Fuck no.
He was just nervous for Kat.
Berger was hopping beside him like he was high on cocaine. This fight meant a lot of money for him, too. The more Kat won, the bigger Berger’s cut.
And Steel was fucking sure as shit that, since they were in Vegas, Berger also had bet heavily on Kat winning. Because, for fuck’s sakes, he better not have bet on Kat losing.
If he did, that would be another good reason for Steel to twist the man’s neck like he was removing the bottle cap off a beer.
The knot in Steel’s stomach tightened when both Kat and Calamity Jayne moved to the center of the octagon.
Jesus fuck. He’d rather be kicking in doors and dodging bullets in Afghanistan right now than watching this.
The male ref stood between them saying his spiel, while the two women eyed each other up. The ref’s speech was the typical bullshit of a legal fight. Nothing like one of his underground fights where they didn’t have many, if any, standards at all. Especially the no holds barred fights, where the main goal was to leave the building alive with a fistful of cash.
The women touched gloves, went to their “corners” and then Steel just about jumped out of his skin when the bell rung, and the audience became deafening around them. Most of them chanting Jayne’s name.
Steel actually heard one asshole behind him shout, “Kill that bitch, Calamity!” which made his trigger finger itchy.
His heart practically pounded out of his chest when he heard “Fight!” yelled out.
Round one.
Steel swallowed down the bile that rose in his throat as both women approached each other from their corners, hands up and bouncing on their toes.
Right now they were fresh and full of energy but it wouldn’t take long for that to change. After a round, their own weight would get heavy.
Kat and Jayne circled each other, currently both light on their feet, watching each other carefully. Watching for any sudden moves.
The crowd noise surged with each jab, each punch as the women made contact. Then Jayne kicked high and Kat barely ducked in time.
“Focus!” Steel yelled, earning the side eye from Berger next to him.
Kat kept her fists in front of her face as she circled the larger woman. As Jayne punched with her right, Kat leaned away from it.
Berger was yelling instructions of his own, but his words were quickly swallowed up by the surrounding roar of the crowd.
Kat needed to start striking out. She needed to wear Jayne down and not wear herself down by only avoiding Jayne’s hits.
“Get her, Kat!” Steel screamed.
He wasn’t sure if she heard him, but after a few more cautious circles, she began to pummel Jayne. Giving her an uppercut to the chin, Jayne’s head snapped back and when it did, Kat pivoted on her right foot and her left leg shot out with a side kick, connecting with Jayne’s thigh. As the woman’s knee flexed involuntarily, Kat quickly regained her balance, and did her high roundhouse kick that always impressed the fuck out of him.
“Fuck yes!” Steel screamed as he watched Jayne take the hit alongside the head. But it didn’t take her down.
Kat bounced away to catch her breath, watching Jayne carefully.
It was hard to miss the surprise and the wrath on Jayne’s face. An anger which quickly turned into determination.
Steel had no doubt Jayne wanted to take Kat out in the first round. The larger woman was realizing Kat wasn’t an opponent who she could play with for a while before taking her down.
Jayne was facing serious fucking competition.
She thought Kat would be easy.
Well, fuck that. Kat wasn’t going down easy. And if it was up to Steel, she wasn’t going down at all. If anything, her arm was going up in the air at the end when she was declared the winner of this match.
While winning wasn’t supposed to be “everything,” tonight it was every-fucking-thing.
For Kat. For Steel. For—
Fuck Berger.
All week, late at night in bed, he and Kat had watched those YouTube videos of Calamity Jane’s fights over and over until Kat wanted to pull her hair out. But they broke down Jayne’s movements, her tactics, her ways to get her opponents cornered and, once there, down to the ground.
He had advised Kat, “Fuck the three rounds. Go for a KO. Knock her down and keep her there. That’s how you’ll win. She’ll get the upper hand if she gets you down first.”
Jayne was a good ground fighter, but heavy on her feet. More power than grace, which was what Kat had said about his own fighting.
After a few more circles around the cage, Jayne began to press Kat toward the fence by non-stop punching and kicking, then reaching out with her longer arms to try to get Kat in a choke hold.
Kat needed to avoid that.
Finally, the bell rang again, and the first round was over. It was the longest five minutes of Steel’s fucking life.
He might not last all fifteen himself.
His blood was humming through his veins, his muscles and joints were locked, and he wanted to jump into the cage to check on Kat. But he wasn’t allowed and if he forced his way in, she’d be disqualified.
So, he waited.
Impatiently.
Finally, Berger was back at his side.
“She okay?”
“Good.”
“Can she hear me?”
Berger shook his head at him. “She needs to listen to me, not you.”
Steel gritted his teeth and his attention went back to the octagon as the bell rang again, indicating the start of the second round.
For the next five minutes, Steel could think of nothing but Kat, how she moved, how Jayne reacted. Their kicks, their punches. Their clinches until one of them slipped free. His throat became raw with him constantly screaming out demands, commands and sometimes even suggestions.
“Protect your head.”
“She’s getting tired. Keep at her!”
