Page 32 of A Love Most Brutal (Morelli Family #2)
MAXIM
Mary walks in front of me, her hair in two tight braids that sway lightly over her back, and Sasha follows behind me carrying the backpack she brought.
Mary pushes open metal doors that have LEROY’S painted in neon green across them, and it takes all of five seconds for me to understand just where we are.
A Garza fight night.
The plan Marianna didn’t want to tell me about was the fucking underground fighting ring .
The crowd is full of young people with mismatched beers and red cups in their hands, some smoking cigarettes, others pot, and I know the stench will linger in our clothes after we leave.
At one glance at us, people begin to move out of our way.
They look with a sort of reverent awe at Marianna and surprise at me.
I do illegal shit as often as anyone else, and of course I’ve been to a handful of fight nights that the Garzas put on at different locations around Boston, but not for years now, not since the first night I saw the Morelli Shadow all grown up.
The thought of her frequenting these ever since should be less surprising to me than it is.
I wrap an arm around my wife’s shoulder, tugging her closer to me, and she acts well enough that this doesn’t bother her, even snaking an arm around my waist. She wears a black cropped T-shirt and spandex shorts. Not her usual going out clothes, but?—
My breath catches, realizing too late what she’s planning to do.
I lean to her ear. “What are we doing here? Do not say you are fighting.”
“Okay, I won’t say that.” She surprises me by pressing her lips to my cheek. I would love to read into the action, but that train of thought stops as I see just who we are walking toward.
In clusters of chairs, smoking and drinking, I see big heads from the Garzas, and my eyes narrow on Nikolai . My cousin sits looking all too chummy with gangsters he previously claimed to hate, and a woman that is most definitely not his latest girlfriend perched on his leg.
His eyes darken when he spots us.
“I need you to follow my lead,” Marianna says.
“Orlov!” Garza shouts with a drunken sort of cheer. He is always cheerful, and it makes the bastard all the more terrifying. He’ll tell his men to slash X’s into necks with a smile, and is powerful not just in Boston, but all over the East Coast. “It’s been too long since you joined us here.”
“All work and no fun, you know,” I say and look down at Marianna, who isn’t smiling but has a pleasantness about her face, which is more than can be said usually. “You’ve met Mary, I presume.”
“Of course,” Marianna nods. “Good to see you, Garza.”
“My congratulations are in order. I hear from your sister that it was a beautiful wedding,” he tells Marianna.
It shouldn’t surprise me that Vanessa works with the Garzas. She is social and clever, eager to build bridges instead of stomping on the ashes from bridges long since burnt.
“Would be hard not to have a beautiful wedding with such a . . .charming bride,” Nikolai says, and Marianna does something worse than glare at his obvious insult: she ignores him completely, softly smiling instead at Garza.
“It was wonderful, thank you. And thank you for having us.”
“I don’t remember seeing your name on the list, cousin. Are you fighting?” Nikolai asks, though it’s obvious neither of us are fighting tonight, him in his garish couture outfit, and me in my usual business attire.
“I invited them,” a man says from behind Garza. I recognize him as the youngest Garza boy—Santiago? He winks at my wife. “Hi, Mary.”
I pull her tighter to my side.
“Good to see you, Santi,” she says, a smirk pressing up her cheeks now, the kind she gives out to so few.
Santi ? Winking and nicknaming with him? He’s the prettiest of all the Garza boys, and probably the same age as Marianna. They obviously know each other, but in what capacity I don’t wish to infer.
“Who’s fighting next?” I ask to head off any more conversation between those two. No one misses a beat.
“Nikolai’s best guy against mine,” Garza says, his chest puffed up and grinning.
By Nikolai’s best guy, I assume he means Ivan, who Nikolai has pulled rank on and used more as a punching bag than a friend since they were teens.
Ivan is massive and mean . He won’t fight fair nor clean, especially not here.
“That’s what I came to tell you,” Santi cuts in, “Carlitos got hurt, he can’t fight.”
Garza’s excited face instantly falls into anger. He throws his hands in the air. “No!”
“I can fight,” Marianna chimes in before he can fume too much, and my heart plummets into my stomach. I must have gone rigid because Marianna pinches my side hard while still looking at the group.
Garza gasps at the idea and stands. “Morelli’s princessa out of retirement? For me?”
“It wasn’t retirement so much as. . .injured reserve,” she says, the most outwardly charming I’ve ever seen her. She’s a natural. And princessa is new. Garza has a fondness for Marianna, probably because of all the money she’s made him here.
