“He’s fucked with worry. Here’s Caspar.”
Bishop didn’t want to know Mathias was fucked with worry. He’d already known, but knowing and hearing for sure were two different things.
“Bishop, the fuck?” Caspar growled.
“It’s cool, Caspar. Just had a visitor. I figured my old lady wouldn’t hold out the whole time. So she’s here with me. Keller invited her to stay.”
“Your old lady?” Caspar paused and Bishop heard Tru in the background. “You’re shittin’ me? Luna’s with you?”
“Right. So she’ll hang.”
“He won’t let her go. Fuck.” Caspar’s question didn’t need an answer. He knew the deal. “Need intervention?”
“Definitely not. It’s cool.”
Caspar sighed. “For you maybe. Tru’s gonna kill me.”
“Like Luna’s not going to be the fucking death of me?” That was the truth, and also not odd for Pete to be hearing. Times might change, but women driving men crazy would be around until the end of time.
“Enjoy the ride, brother. Your cut’s ready for you as soon as you get back,” Caspar told him.
“Thanks.” He hung up, looked at Pete, who smirked and said, “Women.”
“Tell me about it,” Bishop muttered. “Better take me to my ball and chain.”
Pete obliged. As they approached the room he’d left Luna in, Bishop saw she had a visitor, a woman named Jessie, who was asking, “You’re here for Bishop? Did you know him from home?”
He hung back with Pete and heard Luna say, “From Defiance.”
Which was true, because Luna didn’t know what he considered home. Hell, neither did he.
Jessie was saying, “He’s won every fight. No matter how big or mean his opponents are. Last week, he fought six times in a row. And the last was two-on-one. Afterward, he wasn’t tired at all, if you know what I mean?”
Pete snickered, Bishop groaned internally because yeah, of course Luna knew.
“I promised Bishop I’d be good for ten minutes. But if he’s not back in thirty seconds, I’m punching your teeth down your throat.”
Pete whistled under his breath and Bishop cleared his throat. Jessie turned around and truth be told, even though she put on a good front, she was a little pale from Luna’s last words.
“Heard she’s your old lady,” Jessie said.
He smiled. “Word travels fast.”
“You don’t seem the type.”
He shrugged. “She didn’t realize she wanted me until I was gone.”
“Isn’t that always the way,” Jessie told him. “Good luck with her. She was ready to punch me if you didn’t come back when you did.”
He looked past her at Luna, who simply shrugged and smiled sweetly.
Yeah, she’d do just fine here. Whether he’d survive or not remained to be seen.
Chapter Five
There was no time for Luna to get her bearings. One minute, they were in the underground jail cells and the next, they were out in the open-aired semi-darkness, and firmly inside Keller’s compound gates.
It was crowded. Within minutes of starting to walk away from the tunnel’s entrance, spotlights began to illuminate the area, showering the crowds with light. She looked around as people began to cheer and realized it looked a lot like the amusement parks of old. There was even a giant Ferris wheel in one corner.
“I’m late—let’s move,” Bishop told her. He grasped her hand in his and he led, parting the crowds so all she had to do was keep up with him, which was no easy task.
She hadn’t wanted to see him fight. Now, she was going to be doing so for the next eight months. For her, the fights were the worst parts of Defiance, although the parties afterward were what gave her comfort that some things could remain normal.
“Who do you fight?”
“Champions brought in from some of the other mafia families. Occasionally, some MC guys repped by those mafias.”
“Is Keller friendly with any of the MCs?”
“He considers Defiance his best asset. Otherwise, he doesn’t trust the MCs as far as he can throw them,” Bishop told her. “I can’t blame him. There aren’t many people you can, or should, trust these days. But you can trust me, and you need to. You have to stick with me, Luna. Close by, all times, unless there’s a Keller guard with you.”
“I’m a target because I’m Defiance?”
“Because you’re here for me,” he clarified. “At least from an outsider’s point of view.”
“So you’re a champion. They want to bring you down.”
“Right. It’s in Keller’s best interest to protect me, to keep me happy and healthy and well fed.”
And well fucked, she wanted to add. But she bit it back. She couldn’t change what had happened when she wasn’t here.
After pushing through for about ten minutes, they ended up inside a large, warehouse-like building. They’d avoided the long line by going in the back entrance, which she guessed was where the fighters entered.
Inside a semi-private locker room, she sat on a bench while he opened a locker with the help of a guard, who had a special key.
When the guard left, Luna asked Bishop, “How often do you fight?”
Bishop had started to strip down in front of her, and she didn’t think he was going to answer her. He seemed to be distracted, and she definitely was once he was out of his clothes.
Before he pulled on his jockstrap, cup and shorts, he seemed to pause, as if knowing she was watching, and she got an eyeful of a large, jutting cock, cut abs and a broadly muscled chest.
Finally, he pulled the shorts up, didn’t bother with a shirt or shoes. He did, however, quickly tape his hands and put in a mouth guard for a quick moment, like he was testing the fit. They didn’t have regular dentistry, so anything to protect their teeth, they did. Even Defiance had begun to institute those rules after a few of the guys had lost their teeth and had to go hours away to find a dentist.