“Stay on your feet.”
“That’s it, Kat. Fucking knee her.”
“Yeah! That’s it, baby!”
“Fuck!”
Half the time he had no idea what he was even saying, he was so caught up with the action in the ring.
Jayne attempted to get Kat into a clinch over and over, but between the slipperiness of their sweat and Kat’s skills, she was luckily unsuccessful.
When the ending bell of round two rang out, Steel breathed a little easier.
Kat had blood coming from a cut above her right eye. She had blood running from the corner of her mouth and discoloring her mouthguard. Her left eye was already swollen and turning an ugly shade of purple. Red marks, which would turn to bruises, marked her ribs and her legs.
But she was still standing. Still determined to win. Even as exhausted as she looked.
Steel’s eyes sliced across the cage to Jayne on the other side of the ring. Kat’s opponent didn’t look much better.
In fact, she was talking angrily with her trainer or manager, or whoever the fuck was leaning over her.
Fuck yes, Jayne had not expected Kat’s will to win.
Steel grinned.
Even if she lost, Kat had won. Kat might not see it as that at first, but Steel would make sure to convince her.
She had held her own with two rounds of going head to head with a well-known, undefeated champion who was bigger than her.
And that right there was a huge win.
The bell for the third round rang out and Steel’s body went solid once again as the two tired women approached each other. Neither light on the feet any longer. Both ready to get this over with.
So the fuck was he.
Heartburn seared his chest.
But it was almost over. If she couldn’t take Jayne down, all Kat had to do is last five more minutes. Just five. Then it would be up to the judges to choose the winner.
Surprisingly, when Jayne lobbed a few punches at Kat, they looked sloppy. That gave Steel hope.
&n
bsp; Until he realized it was Jayne’s ploy. She was messing with Kat, who had also believed Jayne was weakening so moved in closer.
And because of that, Jayne’s foot made contact with the side of Kat’s head.
Steel yelled out a searing curse as Kat stumbled backward, almost lost her balance but barely caught it in the end.
It would have been over if Kat went down. Jayne would’ve finished her off.
Instead, Kat moved away, recovered for a few seconds, then went back at Jayne in the center of the ring.
She bounced a few times on her toes, faked left, then struck right, nailing Jayne right in the jaw. She followed with a left uppercut, then stepped back and found enough energy to do her high roundhouse kick, cracking Jayne upside the temple.
Steel’s jaw had to be on the floor as he watched Jayne crumble to her knees but still remain upright.
Kat executed a perfect spinning back-kick, which took Jayne almost to the ground. But before Jayne completely hit the mat, Kat grabbed Jayne’s head and kneed her a good one, busting the woman’s nose and knocking her out cold.
Once Jayne was flat on her back, Kat straddled her, cocking her arm back for another punch but the ref pulled her off and flung her out of the way to check on Jayne.
Then the ref stood and called the fight over.
Kat won by a knockout.
A fucking knockout.
Holy fucking shit.
It was over.
She fucking did it.
She fucking won and she did it like a champ.
Berger shoved past him and into the cage while Steel struggled to keep himself where he was.
He could barely hear himself screaming along with the rest of the crowd. Only he was celebrating. The rest—all the doubters—were not.
Like at the underground fight, there was a lot of money lost. Millions this time.
He didn’t give a flying fuck.
Steel watched as Jayne, with assistance from her manager, and Kat stood once again in the middle of the octagon with the ref between them.
Then the announcement filled the arena. Kat Callahan was officially declared the winner.
From where Steel stood, he could see a couple tears escape her eyes and mix with the blood running down her face, but she quickly brushed that proof of emotion and, most likely relief, away.
She was struggling to keep her shit together, but then so was Steel. His chest swelled with pride and he couldn’t wait to hold her.
He got to do that not a minute later as Berger escorted her from the cage and out.
Steel bumped Berger out of the way, grabbed Kat’s arm and quickly guided her through the wound-up crowd, back into the tunnel and to her private locker room.
As soon as he got her back inside, he closed the door and locked Berger out.
He turned and they stared at each other, both of them still breathing heavily.
With her eyes not leaving his, he approached and reached out to swipe the blood from her cuts with his finger. Then he streaked it across her forehead, gathered some more, and slowly painted two lines diagonally down both cheeks.
When he stepped back, he whispered, “You’re a fucking warrior.”
She was sweaty, bloody, her damp hair plastered to her scalp, but he didn’t give a fuck. He grabbed her face and crushed his lips to hers, tasting her blood, sweat and determination.
It was a heady combination.
But he didn’t want to aggravate the cut on her mouth, so he began to retreat, until she stopped him by wrapping a hand around his head and pulling him back down, kissing him even harder.
A few moments later, she shoved him away and, with their gazes pinned, she yanked her sports bra over her head and shoved her shorts and underwear down to her ankles.
Fuck, she was the most goddamn beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
Perfect.
Even bruised, sweaty and bleeding.
This woman did not need fancy clothes, makeup or high heels to turn him on. It was the gleam in her eye, along with her honed body and sharp mind that drove him nuts.
