Playing with Fire

“Shut your suck, Riviera, the men are speaking now.”

“I …” Max stuttered.

“Go clean it up,” Kade barked. “Pretty sure Mr. and Mrs. Fugly don’t want beer on their carpet just as much as they don’t want blood.”

I choked my armrests, feeling my jaw flexing. I needed to play this right, even if my natural response was to kill the bastard. Getting dragged into his hysterics would be amateur and unconstructive to the end goal.

“You might want to rethink that, Appleton,” I said serenely.

“Oh, yeah? And why’s that?” He shot me a stony glare.

I hunted my phone out of my front pocket, found what I was looking for, and held it out for him to see. He crouched forward reluctantly, watching.

It was a video of him and Shaun, launching two pit bulls at each other. The dogs ripped at each other savagely, with Kade and his manager cheering them on, laughing and making faces. There was a circle of people around the bloodied canines. You could see their faces clearly, and you could tell none of those assholes knew they were being taped.

One of the dogs plowed its teeth into the other’s neck, producing so much blood, the injured dog whimpered and plopped sideways, fighting violent spasms as it bled out. It didn’t stop the winning dog from tearing into it.

One of the pit bulls ate the other one alive, while it was crying for help.

It was so brutal, even my desensitized ass couldn’t watch it. When Kade’s ex-girlfriend agreed to send me those videos, I’d promised I would put an end to his dog-fighting days. That wasn’t a promise I intended to break. In fact, I was going to make sure that from this point forward, every time I promised someone anything, I’d see it through.

“Where’d you get this?” He sat up straight, looking alert now. He tried to snatch the phone from my hand, but I swiftly tucked it back into my pocket.

“None of your goddamn business. Now, just so we’re clear, you arranging dog fights with the human brick also known as Shaun, on top of the probation you’re on for beating up your ex-girlfriend? Yeah, that’s a big ol’ pile of offenses. Me thinks your fighting skills may be handy in prison, unless you’re fine with being everyone’s little bitch.”

“I’m not doing that anymo—”

“Spare me the bullshit. I have copies of these videos all over my cloud. These videos are recent. That’s your new gig, now that you can’t get into the ring anymore. I’ll make sure this is all over YouTube and on the sheriff’s desk by nighttime if you don’t listen very carefully. Now, I’ll ask again—half the money from the fight, plus a promise you never get close to my people. Ever. That especially applies to Grace Shaw. If I hear you as much as farted in her direction, I will kill you twenty-six times, a death for each of your birthdays. Am I clear?”

His throat worked, his jaw moving back and forth. Whatever he was stoned on had worked its way out of his system completely. He was clearheaded now and aware of the massive pile of shit I’d just dumped at his feet.

“I mean it,” I growled. “I threw one fight for you. I will not extend my good intentions beyond that. I will kill you if you harass her.”

“If I do this, I’ll want those videos back.” He stabbed his finger against the table.

Didn’t this schmuck know how the internet worked?

“I’m keeping the videos as a guarantee,” I said, point-blank.

“How do I know you won’t flip your shit on me?”

“A—because I’m a man of my word.” At least, I was going to be. I’d been shitty about keeping up with my promises. But that was about to change. “And B—because no part of me wants your newborn daughter to grow up with a daddy who’s in jail, even though that’s exactly where you belong. So if I walk away from here after being assured you’ll be getting a legal job, stop the dog fighting, provide for your ex, and leave me and mine alone, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

I sounded like the morality police, but the truth was, uncovering everything that went down in the last few years at the Plaza was going to drag all of us into shit, and deep down, I believed in second chances.

I didn’t trust Kade Appleton a hundred percent. But that was why I had Max. He was going to keep an eye on him. Make sure he was keeping up his end of this bargain.

Kade looked away. “Fine. Fuck.”

“I’ll expect that money in my mailbox in the next twelve hours. Oh, and, Kade?”

I stood up. He turned his head to face me reluctantly. My mouth quirked.

“I mean it. If I hear there was a dog fight with your name on it, or that you got anywhere near my people, I’m killing you, and that’s a promise I won’t break.”