And he still hadn’t answered her. Instead, he motioned for her to follow him, which she did. The floor under her feet felt as if it was shaking, and she heard the applause. The clapping was in sync, a slow, hypnotic beat that summoned Bishop closer to the main arena.
When they pushed out, the crowd began to cheer. Again, Bishop didn’t seem to even register it. He headed right to the edge of the ring and pointed to a spot for her to stand. Several bodyguards closed in behind her, ensuring none of the crowd could get close to her.
She surveyed the sheer amount of people crammed inside of this place and realized no, she definitely wasn’t in Defiance any longer. The man in the ring who Bishop was set to fight was giant, and Bishop was no slouch in that department himself.
She tore her gaze from the crowd, because Bishop was now standing directly in front of her.
“The bigger they are,” he told her, like he was reading her mind. “You don’t have to watch. I can have the guys take you back to the locker room to wait.”
“No. I’m waiting here for you,” she said firmly.
He nodded, like he approved. Gave her the smallest hint of a smile, his eyes a glint of slate against the gray backdrop of the room before turning toward the ref and his opponent.
The ref was speaking to the men, maybe telling them the rules—she couldn’t hear—and suddenly, Keller was standing next to her. And that’s when she realized that not only was Bishop fighting that giant man, but it was also two against one, as another man stepped into the ring to face off against Bishop as well.
She turned to Keller. “Two against one? Are you punishing him for my arrival?”
Keller kept his gaze on the men in the ring. “You did break the rules. I made it clear that Bishop wasn’t supposed to have any visitors from Defiance here.”
“Don’t blame him for my indiscretion.”
“Obviously, I’ll do whatever I’d like on my compound.”
“Why should it be any different than Defiance?” she muttered and to her surprise, Keller laughed.
“Ah, Luna, it’s so much different here than Defiance. You just haven’t opened your eyes enough to believe it.” Keller pointed to the ring. “Bishop enjoys this.”
She wanted to argue, but she couldn’t. Not on that fact. “You can enjoy something that’s not good for you.”
“He’s happy you’re here, Luna. This will be good for him.”
Whether this meant her being here at the compound or at the fight, she didn’t know, and she didn’t have time to worry because the fighting began in earnest.
The energy was very much the same as it was during Defiance fights, but amped up a thousand times more. There was open betting happening right in front of her. There were women, barely dressed, hanging over the ropes. There were bouncers and bodyguards, and she was happy that she was up on the platform, because the crowd looked crushing. Even with a bit of space between them, she was suffocating, but she swallowed her fear to focus on Bishop. This fight was her fault—everything that happened to him in Keller’s space would be her fault.
He’d taken on Mathias’s cross and now hers.
Before the men were called together again, Bishop turned to face her, leaning on the ropes, smiling lazily. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he was drunk or high, but she knew he didn’t use any of those substances. He took her chin in his hand and drew her face close. Kissed her, gentle at first, then harder, pulling back with a quick nip at her lower lip.
“Kick their asses,” she told him.
“For you, babe, sure.”
* * *
Bishop lunged for the bigger of the two men. While the shorter man gave him several good punches to his ribs, Bishop concentrated all his energies on the giant in front of him. A punch to the big man’s solar plexus rendered him useless for several minutes, and Bishop took that opportunity to fuck up his face as much as he could before delivering a last stunning blow to the side of his head. Before the larger man hit the mat, Bishop turned on the guy who was trying to get on his back, like some kind of spider monkey on crack, and slammed him against the ropes.
The guy went backward and then came flying toward Bishop, unable to stop himself. Bishop head-butted him and stared at him for the two seconds the guy remained standing, a dazed look in his eyes before he surrendered to the inevitable unconsciousness.
And that’s when a third man climbed into the ring. No one stopped him even though the bouncers were supposed to. That was the rule—the fights were laid out in advance. There were never surprises like this.
The surprise was a member of the LoV MC—and he was gunning for Bishop. Bishop hadn’t even known he’d been fighting an LoV member—Keller kept them away from him because of the bad blood between their MCs.
There weren’t many LoV that hung around here, but enough to keep Bishop on high alert. Just like he was now.
“My fucking brother,” the LoV howled, pointing to the unconscious man on the ground. He pulled out a knife and circled Bishop, both of them stepping over the bodies of the prone men on the ground.
The crowd roared at this turn of events. As much as they liked it when Bishop won, they also liked this added competition, the pissed-off look on Bishop’s face...and the smile on Keller’s.
So it wasn’t planned, but it worked to Keller’s advantage—it would show the compound what happened to people who didn’t follow the rules.
Bishop let the LoV circle him, swiping the knife back and forth, waiting for Bishop to jump away. But Bishop stood his ground, never taking his eyes from the man’s. And that made the guy falter a little, because he was probably thinking, “Who doesn’t get scared of a knife being shoved at him?”
