above his head so he could slam them down onto the ground or across his knee.
Addy cursed and shifted her weight until she rolled her legs above her head and fell. She grabbed his head with both hands and coiled her legs around his waist from her new position on his back. A snap of the neck would end the fight easily enough, but her team needed time to secure the two targets they’d spotted. She was the diversion.
She squeezed his neck until he fell to his knees. Pushing off his back, she moved backward and then around in the cage until they faced one another again. Outrage reddened his face as he rose and charged forward.
Idiot. She didn’t give opponents many chances to catch their breath. He should’ve taken it while he could. Holding her position, she waited until she was within his reach to dart sideways and kick his shins just below the knee at the back.
The cage rattled with the impact of his heavy body when he stumbled forward into it. She grabbed his sweaty blond hair and dragged his face across the metal cage a few inches as she hauled his arm backward with her other hand.
She fell onto her back when he slammed against her, but she rolled to her feet and attacked with a strike to his groin followed with another kick to his face. The crowd deafened her with their roars when he collapsed to the ground again.
Ragged breaths escaped when she leaned forward and rested her hands on her knees. “Tell me you’ve got them.”
“Exfilling from the northeastern exit,” Shep said.
“Van in position,” Thunder commented.
“Take him out and get out of there, Red,” Beast ordered.
Red. Only her team got by with the nickname that didn’t even suit her right now since she’d dyed her hair blonde for the mission. She stood fully and took a couple deep breaths as the man rose yet again. He was a big brute with more determination than common sense.
“You should’ve stayed down,” she growled angrily in Russian.
“You die tonight!”
Okay then. So much for being nice. Then again, Iriana wasn’t ever nice. She was lethal attitude all the way. Addy’s gaze cut to where Kristof sat. His eyebrows rose when their gazes locked.
Damned bastard was a serious pain in her ass. He was everything she despised—a cutthroat mercenary turned underground smuggler and procurer of anything and everyone with value. He killed and bought and sold without hesitation if the price was right.
Yet he was also everything she’d once…
Don’t go there. Focus.
Kristof upended her life every time he appeared. One day she’d excise him once and for all. Somehow.
Addy fed the anger rolling through her and returned her attention to the brute blinking rapidly and lumbering toward her. Blood ran from his nose and along his cut lip. The idiot was going to land out with a permanently scrambled brain if he didn’t give up already.
Then again, one solid punch from his huge fists and she’d be the one with a scrambled brain. Rather than move backward like she’d always done, she surged forward and dodged his fist by lowering her center of gravity. Two well aimed strikes to his solar plexus began what she hoped to be the final confrontation for the night. Hands behind his neck, she dragged his face downward and slammed it against her raised knee. Blood sprayed across her T-shirt. She released her grip and glared down as he fell to the ground.
Leaning forward, she forced a couple deep breaths as the referee finally exited the safety of the cage’s corner and ran forward. He grabbed her arm and raised it up. The crowd cheered.
The bloodier the end, the higher the revelry. Disgusted by the entire underground fight scene, Addy stalked toward the locked exit and waited as someone opened it. Three rickety steps down and she was out. Each breath she drew was tainted with sweat, body odor, cigar smoke, and liquor as she made her way down the narrow strip of space cordoned off for the fighters to enter the back section of the warehouse.
Footsteps echoed behind her.
“Lavrov’s behind you,” Beast said in the com.
Addy sighed her exhaustion and clung to what patience she had left. Kristof’s presence at the fights and his constant shadowing of her after the night ended strengthened her cover as Iriana. But the man had no self-preservation and never gave her a moment to compose herself before he forced an interaction.
“Iriana.” His deep, velvety voice rolled