Reese

“I will always be the one who asks the hard questions. It’s who I am, but it doesn’t mean I won’t listen. If you say this Sugar is clean, then she’s clean. Not because I’m willing to put my blind faith in this woman, but because I’m willing to put it in you.”

His eyes move over my naked body. His large hand splayed on my stomach and trails down to my hip as he pulls back so that he can look at my pussy.

“We are going to have a lot of shit to wade through, but none of that matters. We can deal with the day-to-day stuff as long as I get to bury myself inside you at night.”

His fingers slip over my clit as he swirls them around in his cum before he pushes them inside me.

“Fuck, I’ve never seen anything sexier in my life than you dripping with my cum,” he growls as he pulls his fingers free, gathers more of his cum, and pushes it inside me.

“Law,” I whimper, my fingers reaching for him. I press my hand to the side of his face and watch as he subconsciously leans into it.

“I overreacted. And, well, I won’t say sorry because that implies I won’t do it again. But you have to know that my girls are a trigger for me. I’m protective of them and—”

He turns his head and presses a kiss to the palm of my hand. “I’ll think before I speak next time. It doesn’t matter that I’m not a cop anymore. I can’t just switch off how my brain works, not yet, but hopefully, in the future, I’ll be able to.”

“I shouldn’t have said what I said about you not being a cop anymore. I was being a bitch.”

“I hurt you. You wanted to hurt me back. The difference is that nothing you said was untrue. I’m okay, Mal, really. I made peace with it all a long time ago. Not so much with what happened. I don’t think it’s possible to ever make peace with something like that. But with everything that happened after? Yeah, I’m okay.”

The sound of the doorknob turning has us both whipping around to see the door we forgot to lock swing wide open.

Vega steps through with his cell to his ear, freezing when he catches sight of us. Slowly, one eyebrow raises as a smirk appears on his face.

“Yeah, I found him.” He pauses while the person on the other end of the line says something.

“No. He’s not in the changing room. He’s in Malice.”

* * *

“You sure you’re up for this?”

Blink looks at Graves before moving to Law.

After getting caught by a far too amused Vega, I scrambled to get cleaned up and dressed. Law took a more leisurely pace, clearly not bothered in the slightest about getting caught.

When I walked into the gym afterward, it was to knowing looks from Graves and Blink. I flipped them off, much to their amusement, before taking my embarrassment out on one of the bags in the corner.

After waiting for the last of the gym-goers to leave, Blink gets around to the whole reason he sent Vega to find us.

“I know Vega spoke to you already, Graves, but that was then, and this is now. We have to be sure.”

Graves nods. “My answer is the same. I’d rather be in the ring protecting Mal’s back than watching her from the sidelines and feel fucking helpless to do anything.”

“And you?” Blink asks Law. “I’ve seen you fight, and you’re good, real good. I know this is all new to you. But if we train hard, we can—”

I cut Blink off. “No.” I shake my head, drawing everyone’s attention.

“I can do this, Mal,” Law states sharply.

“I’m not saying you can’t. I’m saying I think we should bring you in but use you in a slightly different way.”

“Like what? The fucking towel boy?”

“Law,” Vega warns. Law grunts but backs down.

“We need to find those missing kids and Mick and all the others. That’s the whole point of this, right? This will be the only shot we get. But it won’t help us any if you are in the ring and can’t question anyone or do some snooping.”

“I see where you’re going with this. You want him down on the card as our fifth fighter. But as long as we fight with four, including you in the final fight, we don’t actually need him in play.” Graves nods, on board with what I’m saying.

“I could do that. People will be more willing to talk too if they assume I’m another fighter,” Law agrees.

“How many fights does he have to fight in to be considered an active member of the team?” Blink asks Vega.

“If he gets through the qualifying match, that’s it. We can tag him in if one of us needs a break. Except for you, Mal. Sorry, Duchess. But otherwise, he can be on the team without actually being on the team.”

“That works. We just need to prep you for the first fight.”

“Sounds easy enough,” Graves says, nodding.

I turn and look out the window at the darkening night sky with an impending sense of doom. I know if something seems too easy, it usually is. With no other options, we’ll have to play it this way and pray to God that we’re not all walking into a trap.