Cole
Ipulled into the back gate at the Avernus Casino. Behind the huge bronze building that housed the casino, hotel, restaurants, and shops, lay the shadowed golf course. It was busy all year round, but the stylish villas tucked in under the trees were kept separate from the main course.
Bastian joked it was a retirement village for assassins. I lived in one villa, Nash Oakley and his woman Georgie had another, and tucked behind it was Nash’s greenhouse. The guy had given up killing for the CIA and had taken up growing orchids as a hobby.
The rest of our friends, Landon, Alessio, and Rafe Archer, had the other villas, although Landon had been known to sleep in his office at the free medical clinic he ran. Alessio often disappeared to do jobs he rarely spoke to us about, and Rafe liked to travel and collect expensive art.
I parked my truck in the carport beside my villa and turned off the engine. A sensor light sprang to life, and I turned to look at Lili.
She was hunched in the passenger seat, shaking a little. She looked so damn young and tiny in my large jacket.
“Let’s get inside.”
She nodded. “This is your place?”
“Yeah.”
“You live at a casino.”
“A friend owns the place.”
Before she could get out, I circled the truck. I gripped her small waist and pulled her out. She wasn’t super short or tall, maybe five foot five or six, but beside me she seemed tiny.
Fuck, I hated seeing her in that dress. I knew it was meant to flaunt her figure. She wasn’t big but she had curves, and her breasts were large for her frame. Her dress did everything it could to put them on display.
I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the front door. I tapped in the code on the high-tech lock, and after it beeped, I led her inside. I flicked on the lights and watched her look around.
I hadn’t done much in the way of decorating.
The floor was large, cream tiles. The kitchen had dark-gray cabinets and a creamy marble on the counter tops.
I used the small island with its tall stools to eat most of the time.
My large dining room table rarely got used.
My couch was black leather and faced the large television.
There were no plants, no art on the walls, nothing very interesting. I wondered what she’d think about it.
She was still shaking. Probably a little shock.
“Sit on the couch. Gonna get you a drink.” I hesitated. Fuck, what did I have that she could drink? Probably shouldn’t give her whiskey. “Coffee all right?”
She nodded again.
By the time I’d made the coffee, she was huddled on my big couch. She looked too pale.
Accepting the mug from me, she flicked a glance up. “Thanks.”
I pulled out my cellphone and hit Landon’s number.
“She okay?” were my friend’s first words.
“I don’t know. Can you come and check her over?”
“On my way. Alessio and I just got back. That big Russian woke up and raised hell that he’d lost her.”
My hand clenched on the phone. “I don’t give a fuck.”
“I know, but watch your back.” Landon ended the call.
“I don’t need to be checked out.”
When I looked back at Lili, her brown eyes were wide and she looked a little freaked.
“It’s a friend of mine. He’s a doctor.” I sat on the large chunk of wood that made up my rustic coffee table. “I want to make sure that you’re okay.”
“They didn’t hurt me.” She kept her slim hands wrapped around the mug.
“You’ve had a rough night.”
Her hand shot out and grabbed mine. “Cole, thank you. Thank you for fighting for me.”
I felt some weird sensation under my ribs. I managed a nod.
“If you hadn’t, and Anton…” She shuddered. “I’ve told him no, over and over, but he’s never listened.” She made a sound. “Some men just take what they want, the rest of us be damned.”
I suddenly felt like pounding on Kamensky all over again. “He hurt you?”
She shook her head. “Cornered me a few times, but I always managed to get away.”
“You don’t have to worry about him anymore.” I tried to move my hand away, but she clamped on harder.
Guessing she needed the contact, I let my fingers tangle with hers. It felt weird. I could easily count how many times I’d held a woman’s hand—zero. She relaxed a little.
Then she gasped. “Your knuckles.”
I winced. They were swollen and ripped up. Not the first time, and not the last. It probably looked horrible to her. “Yeah, it happens.”
Her fingers brushed over my hand, and I felt it like the touch of a butterfly.
She leaned forward. “Let me clean them for you. Do you have a first aid kit?”
“They’re fine, Lili. I’ll deal with them later. You’re the one who’s shaken up.”
She set her mug down on the coffee table. “I want to help. Please…” Her voice broke. “I need to do something. To…” Her brown eyes were so big. “Please?”
Dammit. “Kit’s under the sink.”
She bounced up, the jacket sliding off her shoulder.
She threw it on the couch and hurried to the kitchen, the short hem of her dress showing off way too much of her legs.
They weren’t stick thin, and I found my gaze locked on her curvy thighs.
I liked curves. My hands clenched. She was back in a second, opening the first aid kit on the couch beside her.
Pausing, she looked up. “It’s nearly empty.”
