Ria remained silent, her mind in chaos ever since she had opened her door to see Nicholas standing outside with Mitchell.
Mitchell was waiting in the hallway now, telling them both they had twenty minutes to talk.
“You will get hurt,” she said quietly.
“I can win the fights. I’m an experienced cage fighter. The pit is only a little different. You have to stay within the confines of the space, but it’s mainly boxing, and I’m a good boxer.” The hardest part of the fighting for him would be just sticking to boxing and not bringing in other forms of defense he was capable of.
“It is already too late; you have accepted Emiliano’s offer, so there is no way out now but to do what you said.”
“Yes. So you might as well help me.”
“How can I help you?” Ria asked, shocked.
“Did you watch the fights at all the last two months?”
Ria winced. “I tried not to, but often, the men would tell me what was going on.”
Nicholas’s face went hard. “Then tell me what you remember about the individual fighters.”
Ria got excited that she might actually be able to prevent him from being hurt too badly. “Okay.”
She sat on the couch, going back over the fights she had witnessed, trying to remember as many details as possible.
“That’s enough for now. My time is almost up.” He started to rise from the couch.
She reached out, taking his hand. “Your arm is healed?”
“Yes. Don’t worry about it.” His hand covered hers.
Ria wanted him to kiss her. He had never given her a real kiss. However, he broke the moment by standing up a second before the knock came.
“I’ll see you in three days,” Nick promised.
Ria didn’t remind him he had to win the fight first.
* * *
The night of the fight came much too soon for Ria. Emiliano called to tell her to dress to go out. If Nicholas won, he would pick her up after the fight. She used the opportunity to beg him to release her and her mother.
“Ariel, have I mistreated you?”
Truthfully, she was treated much better by the men she had to go out with than she had when she was working in the bar.
“No.”
“Have I not made your life better?”
He had. She could actually sleep knowing she didn’t have to worry about her drunk neighbors or someone breaking into her apartment.
“Yes, but my mother—” she started to protest.
“Is getting stronger every day. Do not question me again; I don’t like it.”
Her hand holding the cell phone trembled.
“Have a good time… if he wins.”
“What if he doesn’t?” Ria licked her dry lips.
“Then I will not be happy. I have placed a lot of money on your novio.”
“Nicholas is not my boyfriend.”
Emiliano laughed. “I don’t care what he feels for you as long as he wins.” He abruptly ended the call.
She had not missed living under the protection of the cartel. Her brother Alejandro had given them their freedom, yet she was back under their thumb. Whoever had murdered him was responsible for her predicament.
She wondered if Emiliano had been the one to kill her brother. She remembered him well from her childhood. They had grown up under the same roof. He had been her older brother’s age. His father had been loyal to hers, and as far as she knew, Emiliano had been loyal to Alejandro.
She used to trail after him through the huge house they lived in when she was bored, and he had never lost patience with her. She had stopped as she had grown older and realized exactly what her family did for a living.
Her father had been the only American in the Spanish cartel, but he had proven his loyalty to her mother’s first husband. When he had been killed, her father had assumed his position with the cartel’s approval, though he had not lasted long. She had been nine when he had been murdered, and Alejandro had been barely nineteen when he had taken over and been given the name Dragon. Now he was dead, and the freedom he had given them when she had become seventeen was gone.
Ria walked back and forth across the carpeted floor. She had dressed in a dark blue dress that came to her thighs, clinging seductively to her body. She wanted to look her best tonight if he won. She wasn’t as pretty as the women he dated, but she felt that she was smarter. She found herself wondering if men liked sexy over smarter, or smarter over sexy.
Ria remember the woman she had seen Nicholas with the night she had dinner with Lacey. He preferred sexy.
Ria sat down on the couch, jumping when the door opened and Nicholas walked in. She took one look at his face and burst into tears.
Nicholas came to her, taking her into his arms. “I’m fine, Ria. It looks much worse than it is.”