Page 34 of Ruined

Luca tried to speak, but I couldn’t hear him over the noise. He cupped his hand around my ear. “I need to head downstairs for the fight.”

I frowned, nodding.

We descended the stairs and met Santino, who sat by the ring with a clipboard.

Santino thumbed through the clipboard. “You remember the rules?”

Luca sighed. “Yeah.”

The family had made it clear that Luca was to throw the fight. They didn’t give a damn about what it would do to his already shattered sense of self.

I clenched my jaw.

“Dom,” Santino said. “You staying ringside?”

I shot him a look. “Someone has to make sure this shitshow doesn’t go sideways.”

Luca shrugged out of his jacket. Then he unbuttoned his shirt. It slid off his shoulders, revealing inked skin. His muscles flexed as he tossed the shirt onto a bench. Luca wrapped his hands with a roll of tape. Santino handed Luca a mouthguard, and Luca slipped it in without a word, his gaze distant.

His broad back rippled as he ducked under the ropes. The low murmur of the crowd turned into a roar. Santino grabbed the mic and called out Luca’s name, and my stomach dropped.

Now everyone was watching.

Including me.

I swore as Luca’s opponent climbed into the ring. A guy built like a fucking tank, with a face that looked like it’d been rearranged one too many times. He cracked his knuckles, staring Luca down.

Fuck.

Luca bounced on his feet, unbothered by the mountain of muscle in front of him. His expression was cold—no,empty. Nothing scared him.

The bell rang.

Luca feinted left and drove a brutal right hook into his opponent’s ribs. A sick thud echoed through the warehouse, and the guy staggered. Luca didn’t give him time to recover. He landed a devastating uppercut, snapping the guy’s head back, and sent him crashing to the mat.

The tank dragged himself up, blood smeared across his mouth, and Luca smiled. A hard smile that twisted deep in my gut. He wanted this. Heneededthis.

He fought like a man exorcising a demon. Like every punch could bleed the poison out of him. He took hits he didn’t have to take, staggering only to come harder, fists flying with a furious grace that left his opponent reeling.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away.

What the fuck are you trying to prove, Luca?

My jaw clenched as the fight dragged on. He was faster, but he let himself get hit. I saw the split-second hesitation before he dropped his guard. He didn’t flinch when a fist collided with his jaw, snapping his head to the side. He liked the pain. Welcomed it. Like it was penance for something no one else could see.

Maybe he was trying to beat something out of himself.

Perhaps he threw punches at men built like Adonis to vent his frustration for not being able to fuck them. Was this how he dealt with it when he couldn’t play straight with hiscomare?

Was I the demon in his head?

That twisted inside me like a blade.

Another punch landed, a brutal hook to his jaw that snapped his head to the side. I forced myself not to react. This wasn’t my fight to interfere in, no matter how much I wanted to drag him out of there and tell the family to go fuck themselves.

Another punch. Luca took them all, staggering back enough to sell it, but he could take the guy apart if he wanted to. I’d seen him fight when he wasn’t holding back. This wasn’t Luca. This was a puppet on their strings.

I gritted my teeth. “This is bullshit.”

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