Chapter 30 #2
“Who the fuck are you?” I snap, stepping between him and Lily.
“Down, boy,” he chuckles, his eyes shooting over my shoulder to my woman. “You’ve trained him well.”
“The fuck!” I snap, about ready to throw the fuck down when Lily’s hand comes to rest on my shoulder before she slowly tugs me back.
“What do you want?” she snaps at him, and he shrugs, looking right at fucking home as he glances around the place, checking out a chick that saunters by.
“Thought I should check in since you weren’t returning any of my messages.” He shrugs, bringing his blue gaze back to Lily. “Your salon didn’t fare well. I guess I was concerned.”
“That wasn’t your work?” she snarls, and I fucking jerk back.
“His work?”
“Not mine. I wouldn’t have made such a mess. Those idiots were amateurs.”
“Hold the fuck up,” I snap, stepping to the side to look between AJ and Lily. “Who the fuck are you?” I snarl at AJ before glaring at Lily. “And why would you think it was his work?”
Blowing out a frustrated breath, Lily pinches the bridge of her nose.
“We don’t have time for this.” She gestures to the cage across the room. “You’re fighting soon. You need to get ready.”
“Uh-uh. No fucking way are you brushing this off.” I jab a finger at her.
“I like him,” AJ chuckles. “Your toy boy has bite.”
I’m about ready to fucking start my fight now with this motherfucker, and Lily must know it by the way her hand whips out and presses to my chest.
“Leave, AJ. You’re not welcome here.”
He scoffs, looking around, and I notice his gaze zero in on a few members of the Seven Eights standing nearby watching us.
“I must have missed the part where this place was yours, Lily.” He smirks at her again. “Maybe it’s you who isn’t welcome here.”
A hiss flies from Lily’s lips as she takes a step forward. “Take a moment to remember who you are talking to.”
Fuuuck. My cock had finally gone limp until she spoke those words with that sharp edge in her tone and her expression to match.
I love this side of Lily. She can be such a contradiction. A sweet soccer mum one minute, and a fucking force to be reckoned with the next.
I’m so fucking turned on by this side of her that it takes a moment for her words to sink in.
Remember who you are talking to.
What does that mean? What does this guy know about Lily? And how does she even know him?
Fuck.
A thousand questions come to mind, and I can’t fucking ask a single one of them while we are here.
“Careful. Your family traits are showing.” AJ snickers, confusing me even fucking more.
Family traits?
“It’d only take a call to get rid of you,” Lily snaps quietly, and for a moment, I’m not sure I heard her correctly, because what, the, fuck!
AJ’s lips twitch, still smirking, but looking more pissed off than anything.
“You really are a Marx. Maybe I was wrong about you.” He leans in conspiratorially. “Maybe secrets, lies and betrayals are who you are. Just like your uncle Ewan.”
Lily’s hand flies up to slap his face, but he grabs her wrist to stop her, and I fucking lunge for him, but Lily’s lethal tone pulls me up short.
“Stop!”
I freeze, wondering if she’s talking to him or me, but her gaze slowly shifts from AJ to me, looking hot and fierce and has my fucking heart flipping.
“Stand down, Asher. He’s not worth it.”
I step back because, fuck, when she’s like this, I’m her fucking puppet, but also, we have gathered an audience.
“Damn, Lily. Your sons’ best mate? That’s a real fucking dilemma. How do you think they’ll feel about this?”
“How do you know?” I snap, and again, I’m ignored as Lily frowns, but AJ answers me.
“The same way I know all of her secrets.”
Hearing him say that sends a fucking pang to my chest.
I want to know all of her secrets.
Is he a past lover? A current one?
Fuck!
“You’re up against Mad Dog tonight?” AJ asks, and it takes me a fucking moment to realise he’s talking to me again.
“Yeah,” I snap, about ready for him to fuck right off.
“Shiv give you the heads up about him?” AJ asks, and I nod, fucking confused how he knows. “If you hear the word ‘Hawaii’ called out, then be prepared. It’ll mean Mad Dog is about to play real fucking dirty.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I snap, my eyes dancing between him and Lily.
“Can’t I just be a good Samaritan?”
Lily scoffs. “We don’t need your help.”
“We’ll see,” he mutters before turning and walking away, swallowed by the crowd.
What the fuck just happened?
Glancing at Lily, I take in her flaming red cheeks and her lethal glare as she stares at the crowd where AJ disappeared.
“What are the chances you’re going to tell me what the fuck just happened?”
Her blue eyes dart to me. “Fight first.”
“And the rest?” I ask, and her shoulders drop.
“And the rest… Let’s just get through tonight and tomorrow.”
My heart sinks.
I don’t think she has any intention of revealing what AJ was talking about. And isn’t that just fucking great.
Toy boy. Maybe that’s all I am to her.
