Sneak Attack (21 page)

“He won’t get near her.”

“You can’t guarantee that. No one can. Even if I threw that fight tomorrow night, even if I did everything they asked, who’s to say they won’t change it up on me? Next time they’ll want more. If it meant I could ensure Carly would be safe, I’d let Evie kick my ass—”

“You listen to me.” He gripped my chin and stared hard into my eyes until his features blurred under the wash of my tears. “You fight that fight exactly like we planned. Slater and I will be right there behind you. We won’t let anything happen to you.”

“It’s not me I’m worried about.” I grabbed his wrist. “It’s you. It’s Carly.”

“Slater will have my back. As will you. We’ll make sure Carly is somewhere safe.”

“How? If you and Slater are with me, who can stay with her? And don’t tell me your mom, because she’s no match for Lorenzo’s goons.”

“Giovanni,” he said after a moment, and I went stiff.

“You can’t be serious.” I pulled away from him and shoved at the sleeping bag constricting my legs. “We don’t even know for sure he’s on our side. He got us into this mess.”

“From what you said, you were on their radar all along. We both were. They were cherry picking fighters to get in their pocket.”

“So why is he hanging out with people like that?” I kicked out and the vibrator went rolling across the hardwood floor. I didn’t care. “What do you think that says about him?”

“It says there’s something going on with him, and it’s not because he likes rubbing elbows with mob types.”

“How do you know he’s not one of them?”

“I don’t know anything, Mia, except my gut is telling me he’s on our side. If he’s not—” When I started to object, he stilled me with a hand on my hip. “If he’s not, I’ll kill him myself.”

I shoved my fingers through my hair. “Don’t ask me to put her in his care.”

“What choice do we have? I can’t be in two places. Neither can Slater. You can try locking her in the bathroom with a mop, but I don’t think that’ll get her too far.”

“You can be in my corner,” I said, turning back to him. “Slater can stay with Carly—”

“No. You get both of us. I wish I had a goddamned army, but you’ll have to settle for an army of two.”

“What about Liam?” I asked, leaping on Slater’s brother like he was bottled oxygen. “He’s a former SEAL and he’s training at the gym. He’d be perfect.”

“Liam doesn’t agree with illegal fighting. He was supposed to start working as a trainer but he backed off because it just didn’t sit right with him. If he found out Slater was in your corner, there’d be issues. This is better. Cleaner.”

“Are you trying to push her toward Giovanni? Is that some part of the bro code? We’re pals now, here, free pass, fuck my girl’s sister?”

He tipped up my chin and smudged his thumb over my lips until they stopped flapping. “Repeat after me. I am not the keeper of Carly’s vagina. On three.”

I shook him off. “You think you’re funny. He’s the worst possible influence for her—” Hearing myself, I groaned, replaying the conversation with Tray’s mother earlier that evening. “Jesus.” I dropped my head into my hands. “I hate when you’re right.”

“It doesn’t happen all that often. Let me bask in this moment.” He tugged my hair until I lifted my head and met his gaze. “You worry about winning that fight. Let me take care of the rest.”

“It’s one night. They have a million others they could hurt her.”

“One day at a time. It’s all we can do.”

I sucked in a breath and forced myself to turn into him when he opened his arms.

“You need to get some sleep.” He stroked my cheek. “For me, if not yourself.”

“Not yet,” I mumbled, curling in tighter. Fatigue smothered me, heavy and oppressive. Even my anger and fear wasn’t an adequate match for it.

“I’ve got you, baby. Both of you.”

His words followed me into sleep.

“
H
ow are you doing
? Need some water? Here, have some water.”

Mia glared at me and kept jumping rope.

“Okay. No water. How about one of these stupid fucking tapes?” I caught Slater’s motivational cassettes between my fingers and waved them. “They’ll get you pumped up.”

“Try the third one. Really good stuff,” Slater affirmed, sipping from another bottle of herbal crap. “It’ll get you centered.”

“I’m centered enough.”

“Your wraps okay? Slater, check her—”

“Don’t touch.” She turned and slashed her jump rope through the air, making Slater jump back. “I’m fine. Well-hydrated, motivated, ready to go. Now leave me the hell alone.”

