Page 73 of Carry Your Debt

Clocks the knee I’m slightly favoring.

I don’t fall for his taunt though. Instead, I crack my neck and slide my feet back apart. Bringing the weight forward onto the balls of my feet. Waiting on tenterhooks, hoping to catch any hint of his next plan of attack, all while trying not to lock any of my aching joints into place.

He nods in approval at my show of resolve, knowing I’m not going to be the one to go on the offensive this time. Not in my state. So it’s only another slow blink of heavy eyelids before he makes the first move, feet gliding across the cage floor like he was born to dance, not bare-knuckle fight.

My eyes are hooded, but they still eat up every vibration of muscle, every rise of his chest, until?—

Rightthere.

There’s a split second between heartbeats when I telegraph the subtle drop in his torso, and I finally realize he’s about to try ending this thing in a grapple, not a strike.

I brace my weight then, pitched forward to meet him; slick, tattooed muscles slipping and sliding when we collide in the middle.

The sides of my ribs pinch as I haul one arm up and under, snagging him before he can manage to readjust his axis. The clinch is fucking messy; there’s just too much sweat and blood and fibrous tremors to pull it off with any sort of finesse.

But it works.

It fucking works.

I know it does the moment I feel his pelvis flex forward and his knee rotate inwards, shifting his center of gravity just past the stable point needed for a guy his size.

And I know for sure it works the moment we crash to the floor and the takedown is mine.

Fuck.

It’s done.

“Shit, I really fucking needed that,” Dionysus gasps out from beneath my chest. He’s staring up at me intensely, something like pride in his olive-green eyes.

I hum before clambering gingerly to my feet, feeling like every blood vessel in my body is trying to fill itself all at once. I glance down at him, mind blank of anything but a cloud of endorphins, before finally offering out my hand. He takes it with a cheerful slap of his palm to mine, letting me haul him to his feet. My ribs and thighs bark with the effort.

Another enthusiastic slap—to my upper back this time—and I don’t protest at all when he uses the hand to steer us toward the gate. I can barely even hear the roar of the crowd right now; my head still feels like it’s underwater with the rush of the win and the throb of my injuries.

“Can’t wait to work with you, man,” Dionysus is saying against the shell of my ear. “You’re gonna be dangerous once we finish polishing you up.”

“We?” I croak.

“Knox and I will train you, fit you out. I’m sure Zeus will be happy to jump in on marksmanship. You any good with long-range weapons?”

“Uh, only ever run with handguns. A few blades.”

“All good, we’ll sort it,” he says with a grin.

I blink, twice, when I’m suddenly deposited in front of Sabine. Somehow, we’d made it all the way out of the cage and back onto the Underground floor.

“Babygirl! Ares for thewin,” Dionysus crows, cuffing my head and giving it a gentle shake while I sway in place. “Alright, I’m hitting the showers, our girl will take care of you,” he adds with a final slap to my shoulder. I nearly groan out loud when my abused delts scream in response.

But then my eyes land onherand all the pain takes a backseat and the familiar buzz starts back up behind my sternum.

“C’mon, big guy,” her mouth says, and all I can think isthat fucking mouth.

I realize, rather belatedly, that she’s started gently herding me in what I think is the direction of the locker room. She has one arm wrapped around my waist, the other held gently against my abdomen. And I’m struck by just hownon-Sabine the gesture seems.

Because there’s nothinggentleabout Sabine Winters.

She also doesn’t shrug off the arm I settle around her shoulder, and for just a moment, the droning din of the hornets lowers—just a little.

I can make out the doors to the improvised bathrooms when our path is darkened by one of the absolute last motherfuckers I want to be dealing with when I’m still coming off a fight that intense.

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