Page 12 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series
“Yeah, the Enforcer teams sometimes recruit there for high-level positions that are closer to the Family. Kids with the right pedigree and all that.”
“Lame. Well, gotta go.”
Mari stomped out of my closet in a huff. “I thought surely you would have something appropriately skanky to wear to this thing.”
I barked out a laugh. “Why, because I’m from Southside?”
“Um, no, because you’re eighteen and you’re smoking hot. Why aren’t you showing it off?”
“Is skanky the dress code?”
She quirked an eyebrow at me. “Isn’t it always, around here?”
Half an hour later, I was dressed in a black crop top and some high-waisted denim cutoff shorts that only just covered my ass. I wore comfy purple high-top sneakers, and Mari had curled my hair—making me glad I’d just freshly dyed it yesterday along with my eyebrows.
She had on a tiny skirt and a slinky silk top along with heels that probably cost more than the average rent in Southside. I followed her dutifully across campus and up to the basketball gym on the far north side.
“Are we going to get shit for showing our faces at a school event?” I asked, not really caring but needing to gauge how much bullshit to prepare for.
She scoffed. “Has anyone given you actual shit when you’re with me?”
“Nope,” I replied, grinning. “You do come in handy.”
We entered the gym to find it dimly lit save for the single large light fixture hanging from the ceiling that beamed its yellowy light down on a makeshift ring in the middle of the basketball court.
The ring was comprised of a spacious area covered in thick sparring mats and enclosed by a circle of rowdy, mostly shirtless guys.
The stands were dotted with clusters of students shouting, cheering, and chatting excitedly amongst themselves. There were certainly a lot of girls here, each decked out like they were going to the club instead of watching dudes punch the shit out of each other in a sweaty gym.
Mari and I snuck onto the third row of a mostly empty bleacher near the entrance. We’d made it just in time to see Chad, sweaty and shirtless, his thick body inflated with muscle, as he slammed his hammy fists into another guy’s face.
“Winner, Hendrickson!” Dane shouted into a bullhorn from his spot on the corner of the mat.
His ginger hair shone under the gym light, and he had a whistle around his neck and a clipboard clasped in his other hand, so I supposed he was the master of ceremonies this evening.
When Chad threw another punch into the barely conscious boy’s face, Dane yelled, “Chad! He’s done, for Christ’s sake. ”
Chad finally bounced away from the guy, pumping his fists and crowing his victory. I watched him eye a group of girls in the stands near him before he decided to make a lewd gesture at them, causing them to gasp and giggle.
I vowed then that someday I would beat some respect for women—and people in general, really—into Chad Hendrickson.
“Up next, your main event!” Dane’s falsetto blasted through the bullhorn. “In this corner, we have last summer’s champion, John Tyler Ashmore!”
John Tyler stepped into the “ring,” shaking out his shoulders and bouncing on his toes, a determined look on his face.
The Ashmores were a Tier Two family, wealthy but not rub-elbows-with-the-Families wealthy, so it made some sense that John Tyler would try to make a name for himself in something like this.
He was huge, with the build of a linebacker, and I bet his punches hurt like a bitch.
I didn’t envy whoever was getting in the ring against him.
Dane got back on his horn. “And challenging JT is… the One. The Only. Your Ferrero Family Heir, Zachary!”
I jumped to my feet without a thought, my body moving on its own, and I stood on my seat to get a better view of my ex-best friend as he sauntered into the ring.
Bennett and Noah appeared behind him in their business casual, taking their places near his corner and effectively clearing the space of any other bodies.
They crossed their arms and looked on like they were here to make sure no bullshit was perpetrated against their boy.
Mari popped up next to me, balancing precariously on her stilettos. “Good idea. The Heirs rarely come to these—I guess it was time for them to blow off steam.”
“Them?” I asked as my eyes tracked Zach’s movements around the mat.
“I’ve heard Bennett fights. I don’t know about Noah.”
Interesting. Dom had always believed we should expect the Heirs to be well-trained because they absolutely had the resources to be, and they’d borne witness to exactly what can happen when one of the Families is caught unaware.
And now I would get to see their skills for myself.
John Tyler watched Zach with a blank look, and if he was nervous, he didn’t show it. Zach chose the next moment to rip his tight black T-shirt over his head, leaving him standing there in tiny training shorts and nothing else.
I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry as the desert.
Zach was fucking beautiful.
His olive-toned skin was covered in colorful tattoos, sleeves of geometric patterns wrapping around his biceps and spreading across his broad, defined chest. The light caught the muscles in his torso just right, highlighting every ridge of his eight-pack and the deep V-cut of his Adonis belt before it disappeared into his shorts.
I couldn’t believe that was my scrawny, messy-headed former best friend.
“Weapons?” John Tyler asked, his voice matter-of-fact as it projected through the gym, and his question surprised me.
Zach barked out a laugh. “Ambitious of you, JT. Not this time. I’m feeling like using my fists tonight.”
Then Dane blew the whistle, and they were on each other.
I watched in equal parts awe and creeping dread as Zach beat the absolute shit out of John Tyler, who was several inches taller than Zach and probably had twenty pounds of muscle on him. Zach was on par with the best fighters I’d ever seen go through Dom’s gym, including Max.
He would make a formidable opponent.
John Tyler finally tapped out, bleeding profusely from both his nose and a cut in his head, as Zach had him pinned to the mat and was choking the life out of him. Dane blew the whistle and called the fight for Zach.
The crowd roared, the girls screamed, and Zach beamed that cocky smile around the stands while he threw his arms out wide like he was the fucking Gladiator.
When his dark eyes swept over where Mari and I stood, he paused, and I watched as he dragged his gaze slowly down the length of my long bare legs and then back up my body until our eyes met.
He winked at me, and then he was back in his corner with Bennett and Noah, whom I had no doubt saw exactly where Zach’s attention had snagged.
I only hoped no one else saw it, or else the target on my back was about to get even bigger, and I had shit to do.