Playing with Fire

“You’re killing him! West, stop! Please! Lord, stop this!”

Her arms wrapped around my neck, pulling me away from the bastard. She collapsed on top of me, her forehead sticking to mine. Our hair matted together with sweat. She was sobbing.

I pushed to my feet and gathered her into a hug, kissing her cap.

I knew she was frightened, and that a huge reason for that was my reaction. The guy underneath me was unconscious—maybe dead—lying in a pond of his own blood. The other guy was grousing, reaching for his phone.

I kissed the tip of her nose.

“Gimme one sec.”

I turned around and walked over to the moaning attacker, pressing my boot over his fingers around his phone and hearing them snap. He wailed. I tore the ski mask from his face in one go. Two brown eyes blinked back at me. I recognized the guy. He’d been with Appleton’s entourage the night we’d fought.

Taking off the other guy’s mask would achieve nothing, other than freaking Grace out even more. I already knew who they were and why they came here.

The man shook all over, his teeth chattering. I leaned forward, whispering in his ear, “Tell your boss I said hi, take your fucking friend with you, and never, ever come back.”

I threw the ski mask over his face, turning around back to Grace to give them time to get the hell out. Having them here when she called the police—and she undoubtedly was going to do that—wouldn’t do me any good. Just uncover my list of highly illegal actions, including the fight I was still preparing for.

Grace struggled in my arms. “Wait, let me get my phone. I need to …”

I held her tighter. “You need to calm down first.”

Idiot One carried Idiot Two out to the dark, his uneven stumbles on the gravel giving away the fact they were both going to be in crutches tomorrow morning.

“We should call the police.” Grace frowned, fighting against my grip.

“You sure?” I bought more time, letting them run away. “They didn’t take a dime.”

“Are you kiddin’? We have to tell the cops. Or at the very least bring it to Mrs. Contreras and Karlie and see what they want to do about it. Look at you. You’re all banged up.”

“Baby.” I took her hand in mine. The floor was slippery with blood. The place was going to be a bitch to clean up. “They were just a couple punks looking for trouble.”

“They had a gun, West.”

“They didn’t use it.”

“They shot your shoulder.”

I glanced down at my shoulder, pulling at my collar to see the damage. The skin was red and angry, but my guess was the bullet hadn’t even grazed my flesh properly. It was just heat.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not takin’ this seriously. Is there something you know about this that I don’t?” Her eyes narrowed at me.

The more she knew about Appleton and his doings, the more she was involved. And she couldn’t be involved. It was my shit to fix. From now on, I was going to keep the thing with Grace even more under wraps. Both for my sanity and her safety.

Canceling the fight wasn’t an option anymore, but as long as Appleton didn’t know of her existence, he couldn’t hurt her.

I was going to see it through, thrash the jackass, take the money, and push him out of my life for good.

“You’re right. Let’s tell Karlie and Mrs. Contreras. They need to know.”

By the time I said that, the bastards were gone anyway.

It was just semantics.

But it bought me more time.

A couple hours later, I was in Grace’s room, freshly showered. That wooden chair Texas had put in the shower for her grandmother turned out to be mighty handy tonight. Every muscle in my body screamed in pain when the scorching needles of water pounded over my flesh.

I lay down half-naked on her bed, which smelled like honey and shampoo and her pure, unique scent, texting Reign and East in a group chat. There was no point adding Max. Sucker was about as helpful as a bag of Skittles during Armageddon.

East: It’s Appleton. Of course he’s behind this. It’s got his name all over this kind of operation. I told you not to take the first fight, @West.

Reign: You can’t not-retaliate. You’re going to look weak.

East: @Reign are you high?

Reign: Of course I’m high. We’re off-season. What kind of question is that?

East: Why poke the bear?

Reign: Because it’s already wide awake and tried to put its dick in West’s wife.

Reign: (I’m paraphrasing here, West. Nobody is trying to put their dick in Grace. Thought I’d clarify, since you’re supremely pussy-whipped these days).

There was nothing I wanted more than to go directly to Kade Appleton’s house and smash everything within sight, including his goddamn face. As it happened, I couldn’t even TP his front yard. I couldn’t do jack shit. I needed to keep my head down and make sure Grace remained a secret.