My gaze returned to the ring where Champ and Dynamo were trading punches. Slightly horrified and more than a bit turned on, I watched Dynamo’s tight ass dance around Champ. I wasn’t worried. If I knew anything, she wouldn’t be in there unless Champ had allowed it. When she fought, Dynamo was poetry in motion. I’d seen her at Fight Club, and she held an unbeaten record.
She’d disappeared for four months a while back, and rumours were she’d been pregnant, while others said that she’d been kidnapped. Some even suggested she’d been trafficked. Whatever had occurred hadbroken her. Any hint of warmth had fled, and she’d become a killing machine. A few times she’d come close to putting her opponent in a wooden box.
Something really shitty had happened to Dynamo, and she was working through her demons. The fact it was taking so long meant that it was bad. The rumours of trafficking rose in my mind. Since she’d returned, Dynamo had been blank—not that she’d been overly emotionally expressive to begin with. But now nobody saw anything, not even when she fought.
Dynamo took her opponent apart and then waltzed off.
She’d earned a new moniker. The Ice Queen. It wasn’t wrong.
I watched her for a few more minutes before wrenching my gaze away. This was my gym, not hers, and I wouldn’t be chased from it.
Dynamo
Mike was here and watching me. I could feel his eyes boring into my back. I also felt his anger. Mike was pissed. It didn’t bother me; I wasn’t frightened of him. Mike was aware of my abilities and remained cautious around me—just as he should.
Finally, I wound down as I noticed Champ was panting.
“Thanks for the workout,” I said, stepping up and bumping fists.
“Anytime, girl. You’ve got an open invite here.” Champ grinned.
“Cheers,” I headed over to the corner where a teen waited to help me out of my gloves. I didn’t miss the way he kept glancing at me, and I barely withheld a smirk. Yeah, I saw interest in his eyes, but a pimply-faced kid didn’t appeal to me whatsoever. I shook out my hands and rotated them through a few exercises, then walked to where Mike was finishing up some weightlifting.
“We gotta talk,” I said.
“Don’t need to do anything,” Mike retorted. He picked up a towel and wiped the sweat from his brow.
“Yeah, we do.”
Mike turned and stared at me. “Look at me, Dynamo. Notice anything?”
Shit, that was an invitation I didn’t need. Mike was older than me; I reckoned in his forties and a seriously handsome guy. He reminded me of a younger version of Gerard Butler, and that had once made my panties drip. Mike’s shoulders were broad, his chest deep, his muscles and hips narrow, while his legs were corded with muscle. Added to his good looks, Mike was a dangerous man to any woman’s sex drive.
“Finished checking me out?” Mike snarled, and I glowered.
He raised a hand and pointed at his face. “Fuckin’ tired. Any idea why? Because my six-year-old daughter woke me screaming twice during the night. Add to that, her five-year-old sister woke once butwas so hysterical it took half an hour to calm her down. That’s on your head. We’ve got no shit to say to each other.”
Mike grabbed his water bottle and towel and stormed off before I could answer. Fuck, just as he said, his girls had nightmares.
I wondered why. Mike had mentioned they’d been suffering from them and they’d just stopped. Why? What crap had happened to his family?
Mike had no intention of talking to me, and I don’t know why that was so important. I’d seen him in the ring at Fight Club and at the hotel where Vogue ran the brothel. Once he’d called me because there’d been trouble there and he’d taken my back. Mike had deferred to me then, and I’d wondered why he’d been there.
I dug my phone out and dialled.
“Dynamo,” Cipher answered.
“You got anything on Mike Adams?” I asked.
“Yeah. Interesting man, and a concern. We should have known he was in our area,” Cipher replied.
“I’m coming in.”
“Meet me at Warden’s office. I’m waiting for something,” Cipher said, yawning and cutting the call. I sensed he had spent the entire night on this.
Cipher looked a mess with bags under his eyes and his clothes in disarray. He slumped in his chair inWarden’s office, a file in front of him. Cipher passed it to me and sat back.
“We should have known this fucker was in our area,” Cipher repeated his words to me.
