Chapter 7
The main fight club is empty at two in the morning, the ring bathed in a single spotlight that cuts through the darkness like a blade.
I should be sleeping, recovering from the brutal training session Dom put me through yesterday, but sleep feels impossible when my body is still humming with adrenaline and my lips still burn from the memory of his kiss.
I’m working through combinations on the heavy bag when I hear the slow clap echoing from the shadows.
“Nice form. Still telegraphing your right hook, though.”
Axel emerges from the darkness, moving with that fluid grace that makes him seem more ghost than man. His nickname is so apt. His hair is even more disheveled than usual, and there’s something wild in his dark eyes that sets every nerve ending on alert.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, not stopping my routine.
“Could ask you the same thing.” He vaults over the ropes into the ring with casual ease, landing silently despite the height. “But I already know the answer. You’re running from something. Question is what.”
“I’m not running from anything.”
“No? Then why are you down here beating the shit out of an inanimate object instead of sleeping like a normal person?” He circles me slowly, staying just outside my reach. “Let me guess. Dom finally made his move.”
Heat flashes through me, and I know my face gives me away because Axel’s grin turns sharp and knowing.
“Ah. So the enforcer finally grew some balls.” He stops directly in front of me, close enough that I can see the silver streak in his hair catch the light. “How was it? Passionate? Tender? Or did he treat you like you might break?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Everything that happens in this club is my business, brujita. I’m the one who keeps the peace when things get messy.” His voice drops to something darker, more dangerous. “And things are about to get very messy.”
“What do you mean?”
Instead of answering, he starts stripping off his shirt, revealing the intricate blackwork tattoos that cover his chest and shoulders. In the stark lighting, the designs look like they’re moving, shifting across his skin with each breath.
“I mean,” he says, tossing the shirt aside, “that you’re about to have a choice to make, and choices require clarity.” He bounces on his toes, his hands loose at his sides. “So let’s get clear.”
“Axel—”
“One round. No rules, no protection, just skill versus skill.” His smile is all teeth and challenge. “Unless you’re afraid of getting hurt.”
The taunt works exactly as intended, igniting the competitive fire that’s gotten me into more trouble than I can count. “You think I can’t take you?”
“I think you’ve been coddled by Dom’s protective instincts and Marcus’s careful planning. I think you’ve forgotten what it feels like to fight someone who won’t pull their punches because they care about you.” He raises his hands, settling into a stance that’s deceptively casual. “Prove me wrong.”
I burst out laughing. “Did you forget what happened last time?”
“Last time was a game. You got lucky.”
“That wasn’t luck,” I hiss.
“Then prove it, brujita. Knock me out again and you can do whatever you want to me.”
I should walk away. Every rational part of my brain is screaming that this is a bad idea, that fighting Axel when I’m emotionally compromised is asking for trouble.
But rationality has never been my strong suit, and the challenge in his eyes is impossible to ignore.
“You won’t hold back this time?”
“I will give you my all.” He taps his fist to his chest twice.
I step into the ring. “One round,” I agree. “And when I win again, you tell me what game you’re really playing here.”
“Deal. And when I win…” His gaze travels over me with predatory appreciation. “Well, we’ll figure that out when it happens.”
We circle each other in the spotlight, two predators testing boundaries. Axel moves like water, fluid and unpredictable, while I rely on the fundamentals Dom drilled into me during our singular training session. The contrast should put me at a disadvantage, but Axel’s arrogant. He’s showing off.
The realization hits just as he launches into a complex combination that’s more flash than substance.
Beautiful technique, absolutely devastating if it lands, but it leaves him exposed for half a second longer than necessary.
I slip the punches and counter with a sharp jab to his ribs that makes him grunt.
“Lucky shot,” he says, but there’s approval in his voice.
“Was it?”
We reset and go again, harder this time. Axel’s speed is incredible, but speed without strategy is just chaos, and I’ve learned to thrive in chaos. Every time he goes for the spectacular finish, I make him pay with simple, effective counters that add up over time.
By the middle of the round, he’s breathing harder, and there’s something like respect in his dark eyes.
“You’re not fighting me,” he observes, dodging a combination before responding with his own. “You’re fighting my ego.”
“Your ego’s a bigger target. Besides, if either one of us should have the ego, it’s me since I already KO’d your ass.”
His laugh is pure delight, even as he absorbs a body shot that would drop most people. “Fuck, I like you.”
