Page 140 of Requiem for Love

All three of them looked.

Xara’s jaw dropped. “Oh, my…lanta. Is that Gage?”

The blond hair, those green eyes, which were more striking underneath the strip lights, and that tall, muscular physique could belong to no one else.

Ayesha squinted at the ring. “If Gage is up there, that means—”

“I knew it.”Mo, brows furrowed, examined the crowd. “The Murderer of Moscow is here. The Slasher of St. Petersburg. The Killer of Krasnodar.”

“Exactly how many of those do you have?” Ayesha asked.

Xara’s head whipped around as she searched the dark facility. “Do you think they’reallhere? At least, except for Julien and Dez.”

“So, uh, my fight’s back on,” Mo announced. “Tell Aleksi that his mother loved him, and she didn’t truly want to go out this way.”

All of them, except for Tayler, peered at her phone screen.

#5 - MoJay v Das Biest

“Don’t worry.” Ayesha wrapped an arm around Mo’s waist, her chest tense with suppressed laughter. “I will tell Aleksi that his mother was a warrior. We will make a statue in your honor. Your story will be told for centuries to come.”

Xara coughed through a giggle. “The history books will speak of your name.”

Mo glared at them, the side of her mouth tugging. “Are…you…two…laughing?I’m about to dietonight at the hands of the Assassin of Astrakhan, and you guys are just allah-giggling.”

Fully laughing now, Ayesha shook her head. “Seriously, babe, how many of those do you have in your back pocket?”

“Only one more—Slayer of Samara.” Mo tossed her head back and covered her face with both hands. “Damn it! I can’t even forfeit. I’m not certain what’ll happen up in the ring isn’t better than what’ll happen if I try to escape now.”

Tayler turned to the conversation as if suddenly aware she was a human being living on planet Earth. “Eesh, that guy with the accent that just left, was that Adrían? Larke said she met him as Ryan Martin, but he hid his accent back then. And at your place, he didn’t do much talking. Still, that was him, right?”

Ayesha released Mo’s waist.

All three pairs of eyes were suddenly on her.

Xara’s brows shot up. “Wait,AdríanAdrían? Fuck-buddy Adrían? What’s he doing here?”

“No offense, Eesh,” Mo began, “but what in life did you do to that man that made him stalk you to Sweden? I’ve been going to Xara, but maybe I’ve been going to the wrong person for love-life advice. You see how she’s got Joel all strung out on puss—”

Ayesha lightly swatted the side of Mo’s arm, her face burning to the tips of her ears. Adrían had been there for all of a minute, and he barely spoke two words that evening at her house. Plus, she didn’t know how Tayler heard his accent above all the commotion surrounding them.

“Yes, that was Adrían,” she said. “We’re friends.”

“But it started as a friends-with-benefits type of situation back when Theo was still a baby,” Xara chimed in. When they faced her, she added, “Y’all know Mike’s a gossip. But go on, Ayesha.”

Ayesha tried to wait it out with silence, but they wouldn’t give up. Her back grazed the corner they’d pushed her up against.

“Some years back, Adrían and I worked in the same building,” she explained. “We talked, had lunch, and I was vulnerable at the time, so we ended up sleeping together fairly quickly. The agreement was to keep things casual, but he told me he was falling in love with me, and I,” it would be her first time admitting it out loud,“didhave strong feelings for him. It’s not like how it was with Curtis and is with Joel, but…there’s something.”

Something significant.

“Is?” Mo asked. “Or was?”

She couldn’t form a response.

Xara picked up the story. “And that was the last time they saw each other until she and Adrían ran into each other on Joel and Eesh’s first official date. Adrían’s been popping up ever since, and the guys thought they would have to medicate Joel to stop him from killing Adrían. Seeing how he was at the house, it appears things have cooled.”

“They’ve settled our differences,” Ayesha said. “Adrían’s not a bad guy.”

---