Page 62 of If You Fight

Ryder stood and tenderly took my face in his hands, whispering against my lips, “I love you, Serena. Don’t worry. I’m okay.”

Closing my eyes, I willed my nose not to smell the putrid mixture of sweat and another man’s blood that flooded over me. “Okay. I’ll see you at home.”

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked before kissing me gently on the forehead. “Why won’t you look at me, Serena?”

All I wanted to do was run away from the sounds and smells of that place, but I opened my eyes and tried to pretend none of it bothered me like it did. “I just feel a little tired. That’s all.”

He gently slid his hand over my stomach and smiled, but when I looked down I saw that man’s blood had stained his fingers. Needing to get out of there, I quickly kissed him goodbye and hurried toward the door.

I barely made it out of that room into the hallway before I inhaled deeply, desperate for fresh air in my nose and lungs. I took another breath in and turned to leave, but out of the corner of my eye I saw my father and a female I’d never seen before. Blond and young, she had a cut-rate look to her.

Just my father’s type, if his past choices in mistresses were any indication.

“Serena, did you get to see our champion?” he asked as they approached me.

“I have to go.”

I took a step to leave when my father stopped me by grabbing my arm. “I want to introduce you to someone. Serena, this is Kitty. Kitty’s an old friend of Ryder’s.”

Stopping dead, I looked back at the woman and studied her for a moment as he told her who I was. She reeked like she’d bathed in cheap perfume, its overly sweet odor hanging heavy in the air around her, and my stomach began to roil once more. Her face looked younger than mine, but something in her eyes said she’d lived a much harder life than I had.

Good. I liked the idea of Kitty, Ryder’s old friend, living a hard life. What I didn’t like was her being there to watch him fight.

I opened my mouth to ask exactly why she’d come there but stopped myself. I knew what my father was doing. First, he tried to make me dislike Ryder as a fighter, and when that didn’t work, he now wanted to make me see the female he’d been with while I was in Italy.

But it wouldn’t work. I wouldn’t let him win.

Extending my hand to shake hers, I said with the biggest smile, “It’s nice to meet an old friend of Ryder’s. You must not have seen him in a long time.”

Surprised by my comment, Kitty started to speak but nothing came out. Finally, my father spoke up and said, “You said you had to go? I think we’re going to stop in and see our boy before we leave.”

Kitty may have been flustered, but my father hadn’t given up on trying to rattle me. It didn’t matter. Ryder was with me, not some sad stripper.

“Nice to meet you, Kitty. Dad, tell Ryder I’ll have dinner waiting for him when he gets home. I know how hungry he gets after these fights. Night!”

I spun on my heels and headed down the hallway to the door without giving my father a chance to say anything more. I knew his tricks better than anyone in the world. I also knew Ryder loved me, and no visit from some cheap girl hanging off my father’s arm would change that.

As one hourturned to two and then three, I worried my father had done something to keep Ryder from returning home, but he finally walked through the door looking like a conquering hero from some hard-fought battle.

Tossing his duffel bag on the floor, he lifted me into his arms and kissed me like he hadn’t seen me in ages. Setting me down on the ground, he asked, “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine. I just had to get out of there,” I said, hoping he didn’t ask me why. I didn’t want to say anything to ruin his triumph from winning that night.

“I know you don’t like watching, but I won, and that’s a good thing,” he said with a look of genuine happiness in his green eyes.

“I know. It was just hard to watch,” I admitted, hating that I felt that way almost as much as I hated seeing him hurt that man.

Ryder took me by the hand and led me to the bedroom. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he lifted his shirt over his head and tossed it toward the chair in the corner. “See? I’m okay?” he said as he showed me his arms to prove he hadn’t been hurt.

He pulled my hand to his chest and pressed it over his heart, but all I could think of was Seth’s blood covering his chest. I knew my revulsion registered in my expression, and I didn’t want it to, but there was nothing I could do to stop it.

I yanked my hand from his hold and pulled it away from him. The look on his face told me he didn’t understand my behavior.

“Serena, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing. Probably morning sickness. That’s all.”

The mention of the pregnancy made him smile, and he lowered his gaze to my belly. He gently placed his palm against it and said quietly, “I’m doing everything I can to make sure you and your mother are safe, little one.”

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