Page 43

I needed this. I didn’t know I did, but I’m enjoying myself.

The fight with Domino before getting in the ring is ancient history.

I might bring it up again, I might not. Compared to the reason people are drinking tonight, it seems like such a small thing.

He was worried about me. Not that I couldn’t fight my own battles, but that someone was out there.

Is still out there, and is hurting others.

I’m not naive enough to think he won’t eventually tire of looking at me from afar.

He’s going to come and collect one day. I just need to be prepared for that, for him.

Or go after him first. If the choice is hunt or be hunted, I always choose hunt.

I suck at hiding. I was always found first when Summer, Winter, and I played hide-and-seek.

You’d think it was because they were sisters and they cheated or something, but no.

I just always got bored with it and found the fun to be in looking and not concealing myself under the bed.

I take a swig of Domino’s beer and nod to myself.

Starting tomorrow, I’m going hunting. Well, I’ll talk to Domino about wanting in and see what his ideas are.

He might already have something going on, and if I go off half-cocked, I bet I’ll ruin it, and then I’ll be the one who ends up dead.

Or another one of his brothers. I’m not about to let someone else die because of me.

“Gotta go, kid. ”

I glance at Mack and see him looking at his phone. Must have gotten a text or something.

“Have fun.”

He snorts, giving Tommy a handshake before nodding at me and heading out.

“I think I’ll go as well.” Tommy rises and buttons his suit jacket.

I’ve never known him not to have one on.

He always does when he comes to the fights, just like the other sponsors.

But I’ve never known if it’s a sponsor thing or the other business he’s in.

Both make sense, but I honestly don’t know if he even likes wearing them.

He seems to always fidget with the shirt collar, as if it’s choking him even with the two top buttons undone.

“Got another fighter to look at?” I raise an eyebrow in challenge. Don’t like hearing that he was looking to sponsor another. It happens. Sponsorships are like Pokémon cards for kids—everyone has them, and they trade them for nothing.

He releases a heavy sigh before shaking his head. “Only got eyes for you, Menace. You and the Destroyer. That’s where the money is really made. The rest is just something I toss at when bored.”

I frown at his words, as I feel like there’s a deeper meaning to them.

“Tommy, do you… do you like me?” I’m flabbergasted if he does, but flattered too.

His lips quirk up in a sad smile before evening out.

“Always have, but I knew it would never happen. Glad you at least found a Hound to make them worthy of your time. Doubt you’d let anyone claim you for anything else.

But beyond that, I’m not going to step out on my best fighters.

If you were on the East Coast, I’d have half a mind to bring you into the organization.

I bet you and your friend could clean up some of our areas easier than me and my boys. ”

“Well, obviously. I’m amazing at cleaning up.” I dramatically roll my eyes and get him to chuckle as he gives me a three-finger salute and then heads toward the front.

I pick up my beer again and take another drink.

I’m alone at the table now, and I don’t feel uncomfortable about it.

Looking around, I get a few nods when I catch an eye or two.

Well, from the guys. The girls, the vamps, they seem to avoid eye contact with me.

Not sure if it’s because of the bruises on my face or if they know what I do for money.

Hell, if the roles were reversed, I wouldn’t want to be locking eyes with a girl who can ruin my face in fifteen seconds with her fists because she thought I was giving her the eye. Not that I would. Probably not.

Okay, fine, I’ve got no clue. I’m not the jealous type—well, I didn’t think I was.

But now that I think on it, I’ve never had a guy who made me feel like I should be.

Not till Domino. When I teased him earlier in his room if I should be concerned about needing to put a claim on him so the vamps don’t circulate, a part of me feared that maybe all I was to him was a vamp for the night.

That I was one in a sea of many. But then he’d been willing to accept the claim, or at least that’s what I heard.

And that had my pulse pounding in my ears as the air seemed to be knocked out of me.

Closing my eyes, I rest my head back on the chair and just sink into the surrounding noise. I’m used to the quiet, and when a room is packed like this, I try to focus on one sound. Something to ground me. And sometimes just because I’m curious .

“Come on, sugar, let me suck that dick. You know you want it.” I smirk at the sultry voice trying to claim a prize.