“What did I tell you?” Kizzy asked from a nearby bench. “Told you didn’t need a pair of men in your corner. How many fights did we win, just you and me?”

“Thirty-eight,” Mia replied, without breaking stride in her jumps.

I blinked. “Thirty-eight? Seriously?”

“Just because you have a pair of soft and wrinklies does mean you have winning cornered, Foxy.” She shifted toward Mia, her wild hair frizzing over her shoulders as she leaned forward. “And how many fights did you lose?”

“Two. One draw. One disqualification, due to excessive bleeding.”

“Yours?” I asked, more than a little stunned. We’d never spent a lot of time talking about our fight records, but she’d won more times than I had, for fuck’s sake. Not many more times, but more.

Mia continued jumping in methodic reps, her gaze focused straight ahead. “Hers.”

Slater’s eyes went wide. “Badass.”

“How many times did I win before I started training you?” Kizzy asked, as if this was the usual way they got ready for a bout. The almost robotic recitation seemed to keep her in the zone way more than our hovering.

“Forty-nine,” Mia said.

“What? Forty-nine?” I looked at Kizzy. “You’re a baby.”

She popped to her feet and went toe-to-toe with me in her lavender sneakers. “Who you calling a baby, Foxy?” She poked a finger in my chest. “We can go right here.”

“Enough,” Slater said equably. “He’s just feeling insecure because his last fight was a loss.”

“I am not.” Not that much.

“You shouldn’t have been fighting that night anyway. You weren’t in the zone.”

Mia glanced at me, not saying anything as she continued to jump. We both knew why I hadn’t been in the zone that night. I’d had a busted hand from a glass I’d broken during an argument with Mia, and a sore jaw from her fist after I’d gone down on her the first time.

The trajectory of our relationship was far from usual.

“That’s not important now.” Kizzy waved me off like a gnat before moving toward Mia. “You’re prepared. Aren’t you?”

Mia stopped jumping and nodded. “I’m ready.”

Kizzy slapped Mia’s cheeks, making me take a step forward until Slater shook his head. Who was I to interrupt their pre-fight routine? “You’re going to kick ass, aren’t you, Spyder?”

Her dark gaze never flickered. “Yes.”

I swallowed, caught between abject pride, shock and a deep sense of unease. I’d never been in the room with her before a fight, and she wasn’t my girl right now. She was someone else. Completely focused, quietly lethal.

It left me in awe, even more than I’d been when we’d walked into the makeshift locker room in the abandoned warehouse in Brooklyn where the fight was being held. As impressed as I was with Mia’s dedication and overall conditioning, the mental space she dropped into so effortlessly before she walked into the ring amazed me even more.

She was the born fighter I’d never been.

That conviction remained even as she stepped into the octagon with the music playing. They’d gone with a newer hip-hop song, something that shook the rafters and got the crowd pumping their fists. Evie was in the other corner, her back turned to us. Her corner man was Timmins and a small Asian woman I recognized from The Cage as one of the newer trainers. But she wasn’t conferring with them or stretching or even gloating as most fighters did before the match.

Nope, she was having a heated argument with a dark-haired man in a gray suit, who appeared on the verge of reaching up into the ring and dragging her out. The anger contorting his features didn’t exactly fit with the slick, polished vibe he had going.

But it wasn’t until Kizzy let out a low whistle that I realized why he looked so familiar. “Holy shit. Sutton Pierce, here in the flesh.”

I glanced at Kizzy, who was bouncing hard enough to make her hair hit maximum heights. “Sutton from Mark’s Gym? The dude who took it over?”

“As in my asshat boss, who makes my life a living hell. He hates everything MMA. Wonder what the hell he’s…” She trailed off. “Pierce. Fucking
Pierce
.”

“Evie’s brother?” Shit. Now that I was looking more closely, I could even see the resemblance. Dark hair, blue eyes, permanent sneer.

Well, that explained why she’d come to New York after fighting in Europe. She had family here. Enraged family, but family just the same.

