Page 70 of Arm Candy Warrior

“Right,” he breathes out.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell him we can use this information we have on Candy’s to our advantage. Tomorrow, I’ll tell him that if we find out Candy’s is really doing something against K’s wishes, we’ll get that much closer to the inside of the Crew. The closer we get to Big Daddy K, the sooner I can end this, and then the sooner we can get out of this shithole. They’ve all told me I should leave, and I plan on it. I’m not going without them though.

Right now, we don’t need suspicions of what’s going on. We need evidence.

We have to go back.

28

As planned, Brawler sets me up with an impromptu fight the next day. He got Johnny to agree by saying some girl was running her mouth about how she was going to kick my ass. Whatever he told Johnny, Johnny agreed.

Which was all we needed.

I can’t go undercover to Candy’s again without the pretense of the costume party, and I can’t go as me without word getting back to Johnny.

I make quick work of my opponent. One of these days, I’ll draw a fight out. Despite the fact that it’s a last-minute fight, they have to turn people away at the door again. The atmosphere holds the same thirst for blood it always does, which is why the crowd doesn’t care if I annihilate my opponent or not. They just want to see someone suffer, and I give that to them.

Though everything else is the same, I’m different. I’m edgy for a whole slew of reasons that have nothing to do with it being a fight night and have everything to do with figuring out what’s going on at Candy’s. Oscar’s quiet, and I want to help him. In the same token though, I’m pissed someone would do this to Johnny. He and Dunnegan acted like good buddies. Imagine if Dunnegan is playing him.

No one fucking plays the people I care about. If Dunnegan is doing something behind the Crew’s back, I’ll be the first to step up and spill my guts, so he gets what’s coming to them. Not to mention that they’re using distraught, desperate women to carry this out. Oscar’s mom is broken. It doesn’t make her a bad person. It makes her a person in need of help. And here we are, treating her like the scum of the earth, exploiting her weaknesses to use her.

The thought makes me sick.

The crowd surrounds me the minute Brawler calls the fight. I may have dislocated a knuckle or two on my right hand, but it’s the least of my worries. I play the part, acting like the cocky winner, accepting my Uppercut Princess robe with a cocksure smile. Usually, fighting makes me feel alive, and maybe it’s because of that that everything feels so urgent right now. I don’t want to sleep on this another day. I just keep picturing the glazed, lost look on Oscar’s mom’s face. I don’t know her. Not really. But I know Oscar. I know the type of person he is underneath all the layers of hurt and bravado. He’s a good person, and it killed him to see someone he loved like that.

Magnum takes Johnny’s place, ushering me into the back where I can shower and change to start what tonight was really all about. Right before I hit the locker room door, Brawler announces that we’re headed to Candy’s tonight. We figure the more bodies there, the better. We’d stick out less and have more opportunity to snoop around to see what’s going on.

Magnum shuts the door behind us and flips the lock. “Nice fight,” he says.

I wish I could remember. I only have bits and pieces, mainly the scared look on the girl’s face when I pounced on her. We definitely threw her to the wolves, but Oscar didn’t just make up the part about her bashing me. Apparently, he’d heard a rumor, so we went with it, whether it was true or not.

I shrug the purple robe off. To my right, there’s a bag with the outfit I’m wearing tonight. I’m shaking. Usually, the fights help calm me, but since that wasn’t the main point of tonight, I still have all this expectation built up inside me.

Magnum’s hands settle on my shoulders, and he starts to massage them. “Relax a little.”

My posture droops as his fingers delve deep between my muscles.

“You take too much on your shoulders.”

He doesn’t even know the half of it. I shared what we thought was going down with him this morning. He wanted to call Johnny right away, but I convinced him I didn’t want to bring it to Johnny if it was bullshit. He doesn’t know I have another reason for wanting to do this, to ingratiate myself even farther into the belly of the Crew. To stick myself so far up the Crew’s ass I’m practically Big Daddy K’s daughter.

My stomach roils. I hate the fucking thought of that, but if he lets his guard down around me, he’s toast. I’ll have him wasted before he can even blink. The worst thing that could have happened over the last several weeks was Johnny telling him we couldn’t control ourselves around one another. I’m sure that made me look like a pathetic female, which is nowhere near how I want him to view me. Maybe this sick part of me wants him to like me too. It’ll feel that much sweeter when I kill his ass. Knowing I got one over on him. That he isn’t the high and mighty leader of the Heights Crew. That I took him out. A no one. I can almost picture the look of betrayal in his eyes.

“You’re tensing up again,” Magnum murmurs.

“Lots on my mind.”

“You’re worried about Oscar.” It’s not a question, but a statement. Magnum sees everything. It’s like he has a direct line to my brain. I’ve never met a man who was that observant before. My uncle, as good as he was to me, was clueless when it came to my aunt.

“No kid should have to see their parent like that,” I whisper, my voice cracking.

“It’s a sad reality here.”

“But if Dunnegan is doing that to them…”

Magnum moves to my neck. He massages his strong hands up the base and down the curve to my shoulders. I close my eyes because it feels that damn good. He sighs, and his breath hits my neck. Goosebumps sprout over my body. He’s standing so close.

“Have you thought that maybe Big Daddy K and Johnny already know about this? That maybe this is sanctioned by them?”

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