She lifted a brow at the man who’d pointed out the fact that she was a Fed. Big, beefy, with thick, dark hair. A jagged scar slid down his right cheek.
“Not a new member,” another called out. A man with a lot of silver chains around his neck. Curly, black hair. Dark eyes. Gloves on his fingers. “She might be your lady, but she doesn’t ride with us. No initiation. No proving loyalty. You can fuck her?—”
“Absolutely, I can, Hugo.” Cass squeezed her hand. “And I will. Thanks. But you will not ever disrespect her again.” He stepped off the porch and headed toward the motorcycles. “Now, if you don’t accept her, then you don’t accept me. Let’s cut the shit. I don’t have time to waste. Got business to handle. Enemies to eliminate. So if it’s coming, bring on the challenge, now.”
Wait, wait, what…what was happening? What challenge? She darted forward?—
“Hi, there.”
Her forward dart was instantly stopped by Javion. He was just there. He’d hopped off his bike and lunged straight into her path. He caught her arms. “His fight,” Javion told her. “Not yours.”
She could feel her jaw dropping. “Why would he be fighting?”
“To keep you, of course.”
To keep me?
“Not like he just snaps his fingers, and everyone accepts a Fed. He’ll have to fight to keep you. If he wins, good news…you can both stay alive.”
Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. “Back up,” she muttered. “If he wins…?”
“Um.” Javion glanced over his shoulder. The men had climbed off their bikes. At least four of them advanced on Cass. “Look at that. Only four challengers so far. Pretty sure he can take down four guys.”
At one time? She was pretty sure he could not. The four men included the guy with the scar on his face, and the one Cass had called Hugo.
“Oh, change that. Five. Six,” Javion corrected. “Six to one. Looks like those are the final odds.”
Six men faced off against Cass. They were ditching their helmets. They were putting down…uh, knives. Guns.
Okay, so at least they weren’t using weapons.
“Hand to hand,” Javion shouted. “Those are the rules. If you’re fighting to take down the leader, you have to do it with your bare hands.”
That was something at least. “So they’ll come at him, one at a time?” Cass could probably handle that. He’d get tired, but he had told her that he’d been fighting since he was a teen. That had to mean he knew how to take care of himself.
Javion laughed. In her face. “Fuck, no. They’ll come at him all at once?—”
They jumped Cass. Slammed into him all at once as the others cheered. First thing in the freaking morning, in the middle of nowhere, Texas, they attacked Cass, and she screamed.
Chapter Fifteen
She screamed.
Cass made the mistake of looking back at Agnes when her scream cut through the air, so Axel got in a solid punch to his jaw. Lucky bastard. Cass grunted at the impact, and then he launched his own attack. He managed to give an upper cut to Axel’s glass jaw—I know every one of their weaknesses—just as Ronnie came at him with a bellowing roar.
Cass kicked hard for the SOB’s weak left knee. A hit that turned Ronnie’s bellow into a howl as the man collapsed on the ground, holding his knee.
Then Cass was grabbed from behind. No, not grabbed. Hit. It felt like a sledgehammer pounded right onto his spine. Ah. Has to be Bear. The biggest guy in the MC. When Bear hit you, you knew it. And Cass almost hit the ground after that punch. He staggered, he stumbled, and Agnes screamed again.
“Stay up!” Agnes blasted.
Well, what in the hell did she think he was trying to do? Kiss the dirt? He dipped, weaved, and then came around on a quick spin. Bear had his hands raised—his fingers locked together in a hammer fist strike—and Cass just drove his clenched fists toward the guy’s gut and ribs. Rapid-fire hits that made Bear stumble back. A swipe of Cass’s leg had Bear tripping and slamming down onto the ground.
“Cass! Three more!” Agnes yelled.
Uh, yes, he was aware. “Thanks for the tip.”
The three other men attacked him all at once. They jumped on him, kicking and punching. One hit connected right under Cass’s left eye. Another slammed into his right side, down low, almost a kidney punch. A boot collided with his shin. Fists were flying, and they were working hard to take his ass down to the ground.