But liking me doesn’t make him fight any less viciously.
If anything, it seems to liberate him, allowing him to attack with the kind of creative brutality that’s made him undefeated for two years.
I have to dig deep into everything Dom taught me about reading opponents, about using strategy over strength.
The turning point comes when Axel overcommits to a spinning backfist that would have taken my head off if it connected.
Instead, I duck under it and sweep his legs, using his own momentum against him.
He goes down hard, and I follow up before he can recover, mounting him and drawing back my fist to finish it.
We freeze like that, both of us breathing hard, my fist cocked and ready while he stares up at me with something dark and hungry in his eyes.
“Yield,” I say quietly.
“Make me.”
The words are a challenge and an invitation rolled into one. The smart thing would be to follow through, to prove my point and end this before it becomes something else entirely, but there’s something in his expression that stops me, something vulnerable beneath the wild bravado.
There’s defiance in his eyes but also something raw. Seeing it makes me realize I don’t want to beat him.
I want to break him open.
So instead of throwing the punch, I lean down and kiss him.
It’s nothing like kissing Dom. Where Dom was consuming fire, Axel is electric chaos.
His mouth moves against mine with desperate hunger, his hands fisting in my hair as he reverses our positions with fluid grace.
Suddenly I’m on my back on the canvas, staring up at him as he braces himself above me.
“That’s cheating,” he murmurs against my lips.
“I thought there were no rules.”
“There aren’t.” His smile is pure sin as he settles his weight more fully against me, letting me feel exactly how much the fight affected him. He’s rock hard, his erection digging into me. “Which means I get to do this.”
He kisses me again, deeper this time, his hands mapping the curves of my body with reverent desperation. When his teeth catch my bottom lip, I arch against him, drawing a low groan from his throat.
“Fuck, Raven,” he breathes.
“If that’s what you want…”
That’s all the permission he needs. His mouth trails down my throat, finding the sensitive spot where my pulse hammers against my skin. Every touch is electric, sending sparks of heat through my nervous system until I’m trembling beneath him.
When he looks up at me, his eyes are wild with want and something deeper, more dangerous.
“This changes things,” he says quietly. “You know that, right?”
“Everything’s already changed.”
“Not like this.” His thumb traces my bottom lip with surprising gentleness. “Dom’s going to lose his mind. Marcus is going to see this as a complication to his plans. And me…” He pauses, vulnerability flickering across his features. “I’m going to want things I can’t have.”
“What if you can have them?”
For a moment, I see past the wildcard facade to something raw and real underneath. Then, his expression shifts, becoming unreadable.
“Then we’re all fucked,” he says simply. “Because I don’t share well with others.”
Before I can respond, he’s moving, rolling away from me and standing in one fluid motion. The sudden absence of his warmth leaves me cold and slightly disoriented.
“You won,” he says, offering me his hand. “Fair and square. Strategy over strength, just like Marcus would approve of.”
I let him pull me to my feet, hyperaware of the way his fingers linger against mine. “And what you promised to tell me?”
“The game I’m playing?” His smile returns, sharp and mysterious. “I’m trying to figure out if Vincent Blackwood’s daughter is worth the chaos she’s going to bring. The jury’s still out.”
“And what would convince you?”
He steps closer, invading my personal space in a way that makes my pulse spike.
“Keep surprising me. Keep fighting like you just did. Keep being the kind of woman who can make me forget why getting attached is dangerous.” His voice drops to a whisper.
“And maybe, just maybe, I’ll tell you what I really know about your father’s death. ”
He stole my breath again without having to kiss me this time. My knees even go weak. “You know something about—”
“I know lots of things, brujita, but information like that requires trust. And trust…” He traces the line of my jaw with one finger, the touch feather-light. “Trust has to be earned.”
He’s already moving toward the ropes when I find my voice again. “Axel.”
He pauses, looking back over his shoulder.
“Next time you want to test me, just ask. The games are getting old.”
His laugh is low and rich, filled with genuine amusement. “Where’s the fun in that? Besides,” he drops through the ropes and lands silently on the floor, “I thought you liked dangerous games.”
He disappears into the shadows.
Shit. One kiss with Dom complicated everything. This encounter with Axel just made it exponentially worse.
Now I’m not just fighting for revenge or survival or even my father’s legacy. I’m fighting for something far more dangerous and infinitely more complicated.
I’m fighting for the right to choose my own fate in a world where choice is the rarest luxury of all.