Page 66 of Fool Me Twice

Cane geared up to level him, taking a step forward with his jaw clenched and his fists tight next to his hips.

Hart stepped between them neatly and held his gaze. It was a warning and a plea all at once. “Do you know who Ash is going up against?”

Cane snorted, looking Hart up and down. “Obviously.”

“Is it Stabby McKnifewielder?” Ash asked.

Hart rubbed his temples with his fingers, throwing a glare over his shoulder.

“Ash, please,” he said. “Things are barely being held together; can you behave for just one night?”

“Boring.” Ash sighed. “But fine. What’s our plan here?”

“Fix?” Hart asked.

“Outside in the car, keeping an eye on the entrance in case anyone tries to slink away before we can get to them,” Ash replied. “He’ll join us inside once everyone is in.”

“Ares is keeping an eye on the few…let’s call them ‘emergency exits,’” Cane said.

“There are secret exits?” Ash asked. “This place just got so much cooler! Where are they?”

“Told you you don’t know shit about this place,” Cane said.

“So rude to me.”

“Antagonizing him when he agreed to help you isn’t necessary,” Hart said in his best lecture voice.

Cane rolled his eyes. “It’s how we talk.”

“That’s true,” Ash chirped, completely nonchalant.

“He’s putting himself in danger for you,” Hart said, voice tighter than before. “You could at least show some gratitude.”

“This was your idea, remember?” Cane reminded him. “And he isn’t the only one putting himself in the line of fire, so don’t martyr him just yet.”

“Speaking of, I was joking before, but who am I actually fighting?” Ash asked.

“Me,” Cane said.

Both brothers stared at him with identical looks of confusion and shock.

“I’m sorry, repeat that?” Hart said.

“No one was going to volunteer to fight and only one thing was going to draw the crowds and that asshole who thinks he can fuck with me out into the open.” Cane pulled a cigarette out to light up.

“That’s not what we agreed,” Hart said once he had recovered enough to speak. “That’s…that’s…”

“Pretty smart,” Ash finished for him, grinning widely. “You do have a brain in there. I was worried it had been replaced by tattoos and metal.”

“Yours is about to be,” Cane said, blowing out a ring of smoke and cracking his knuckles.

“Bring it, Candy Cane,” Ash said, a fire in his eyes that he only got when the stakes were really high.

Cane felt an answering surge of adrenaline. He hadn’t stepped inside the ring like this in a long time. He’d made his way up fighting. He’d made it through prison fighting. People knew by that point that he shouldn’t be fucked with. He’d gained respect through blood and sinew, so much so that by the time he got out, he could just sit back and pay others to do it and make a decent chunk of slates too.

But he had missed it.

And right now he was so tense and pent up he could split about twenty skulls and not be completely satisfied. The people around him needed to be reminded just who he was.

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