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“I’ll fucking take that bet,” Matthias called out, sticking with his brother for the win.

“Drago can take him,” Leo spoke his first words of the night.

Cassius shook his head at him. “Not a fucking chance.”

“Maybe we should call it a night, Maria.” Kat was clearly trying to stop the fight.

Maria sympathized with Katarina’s dilemma. She was on the losing side, whichever man won. But Maria knew Dominic would enjoy getting a few shots in on Drago for choosing his sister for his revenge and without any consequences from Lucca. This was her present to Dominic, now that she thought about it.

“One …” Maria began the countdown before Kat could convince her husband to pull out.

The two men stared at each other without moving.

“Two …” Maria’s throat went dry in anticipation. She just hoped she wouldn’t regret this. “Three.”

The men began circling each other, waiting for the other to strike first. Maria finally had to blink, and as soon as she did, that was when they struck.

Both men had their arms wrapped around the other, and she could see their muscles straining as both tried to gain the advantage. Arms straining, they broke apart to circle each other again, each looking for a weakness to hit. Drago went first with a left hook to Dominic’s ribs, and Dom countered, swinging his fist out to plant an undercut blow right below Drago’s chin.

“No face punches!” Kat reminded her brother.

“Technically, below the chin isn’t the face; it’s the throat,” Maria told her as they both held each other’s hands tightly.

Drago returned the punch with a right hook to Dominic’s cheekbone while he shielded his ribs with his right hand.

“We said no face punches!” Maria hissed now.

“They really wouldn’t hurt each other, would they?” Kat asked anxiously.

“I’m sure they won’t …” Maria tried to lie to herself, hating that she encouraged this. Well, at least on the night before her wedding.

During the next series of hits the men traded, neither man grimaced nor made a noise of pain, each taking the hit and coming back stronger.

Kat squeaked in fear when Dom’s knuckles split Drago’s lip and blood formed around his mouth.

The blood loss didn’t make Drago lose his temper. Instead, the man went left then right before he grabbed Dominic by the waist to lift him off his feet and throw them down on the ground.

Maria let out a light scream as she would have sworn she had watched it in slow motion. Thinking he would be dead from them both being huge and falling to the ground, she was surprised when Dominic wasn’t fazed and had maneuvered himself on top of Drago somehow.

“That’s enough!” Maria screeched out, standing. She and everyone else in there could see the only way the fight was going to end was in death. Mentally both men didn’t know how to give up, and their bodies weren’t willing to either.

Dominic reared his fist back, not wavering at her words, while the grip Drago had on Dom’s neck seized.

After a tense moment, Dom got off him, then held out a hand to help his brother-in-law to his feet. Drago took it.

“Great, a tie,” Matthias ground out, staring at the money he had hoped would be in his hands, as he watched Nero put it back in his wallet. “My brother has disappointed me yet again.”

“Okay, put the furniture back,” Maria ordered, not wanting to take any more chances with Dominic’s face.

Going to him, Maria touched his swelling cheekbone. “I thought I said no going for the face?” Maria hissed over the moving furniture to Drago, who was getting looked over by Kat.

“It’s fine, Maria,” Dom assured her with a laugh. “I did throw the cheap shot first.”

“No, you hit under his chin.” Snatching the peas from Vincent’s broken nose as he passed, she placed it on Dom’s cheek where it was more important. “Now look at what you did to his face, and our wedding’s tomorrow.”

“Well, I got shot at mine,” Drago reminded her as he wiped the blood from his mouth. “It’ll make for a great memory.”

Rolling her eyes, she went back to Dom’s poor face. She had to admit, somehow, the man only looked hotter. Maria swiped her tongue over her bottom lip. “You know … I would have said yes a lot sooner if I’d known you could do that.”

“I’m out,” Nero said, grabbing Elle’s hand after the furniture had been put back. “This is still too fucking weird for me.”

Everyone was slightly scared by the hot glances between the soon to be married couple. It had them all wanting to leave.

“Hey.” Vincent stopped them before anyone could leave to ask the question that could put him in his grave. “How come you didn’t offer to fight him, Lucca?”

Everyone went deathly silent, waiting for the boogieman’s verbal or physical response to the idiot. All of them assumed they were about to witness a murder; even Chloe stood nervously beside him. What none of them expected was the underboss’s simple response.