Page 66 of Saving Blood

“If we all keep it together, we’ll have a good shot.”

“Have Bolt make sure the truck is gassed and ready to go. I don’t wanna get stranded on a road to nowhere in the middle of the fuckin’ desert.” Smoke draws deep on his cigarette. “You care about her, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I don’t know why, but I do.” I rake my fingers through my hair. “She’s this crazy combination of tough as shit and soft as silk. She’s super strong, yet vulnerable. Hard as fuckin’ stone one minute, gentle as a kitten the next.”

“I get it. When it happens, you can’t pin it down to one thing. It’s all of it combined that make it work. Confusing as hell, but the best thing ever.”

“Fuckin’ truth, man.” I shoulder-butt Smoke. “Wasn’t expecting philosophy from my hard-ass prez.”

“You tell anybody I said that, I’ll deny it.”

I close my eyes and shake my head. “If we pull this one off, we are gonna have a party that lasts for days.”

“Fuck, yeah.” Smoke crushes his cig in the dented ashtray on the table.

“I gotta get goin’. I got a fight to put together and an abduction to pull off.”

We tag fists again before I leave. The next few hours I’m gonna be a busy fucker.

27

BLOOD

“I want eyes on Maxine right up until her fight,” I say to Diesel and the other trainers in my office. “Hector’s gonna have a lot of people here, people we don’t know, so I don’t want anyone getting close to her before she gets in the cage. You got me?”

“Got it, Boss.” Diesel claps me on the back. “Nobody’s gonna touch our girl.”

The hot night air crackles with energy as Diesel and I do a last check of the cage, the bleachers, and the surrounding area, making sure everything is ready. In an hour, the bleachers would be packed with locals, people coming over the border from California, Vegas and New Mexico, plus Hector and his crew.

Diesel sucks deep on a blunt, then passes it to me, but I wave it away. Too many moving parts tonight.

“You sure?” Diesel asks. “You look like you need this more than me.”

“Plenty of time for that shit later. Right now, I gotta keep my head in the game.”

Smoke falls into step with us. “You hear anything from Hector?”

“Nope. But I got Bolt and a few of the prospects looking out for when he gets here. Then we give him a front row seat right next to us so we can keep eyes on the fucker.”

“He sure ain’t gonna be happy when Maxine doesn’t take a dive.” Smoke slows his pace. “She knows the score, right?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“You told her we’re gonna handle Hector.”

“I told her.” Doesn’t mean she totally believes me. What Hector did to Maxine over the years equaled brainwashing, making it hard to come back from and even harder to trust.

MAXINE

Blood obviously told Diesel and Bolt to keep an eye on me. They tried to be discreet, but with their height and over two hundred pounds of bulk and muscle each, discretion was hard to achieve. I appreciate Blood’s concern, but of all the times in my life, I’m probably the safest right now. I have Blood and his brothers on my side, and Hector certainly wants me healthy so I can fight, even though it won’t end the way he expects, but he doesn’t know that—yet.

People are already crowding into the bleachers, and the gym ignites with the excitement of fight night. There would be six fights tonight. Three bouts with the men and three with the women. Each fighter has a separate section of the gym to meet with their trainer and go over last-minute strategy.

All the hard work was done weeks earlier, so I usually spend the last hour before a fight stretching to keep my muscles loose and my mind at peace. Although I hydrated all day, I only sip water now because I don’t want anything to weigh me down, and I hate that sloshing feeling in my stomach.

After the fight, I will need protection, but Blood arranged that too. I opposed Blood’s demanding, somewhat dominant ways at first, but after years of standing on my own, it comforts me to know someone has my back. Or in the case of the Royal Bastards, a lot of leather-wearing someones.

Except when I want five minutes to go to the bathroom alone.

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