Her enthusiasm was what kept me from turning around and walking right out of this arena like this night never happened. I told myself that Luke would likely be in a decent mood since he did win the fight, after all. Plus, we probably weren’t the only ones with VIP tickets to see him. He’d likely not even notice we were there.
“Who the hell is this?” I heard his voice bellow, and my stomach turned upside down. It’d been so long since I heard him speak in person and not from behind a television camera.
“These are the VIP ticket holders you agreed to meet, Luke,” a male voice, which I didn’t recognize, said.
“Fucking A,” he huffed. “Fine. I’ll be out in a minute.”
The man whose voice I didn’t recognized stepped from behind the door with a pasted smile on his face. “I’m sorry, Mr. McConnell will be out in one moment.”
“Oh, please, tell him to take his time. We’re not in a rush, right, Jacob?” Grace turned to me, smiling.
I grunted because the truth was I was actually in a rush. I looked around, and to my dismay didn’t see anyone else lined up behind us outside of the door for this meeting.
“Where’s everyone else?” I questioned.
The skinny guy appeared to be confused.
“For the signing or whatever this is?” I reiterated.
“Oh.” His eyebrows rose and he shook his head. “Mr. McConnell said he would only take a few VIP guests. He’s usually very tired after a fight.” The way his eyes dipped and he avoided my direct stare told me he was lying.
“All right, where’re they a—” Luke McConnell’s deep voice demanded as he pushed the door open with so much force, Grace actually jumped back.
I stepped halfway in front of her to keep her from getting bowled over by him.
“You fucking shitting me right now?” His voice read incredulity as he glared at me.
“Luke—” I started.
“Don’tLukeme! I thought that was you in the audience. I should’ve forgotten all about Ramirez and fucking jumped you!” He charged, grabbing for my shirt.
“What the—” I heard Grace exclaim behind me, shocked and obviously confused by his reaction.
I didn’t have time to tell her what was going on. I only had a second to push her farther out of the way of the speeding train that was Luke McConnell’s anger before he took his first swing at my face.
Seeing it coming, I ducked, narrowly missing his massive fist.
“Oh my God! Security!” Grace screamed. “Get off of him!” She was yelling at Luke who continued to charge me. “Someone call the police!” she demanded just as two security staff got in between Luke and I.
“No! Don’t call the police,” I demanded, my chest heaving the same way Luke’s was as he shot bullets in my direction with this glare.
“Why not? He attacked you!”
“Because he’s my kid brother.” My stare was transfixed on Luke McConnell, who’d grown up as Luke Reynolds. He changed his name once he began his professional fighting career.
“What?” she cried incredulously.
I didn’t have time to answer Grace’s question before Luke said, “So you fucking remember you have a brother?”
His angry hazel eyes quickly moved from me to the woman behind me. “You thought bringing your bitch here tonight would get you—”
I don’t know what the hell he’d been about to say because it was halted when I lunged out of the grip of the security guard and my fist connected with his jaw. All I saw was fucking red and hearing him call Grace a bitch over and over in my head as I kept swinging.
“Break it up!” someone yelled frantically.
I felt a stabbing pain in my side when one of Luke’s hit made contact but I kept going.
“Don’t ever call her out of her name again!”
