back to cataloguing exit routes to quell her rising sense of unease.
There was something brewing in the crowd, a lust for violence that cranked higher when one of the men in the cage went down. Someone passed his opponent a crude wooden baton through the cage wall, and even the raucous din couldn’t drown out the sound of the savage beating that followed.
Next to Nina, Maya went rigid. “Are they fighting to the death?”
Nina didn’t think so. It would be a hell of a stupid way to make money—then again, Boyd had done nothing so far to convince her he was particularly smart. “Put in your earbuds, okay? You don’t need to—”
The bar’s patrons quieted as Boyd rose. For a moment, he remained silent, relishing the attention, then he waved his hand. “Break it up. And find the medic.”
The hush broke into whoops and jeers, then lapsed into laughter and conversation as the spectators broke away and surged toward the bar. As they cleared, Nina got a good look at the carnage in the cage. The defeated fighter lay sprawled in a spreading pool of blood, the wooden club abandoned at his side. More blood and spittle flecked the concrete around him, along with what looked like a few of his teeth.
Knox and Rafe headed back, moving against the tide of customers determined to grab a drink before the next fight. Nina met them halfway. “What did he say?”
“We’re fighting to win. Rafe is up next,” Knox said. “And then I’m fighting Boyd’s champion.”
“What, you don’t rate the champ?” Dani patted Rafe’s shoulder. “It’s all right. We’ll work on it. I’ll help you.”
Rafe responded by stripping his T-shirt over his head. His dog tags followed with a jingle, and he handed all of it to Dani. “Hold these. I’ll be back for them.”
She rolled her eyes and shoved the bundle of fabric at Gray before prodding Rafe in the chest. “They fight dirty, but so do you. How long does asshole over there want you to drag it out?”
“He wants a show. I’m gonna give him one.” Rafe closed his hand over Dani’s with a wicked smile. “Don’t worry, babycakes. I’ll be fine.”
She snatched her hand away. “Guard your head, and don’t get cocky. The big ones like you always go down hardest.”
“Yeah, I do. Every chance I get.”
Dani muttered something unintelligible under her breath and brushed past him, heading in the direction of the bar.
Rafe shrugged one big shoulder. “She doesn’t get my sense of humor.”
“Because this isn’t funny.” Knox gripped Rafe’s arm, his expression tense. “Don’t take risks just for Boyd and his fucking show.”
The steel in Knox’s order seemed to subdue Rafe. “I won’t,” he promised. “I got this.”
“I know you do.”
The referee—if you could even call him that—banged a pipe against a corner post of the cage, and it almost sounded like a bell. Rafe headed toward the cage door, leaving Knox to rub a hand over his face.
He was more worried than he had let Rafe know, and Nina didn’t blame him. Sometimes, luck just wasn’t on your side, and even the best training and the greatest advantages couldn’t save you from defeat.
Still … “It’s not a battle,” she whispered. “It’s just a cage match.”
“I know.” Knox rubbed at the knuckles of his right hand and lowered his voice. “I can handle the danger in a fight, but it’s hard to just stand here and … watch one of them get hurt.”
If it hadn’t been tactically inadvisable, Dani would have volunteered to fight. And then Nina would have been the one helplessly watching someone under her protection march into danger. “I understand. But you have to trust him. And yourself.”
“I do.”
Two little words, but they prickled over her skin with the metallic scrape of a lie. “Knox—”
“Boyd hates me.” Knox watched Rafe climb into the cage, his eyes shrouded. “But I don’t think he’s smart enough to use Rafe against me. Boyd has never cared about anyone else as much as he does himself, so he can’t fathom it.”
Sadly, you didn’t have to understand something like that in order to use it as a weapon. From what Nina could see, Boyd understood the situation perfectly—if he really wanted to hurt Knox, he’d hurt the rest of the Silver Devils. But the man seemed strangely reluctant to do it. Perhaps, buried somewhere beneath all the greed and bravado, Boyd actually possessed a shred of honor.
Or maybe they just hadn’t yet reached the part of the night