Page 59 of Make Me Lie (Rich Demons of Darkwood 1)

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing."

"No, tell me. You obviously have something on your mind."

"Can you just go away?" I moaned as I tried to enjoy my last fried pickle.

"No. That wouldn't be fun at all," replied Remington, stealing the pickle before I could put it into my mouth.

I scowled at him.

“He's sloppy,” I finally commented with a sigh. “He's right hand dominant, so he obviously made no effort to do anything with his left. Any good fighter is going to destroy him as soon as they figure it out. I mean, did you see his form when he tried to hit with his left? A child with one class would have better form than that.”

I glanced at him, a little embarrassed about how passionate I’d just sounded. Remington was staring at me inscrutably. He was probably the easiest to read of the four of them, wearing his feelings on his sleeve much more often. But I couldn’t read him now.

“Noted,” he finally answered, and I shifted uneasily, wondering what he was thinking.

Just then, Jack announced the next fight, and I pulled away from Remington to settle into the far side of the comfy looking couch that abutted up to the open window. The couch shifted, and I looked over to see Remington settling in next to me.

“Don’t you have a chick to go fuck?” I asked, gesturing to the eager girls behind me. There were three currently wrapped around Cain because he apparently couldn’t go five seconds without getting his balls caressed, and I was wondering if I could get away with dumping the hot queso on them.

At least he didn’t look interested in any of them.

Not that I actually cared though.

“Looking a little green there,” interjected Remington, and I blushed, embarrassed that he'd caught me staring at Cain.

"Don't worry, little devil. I won't tell Cain about your little crush. Just as long as you stare at me the same way," murmured Remington, leveling me with a look that was far too sexy.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I responded haughtily, shoving a brownie in his mouth so I could get him to stop talking.

Remington snorted and took the brownie out of his mouth right as the crowd roared again. I looked down at the ring and realized that I'd missed the start of the second fight. One of the guys was already laid out on the mat, his left leg twisted back at a grotesque angle that left no doubt it was broken.

"Fuck," muttered Remington as he jumped up from the couch. "He just lost me $20k."

My mouth dropped thinking about having the type of money to just throw $20k around like it was nothing on some fight.

"I'll expect a wire by tomorrow morning," Stellan called from across the room.

I looked over at him, and of course that was a mistake. He was grinning, and Stellan's smile...it had always done something to me. Something big. He'd never been one to gift it freely, so when you got a glimpse of it...you treasured it.

I was sad to say that the effect of his smile hadn't faded with time. Even after everything that had happened.

Our eyes clashed and his smile dropped, because that was all I did now...dragged happiness out of everything around me.

I turned my attention back to the ring where the loser of the fight was being dragged out roughly despite the fact that he obviously needed urgent medical attention.

The announcer stepped back into the ring, a bejeweled bowtie added to his ensemble for what I assumed was the start of the main event. He smoothed his mohawk back dramatically. "Should I give you peasants what you want?" he called out.

Evidently the crowd had no aversion to being called peasants. Their screams were so loud that the half of the glass wall still up in front of me shook so hard that I was afraid it was going to shatter.

"Come now, surely Paxton Jones deserves more than that, ladies and gents!"

A rush of excitement and adrenaline coursed through me, like I was the one about to fight. I watched as men dressed in black walked through the crowd, swiping cards and grabbing cash from the eager betters.

"I'm afraid our boy might have met his match tonight," Jack purred, and the crowd immediately started to boo, earning them a cheeky grin. "You don't think so? Not even against Kaplan Dale?"

The crowd appeared split on this one. Half seemed to boo as loud as they possibly could while the other half cheered like the Kaplan character was their god.

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