Page 5

Chapter Five

Tristan

F ucking hell, she was so much sexier than she’d been at eighteen.

In the three years that I had been gone, she had filled out into a beautiful young woman, and she’d eventually shaped into a fucking goddess. The woman standing at the edge of that ring was fucking magnificent. No one could ever compare to her.

I could tell she worked out a lot by the defined muscles of her abdomen, and I could see the hint of muscle in her arms. She was light as a feather. I knew that from carrying her. But I had no damn idea that she was this fucking fit.

“She’ll do alright,” Joey assured me.

I just pretended to not hear him. I hated that he knew her better than I did, hated that when she was near him, she leaned into him without realizing it. She instantly sought him out in a room.

She looked at him like she used to look at me.

And yeah, I had ruined that shit between us, but I was back now. I was back to fix this shit with her.

I just needed her to stop fighting me every step of the damn way.

With a grunt, Joey got up and walked up into the ring. “Alright, first up we have Rachel Keen. She’s a guest here from another club,” Joey announced, looking at the far corner of the ring.

A few cheers went up, and I watched as a girl with blonde hair stepped into the ring. She was wearing a bright pink sports bra with a pair of tight, pink workout shorts that showed her ass cheeks. I heard some whistles come up around the crowd, and I scowled.

She had absolutely nothing on Addy.

“And next, we all have your favorite—Adelaide!” Joey roared, reaching down to help her up into the ring.

The moment Adelaide stepped up onto the mat, a roar went up in the crowd surrounding the ring, the noise almost deafening. And there wasn’t even that many people watching the fucking fight.

“She’s not the same girl, Grim,” Jesup said, calling me by my street name.

I nodded in agreement. “Trust me, I know,” I grumbled. “The old Adelaide would have never even thought about violence like this.” After the way she’d grown up, violence used to make her nauseous and panicky. Now, she was seeking it out?

It made me sick to my stomach. Just who was Adelaide today?

“You ladies know the rules,” Joey told them. “No hair pulling, no biting. Fight fair. The winner leaves here with a grand in their pocket.”

They both nodded in understanding. Joey stepped out of the ring. “Fight!” he roared.

Adelaide quirked an eyebrow at Rachel, a smirk twisting her lips. I felt my blood chill at the sight of that smirk. This version of Addy was cold. She was a true fighter.

“Are you sure you don’t want to back out while you’ve got a chance?” Addy taunted her. Rachel scowled. “I see you wrapped your pretty little knuckles up.” She laughed, but it was more of a cackle.

I looked at Rachel’s hand, and sure enough, her knuckles were wrapped in bandages to keep them from getting scarred or busted up. Adelaide’s hands were bare, and I suddenly realized why she had so many scars covering her knuckles and her hands.

She fought bare-handed.

Rachel curled her lip up at Adelaide. “Watch me beat your ass like Vin did,” she snarled. Joey tensed, ready to go to Addy’s defense, at the same time I stood to my feet, but Adelaide didn’t need either of us.

Because she fucking snapped .

Before Rachel had time to react, Adelaide slammed her shoulder into Rachel’s abdomen, sending them crashing to the matted floor. Rearing her fists back, Adelaide sent repeated blows against Rachel’s face. Rachel was so blinded by panic that she couldn’t figure out how to fight back.

Adelaide was a fucking monster in that ring.

Blood was splattering the white mat around them, and Adelaide wasn’t showing any signs of stopping. Even after Rachel was knocked out unconscious beneath her, Adelaide kept swinging.

Joey and I made it into the ring at the same time, and he stayed back while I gripped Adelaide’s shoulders, pulling her off of Rachel. She jammed her elbow into my ribs, and I coughed out a breath, locking her arms against her sides as I held her to me, her back pressed to my front while my side fucking throbbed.

“Adelaide, chill,” I snapped into her ear. Her chest was heaving, her expression a mask of pure rage. It was almost as if she wasn’t even in the ring with us anymore but was instead somewhere else in her mind, fighting a different person than Rachel. “Addy, you need to close your eyes and take a few deep breaths,” I coaxed, forcing my voice to be gentler.

She shook her head. “Get the fuck off of me,” she snarled as she tried kicking back, though I thankfully dodged her foot just in time.

Gripping her chin, I turned her head, pressing my lips to hers. I instantly felt the tension leave her body as her lips worked with mine, a soft moan falling from her lips. My cock hardened in my jeans at the sound, and though I desperately wanted to deepen that kiss, I slowly pulled back after a moment, opening my eyes to look down at her beautiful face.

She was calm again, or at least back there at the clubhouse with us, and her cheeks were flushed, her lips a bit swollen from me kissing her so hard.

“You good?” I asked her quietly, brushing some strands of hair out of her face that had fallen from her bun.

She swallowed hard and nodded before she looked down at Rachel. Her face paled slightly when she saw what she’d done. Rachel looked like she needed a fucking hospital—if she was even still alive.

“Get me out of here, Tristan,” she begged, her voice a mere whisper. “Please,” she added on at the end.

I nodded and led her to the side of the ring. Joey looked at me before he ran his eyes over Adelaide, concern in his eyes. “Take her to her room in the clubhouse. She’ll want a good shower,” he told me, almost as if this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened.

As if Adelaide turning into something that dark and twisted was normal .

I nodded in understanding. I hated that he seemed to know so much about her, but at the same time, I was a bit grateful for it because I was honestly a bit terrified that I wouldn’t be able to handle Addy in this state.

The Addy I remembered was sweet and innocent. She blushed when I so much as looked her way, and she hated violence with a passion after growing up in a trap house.

This Addy had just beaten a girl into a bloody pulp in pure rage.

No matter who she was today, I knew she was still my Addy. I just had to learn to be patient and wait for her to come around to me.