All at once I remembered I was supposed to be focused on Mia, not gossip-mongering with Kathleen Cavanaugh. I turned around and saw Slater crouched in front of Mia, talking softly to her while she nodded, listening.

I smiled. She was in good hands. The same hands I’d been in for years, ones that had never led me wrong. Slater was good people, and an excellent trainer, no matter how much he inherently hated blood and guts and disliked the violence of MMA.

Mia rose and came over to me, her expression intent. “Carly?”

“She’s fine. I checked in with Gio about an hour ago. They’re in Queens.”

“Queens?” Mia’s brow furrowed. “What’s there?”

I shrugged. “They’re in a safe spot with his backup, he said. No, I don’t know what that means, but I’m trusting the guy.” At this point, I didn’t have much choice.

Kizzy snagged Mia’s elbow and led her away from another quick talk while Mia went through a quick stretching routine. She grabbed her ankle behind her back, then touched the mat and rose to her toes to reach for the sky. Then her gaze drifted back to me, for one last lingering look.

We didn’t need words. She was ready, and I was behind her every step of the way.

A moment later, she tapped gloves with Evie in the center of the ring as the fans roared. Evie had a confident smile in place, but she wasn’t the same cocksure woman I’d met at The Cage. Something had her rattled, whether it was her brother’s interference or the presence of the men in black suits who were lurking around the fringes of the crowd. There was no missing them—or the way they touched the guns at their waists as a not-so-subtle reminder of who and what they were.

How had I never noticed them around the fights before? I’d obviously had tunnel vision on my opponent. On winning, the only thing that mattered.

I looked back toward Mia. Until now.

The opening bell rang and I sucked in a breath. I’d never been in this position before, watching on the sidelines. I’d never had to fist my hands and plant my feet to keep myself from harming anyone who dared to touch my girl.

Not that she needed that from me. Not one fucking bit.

From the first, she was in attack mode, just as we’d practiced. Evie’s tapes had showed she was a fighter who liked to sneak under her opponent’s guard from the start. So Mia combated that by striking first. She landed a fierce uppercut to Evie’s jaw that snapped her head back, though she hadn’t gone for the side with the scar. Kizzy had told her to, instructed her to exploit that weakness as much as possible, yet Mia had chosen to fight fair. The hit would still hurt like a bitch, but what could have been a murderous blow was much less on the opposite side.

Unlike Giovanni Costas, who’d jumped on every weakness of mine he could, Mia was operating above board. And I loved her more for it.

At the end of the first round, both women were panting hard and Mia had a cut at the corner of her lips. It bled freely while I poured water into her mouth. Kizzy and Slater were shouting praise and encouragement. Me, I was watching her back while she guzzled one bottle of water and went straight for a second.

“Carly?” she asked in between them.

“She’s fine,” I said, though I hadn’t exactly taken time to call. I would soon.

The second round, Evie reacted differently. She hung back, deliberately waiting for Mia to lunge. She used the opportunity to sweep Mia’s leg out from underneath and forced her to the ground, managing to trap Mia’s arm between her legs.

Fucking armbar. Mia’s signature move was being used against her.

Someone had watched some goddamn tape.

Kizzy continued screaming for Mia beside me, and Slater went into a crouch to watch more closely. “Get your hips off the floor,” I said under my breath, walking her through the way out even though she couldn’t hear me over the shouts from the crowd. “Push with your feet.”

I couldn’t look away. Couldn’t find enough air to take a deep breath. If she didn’t get out of this move fast, she’d end up with a broken arm—or worse.

Unless she tapped out. Her hand was right there. All she’d have to do was press down.

Somehow Mia got her knees underneath her and managed to get her free arm up to create the leverage to move. When she popped to her feet, her arms still swinging freely, I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. Kizzy whooped loudly enough to break my eardrum, but I didn’t care. I was smiling so broadly my jaws hurt.

At the end of the round, Mia returned to our corner again, more slowly than the first time but still on her feet. “Something happened,” she mumbled, mouth still bleeding. “My arm’s going numb.”

I nearly grabbed her before sense kicked in. “Which part?”

