Page 12 of The Mafia’s Fiancee

“Got it,” I said.

We headed out, and once more, he touched my arm to get my attention. “Sean will be here.”

“He’s always lurked in the background,” I replied. “I never realized that.”

“He’s my eyes and ears. Act like you don’t know him.”

I nodded. I wouldn’t be scanning the crowds. When I was in a fight, I had to focus so I wouldn’t be hurt.

Inside, Jimmy ceased speaking to me. We fell into a looser companionship as I prepared to fight. Unlike the time when I brought Emma to watch me, I felt tense and on edge knowing that my uncle was here. He was no longer just my manager, but family, and it was surreal and foreign to know that I had someone out there watching me with a personal connection.

As soon as I entered the ring though, primed and pumped to get this over with and show Antonio and his father who they were fucking with, I realized my first error of the night.

This wasn’t just a fight.

This wouldn’t be a simple in-and-out chore to get over with.

The tall, thickly muscled monster across from me looked at me in such a way that I was intimidated. I didn’t show it. I never would. But a man only stared at his opponent like that when he intended to annihilate him. To kill him.

It’s rigged.

The Marcheses weren’t here for the sport of watching their fighter or to make an example out of me for taking what wasn’t mine.

They intended to eliminate me.

Permanently.

This tall motherfucker was matched against me to kill me.

I knew it, just as I knew I loved Emma and that I would never stop protecting her.

“Luke!”

I heard Jimmy’s shouts from the side. He had to have realized the same thing I just did. That when this freakshow of a killer stepped out here, grinning sadistically like I was his prey he couldn’t wait to murder, this was not a standard fight.

“Luke!”

I ignored him, concentrating on this beast. He wouldn’t win. They wouldn’t get rid of me that easily. I wasn’t cocky to the point I let my confidence overrule my ability. But I was motivated, more driven than any other man here, to win.

Because Emma depended on it. Because walking away from here would make sure that I remained on the path to save her from whoever kidnapped her.

Tuning out the noise of the crowd and the direct shouts from my uncle, I entered a zen-like focus, fighting one of the biggest, meanest assholes I’d ever encountered. He was better that Orsen, who I’d struggled against in the alley. He was faster than that stupid fucker I met in the streets when I was just a teenager. I killed him. That stranger with the knives and guns was my first kill.

And tonight, this wicked fighter who thought to remove me joined that list.

We fought hard, evenly matched. Despite him whipping out a knife halfway through and trying to cheat by slicing at my neck, he couldn’t beat me.

Blood, sweat, and spit flew. The crowd went wild. We kept at each other, fighting like the deviants we were.

After what felt like an eternity of punches, hits, kicks, and slams, I at last had him in a deadlock.

I lifted my gaze, shaking with the force of keeping him still and down beneath me. Finding Antonio in the crowds, I let his stern expression of disgust be etched in my mind. He watched, furious as I held his fighter an inch from death.

If he wanted to rig a fight and see me dead, he had another thing coming.

Play stupid games...

I cinched my arms, snapping the man’s neck.