Page 84 of Arm Candy Warrior

“And?” Big Daddy K goads.

“And that even if I didn’t do it, it was my job to keep tabs on my people.”

“Exactly.”

Big Daddy K pulls a gun out of the back of his pants. He holds it to Dunnegan’s temple. He leaves enough time so Dunnegan understands what’s about to happen before he pulls the trigger.

My ears ring. I make myself watch. Bits of flesh and blood spatter upward. Smoke curls around the barrel as Dunnegan falls head first into the table again. Dead eyes stare nowhere as the hole in his head leaks blood onto the table. The river of blood turns the white tablecloth a deep crimson and spreads outward.

Big Daddy K turns on his heel and returns to his drink. He holds it in the air. “You did a good thing for us, Kyla, and I won’t forget it.”

Vomit lurches up my throat. In that moment, I can’t decide if I hate myself or loathe myself. Maybe Johnny sees it because he makes me look away from the gruesome scene and into his icy blue eyes. “You just saved a bunch of girls.”

God, I fucking hope so. I hold on to that thought. I hold on to it so tightly along with the remaining shreds of my humanity.

33

Over the next few days, the Crew unravels what’s been going on at Candy’s while simultaneously trying to find Gregory. It turns out Dunnegan was, in essence, a figurehead. All he could do was talk a big game, but Gregory pulled the strings when it came to Candy’s. That’s not to say Dunnegan didn’t know about it. As soon as word gets around that Big Daddy K took out Dunnegan, women come out, mainly prostitutes and druggies, wanting an audience with K so they can tell him the depraved shit they went through at the hands of both Gregory and Dunnegan.

I don’t know what the women are hoping to accomplish, other than getting ten minutes in Big Daddy K’s presence and an apology, but that’s all they’ll get.

Johnny has me on lockdown again. I can’t say I blame him this time. He doesn’t want me to go anywhere until Gregory is found. Word spreads, and Big Daddy K makes it a big deal that I was the one who unraveled the shit that went down at Candy’s. Everyone in the Heights has a new respect for me. Roses are sent to me daily from people who are just names on a card. Some of them thank me for saving their young girls, and I find some pride in that. I don’t know about the other stuff though. That’s two murders I’ve witnessed in the span of about a month. Two more murders than I’ve ever wanted to witness. It’s hard to take solace in the kind words when all I see is Dunnegan’s life draining from his face, witnessing the moment it went dark for him.

The only thing I’m allowed out of my apartment for is fights. Johnny even brings Jax and Finn to my place to train. Brawler and Oscar are allowed as well, and I’d like to think it’s because of the conversations I keep having with Johnny about needing and wanting friends. He even stays sometimes. Those moments are ten times more tense than my usual training days, but I enjoy them, hoping that the spark of the idea is in his head. The more people around you that you can count on, the better life is.

He gets that because of the Crew, but I’m talking about therightkind of people.

Jax and Finn talk strategy in the background. It’s T minus two hours before I have a fight at the new underground fights’ location. We’re getting in some last-minute training as tonight I’ll fight my first male in the ring. Well, official ring. They wanted the first fight card to be exciting, introducing everyone to the new digs, hoping they’ll spend money like crazy. According to Brawler, they had to hire more people. He tells me he gave Natalia a job, and I’m over the moon. Brawler will make sure nothing shady goes down there. Plus, he’ll watch over her like a hawk. She has no idea the amount of heart she has on her side now.

Finn claps me in the upper arms. “You good?”

“Fucking perfect,” I reply.

He and Jax gather their stuff. They’re going to meet us at The Ring. Apt name for what it is, but like most of the Crew’s businesses, it has a front. A sports bar will be on the top story, gathering the legal crowd. However, if you gain entrance into a side door, that’s where the real Ring opens up. They’ve kept me from looking at it, and I can’t lie and say I’m not excited to see how it turned out. There’s supposed to be legit locker rooms this time around, and I have my own personal ready room.

“See you soon,” Jax says.

I nod at him, and the two brothers leave. Johnny and Brawler are already at the venue, which leaves me with Oscar and Magnum. Oscar played in his final game as Rawley Heights quarterback, but it wasn’t pretty. Not that I was permitted to leave the tower to see it, but Oscar told me every last detail, right to the point where he had to pull himself out of the game because of a nasty tackle that injured his ribs even more. Apparently, he has an old injury there that Johnny made worse.

I’ll never forgive myself for taking that game away from him.

“Ready?” Magnum asks.

I blow out a breath, zipping up my thin sweatshirt and grabbing my bag with my fight clothes in it. Oscar takes it from me. His hands linger on mine before he finally takes the bag away. His face is mostly healed except for some prominent yellow bruising around his eye sockets. His ribs are still injured though. The game he played in didn’t help any, but the more he stays away from violence, the quicker he’ll heal.

We take the elevator to the basement parking, and Magnum and I get in the car. Oscar takes his motorcycle because even though Johnny is getting better about having others around me, he still isn’t keen on me being alone with any of them.

Magnum keeps the partition open. “Nervous?” he asks as soon as we roll past security.

“Hell yes,” I groan. It’s not really about the fight, it’s about all the hype surrounding it. It’ll be my biggest fight yet with the biggest stage. All I want to do is give the crowd the fight they want. At the same time, I can’t forget that my place in the Crew hinges on the fact that I need to keep showing them I’m useful. I’m useful in this. I’m useful in bringing them intel now, too. I can’t step a toe out of line.

Johnny wouldn’t care, but his father would.

“I bet.” Magnum smiles at me in the mirror, but then the light dies from his eyes. “The fuck?”

He’s glaring past me out the rearview window, so I turn, expecting to find Oscar on his bike following us. Instead, there’s a nondescript black car on our ass, much like the one we’re riding in now. The car hits us from behind, and we lurch forward.

“Fuck,” Magnum growls. “Hold on.”

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