Reese

He takes my hand and pulls me toward the door. I turn and look in the mirror briefly, catching the shell-shocked look in my eyes, and shake it off. There will be time later to fall apart. Right now, I need to get my shit together.

“Okay, let’s do this.”

He pulls the door open, and we walk out, almost colliding with Law, who is looking around frantically.

He relaxes when he sees us. “Jesus, I thought something happened.” His eyes drift to my side, his face going hard.

“I’m fine, Law, promise. I’m going to patch myself up. You need to focus on your fight. Look, I should warn you, your opponent may very well be a woman.” I don’t want him to be shocked like Graves was.

His eyes sweep over me again, his hands fisting at his sides as he figures out rather quickly that I know this because I fought a man in my match.

“Shit, where’s Graves?” Law looks around.

“He left. Blink went after him. It was…we’ll talk about it afterward. He’s through to the next round, so let’s just focus on you right now. Can you do this?”

“It goes against my nature, but I’ve had to deal with combative women in the line of duty before. I know what I have to do. I just, fuck.”

“What is it?”

He steps forward and cups my cheek. “Can you not watch? I know it’s stupid, but I don’t want the image of me with my hands on another woman in your head.”

“Law—”

“Please?”

I close my eyes and nod, feeling his lips against my brow. “Okay. If that’s what you need, you got it.”

We pause when we hear Law’s name announced over the speaker system.

“Go. Take Vega with you.”

Both protest, but I lift my hand and stop them. “I’m going to go get patched up. But I need to know Law has someone in his corner. Please, I’ll stay there until you come find me.”

“Fine,” Vega agrees reluctantly.

They turn and kiss me before they leave, and I stay where I am until they are out of sight before heading up to the first aid area.

A few of the fighters are getting patched up. Some have their team around them, and others are alone, like me. I take one of the empty beds near the back of the room and lie down on it, my brain needing a second to go over everything that’s happened tonight. Not that it helps. I could think about it for a week, and it still wouldn’t be enough time to process everything.

Fingertips on my stomach have my eyes snapping open and my hand closing around his wrist before it’s even a conscious thought.

A heavily tattooed fighter with a blinged-out set of teeth grins down at me in what I’m sure he thinks is a sexy expression, but instead, it screams sexual predator.

“Easy, kitten.” He grins.

“Touch me again and I’ll claw your fucking face off. What do you want?” I don’t release him, and my words only seem to spur him on.

“We’re looking for a little lady to join our team. Seems you might be in need of a man or two,” he states, looking around. Something tells me he’s not talking about a fighting team as much as a team that might like to gang bang me..

“Pass. I already have a team.”

I let go of his wrist and close my eyes again, flinging one arm over my forehead to effectively block out both him and the overly bright strip lighting.

Naturally, he doesn’t get the hint, and he doesn’t move away. He hovers next to me, and I can feel his eyes moving over my body in a salacious way, making me feel like a scummy film is being left behind.

When I feel his fingers lightly graze my nipple, I reach for his offending digits and bend them backward, making him yelp. I don’t let go until I feel a snap.

“You fucking bitch!” he yells, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.