“Call the fight,” Slater said, gripping her wrist loosely to turn her toward him. “Go back in, let her pin you, tap out.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Kizzy yelled, shoving Slater. “I don’t know how you pussies fight, but that’s not how we do. She’s on her feet. She’s okay.” She spun toward Mia and got right in her face. “You’re good, aren’t you? Tell these jackoffs you’re fine.”

“I’m fine.” She nodded so resolutely that even I would’ve believed her if I hadn’t seen the pain in her eyes. She was in more trouble than she’d let on. Maybe when Evie swept her leg, she’d come down wrong. It took so little to get hurt in the ring. And Evie was feeling it now. I could tell from the way she was marching around her corner, waving off the hands of her corner people. Timmins wasn’t bothering to offer instructions, but the woman kept trying to speak to her, probably to offer advice.

But Evie had been competing long enough to smell blood in the water. She didn’t need advice. She just needed that bell to ring one more time.

Over my goddamn dead body.

“You can’t let her get past your guard. Do you understand me?” I spoke close to Mia’s ear. “The minute that bell rings, you attack. Go right for her fucking jaw. Left side. Keep hammering it if you have to. Make her tap out. Get this over with.”

“Finally, he finds his dick,” Kizzy said, nodding vigorously. “Finish it out, Spyder.”

Mia nodded, her gaze sweeping the crowd. Then she reached back to grab my hand. It took her a second for her to get the words out. “They have her.” Panic was slurring her words. “Tray. Look.”

I didn’t know what the hell she meant. I scanned the crowd, gripping her hand to keep her from bolting. “Who? They have who?”

“Lorenzo’s men. Olivia.” She stumbled forward and leaned over the ropes. “That’s…that’s gotta be her. Blonde. His face. Oh my God, she has his face.”

I crowded against her back, trying to see what she did. Was this some kind of hallucination? Evie hadn’t hit her in the head too often, but it didn’t take much sometimes. “Baby, breathe.” I wrapped her long braid around my hand, as much to keep her in front of me as to offer comfort. She appeared ready to leap into the crowd. “Slow down and tell me what you see.”

“Olivia,” she yelled, snapping her elbow into my gut.

Slater swore at my side and called out “Li!”, then dove over the ropes.

I stared, stunned, as my best friend tore through the crowd, in pursuit of a pair of men in dark suits who were dragging a slim blonde woman between them. The way they were walking with their arms wrapped around her back almost made it seem like she was going with them willingly, but then she looked back over her shoulder at Slater’s shout, and fear flashed over her pretty face.

The same pretty face I’d seen in the bar.

Darren Winthrop’s daughter. In the flesh. And my buddy was chasing after her, as if he knew exactly who she was.

His goddamn
Li
, who hadn’t been ready to meet “the crew” and turned up conveniently sick whenever she might have to.

She’d lain with dogs, and the fleas were now biting her ass. Hard.

“Jesus Christ.” I slammed a fist against the ring support, barely absorbing the blast of pain through my hand. “Fucking hell.”

“You have to go after them.” Mia whirled to me and gripped a handful of my shirt. “They’ll kill her. They’ll kill him.”

“I’m not leaving you.” But I stared after where they’d gone, torn in two. I couldn’t let Slater face them alone, not when he’d been at Mia’s side. At mine, throughout everything. He was my best friend, the closest thing I had to a brother.

She shook me, her face frantic. The blood dripping off her chin only made her look more determined. “You have to go. I have Kizzy.”

“You have more than that,” Giovanni said, lifting the rope to step into the ring.

She forgot all about me and rushed to his side. “Where’s Carly?”

“She’s protected,” he soothed. “I needed to be here.”

“Round three is about to begin,” the ref called, evidently realizing Mia wasn’t anywhere close to ready.

“Where is she?” Mia yelled, slammed her wrapped fist against Gio’s chest. “You promised you’d keep her safe. Where is she?”

“She’s here with a woman who won’t allow anything to happen to her. Trust me.” He glanced at me. “I saw them heading downstairs. There’s a tunnel that connects this building to the warehouse next door. That’s where they were headed. Go. Now.”