No other woman compared.
Not fucking one.
“I need a shower,” she murmured, her voice husky with emotion.
Yeah, she did. But he’d take her just as she was. No complaints.
“Need help to wash your back?” he asked.
“Need more than that.”
“I might be able to accommodate,” he said.
Her lips twitched just slightly. “That would be good.”
“I think, Kitty Kat, it will be more than good.”
“I’ll go start the shower while you strip down and unstrap your arsenal of weapons.”
“That would be good,” he echoed her.
“More than good,” she whispered and disappeared into the shower area of the small locker room.
As soon as he heard the water run, he snapped into action, yanking off his boots, his clothes, his guns and knife, before double-checking to make sure the door was locked.
Then he joined Kat in the shower. And it was a long one.
An hour later, he was finishing lacing up his boots and waiting for a text from Paranzino confirming the jet was fueled and ready to go when they heard a pounding on the locker room door.
His eyes sliced to Kat, who was still getting dressed because she was moving much slower than him due to exhaustion and her body taking a pounding. Not only from Calamity Jayne but from him.
That last part should make him grin, but instead the interruption made him growl, “I got it. You finish getting ready. As soon as you are, we’re heading home.”
It did not escape him that Kat lifted a dark eyebrow sharply when he mentioned “home.”
He unlocked the door and slipped out, shutting it firmly behind him to face Berger, a look of impatience clearly on the man’s face.
Too fucking bad.
Kat’s manager handed him an envelope.
“Have you been out here the whole fucking time?” Steel growled, accepting it reluctantly.
Berger simply gave him a look, which was easy to read. He had and he’d probably heard. Not that Steel was surprised, but still...
He glanced down at what Berger handed him. “What’s in the envelope?”
“Her locker room bonus. Apparently the organizer was very happy with her performance.”
Well, no fucking shit. Her “performance” was stellar. One for the record books.
“Locker room bonus?” Steel already gave Kat her “locker room bonus.”
“Just give it to her.”
“We’re out, Berger. From here, we’re on a plane and heading...” Steel shook his head. “Heading somewhere safe. I’ll text you when we arrive and everything will be on a need-to-know basis until that fucker is caught. You get me?”
Berger’s face tightened, but after a moment, he nodded. “I hear you.”
“I’m going to find him since the cops haven’t done shit.”
Berger frowned. “You need to guard her, that’s what we’re paying you for.”
“She’ll be in good hands.”
Berger jerked his chin toward the closed door behind Steel, who was blocking it from Kat’s manager. “Yeah, sounded like it.” He sighed and slid a hand through his blond hair. “Just keep her safe.”
“You got my promise on that.”
Berger nodded, hesitated, then stuck out his hand.
Steel stared at it for a moment, confused. What the fuck? He reluctantly took Berger’s hand in a tight grip and shook it.
“She won because of you.”
Jesus fuck, that had to kill Berger to admit.
Steel dropped his hand and leaned forward. “Kat won because of Kat.”
Berger tilted his head, stared at Steel for a moment, then nodded once more. “Right. Text me when you get wherever you’re going. And keep me updated. I’ll do the same on my end if I hear anything on the investigation. I’m heading home to LA for now.” With that, Kat’s manager turned
and headed down the corridor toward the exit.
Steel turned, too, but to face the door. As he shoved it open, he hoped Kat was ready. They had a plane to catch.
Chapter Fourteen
Kat wandered through the first floor of the large, expensively furnished house. She had no idea who owned it, but it was quiet and Steel said no one lived there. So that meant it wasn’t his.
His matte army-green, military-looking Jeep had been waiting in the short term parking lot when they landed at the Pittsburgh airport and he had quickly taken them from there south, through a remote-controlled gate to this house toward the rear of the enclosed neighborhood.
He informed her as they drove through the quiet streets that the “compound” was full of bikers who had built the neighborhood to keep their families close and safe, and some of his fellow “Shadows” also lived within the walled community.
It was secure and he sounded confident that “H” couldn’t find her there.
She wasn’t so confident.
For being a biker compound, she was surprised at how it looked like some upper-middle class neighborhood.
Instead of MC members, you’d think bankers, lawyers and doctors lived behind the closed doors of the large, beautiful homes with well-maintained yards and three car garages.
Weird.
He also said a cop and his wife lived in the compound, which surprised the shit out of her. What little she knew about MC’s, she didn’t think bikers and cops mixed.
At least not without bloodshed.
But, even so, they had a place to stay for a while until her stalker was caught by police and she could head back home to LA.
Home to LA.
It had been so long since she’d been home, she was starting not to miss it. California was great, but expensive, and her money would go much farther somewhere else.
She was pretty sure the mortgage on her small condo was more than the mortgage on two of the large homes in the neighborhood they were currently in.
With a sigh, she returned to the kitchen, the last place she’d seen Steel, who had been making several calls. From what it sounded like, notifying his teammates of their current status.
As she sidled up to him, his brown eyes landed on her and his mention of “finding that fucker” trailed off.
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