I excuse myself to take a piss, leaving Lily briefly. I take a minute to get my head fucking straight. I need to focus, and everything that just happened is fucking distracting me.
When I return to Lily, she doesn’t say much, just turns her focus onto taping my hands, and I’m surprised she even knows how.
Just another mystery about Lily Bennett, I guess.
There seems to be extra tension in the air tonight. I watch the crowd as Lily wraps my hands, noting the gangs huddled together and glares being shot in all directions.
It’s not until I’m weaving through the crowd to get to the cage with Lily at my back that I notice the bane of my existence.
Monty. My mum’s side piece.
His glare is on me from across the other side of the cage as he speaks to Mad Dog, which is when I realise Mad Dog is one of his guys.
By the death glare Monty is shooting me, I wonder if he somehow knows I was the one who killed Carlo. I didn’t mean to. I’d wanted Carlo to pass my message onto Monty, and finding out he’d died on the footpath had been disappointing.
“This is going to be a problem.” Lily’s voice meets my ears, and I glance beside me to see her glaring at Monty. “You’re breaching the restraining order by being this close to him.”
I shrug. “I’m here to fight. If he has a problem with it, then he can fuck off. Besides, these fights aren’t legal, so I’d love to see him try to call me out for being this close to him. He’d be putting himself and everyone here in jeopardy.”
Lily nods. “True.”
The bell rings, indicating it’s time for me to enter the cage, and I roll my shoulders and stretch my head to each side before turning to Lily.
In true Lily fashion, her words surprise me.
“If he fights dirty. You fight dirtier.” She jabs her finger to the centre of my bare chest. “I don’t care if that means you have to kill him. You do whatever it takes to make sure you come back to me.”
Fuck.
My heart flips.
“You want me to come back to you?”
“Of course.” She frowns, and fuck my grin is shit-eating.
“Be careful, Lil. Those words make it sound like you want to keep me.”
She smirks. “I do.”
“Fuck,” I whisper, and she balls her fist and punches my bicep.
“Go out there and edge me, Asher. Make me wet.”
For fuck’s sake. It’s pure fucking luck that I get my cock to stay down.
Sure, I’m wearing a cup to protect my junk, but a stiffy will only dislodge the fucking thing.
Feeling like I’m walking on water at Lily’s declaration, I enter the cage and turn my focus on the crazy fucker pacing on the other side. I have a feeling he’ll be much like my last fight. More like a raging bull charging than any actual skill.
And I’m right. Mad Dog is a mass of muscle that fucking hurts when you get hit, but he has little skill.
We go four rounds. I get in a number of hits and kicks, and we get weighed down by some grappling, but most of Mad Dog’s contact with me is him trying to bowl me over and trying to use his weight to hold me down, throwing the occasional elbow or knee.
I can hear Monty’s grating voice calling out to his fighter throughout the match, but Mad Dog doesn’t listen to a thing he says until he calls, “Do it now!”
The moment those words pass Monty’s lips, Mad Dog shifts on the mat where he’d fallen on all fours, and a deep voice calls out.
“Hawaii!”
By the time Mad Dog has leapt up, I’m prepared for the shiv he pulled out of thin fucking air, dodging his first strike as I slam my fist into his ribcage.
Chaos erupts around the basement, and it’s only because I can still hear her calling to me that I know Lily is safe.
“Finish him!” Lily calls, and I keep my eyes on the beast of a man as he dances around in front of me with the blade.
The only weapons I have are my fists, but I’m not worried. They are all I need.
I run for Mad Dog, knowing he’ll fall for it, and he leans forward, bracing for me to collide with him.
With his head low and his arms stretched wide, he has one hand fisted and the other gripping the shiv.
I leap at the last second, doing a one eighty, my foot slamming hard into his face with a crack.
He stumbles back, blindly swinging the blade as blood spews from his nose, and I lunge to the side, kicking out my leg to sweep through his stance, sending him crashing to the mat.
“Kill him!” Monty roars, and Mad Dog tries to get his bearings as I leap on his back like the fucking monkey I am, locking him in a chokehold.
He swings the shiv back, stabbing my shoulder, then my arm, before he changes tactics and buries it in my side. My grip loosens as air whooshes from me, searing pain shooting through my ribs as the warm rush of blood oozes down my skin.
It’s not a long blade, so there’s a big chance it didn’t hit anything vital, and as Mad Dog gasps for air, falling forward, I rip the blade from my side and plunge it into the back of his neck.
Mad Dog falls to the mat with a thud, and it takes me a moment to blink my vision clear to see his blood pooling on the mat.
“Shit,” I mutter to myself as everything blurs again, the world starting to spin.
“Asher!”
The sound of Lily’s voice is the last thing I hear before my axis tilts and I fall into darkness.