“Fuck, man, that’s cheating.” No clue what the guy is pissed about, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts knocking in teeth from the venom in his tone.

“Six weeks, I told you. Can’t do anything before that. It’s not my fault. I did my part. This ain’t on me. No, they’ve got no clue. Yeah, okay. Got you something in the works. Should be there over the weekend.”

Opening my eyes, I look around for that last voice. There are about four guys close enough on phones that it could be any one of them, or maybe someone who passed by. Nothing too crazy was said, but it just set off an alarm in me anyway.

“You okay? What’re you looking for?” Domino asks as he comes up to me, looking around at I don’t know what. He probably thinks I lost my phone or something. Why else would I be searching for anything?

“I heard something.” I shake my head as I stand. “It seemed off.”

He tilts his head as he puts his hand on my back and pulls me close. “What was it?”

Can you fall for a guy just because he takes what you say seriously the second you say it? ’Cause I swear I just did.

“Something about not being able to do something for six weeks, and it wasn’t his fault.

That he did his part, and that something was coming over the weekend.

I don’t know. I heard it, but my eyes were closed.

He could have been talking to someone with him, but I’m pretty sure he was on the phone.

I was looking for whoever it was when you showed, but I didn’t see him, so no clue what he looks like. ”

“Think you’d recognize the voice if you heard it again?”

I shrug. “Maybe.” I’m not really sure if I will or not. “It’s pretty crowded in here, and maybe I was hearing things wrong.” I don’t know why I’m questioning myself. I don’t usually doubt anything about myself, but I am right now.

Domino raises a hand and pushes a piece of hair that fell out of my ponytail behind my ear. “Okay, we’ll figure it out. Want to get out of here?”

I grin and nod quickly. He chuckles, and I skip behind him as he leads me to the elevators. But they’re taking too long. At least they are for me. I need something, and I need it now.

I look around and spot something that might work a little better. I walk down the hall, dragging Domino with me.

“Wait, what? Where we going?”

I just look back at him with a smile and a wiggle of my eyebrows as I push open the door to the back stairs and pull him in. As the door shuts, I push him against it and mold my lips to his.

He grips my hips, and I feel the indents of his fingers through my clothes. He hums in approval as I move my hands over his shoulders and put them on the door above his head, crossing them to bring me even closer.

“If you couldn’t wait, we could have done it in the elevator. Pulled the emergency stop so we wouldn’t be disturbed.”

I kiss along his jaw, biting and nibbling as I go.

“You really think any of those vamps are going to follow me in here? They only tracked me through the room and then breathed a sigh of relief when I left.”

“Wasn’t worried about a vamp.”

I stop mid- bite on his ear and pull back, tilting my head and giving him my most innocent wide-eyed look.

“You saying you can’t keep your boys at bay?

” I tsk at him and shake my head, backing up as I go so he’s left on his own leaning against the door.

It’s one with a small slit window with a crisscross pattern.

If a person really wants to snoop, they could, but they’d have to put their face right up against it, and we’d be able to see them too.

The real fear is if someone comes down the stairs.

Or hell, if someone looks over the railing.

Depending on how far Domino takes this, it might make for some interesting echoing.

And let there be no doubt that I’m in. All in.

For whatever he wants. If he wants to grab my ponytail and guide me like a director on how to take his massive cock, I’ll do it.

And I’ll need guidance. Taking that thing in my pussy was hard.

In the mouth? I mean, I can fit my fist, but that’s just at the front.

Taking a fist width of a cock to the back of the throat isn’t something you do on a whim.

You train for it. I bet some even die from it.

And if I have to tell Peter at the pearly gates why I choked to death, I’ll do it with a smile on my face.

“You keep walking away from me like that and you ain’t going to like what happens.”

“Oh, you mean like this?” I take a few steps away, closer to the stairs. The first-floor landing has a ton of space for all sorts of things, but there’s only one thing I want.

“What if I do this?” I grab the edge of my sweater and swing it back and forth before lifting it a bit and then lowering it. I bounce on my feet, swaying my hips before spinning so my back is to him, then take the sweater off and turn back to him, using it as a shield .