It was messy, with opened bandages and nearly empty tubes. “I use it a lot.” It wasn’t the first time I’d come home from a fight needing to wipe the blood away. If I needed stitches, Landon usually patched me up.
She found an antiseptic wipe and ripped it open. Then she grabbed my left hand in hers, and started cleaning.
I watched her red-brown hair as she bent over my hand. Her movements were so careful and delicate, nothing like the rough swipes I used when I cleaned myself up. I also couldn’t help noticing the sway of her breasts and deep cleavage in that damn dress.
My cock was definitely noticing.
Fuck. I was no better than Kamensky.
Once she was done, she smoothed cream over my knuckles. Then she started on the other hand.
“Your hands are so strong,” she murmured.
She was so close, her movements so gentle, and I could smell her. She smelled like vanilla.
Need hit me low in the gut. I resisted the urge to shift on the table, and willed my cock to stay down.
Lili Armstrong was way too young, and way too sweet for the likes of a broken fighter like me. My hands had hurt and killed more people than I could count. Hers were slim and pretty. They deserved the best, not to be used to clean away my blood.
She was too damn tempting.
I pulled my hands back. “Thanks.”
There was a brief knock at my front door and I heard it open. Landon had excellent timing.
He strode in, black bag in hand.
I cleared my throat. “Lili, this is my friend, Landon. He’s a doctor. Landon, this is Lili.”
“Hi, Lili.”
“You don’t look like any doctor I know.”
Landon’s teeth flashed white against his dark skin. “I know, God made me handsome and debonair. It’s my cross to bear.”
Lili let out a tiny giggle.
Landon sat on the couch beside her. “I was at the fight tonight.”
Her smile dissolved and her head dropped.
“Don’t know how you ended up mixed up in that fight, but I’m sorry it happened to you. Can I check your pulse?”
She glanced at me, and I nodded. She held out her arm and Landon pressed his fingers to her wrist.
“It was my dad,” she whispered.
I cocked my head. “What?” My voice was sharp.
Landon shot me a look, one dark brow raised.
I attempted to rein in my anger. “Lili’s father is a trainer,” I told him. “Trains Kamensky.”
At the man’s name, Lili shuddered.
“No one is going to hurt you,” I promised her. “Now, explain about your dad.”
“Dad owed the man who runs the fight ring money.”
“He sold you?” I snapped.
She curled in on herself. “Yes. Trust me, if you knew my dad, you wouldn’t be that surprised. He pretty much treats me like a slave.” She pushed a strand of hair off her face. “My mom ran off when I was six.”
Fuck. Her mother had left a six-year-old girl with a fucker like Armstrong?
“He mostly ignored me, unless I was late cooking him dinner or I hadn’t cleaned our apartment.
” She shrugged a shoulder. “I got myself to school, I figured out tampons all by myself when I’d got my first period.
” Two pink splotches of color hit her cheeks.
“Um, which is all irrelevant. The man who pays for Anton’s training wanted Anton…
properly motivated, so he cleared Dad’s debt in return for me. ”
Landon cursed under his breath.
I breathed through my red-hot rage: at Kamensky, at her father, and at the ultimate asshole pulling the strings.
“Goodyear,” I muttered.
She blinked. “You know him?”
Landon made a low sound. My friend knew exactly who Goodyear was.
I let my hands dangle between my knees. “I know Goodyear is scum.”
Her face lit up. “He is. He gets away with so much, and pretends to be a good guy, but he’s not. I…I saw him hurt another fighter tonight, and his girlfriend. Goodyear shot him.”
Every one of my muscles stiffened. “Goodyear shot someone?”
She nodded. “Bronco.”
Hell, I knew the older fighter. He was a decent enough guy.
“I don’t know how badly he was hurt. Gloria, his girlfriend, was unconscious. They were carrying her, but she was bleeding.” Lili’s lip trembled.
I couldn’t stop myself from reaching out and cupping her face. “You’re safe now.”
She pushed into my palm, and my gut knotted. I didn’t think she even realized she’d done it.
That’s when I realized Landon was eyeing me.
I pulled back.
“Lili, I need to check your face,” Landon said. “Someone hit you?”
She nodded. “It’s not bad.”
“I’m the doctor, so I get to be the judge of that.”
“It was Goodyear’s men, when they locked me up before the fight.” Her shoulders slumped. “I can’t believe my dad did this. He’s never been father of the year, but…”
I felt her pain and my hand curled into a fist. I’d make Brock Armstrong regret his fucking bad decision to sell his own daughter.
“I did everything for him.” Color filled her cheeks. “I cleaned, cooked, helped run his gyms.”
Because she wanted her father’s attention. His love.
“I tried to leave once…” Her voice trailed off.