloodied and bruised, but I’d made sure not to hurt him so much that it ended the fight right then. He’d gotten in a few decent blows, but the bruises from those would be minimal. With the adrenaline flowing through me, I didn’t even feel them.
When the third round began, I was ready to unleash hell. But I didn’t put enough stock in Vince’s desperation, and while I was trying to keep my eye out for dirty and illegal tactics, being prepared for them was nearly impossible. I’d grabbed Vince in a clinch, and the next thing I knew, he’d headbutted me so fast, even I would have doubted it happened if I hadn’t felt the pain. I didn’t lose my footing, but my grip on him slackened just enough for him to break free and deliver a piledrive, “spiking” me on the head. The ref caught the second move and shouted a warning at Vince, who held up his hands and tried to look contrite.
I was done fucking around.
The round only lasted a few more minutes because that was all it took for me to beat the living shit out of my girl’s asshole brother. The ref and my manager had to rush into the ring to stop me from killing him. But I was too far ahead in points for the deductions that caused to keep me from being named the victor. Besides, the cable networks and the UFC shareholders overlooked a lot of shit if it boosted their ratings.
The press was already clamoring for interviews when I hopped down from the Octagon. The crowd kept me from going straight to my angel eyes, and I almost laid a few of them out when I saw her jump to her feet and take a few steps in her brother’s direction. I breathed easier when I saw Knox gently grasp her arm and say something that halted her steps.
“Saint! Saint!”
A million questions were being thrown at me, and I held up a hand, gaining immediate silence. “I’m giving you three minutes. Now, one at a time.”
I answered a few reporters about my reaction to Sam’s accident and who he was replaced with. When we neared the end of the three minutes, I thought maybe I’d gotten off easy. Then Porter Grange, who worked for Fighters Now, the biggest MMA magazine in the world, piped up. “I’ve never seen you go at an opponent that hard, Saint. You’re known for your control. Was Butler actually able to get under your skin?” He grinned, knowing his inquiry would irritate the fuck out of me.
“You should know what a dumbass question that is, Grange,” I sneered. Bobby surreptitiously yanked on my arm hair, causing me to swallow a wince. It was his way of silently warning me to watch my mouth.
“Okay,” Porter replied with a smirk. “If it wasn’t because you lost your cool, then why the calculated and unusually harsh
beating?”
I knew Bobby would want me to play it off, to deflect and sway them to believe that I hadn’t acted out of character, that it only seemed harsh because Vince was a weakling, or that I’d had one too many sports drinks...what-the fuck-ever. The last thing he would want was exactly what I said.
“Because the motherfucker had it coming.”
4
Angelique
Watching Vince get creamed by Saint was difficult for me. Although I knew he more than deserved it, he was still my brother. I couldn’t help but remember the boy who’d played with me when I was little. How he’d made sure I got to school early for free breakfast and all the kids knew not to mess with me or they’d have to answer to him. But everything changed when I got to high school. It wasn’t my brother and me against the world anymore. He started to care about only one person—himself.
When the fight finally ended, I jumped to my feet and started toward Vince. I knew if I didn’t go check on him that he’d find a way to make me pay for it. My brother had grown into the kind of man who never forgot a perceived slight, even if it came from the sister he used to protect.
“I can’t let you do it,” Knox rumbled, gently grasping my arm to stop me. “You go over there to check on your brother, and Saint will lose what’s left of his mind. I wouldn’t put it past him to beat the shit out of your brother even more after they put him on the stretcher he’s already going to need to carry him out of here.”
With the head of the Lennox’s security holding me back, at least I had an excuse if my brother got the chance to confront me over it. And if Saint meant what he said, then maybe I wouldn’t have to worry about the threat to my safety anymore.
Knox must have misinterpreted my silence because he added, “I get that he’s family, and you’re worried about him. But they’ll make sure he gets medical attention for his injuries, even if the little bastard doesn’t deserve it.”
“I know,” I whispered as my gaze shifted to Saint. As freaking inappropriate as it was since he’d been up against my brother, watching him fight had turned me on. The six-pack abs, bunching biceps when he punched, powerful legs, animal magnetism...he was lethal grace in motion. I’d never seen anything like it before.
I stared at Saint as he did his interviews, expecting it to take longer than the few minutes he gave the throng of media. Before I knew it, he was stalking toward where I stood with Knox. Without saying a word, he hefted me over his shoulder. The crowd surrounding us cheered his name while Knox chuckled. “You’re welcome,” he called out as Saint strode away with me.
Saint lifted his free arm and gave Knox a quick wave as we moved through the crush of people. Everyone wanted to talk to him, but he didn’t stop. He kept moving until we hit the locker room with his name on the door. He slammed it shut behind us, set me on my feet, and twisted around to flip the lock. When Saint turned back to me, his nostrils flared, and his chest rose and fell as he took several deep breaths. “Explain.”
Although he still looked angry, I somehow knew it wasn’t aimed at me. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t intimidating. Because he was.
Taking a small step back, I stilled when a growl rumbled up his chest. My gaze locked with his and saw his eyes soften. “You’re safe with me. I would never hurt you, angel eyes.”
“Angelique,” I corrected when it dawned on me that he hadn’t been there when his friends asked for my name.
His lips kicked up in a grin. “It sounds like the nickname I picked for you was more perfect than I thought.”
