“Oh fuck yeah,” he said and rested back. “It’s a mess.” He seemed high when he laughed again, and I couldn’t help but notice he was holding his right arm stiffly.
Someone rested their hand on my shoulder, and when I spun to see Mr. Uhlig again, I knocked him away. “You put me over there on purpose,” I hissed out. “You wanted me to distract him.”
Mr. Uhlig shrugged and winked. “It’s not my fault he can’t keep his head in the game.”
Adrenaline surged in me, along with a horrible feeling I’d never felt before, mixed with a good amount of anger. I shot to my feet, brought my arm back, and punched the smug bastard right in the nose. Pain immediately blazed in my hand and I shook it out. Mr. Uhlig stepped back, holding his hand to his face. Another roar erupted from the crowd, this time along with some shouts and jeers.
The noise amped up when Mr. Uhlig pulled a gun from underneath his jacket and aimed it at me. Blood streamed down his nostrils and he grimaced, showing all of his teeth.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Fallon shouted from the floor, and incredibly he managed to drag himself up to stand in front of me.
I pointed at the cameraman, who was now standing on the edge of the ring to get a better view of everything that was happening. “That’s a lot of people to witness a murder. Besides—” I stepped around Fallon. I’d never felt like this in my life. My body buzzed like it was made of electricity. “You don’t want them to know you tried to throw the fight.”
Mr. Uhlig laughed. “This was a good old-fashioned mind fuck. Nothing anyone would call cheating.” But he glanced uneasily at the camera and put his gun away. Wiping the blood off his face with the back of his hand, he stalked off.
Fallon leaned against me, and I almost fell under his weight. I turned to get a good hold on him, and he cradled his hurt arm with his uninjured one. “That was a terrible punch. We need to teach you to do it right.”
My hand throbbed, but my blood rushed and my heart hammered. “I think I broke a finger.”
“Let me see it.” He scowled.
“Your entire arm is broken!”
He chuckled. “Come help me change. The others will find us, if they don’t try to murder Uhlig first. Fuck.” He slid a hand to the nape of my neck and drew me in for a hard kiss. There were hoots, claps, and cheers nearby. Some feet stamping. I felt like my body disappeared for a few seconds, and when I crashed back to earth my dick pushed against a delicious hardness in his shorts.
“Good try, oldster!” the Knockout Boy called from nearby. “I took the fight, but I guess you won anyway.” He stuck his tongue against his cheek, and it took me a second to realize he was miming a blowjob. Furious as I was at Mr. Uhlig and this situation, which I’d thought would be a relaxed night, my stomach warmed anyway.
“He earned it,” I yelled back.
The kid cracked up. Ignoring him, I leaned in to kiss Fallon again.
6
FALLON
Everything hurt like a motherfucker.Pain echoed from every inch of my body, but it throbbed most intensely from my right arm. I didn’t have it in me to be pissed at Uhlig because he’d been smart. That fuckery was what Sloan would’ve done as well, and the part of me that wasn’t mad about losing admired him for it.
Cillian had my left arm wrapped around his shoulder as he half dragged me into the Courtesan. A drop of blood fell from me, though I wasn’t sure where I was still bleeding, and splattered on the white marble floor. Some surprised gasps from nearby had me glancing around, and a man I didn’t recognize as I squinted with my left eye—the only one I could open—came bounding over to us.
“Ah... sirs.” A small, unhappy sound escaped him as he got closer to me.
“Feck off,” Cillian snarled, and the kid cringed away from us as Cillian continued to drag me in the direction of our room. “Ye lost me money, Fallon. Ye should be ashamed of yerself.”
I laughed and it hurt my chest. I couldn’t gather the energy to glance down to figure out how bruised I was. This sucked now, but tomorrow would be the real kick to the teeth. Cillian was a mean fucker at times, but I didn’t miss the hints of concern in his voice. He didn’t show his humanity often, and it was so faint that if I hadn’t lived with him for so long I might have missed it. Nonetheless the worry was strange, and I liked to think Vail was beginning to change him, make him softer toward the people he cared about while still being a ruthless killer.
“When ye’re feeling better, ye’ll be keeping yer side of the bet,” he continued as we stumbled along the hallways. I lost track of where we were in the building but trusted them to take care of me. Aspen, Rowen, and Vail were at our side, but none of them tried to help. My arm was too injured, and they couldn’t touch anywhere that wouldn’t hurt.
“Mr. Shaughnessy.” I thought we were nearly at the hotel room door when a soft, feminine voice laced with Southern charm echoed through the hallway.
Cillian turned me, and I grunted, glaring at him out of my one good eye because the other throbbed deep in my head, and I was sure it was rattling my brain. “Madam Winters.”
She reminded me of a moonbeam tonight in a flashy silver dress with a train that slid behind her. It glittered like the heavy diamond necklace on her neck. She was all jazzed up, probably for an event of her own tonight, with her wrists and fingers covered in jewelry and her blonde hair curled on the side of her head in a strange but fancy hairstyle.
Smiling, she stopped in front of us. “Imagine my surprise when I got a call from a frantic receptionist that five men entered the hotel with one looking very injured.”
Cillian grunted. “Ye need a better man at the desk. One that minds his own business.”
Rowen straightened and stepped in front of us, the diplomat coming out to play. “Madam Winters, we are guests. What condition we come in shouldn’t—”