“Wonderful!” He booms and laughs.
I am ready to offer myself or Sasha for the task when Nikolai has to open his damn mouth.
“You’d let your woman fight?” Nikolai demands, the woman on his lap discarded. He sounds disgusted but the look on his face is apprehension. He knows my wife’s reputation then.
If I had my way, I most certainly would not let her fight, but I won’t let Nikolai make her look foolish. Plus, if the last month has shown anything it’s just how little control I have over any of her whims.
“Afraid she’ll beat your best man, Niko?” I taunt, and the group whoops and oohs at the gauntlet thrown down with my words. “She can more than handle herself.”
Marianna stands taller, her smile reaching her eyes.
“My champion,” Garza says, and practically shakes with excitement. “Let’s begin!”
At the side of the ring, the place is absolutely buzzing. Santiago Garza got onto the mat and in all his charisma and bravado, announced the change in the lineup, urging people to place their bets in the next few minutes before the fight begins.
Music thrums through speakers, overstimulating my mind which imagines my wife injured again , this time with an audience jeering. I knew she would be the death of me, I just didn’t anticipate that death to come from stress and heart failure.
Marianna deftly twines her hands with the black wraps she pulled from the backpack Sasha held for her.
On the opposite corner, Nikolai stands with Ivan, who jumps on the balls of his feet and shakes his head like a feral beast preparing to attack.
Sasha meets my eyes over her head, quietly concerned.
“Look murderous all you like, but do not look surprised when I win,” she says while rolling her neck side to side.
I will murder Ivan if he hurts her; the man hurts for sport, this would be just the reason I need.
“I would say I can’t believe you would do something this reckless, but that would be a lie,” I say, just for her ears.
It was unkind, almost cruel, but she anticipated I would be angry at this plan and she was correct.
“How am I supposed to keep you safe if you keep willfully putting yourself in dangerous situations?”
I am careful to not look like I am scolding her, the last thing we need is for me to look like I don’t support her in this.
Santiago’s voice booms over the speakers asking who is ready for fight, met with the crowd’s excitement.
Marianna swings her arms back and forth while jogging in place. With her shirt discarded, her tight muscles are on display along with the scar from where she was shot last year. “I need you to pretend you trust me. Kiss me and look a little less like you’re going to kill him, husband.”
She pulls my neck down until my lips fit over hers in a brief but searing kiss. It’s not enough to distract me, but it grounds me enough to get my expression in check.
“Better,” she says. She’s about to pull away from me, but I hold both hands on her shoulders before unclasping her necklace and letting it fall into my hand. She watches me stow it in my shirt pocket where she deposited her diamond ring, and nods. “Thank you.”
She takes the mouth guard from Sasha’s palm and fits it over her teeth. Safety first for at least her dental health, I suppose.
Sasha helps pull her gloves on and slaps her bare shoulder in encouragement. She grins as wide as she can with the flexible plastic beneath her lips.
Nikolai’s fighter has joined Santiago in the ring and the energy in the room ratchets up audibly as Marianna climbs up to meet them. Ivan laughs a theatrical belly laugh at the sight of her, but Nikolai’s eyes betray him once again. He’s seen her fight.
I don’t sit next to Garza and his people, instead keeping my place next to the ring with Sasha.
“Did you know about this plan?”
Sasha zips her bag. “I didn’t, but she scares the shit out of me. I trust her.”
I need you to pretend to trust me?
Do I?
Santiago roams around the ring introducing Ivan who holds his hands up like he loves and deserves the attention, both cheers and boos from the attendees. Bets are hurriedly being placed and I’m sick thinking of them hoping for Marianna’s failure.
“And fighting for our gracious host, for one night and one night only, Marianna Orlov !” Santiago shouts, and the room erupts, largely in cheers. “ Who. Is. Your. Champion ?”
Marianna looks back at me and winks. I can’t bring myself to return the gesture, so intense is the turning of my stomach. If Ivan hurts her, I don’t know that I’ll be able to keep myself in place.
All too soon, the bell rings, starting the fight, and Ivan underestimates Marianna so clearly, hardly taking a fighting stance, still smirking like this is going to be an easy fight.
She shuffles her feet and lands a hit, but it doesn’t faze him.
He laughs, like it’s cute, and takes a swing of his own.
It lands to the already bruised side of her face, sending her head sideways.