Callan stood with his feet at shoulder width, his arms flexing at his sides. Lips parting, his head fell back, and he closed his eyes while the crowd continued chanting his name and demanding the prize.
What the fuck was the prize?
The large gates began to swing open, and my attention snapped to the movement. Callan turned to face the ramp at the same time.
From the shadows, I saw three people moving forward, two large men on either side and...
No.
Between them, they dragged a bound woman, her mouth gagged, a blindfold covering her eyes. She was dressed in white lingerie that barely covered her body, her bare feet tripping over the ground as they moved her forward against her will.
Her shoulders shook like she was crying, her legs trembling with terror.
I couldn’t see Callan’s face, but he stormed toward the ramp on long legged steps, closing the distance with a hungry stride.
The two men shoved the woman out onto the dirt floor of the ring where she stumbled and fell forward.
My breath caught, rage flooding me because it was apparent to anybody that she was what was given to whoever won the fight.
I felt sick for different reasons.
Angry for the way she was treated.
Betrayed that Callan would use her.
Disgusted that this was part of the show my family put on to pay for my pampered life.
But it was the betrayal that cut deepest, my heart fracturing into a million pieces when Callan grabbed the woman by the length of her dark hair and pulled her to her feet.
One hand locked over her cheeks while another grabbed her side to turn her toward the audience like some piece of meat being auctioned.
The crowd roared.
Callan tossed her over his shoulder to carry her up the ramp.
And I made a decision right then and fucking there that I would escape this nightmare, one way or another.
Spinning around to finally break Connor’s hold, I bent forward and vomited on his shoes.
He laughed above me, not caring about the mess. And when I lifted my head and wiped my mouth, I saw Holly staring right at me.
Callan
The Rose family was now several million dollars richer, the body left in the ring the cost of increasing our revenue with the high dollar bets I knew Franklin would have played. There was a lot of money in fights such as these, the boredom and vast resources of the elite making it easy to strip them of small increments of wealth.
The chaos of cheering was muted as I walked through a set of doors into the locker rooms. Jacob, as usual, was waiting for me, his expression carefully controlled as I stepped past him to set Isabelle on a bench.
He didn’t wait for me to untie her before grabbing my shoulder to turn me toward him. After conducting a thorough search for any injuries that would have caused internal damage, he nodded his head, satisfied that I had none.
“He barely touched me,” I growled, shoving him aside more in play than disrespect.
His green eyes locked to mine.
“A gut punch? That’s what you decided to allow? I almost stormed down there to beat your ass myself. Internal organs, Callan. Watch them.”
Laughter shook my shoulders, the adrenaline coursing through my veins making it feel like I was floating. The fight was exactly what I’d needed to soothe the beast inside me, my body no longer heavy or in pain.
To our backs, Isabelle mumbled behind her gag. I turned to remove the blindfold, her eyes lifting to mine with a submissive promise that I wouldn’t have hesitated to accept if this had been another night.
How many times had I drained the adrenaline from my body by taking hers?
Pulling the gag from her mouth, I tossed it to the ground while Jacob worked to free her hands of the restraints.
She stretched her jaw to ease the sting of her skin from the gag, a smile curling her lips to run eyes up my body, her gaze tracing the lines of blood mixed with sweat.
“You’re the most beautiful this way,” she purred.
And she was dedicated to pleasing the fighters, but would spend the evening disappointed. Despite the temptation she embodied, there was only one woman I was interested in controlling tonight, one who had met my eyes just before I ended the life of my opponent in the ring.
Jacob leaned a shoulder against a wall.
“Moritze looked like he was going to shit himself when you snapped that asshole’s neck. Fucker must have had big