Page 116 of Keep Your Guard Up
“I got home from my contender ’bout and she sucker punched me when I walked through the door. Apparently, a ring girl got too close up on me that night …”
“The first full night’s sleep I’d had in two years was the first night I had you in my bed …”
“You’ll suffer for what you did to him,” I snarled at her, blood coating my lips and drenching my tongue.
Randy paused, and I could have gasped in relief at the halting of pressure in my shoulders.
She sighed, as if it was an inconvenience to bother with a response. “Oh, babe. You really don’t know me well enough to say things like that.”
A knock at the door sounded and I let out the hot, fury-filled air that had been burning in my lungs in a weird combination of a sneer, cough, choke, and growl.
Randy, to my surprise, let go of me and headed into the dining room nearby where the pentagon open windows were. He squinted for a moment, studying whoever was at the door before stalking back over. He nodded at Talia, then stood in front of me, landing a blow that busted my lip farther open.
“Does she hit you too?” It was intended as a growl, one strong and powerful like Chance’s, but it came out a raspy and broken whisper.
Randy stood, studying me with a heat in his eyes I couldn’t read. I didn’t know what to make of the fact that he didn’t punch me again but instead walked out of the room.
“Finally.” She tsked in dismay. Another pound on the door sounded. “I’m coming!”
“Open up!”
My heart sank. My head throbbed and my shoulders were screaming, but I would know that voice anywhere.
Chance.
He’d fallen for the trap.
“Oh, Chance! What a surprise!” She opened the door wide, beckoning him in. “How nice of you to finally join us.”
A hand pushed on her chest, those two golden rings glimmering like North Stars bringing me home.
Talia stumbled back into the wall. “Watch it,” she growled.
I bit down into my bloody throbbing lip when Chance’s beautiful face came into view. Still wearing the damage Randy had given him, his expression was wild with panic and thunderous wrath. The circles ran deep under his eyes, as if he himself had been up all night.
“Took you long enough to get here,” Talia purred, pressing the barrel of her gun between his shoulders.
Tension radiated off Chance’s entire frame. He wriggled out his fingers, as if straining not to close a fist and swing. “You didn’t exactly leave a trail,” he gritted out. His eyes found mine and I couldfeelit down to my bones what he was trying to tell me—there was a trail, but I needed time.
I may not have escaped as planned, but that was another thing these two idiots were too stupid to take into consideration—the bond Chance and I shared.
“My bad, I guess, for expecting better of you.”
My blood boiled at the insult.
She sighed and used a hand to brush loose, purposeful stray hairs out of her face.
“What do you want, Talia?” Chance growled. His jaw was locked, and the sound barely made it past his teeth. Every single muscle in his body was locked and steeled under his control. The tension emanating off him, the strain to spring into action—it washim, fighting every instinct of his roaring to life inside of him. He gripped them like a vice, had to in order to be smarter than these two assholes. Better than them.
A fighter.
Myfighter.
“You know what I want, baby.” Gun now pressing against Chance’s abdomen, she trailed her long nails up his torso.
Those beautiful,beautifulblue eyes never left mine.
Talia sighed theatrically. “But I guess that’s now out of the question.”