Bishop guessed he didn’t. And he was also tired and bored and wanted to get the hell out of there. He moved forward, grabbed the LoV’s wrist and disarmed him. He glanced at Keller, who nodded mildly, before driving the knife cleanly through the man’s carotid. The crowd gasped, then screamed...and then the motherfuckers started to clap, like this was some kind of amazing event. Like Bishop hadn’t just killed an MC man for approaching him in the ring unauthorized.
Like Keller hadn’t orchestrated the whole fucking thing as a test of Bishop’s loyalty.
Bishop forced himself to pass, every single time. Accepted his fate as gracefully as he could, even as he wiped the blood from his hands.
The ref called the fight in Bishop’s favor, raised his arm above his head for several seconds as the crowd cheered. People won a lot of money because of Bishop, so they were more than happy to be happy for him.
Until several more LoV members jumped into the ring. The crowd screamed—Bishop barely had time to look toward Keller for approval to take out these assholes before the riots began.
But Keller shook his head no. That meant, fight them off but no more killing. And so he did. In the background, he heard shots fired to the ceiling. He was pretty sure there’d be tear gas set off at any moment if the warning shots didn’t work to calm people the fuck down.
He’d forced himself to forget that Luna was standing there, watching everything. Best that she saw what she was in for, right from the start. And once the guards jumped into the ring and yanked the LoV away, bloodied and bruised from their time with Bishop, the ref held Bishop there.
He looked into the crowd and saw more of the guards rounding up LoV members. There were more of them here tonight than Bishop was used to seeing at a fight. What the fuck was going on?
When the crowds calmed, the ref finally cleared him to leave and Bishop ducked through the ropes and walked past Luna, who’d been safe and sound the entire time, surrounded by three burly guards with guns who faced outward, trapping her in a prison for her own safety.
As Bishop went by her, she reached through the men and grabbed for his arm. Stared at him as he stared through her. Finally, the guards moved away and she said, “Bishop...”
God, he hated that she saw that. But he didn’t jerk his arm away, just let her hold him and he continued walking. She had no choice but to hang on or she’d be swallowed up by the crowd that seemed intent on following him.
And she wasn’t being deterred, calling, “Bishop,” until he finally turned and asked, “What?” and waited for her inevitable reproach.
Instead, she put her hands gently on either side of his face and she kissed him. For a second, he froze, and then he eased against her, his body seeking the comfort of hers.
Chapter Six
Bishop’s stance softened a bit after Luna kissed him. She ran a hand over his cheek and then she turned and tugged him toward the back, where the doctor was waiting to check him out.
She hadn’t seen him take many hits at all, but she wasn’t taking chances with him.
She could admit the fight shook her, but it had also turned her on. She’d seen Bishop fight before, and it had turned her on then as well. But this was such a primal show of force, and he was doing it completely on her behalf. Conquering with ease.
She just needed to make sure he wasn’t paying too high of a price. The man with the knife had worried her. She understood that Keller had allowed Bishop to take him down, that climbing into the ring armed wasn’t protocol. No one in the warehouse was supposed to be armed, and she supposed that was how Keller kept order over such large crowds.
Part of her respected that. And a larger part hated him for forcing Bishop to do his dirty work. Especially because Bishop didn’t really seem to mind.
In the back locker room, with several bodyguards milling around, a doctor looked Bishop over as Luna watched. The crowds sounded like they’d turned the post fight into a party, and occasionally, the doors rattled.
She was grateful the two burly men had locked the doors and stood in front of them, their weapons holstered but obvious.
A knock on the doors made one of them open them, and in came a light-skinned black woman who spoke sharply to the guards, who seemed to jump to.
“Who’s that?” she asked.
“Zara. She’s the sister of Keller’s woman—she’s a doctor. She’s in charge of all the medical care on the compound. She doesn’t take any shit,” the doctor looking Bishop over told her.
Luna watched her walk through the locked-down room, pointing, asking questions and finally stopping in front of them. “Bishop, are you all right?”
“Fine,” he said through gritted teeth.
“It’s a mess out there. Give it a few before you guys head out,” she advised, then turned to Luna and introduced herself. “Luna, it’s nice to meet you. Keller said you’ll be staying with us.”
“That’s true, yes.”
Zara glanced at the doctor checking Bishop out. “Why don’t you let Bishop have some privacy? It’s getting crowded in here.”
The doctor took Bishop behind the curtain and when Luna stood to go with him, Zara said, “He’ll only be a few minutes. You’re okay here. And you’re a lucky woman. But Bishop never mentioned you.”
“I never talked about him either. Trying to pretend I didn’t need a man.”
Zara looked aghast. “Honey, everyone needs a man. A vibrator can only take you so far.”
Luna laughed in spite of herself. She’d thought Zara was trying to bait her and realized that she was in fact testing Luna. “So what happened out there tonight isn’t normal?”
Zara sighed. “You know how the LoV are. Unpredictable, and they’re getting worse. But no, that’s not normal. Keller might like to have Bishop fight harder than the others, but he wouldn’t risk his life like that.”
But Keller had to know that the LoV would be after Bishop for killing their own—and killing Keller’s son at the same time. That was something Luna was having a difficult time wrapping her mind around, but she wasn’t going to share that with Zara. Instead, she asked,
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