10. Kolson
Iknew leaving Jace was a bad idea, but he’d insisted he could handle it, and I didn’t have time to argue with him. Of course, he picked the day when my meeting was time-sensitive.
I’m convinced he did that on purpose, but I can’t prove it. All in all, his interest in her is sure to be a problem, and tonight sure as fuck didn’t help. Leave it to my little brother to take a hook to the face and be more drawn to someone.
Even now, with her door closed and locked, his gaze remains glued to it as if he might be able to see through it if he tries hard enough. What’s even more problematic is the fact that Isaac isn’t much better.
Had I known she would be such a problem, I would have prepared, looked into her a little more, and ensured I had a proper hold on her should I need it.
But everything I heard about her made her sound like she would be little more than a blip on my radar.
Zela sounded boring, timid, and unworthy of my time.
That doesn’t match the girl behind that door, not even a little bit.
“This,” I throw a hand out toward her door to ensure he knows exactly what I mean. “That's why I didn’t trust you to be here alone with her.”
“She started it.” He doesn’t sound put off by that, and that only makes this worse.
I bite back the urge to snap. The house might be big, but I have no doubt I’d wake Mother and Patrick if we got into it out here.
No, it’s best to wait until we’re in the den.
“Regardless of who started what, you can’t be that rough with her. She’s small, and Mother will lose it if she knows you made her bleed.” Jace hates to upset Mother—we all do—which is why I said it. I know how to make him hear me.
“She might be small, but she’s something else, brother.” Finally, he turns to face me, and I get a good look at his split lip.
She got him good.
Despite thinking she was giving herself some privacy, all she really did was clue Isaac in that she was there and wanted to be alone. She also proved she has no idea who she’s dealing with, if she believes the only cameras in the room are the ones she can see.
Every room that isn’t a bathroom or bedroom is under general surveillance; the cameras Mother had installed to ensure the house is secure.
We have our own though; the ones that Isaac put in.
He can monitor them from anywhere but has a wall of monitors in his room just for this type of thing.
We also have most of The Pit running on them, with the exception of the fighters' rooms, of course.
At the rate things are going with Zela, I doubt the bedrooms will stay clear of them for long. Something tells me she needs a little more attention, and I’m happy to give it to her. She has more than one lesson she needs to learn now that she’s a DuPont.
“Don’t pretend you didn’t see her the same way I did. Besides, I’m clearly not the only one she’s putting hands on if her hit and hip are anything to go by.”
I ignore the first part. He’s right, I did see, but that’s not the part that caught my attention.
“Her hip?” I ask, confused about what the fuck he could mean by that.
“Her right hip had a bruise, rather large and greenish-yellow, clearly a few days old.”
I look back at her door, debating on busting my way in there or letting this go.
I need Zela to fall in line, but right now we have business to attend to before the next fight, which means I don’t have time for distractions.
None of us do.
“Regardless, stay away from her, Jace. She’s to be our new sister, not your plaything.” I turn and head back down the hall to the stairs. I don’t need to look to know they both follow, and I pretend not to hear Jace when he mumbles about how she could be both…
Yes, she could be, and I get the feeling for once, Jace might be on to something.
Most of Friday was spent outside the house, tying up a few last-minute things before the fight tonight. I don’t even have to ask Isaac to keep an eye on her; he’s already watching her with a tendency that borders on obsessive, yet somehow she still manages to slip away.
“I’m going to put a fucking leash on her,” I growl as we move up the stairs to our seats before the fight.
“Fuck, don’t say shit like that,” Jace says, making no attempt to hide his growing excitement at the idea as he adjusts in his seat.
For now, I file all thoughts of her away.
“Our co-ed fight, obviously, will be Tank versus Vixen. The idea will bring in a crowd, but I’m unsure she can survive that fight, no matter how good she is. We may very well need another front-liner for our female division.”
Both Isaac and Jace look at me with varying levels of shock, though I can only see Isaac’s because I know what to look for.
“You can’t just throw her away. Vixen is my future wife,” Jace says in horror as he moves to the edge of the platform to look out into the pit as if she’s down there.
She’s not. The first few fights are always the lower ranks. Vixen is our best female fighter, which means she goes last.
The star of the show.
“I thought that was Zela.”
“Careful, brother. You sound a little green.” Jace smirks at me, and I grind my teeth together in an effort to keep from shoving him over the edge.
“Our sister is fun, but Vixen.” He presses a hand to his chest where his heart would be if he weren’t the cold, heartless bastard I know him to be. “She was made for me.”
“Nobody deserves to be stuck with you forever.” Isaac’s comment makes Jace bark a laugh and flip him the bird.
“You two seem to be doing just fine,” he snaps back, and I roll my eyes.
“That’s because we’re just as broken as your crazy ass, just in different ways.”
Isaac isn’t wrong, but the urge to tell him to get fucked is strong, nonetheless.
“Speaking of Zela, when was the last time we saw her today?” I direct the question to Isaac, and Jace seems more than happy to turn his attention back to the pit in anticipation of Vixen’s fight.
I won’t lie; I hope she’s at the very least left standing after her fight with Tank, but it’s not likely.
Tank is the best of the best; has been for years. But more than that, Tank has something to lose; he’s not just our best fighter in the ring but outside of it as well.
If he wants to pay back his debts, he knows better than to lose, and if that means him mangling a pretty little girl to do it, he will. I have no doubt about that.
Once upon a time, I would have never dared to pair them. I wanted Vixen as much, if not more, than Jace did, but something shifted in the last few weeks.
Someone changed something.
Our new ‘little sister’ has been filling my mind in every free moment I have to the point that I don’t have a free moment to think of Vixen outside of business.
I didn’t want to want her. I’d planned to keep my distance as much as I could, but she made that impossible. Zela defies me at every turn, openly and unafraid.
I’m not sure if I enjoy her backbone or want to fucking break it, but I know I need to do something.
That something might just be her.
“She left the house around five this morning with a duffel bag out the back door.” Isaac’s voice pulls me from my musing before it can get too deep. I growl in frustration, both at his words and his interruption.
“Where, oh where, could our little sis be going so early?” Jace singsongs as he moves back to his chair and collapses into it.
“Stop calling her that.” I hiss through clenched teeth, glaring at him.
Most people can’t meet my gaze half the time, let alone when I’m angry, but not my brothers.
Neither of the stupid fuckers is afraid of me despite knowing exactly the kind of monster I really am.
I guess when we match, it’s not as hard to swallow the truth.
“You know, at first I thought you didn’t like me calling her that because you hated her, but now I’m starting to think it might be something else.” He raises a brow at me before thrusting his hips up off the chair, his lip trapped under his teeth as he gives me his best ‘bedroom eyes.’
I scoff and push to my feet, moving down the stairs before I even know where I’m going. Jace is right, and that pisses me off more than Zela’s continuous ability to evade us and her lack of fear of the consequences.
“I have an idea when you're ready to hear it,” Jace shouts after me, but I don’t stop, don’t even waste the time to flip him off the way I usually would.
I’m sure his sick little mind has plenty of ways to break her, and I might very well come back to this conversation later. But as for now, I want the chance. I want to find her and teach her a lesson she won’t soon forget.
Isn’t that what brothers are for?