It’s soft yet urgent and would probably feel a hell of a lot better if my lips weren’t cracked and bruised. Still, it’s the moment I get that whatever has happened in our past, Jax is still here for me. A fire roars to life in my chest.
When he pulls away, butterflies erupt in my stomach. In my mind, no time at all has passed between Jax and me. “I love you,” I tell him.
His face falls, tension slipping off it like a knife through soft butter. “I never stopped loving you, Sadie. Now please, try to block some damn punches.”
He pulls me up and taps my ass as the bell rings, signaling the start of the third and final round.
I can barely see but I stare at her fist as it flies through the air, aimed directly at me. Again.
24
Ifail at blocking punches but it doesn’t really impact the last round because we circle one another a lot. She wrestles me to the ground, and we squirm to make it look good. She’s either tired herself out, or she’s realized she doesn’t want to put me through the wringer anymore. We’re just making it look good for Psycho.
At least, that’s what it seems like to me in my confused, tired, achy state.
When the bell rings, she’s declared the obvious victor. If she did throw the last round for me, she showed me more compassion than I showed her, and I owe her big time. For now, at least, Psycho doesn’t give her shit for the last round because she won. He holds her hand in the air and kisses her like he needs her to live while I stumble back to the threesome who have done more for me in the last couple of weeks than anyone ever has.
“When he said block, he didn’t mean block with your face.”
“Ha. Ha. Finny,” I manage to get out as Leenie drags over a chair so I can basically fall into the seat. My head pounds as if there are trolls with tiny hammers inside going to town on every square inch. I take in a few deep breaths but the blood dripping from my nose and face gets in the way, and I end up spluttering instead.
“I got her,” Jax says. “Ready Leenie.”
I sit up. Leenie? “Leenie what?”
“She’s next,” Jax says as Finn goes over to his girlfriend and speaks to her. Now that I’m paying attention, she’s wearing an exercise tank top and pants. Her hands are wrapped with hot pink tape. I try to move off the stool, but Jax holds me back. “She wants to. Let her do it.”
“No,” I say, panicking now. I can barely see her through my swollen eyes but this isn’t right. “Her brother—”
“Right,” Jax says sternly. “Her brother will absolutely murder all of us if she gets hurt which is exactly why she isn’t going to get hurt.” His words are firm but the worried expression on his face says otherwise.
I catch Leenie’s eye and shake my head at her. “You don’t have to.”
“Please,” she says with a slight eye roll. “Do you think I’m going to let these guys get all the glory? No way. I’m in it to win it. I’m sure I picked up a few things by working at the shop.”
“Jax,” I say desperately, still trying to fix this. Leenie shouldn’t have to fight for me. Actually,noneof them should.
Jax crouches down once more. He’s managed to stop the bleeding from my head and gently guides my jaw to look at him. “Listen, we needed a fourth. It’s the only way he would do it.”
“He won’t let you guys win,” I warn.
Jax cocks a grin. “Don’t you worry, Sadie. We’ve got this.”
“Even if you do win—”
“Open up,” he urges. He pops a few pills into his palm and then readies a water bottle. “Take these. It’ll help for now until we can get you looked at. When my time in the ring comes, don’t worry, I’m going to make him pay for what he did to you.”
“Jax, this isn’t—”
“Shh,” he soothes me. “Trust someone else once in a while. I’m telling you we have this handled, so we have it handled,” he says sternly.
“Are we fighting or what?” a gruff voice complains.
Psycho’s narrowed gaze glares in our direction. It might be the fact that I can’t see clearly out of my one good eye, but it sure looks as if he’s staring at the areas where Jax and I connect. He’s probably internally planning how to take Jax down.
“Ready,” Leenie grins devilishly, and god damn, she’s hot. The girl is on fire. She walks into the center of the room as if she owns the damn place. One of the girls follows her to the center of the room, and I cringe. She’s a big girl. Psycho uses her as a ploy. Sometimes, he has her look as if she’s beating one of our smaller girls up. Gain sympathy. Redirect. If he’d put me in the fight with her, I wouldn’t have felt bad about kicking her ass. She never liked me and always did everything she could to try to extricate me from Psycho. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was jealous of me.
None of that matters right now as Leenie walks up to her like she’s been a fighter her whole life. With her brother as the leader of the Dragons, I imagine she’d have to be tough just to put up with him, but it also makes me wonder about how she grew up. There are two types of families in the Heights: Worse and Worst.