“Just you and me,” I finally said, cutting into the silence. “No guns and no one else.”
Ripped laughed. “You think that’s your best option of getting out of this place alive?” He laughed again.
“I came here prepared to die for her,” I said, loving how he flinched when I mentioned her, “so I ain’t worried about making it out of here alive.”
I let my words settle between us, waiting. From the corner of my eye I saw Fighter moving up the corridor and I let out an annoyed breath. I’d told that dumb bastard to wait for me at the safehouse with Skinny and Quinn. He didn’t seem to realize that some fights you had to do on your own.
“So what’s this then? You wanna fight for her?” Ripped laughed. “Didn’t work out so well for you last time, my friend.”
“That’s because you had your men doing your fighting for you. This is just gonna be you, me, and no one else. The way it should be. Because this shit, it ain’t between our clubs, it’s between you and me.” From the look on his face he wasn’t going to back down, so I used what I knew about him and pushed him to where I wanted him to be. “Unless you’re afraid to face me, man to man, toe to toe.”
“I ain’t scared of nothin’!” he roared angrily.
I jerked my chin at him. “That ain’t true though, is it?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” He stalked to the middle of the room.
“You were afraid she’d choose me and not you, ain’t that right? That’s why you had to blackmail her to keep her here with you. There wasn’t a chance she would have picked you, so you forced her hand.” Anger surged through me as I spoke the words, the full realization of what he’d done to her, and me, making me see red.
And from the looks on his brothers’ faces, they weren’t too happy about it either.
“That true, Prez?” Cap asked. “You keepin’ her here when she don’t wanna be?”
Ripped glared across at Cap. “Shut your damn mouth before I shut it for you. That bitch loves me. She stays because she wants to stay.”
I sneered at him. “You sure about that?”
Ripped slammed his hand against his chest. “She belongs to me!” he roared.
“Then why’s she run from you?” I asked.
A dark look crossed his face.
“Why’d she just fuck me, and when I gave her a way out of here, she took it? She doesn’t love you. She doesn’t want to be with you. You lost her a long time ago, Ripped. Just let her be, and if you can’t, let’s take it outside. Just you and me.”
They air felt charged with electricity, the hairs on my arms standing to attention as I waited for him to say something or do something. His eyes bored into mine, electrified and darkening as he cracked his neck from side to side.
I’d gotten what I wanted and now it was just him and me.
Our fists and our rage, fighting for the woman we both loved.
*
The air was warm, warmer still with the many bodies standing around me in a circle, ready to spill my blood and break my bones on the word of Ripped.
He stripped out of his T-shirt, baring his chest to me, and I did the same. I still had my gun in my jeans and I threw it to one side, watching as he flexed his muscles, reached down to his boot, and pulled out a small handgun before throwing it to one side.
Cap was standing in the center of the circle, both him and Lincoln not looking happy about Ripped’s decision to fight me, or the fact that he’d been keeping Quinn there against her will. But they were going along with it regardless.
“I’m gonna break you in two,” Ripped growled from opposite me.
I cracked my neck and my knuckles and waited for Cap to give me the go-ahead to start. I wasn’t afraid of Ripped. Wasn’t afraid of anything. And right then I had everything to live for and nothing to die for.
Cap looked at Lincoln uncertainly, but Lincoln nodded. “There’s three rounds—”
“No rounds!” Ripped bellowed.
“Prez?” Cap said.
