“Careful,” Erik said with his hands in fists. “Watch how anyone responds to that.”
“You know who we are,” Miller said. “What we do here. We are governed by our own justice and our own beliefs. Does that make us criminals?” Miller shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t give a fuck. What I give a fuck about is making things right. There’s been a war declared on this MC and I’m the goddamn President. You’ve seen enough to get the picture here.”
“Yes,” Kaity said. “I’ll fight tonight. I’m ready. I want to.”
“Why?” Nate asked.
“Because Erik asked me to.”
“Can you fight?” Gaige asked.
“Yes.”
“Punch Nate in the stomach,” Miller said.
Kaity looked at Erik. He nodded.
Shit.
Kaity swallowed and walked up to Nate. He was massive. Tall and wide. She feared punching him because it was going to hurt her hand. She made two fists and lifted them. Her right hand was the strongest so Kaity knew she’d lead with that. She took a couple breaths and then gritted her teeth. She threw a right and slammed it into Nate’s gut. He coughed and Kaity turned, wincing in pain.
“How was that?” Miller asked.
Kaity went to respond but realized Miller had been talking to Nate.
Nate lifted his shirt, revealing muscle mostly, but also a red mark.
“Not bad,” Gaige said. “Hope you get matched with someone your height.”
“You can’t quit on us,” Miller said. “You have to keep going until the fight is over.”
“Okay…”
“Kaity,” Erik said. “That means you can’t get afraid. You can’t take a punch and fall. You have to give us time to do our job.”
“Okay,” Kaity said. “I can be tough.”
Gaige put up his fists near his face. “Protect your face. Your head. Use your eyes and watch the shoulders, okay? Don’t worry about anything but the fight.”
Kaity nodded. Now she was nervous.
“I’m not sure about this still,” Miller said. “But Erik has asked us to trust you. I’m not in the mood to trust people right now but we have no choice. That means I trust you in this. Don’t fuck this up.”
Miller turned and opened the door. The rest of the guys left the room, except for Erik. He faced Kaity and his eyes were amazing. Bright, sexy, but deep. Man, they were deep.
“You realize what you’re getting into?” Erik asked.
“No,” Kaity admitted. “But I can’t imagine losing you. I can’t imagine you never trusting me. I can’t imagine not being right here.”
“We leave in a little bit.”
Erik left the room.
Kaity didn’t see him again until they left for the fight.
twenty-three.
They probably should have dressed like businessmen and drove cars to this fight to play the role better, but they all rode their bikes up to an old warehouse ten miles south of Frelen. Erik wasn’t sure what crew ran this territory and that bothered him. It generally was disrespectful to enter another territory and start firing bullets.
But this needed to be done.
The fighting setup resembled the fights the MC had gone to. The main difference was that the cars were expensive. Big, small, even some custom motorcycles. There were three small private jets and six helicopters. This was definitely serious. Erik rode with Kaity on the back, her hands tight around him. He hoped she could pull this off. It bothered him to imagine her getting hurt, or getting spooked. He wanted to trust in her and believe in what she said. But the image of her working undercover bothered the hell out of him.
Figures he would fall for a woman and she would be a rat.
Falling for her…
Good fucking hell.
They rode to the back corner of the large lot and found Strokner sitting in the back of his SUV with the window down, waiting.
The crew included only Miller, Gaige, Blaine, Shay, Landon, and Erik. They didn’t need to show up with thirty guys. No need to draw more attention to the scene here.
Erik looked around and saw that most of the businessmen walking around weren’t in fancy suits and ties. A lot of them were dressed in their version of casual. It would help the MC not stick out like a sore thumb as much.
“Ready for this?” Strokner asked.
“Ready as ever,” Miller said. “Where’s our guy?”
Strokner stroked his chin and looked at Erik. “That your woman going in there?”
“Does it matter?” Erik asked.
“Should have just grabbed some random person,” Strokner said.
Erik reached for Kaity’s hand and held it tight. “What does that matter?”