Page 86 of Cruel Academy (Princes of Ravenlake Academy 2)

Plus, as much as J.C. and Noah were fine with starting a war with the Hell Princes, I’d like to avoid one.

“I don’t give a fuck what Bumper thinks.” It’s the first time I’ve heard her use her ex-boyfriend’s biker nickname. “I don’t want him to think I’m scared of him anymore—because I’m not—and I think I’d benefit from watching you fight.”

“You’ve seen me fight plenty before.”

“But I wasn’t paying attention.” I make a mock-wounded face, and she rolls her eyes and smiles before continuing. “We’ve been working out and going through movements here, but now that I know what to be watching for, I want to see a full speed, no-held-punches fight.”

I want to argue and tell her no. Bumper hasn’t told anyone in the Golden Boys about my fighting in the underground because I’m no doubt making him money as well. Or maybe it just hasn’t occurred to him, that moron.

But if I piss him off enough, he could. And then all the time I’ve spent with Haley trying to keep my secret a secret would be for nothing.

It’s a risk.

But Haley drops to the floor in front of me, lays her hands on top of my knees, and pouts out her lower lip.

“Please?”

I narrow my eyes. “Guilt doesn’t work on me.”

Mischief sparkles in her eyes, and suddenly she pushes my knees apart, pushes me down to the floor, and drags her hands down my chest towards the waistband of my shorts. Almost instantly, I’m hard again, and I hiss as she slips inside my shorts and wraps a hand around me.

“What about this?” she purrs, her breath warm against my skin. “Does this work?”

I open my mouth to respond, but when her soft lips slide over me, I lose the ability to speak. Within only a few minutes, I have no choice but to admit how remarkably convincing she can be.

Looks like I’ll be taking a plus one to the fights.

30

Caleb

Bringing Haley to the fights was a mistake.

My usual fight prep involves listening to a playlist of heavy metal, stretching, and tuning out the crowd.

Unfortunately, when Haley is in the crowd, that is nearly impossible.

The fights tonight are in a barn thirty minutes outside of Ravenlake. I have no idea if the owners know we are using their barn or not. It isn’t my job to know. It’s my job to show up and win my fight.

Except tonight, that job just became ten times harder.

Haley pretended otherwise, but I could tell coming to the fights made her nervous.

When we pulled up, she scanned the crowd for Bumper, and she let out a sigh of relief when she didn’t see him. Inside, she did the same thing.

Bumper doesn’t seem to be in attendance tonight, which is a blessing. If he had been, I would’ve been even more distracted checking to make sure he wasn’t tormenting Haley.

Then, on top of the visual distraction, my mind is elsewhere, too. What is Haley going to do about her debt to Bumper?

She’s learning to fight, but she can’t fight him off forever. Not unless she plans to kill him, and then that would open up a whole new can of worms.

If she wants this to end, she’ll have to pay him back. Without a job, I don’t see how that would be possible.

All of these thoughts run through my mind as I circle the makeshift ring, facing off against an out-of-towner.

In a desperate bid to give me some actual competition, Felix brought in his cousin from Houston to fight. He has a darker complexion than Felix and is significantly larger in every way possible, but they have the exact same face. It feels like I’m fighting a mutant version of Felix, which only adds to my mental disarray.

Mutant Felix is bigger than me, but not fast. His movements are slow and lumbering, and it’s easy to dodge his punches and dart out of his maneuvers, but the man knows how to take a punch. Hitting him in the jaw feels like punching a bag of sand.

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