Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable #6) - Heather Long Page 0,110

in my pocket as he stripped down to shorts and gloves. They were both going to be barefoot in the ring. Reed smirked at our arrival. The fool already sported one bruise from his earlier encounter with Jake. The fact that he didn’t see the danger he was in just made the lesson Jake was about to deliver that much more critical.

And sweeter.

There were about twenty-three guys at the gym. Most of us had keys, since we used it for training on and off season. As seniors, we’d be surrendering ours at the end of the year, but there were a handful of juniors amongst the guys who’d picked up Reed and made sure he was here. Rogan Reed was not a half-bad player.

On Halloween, he’d been right there to back us up against Mitch and his boys. The team had pretty much split down the middle, with a little more than half falling on the asshole’s side of the line and earning their permanent suspension from the team.

“Cameras are off,” Darrin told me as he checked the doors. Reed was already on the other side of the ring, waiting. The fact that Jake strapped on gloves sent a rumble through the crowd. There were enough guys here who’d gone to school with us since junior high who probably thought the gloves were a concession.

What they didn’t realize is Jake wanted Reed to last a while so he could do maximum damage.

I nodded. “What about Zeke?”

Zeke was the old guy who took care of the gym, made sure it was stocked and cleaned up. Coach liked that we used this place rather than one of the higher end gyms in town, because it kept us focused as a team. The boxing ring was also there for settling disputes, usually with Coach acting as referee to keep us clean.

“Offered to buy him dinner,” Darrin told me. “Sent him to Joffrey’s, so probably gives us a good couple of hours still.”

Perfect.

“Thanks, man,” I said, then tucked my phone away. There would be no phones out, no secret recordings, and no photos. The rules were basic and simple.

Jake had an issue. Reed had been called out.

Now they were in the ring, and that was where they would settle it.

“No prob,” Darrin said with a wry grin. “Dude shouldn’t have fucking talked to her like that.”

At least some of them got it. I patted him on the shoulder and headed over to the ring. Chris finished securing Jake’s gloves and glanced over at Reed. “He just wrapped his hands. You sure you don’t want him in gloves, too?”

Jake grinned, a malicious kind of glee in his eyes. “Nope. Let him be comfortable. It’s not going to last that long for him, anyway.”

And it definitely wouldn’t give him any kind of advantage.

Chris leapt down as Reed made his way to the center and Jake stalked out of his corner. Unlike Jake, Reed hadn’t bothered to change. He was still in jeans. He had shed his shirt and his shoes. But the jeans would slow him down.

“You’re serious about this?” Reed asked, as though he still couldn’t quite believe it. Or maybe he just wasn’t taking it seriously.

Dumbass.

Blandly, Jake met his stare. “You should have listened to her. You don’t talk to Frankie that way. We’ve made it clear for years, no one talks to her that way.”

“Fuck, man, I’ve got no beef with her. She’s hot.”

Wow. The stupid on him just didn’t seem to brush off.

“Listen up,” Jake said. “What are the rules where Frankie Curtis is concerned?”

“Hands off,” one of the guys called.

“Eyes off,” another said.

“Keep your fucking mouth shut,” Darrin drawled from a few feet away. “She’s protected. No one touches, looks, or bothers.”

“What rule did you break, Reed?”

“Fuck, man, I thought that was because she was frigid or something. She’s hot and she’s funny and she likes variety. Everyone is talking about…”

Darrin groaned and shot me a look like, is this guy for real? I shook my head. If Jake didn’t just break his face open in the next thirty seconds, I’d be shocked.

“Seriously,” Reed said, spreading his hands wide. “I get it. She’s your girl, and you get to decide who taps that and—”

Yep, I almost wished I could video that just so Archie and Coop could see how fast Jake’s uppercut landed. Reed was on his ass, and blood poured from the cut to his mouth.

“Good talk,” Jake said. “Now you’re listening. You don’t talk to Frankie. You don’t look