Page 33 of Burning Bridges

Without warning, Hammer launches a powerful punch. Jett expertly dodges it and counters with a swift kick to the leg. Hammer stumbles but quickly regains his balance and retaliates with a vicious uppercut. I grit my teeth as Jett flies back, but one hard hit won't knock Jett down like it would most. He is a determined motherfucker, and he wants this.

The crowd roarsRiveraon repeat, most of them backing my brother, the hometown favorite.

Kobe shouts at him to focus. He might deserve this, but one mistake could cost him the fight.

As the clock ticks down the round's final seconds, Jett narrows his eyes in on Hammer, and I see it, his tell, that little turn-up at the side of his mouth that says he has entered his psycho headspace. Hammer's fucked. Jett throws a quick jab-cross, landing his fist right on Hammer's chin. The mountain of a man flies back, colliding with the canvas below.

I glance at Kobe, and his grin is priceless. This is what the two of them have been working so hard for. Jett might have started out a scrawny kid fighting to stick up for himself and his little brother against the bullies who picked on them, but tonight, he has just proven himself worthy of the world stage. His life is going to change now, and I couldn’t be prouder of him.

Jett flies over Hammer, landing another punch and another, until he's pulled off him by the referee. The crowd goes wild, knowing he has taken the win using his opponent's own move against him. He’s a cheeky bugger, and I know that wasn’t a coincidence.

“I’m going to meet him in back. Are you coming?” Kobe calls over the chants of the crowd.

I have one more glance around the stadium, making sure I can’t spot Piper anywhere, then give him a nod. The GPS tracking on her phone tells me she is still at home, but I keep expecting her to show up regardless.

The cheers grow quieter as we get farther away. “There’s no sign of any Kings, Leo. Axel must have been wrong.”

I can see the excitement buzzing off him for Jett, and I know all the two of them are going to want to do is go celebrate their win, but it’s not that simple. “Nothing happened last time until the final fight. Don’t go assuming anything,” I tell him, making sure he knows where his responsibilities lie.

Jett and his crew are right behind us, and Kobe is by his side immediately, slapping him on the back. “I knew you could do it. Just like we practiced. What did I say, he gets gassed easily then you just knock him down.”

“He’s out there talking shit now, saying that I cheated. I didn’t cheat, I just stole his signature move and used it on him because I knew he wouldn’t see it coming.” Jett snickers, the blood running down the side of his face making him look crazy.

“Fuck, that knock you took to the head was insane. You made it look like you were made of iron. Barely even flinched.”

Jett takes a seat, allowing the medic to patch his face. “Didn’t even sting,” he huffs like it was nothing.

“Nice work,” I tell him.

He smirks back in my direction. He is high as a kite on the adrenaline, and I know for at least the next half an hour I will need to take over the security monitoring we have going on tonight. It’s his company running the operation. They have been instructed to scan every motherfucker entering the place and inform us if there is any sight of a King. Only problem is, we have no idea who out of our men—the old Acevedo men—is working for them. And fight night is always crawling with them. These events are some of the biggest moneymakers of the season for them.

While Jett and Kobe celebrate their win, trading the best parts of the fight, I check over all the devices I have set up for Piper. Her phone still has her at home, but when I look at her car tracker, I get a sinking feeling. It’s showing her driving through town in the direction of this stadium. She would be no more than two minutes away. “Fuck,” I mutter out loud, drawing my brothers’ attention. I wave them off, as if it’s nothing. “Going to walk around out front, check out the next fight,” I tell them as I leave the room.

The next fight has started, but I have no interest in who's winning, so I walk around the perimeter of the building, looking for Piper and any signs of the Kings. But other than the noise from the crowd blaring from inside, outside the stadium it’s quiet. The tracker shows she has parked in the lot, so I must have missed her slipping inside. She was so desperate to watch her ex-husband fight here tonight that she went against my warning and showed up anyway. I don’t understand their relationship. It’s clear to me there is something still between them, something more than just Hannah, but what I’m not sure.

When I make my way back inside, Axel is in the octagon. He knocks fists with his opponent, ready to fight. I find Kobe and Jett standing in the back. They’ll be watching his form. Jett is itching for another chance to take his title.

“Everything all right?” Kobe asks, not taking his eyes off the octagon. It’s impressive the way he can read the sport. He notices details others would never see. It’s why he and Jett make such a remarkable team.

“Yeah, no sign of them.” I scan the arena, knowing she’s in here somewhere, and she will be positioned so she can see Axel. I spot her standing toward the back of the building leaning against a pole. She looks relaxed for her, in a pair of skinny jeans and a black T-shirt with a print on the front. A grin crosses my face knowing I get to have a little more fun with her. Part of me knew warning her away from the place wouldn’t work, but I had hoped she would have heard my warning. So far, we might not have seen any sight of a Kings gang member, and even the number of ex-Acevedo members is lower than usual, which is suspicious in itself, but if they were coming to cause trouble, it would be now in the final fight. There would be too many bets placed on this event for them to fuck up a chance to win big before they got to ruin the night with whatever it is they're up to.

“I’ll be back,” I tell Kobe from my place off to the side of the stage.

He dismisses me with a wave of the hand, not wanting to take his eyes off the fight for a second. He’s too busy studying Axel.

I move through the crowd, careful that Piper doesn’t see me, but she is too fixated on the fight to notice I’m sneaking up on her, and that makes me even more worried. I could be anyone about to mess with her, and she wouldn’t even know it. I come up right behind her, placing a hand on one hip and my mouth close to her ear so she can hear me over the chanting crowed. “I thought I told you to stay away tonight, Princess.”

I can see the rise of goosebumps over her flesh when she realizes it’s me right here with her. “And I’ve told you time and time again that you don’t get to tell me what to do. I wanted to come, so I did.” She keeps her eyes on the fight, and I can tell by her tone she’s annoyed with me. I’m not surprised, since after our nice night together I haven’t contacted her. For her own good as well as mine. When we're together, our chemistry is explosive, and it’s like nothing else matters, but that’s just not true.

“Well, you know I have to kick you out then. I’m the host, and I told you that was what would happen.”

That forces her to spin around, her eyes going wide. “Come on, Leo, it’s one damn fight. What could go wrong?”

“The Kings, that’s what! We got a tipoff that they will be here tonight, ready to cause trouble,” I tell her honestly, because at this point, I have no idea how else I can get her out of here before all hell breaks loose, but there is no way I’m letting her get caught up in my fight with the Kings, knowing there is already something going on between them. I have no idea why they dropped those images off to her and left her a note saying they took care of Gator for her. But whatever their reasoning, they will think she owes them something. And I don’t want her to have to find out what it is.

She looks back at me with fear in her eyes, her normally tough-as-nails persona wavering. She knows exactly who they are and just how serious this is. And maybe what Axel said about her being shit scared the day the envelope was dropped off was true.

“Now do you understand why I asked you not to come?”

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