My curiosity got the better of me, and I asked, “Why do you call me angel eyes?”
“Because the last thing I want to see before I go out of this world are those gorgeous eyes of yours.”
He put it out there so matter-of-factly, as though his admission wouldn’t rock my world. But it did. This incredible man seemed one hundred percent sincere as he claimed to want me in his life...forever. After spending less than five minutes with me. The whole thing should’ve had me trying to get past him to the door, but his declaration settled something inside me. The part that was already braced for the other shoe to drop. For the people in my life to disappoint me. Like my brother, the person responsible for me being in this mess—that just might turn into the best thing in my life—in the first place.
Swiveling on my heel, I crossed the small room and dropped onto the low bench against the wall. After patting the spot next to my right, I waited for Saint to join me before I said, “You might want to get comfortable. This could take a while.”
He untaped his hands, got up to grab a towel to rub over his sweat-dampened hair, took some pain relievers, and downed a sports drink. Once he was done, he returned to my side, lifted me up, and settled me on his lap so I was straddling him. One of his arms was wrapped around my lower back to anchor me in place, and he lifted the other to tuck a stray lock of hair behind my ear. “There. Now I’m ready to hear whatever you need to tell me.”
“Right here? Like this?” I gasped, wiggling on his lap until I felt his cock harden beneath my butt.
“Exactly like this.” His arm tightened around me. “I’m not letting you go now that I’ve gotten my hands on you.”
The tiny bottoms of my ring girl uniform grew damp, and I wondered if he’d be able to feel it. My cheeks reddened as I whispered, “It’s not your hands that I was talking about.”
He brushed a kiss against my forehead and lifted his hips to press more firmly against me. “Me getting hard around you is something you’re going to have to get used to, angel eyes. It’s going to happen often. As in, all the time.”
“Alrighty then.” I cleared my throat and did my best to ignore the incredibly hard and large bulge beneath me. “I guess this is the part where I explain how I ended up here, huh?”
He cupped my cheek with his hand. “Please.”
I nodded, and the calluses on his palm rubbed against my skin, sending a little shiver down my spine. “My childhood wasn’t all that great, and Vince used to be the only person I could really depend on. But all that changed three or four years ago. It was like my brother turned into someone I didn’t know, into someone I didn’t even want to know, even after everything he did for me when we were kids.”
“What’d he get into?” Saint asked after I paused to pull myself together so I didn’t end up bawling in his arms.
“He fell in with a bad crowd and wasn’t around as often. Started to drink a lot and dabbled with some drugs here or there. But it wasn’t the drugs or alcohol that got him into trouble.” I dropped my forehead against Saint’s shoulder. “It was the gambling that turned out to be his real vice. He doesn’t think straight when he’s at the tables, and he risks way more than he can afford. He’s always been able to figure out a way to pay off his gambling debts in the past, but this time is different. I don’t know how much he owes, but it has to be a lot—like enough to beat the shit out of him if he didn’t get the chance to fight you tonight—a lot. Enough for him to tell me the five grand I’d earn by being a ring girl during the match would barely put a dent in his debt but might be enough so his bookie wouldn’t come after me, too.”
“That fucking motherfucker,” Saint growled. “He deserves a hell of a lot more than the beatdown I gave him in the ring for putting your safety at risk.”
Shrugging my shoulders, I lifted my head to offer him a small smile. “I don’t think he ever thought about what might happen to me in this whole mess. Not until his bookie took notice of me.”
“Who’s his bookie?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I never asked because it didn’t really matter since I didn’t have the money to pay off his debt. I was going to give Vince what I earned tonight so he could hand it over.”
“It’s got to be Jimmy Benton,” Saint rumbled.
“I’ve never heard of him.”
“Forget I mentioned his name,” Saint commanded. “He isn’t someone you need to worry about anymore.”
I felt exh
austed after everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours, and I was starting to freak out because Saint looked angrier than he had when he’d been fighting my brother. Squeezing my eyes shut, I voiced my biggest fear, “Does that mean you haven’t changed your mind about what you said before? How I’ll always be safe with you and don’t need to worry about money again?”
5
Saint
Angelique’s question was uttered in a tiny, hesitant voice, and it killed me that she didn’t believe I meant what I said. I couldn’t blame her, though. It sounded like everyone in her life had let her down, and we’d only met a few hours ago. I could tell her over and over, but I knew it was actions that would finally convince her to trust me.
“Angel eyes, there is nothing you could say or do that would change my mind about you.” I tucked another wayward strand of hair behind her ear and leaned my forehead against hers.
“Despite who my brother is?”
I lifted my head to stare into her turquoise pools. “I don’t care about anyone but you, Angelique.” My mouth twisted as my thoughts darkened from the mention of her brother. “I only wish I’d killed the son of a bitch when I had the chance.” She looked a little shell-shocked, so I gentled my tone when I continued. “I won’t kill him,” I promised on a sigh. “That would only take me away from you. But you’re done with him.” Her face softened and hope lit her eyes. “I’ll handle everything. I will always protect you, angel eyes.” I made sure our gazes were locked and let her see the emotions and need I felt for her. “You’re mine.”
She sucked in a breath, and we were so close that her nipples brushed my naked chest. The tiny pieces of fabric shielding them would be so easy to rip away so I could suck on those peaks like a Jolly Rancher, my favorite candy.
Fight Me, Baby Page 2