Star-Crossed(97)

He’ll definitely break something.”

Romeo wasn’t real certain, but going three rounds with her brother probably wasn’t the best way to endear Jules to him after their fight. Not to mention, hitting a cop hadn’t worked out so well for him the first time he’d done it.

“I’m not fighting you, Conner,” Romeo said simply.

Wyatt obviously wasn’t listening because he didn’t even wait for Romeo to get up, just dropped to the mat and nailed him with a hard right hook that had him seeing stars.

“I wasn’t asking.” Wyatt’s big body hovered over Romeo’s, his voice quivering in fury as he hit Romeo again, catching him in the corner of his eye, making his vision fog.

Romeo tried to shake off the shock of pain as Wyatt growled, “If she dies, I won’t just take three rounds, I’ll fucking end you, Wellings.” Two things became rapidly apparent.

One—Wyatt was in this cage to try and kill Romeo.

Two—Clay wasn’t going to do a damn thing to get the insane sheriff off his back.

Against his better judgment Romeo punched Wyatt, using every bit of his strength. He needed to get the big blond off him long enough to get to his feet, and it worked. Wyatt was temporarily stunned, as if forgetting until that moment that Romeo was one of the most successful heavyweight fighters in the world.

Romeo jumped to his feet but didn’t have a chance to back up before Wyatt turned to him. Still on his knees he managed to catch Romeo in the side, a deliberate kidney blow. He was fighting dirty on purpose, but Romeo had grown up on the streets. No-250



holds-barred fighting was what drew him to this sport to begin with. He’d started in the underground circuit once he’d gotten out of prison. He knew how to protect himself from low hits, which was predictably what Wyatt was going for.

Now on his feet, with Romeo backed against the cage because he was still trying to avoid fighting him, Wyatt raised his knee, trying to get him in the groin. On instinct Romeo kicked him, hitting his kneecap, making his leg buckle before he got Wyatt with another hard right hook.

“I don’t wanna fight—”

Wyatt recovered and punched Romeo back before he could finish. For just a moment, his brain throbbing as if it’d just hit his skull a little too hard, Romeo couldn’t help but mourn the fact that Wyatt had dropped out of MMA. It seemed like a tremendous waste. This asshole could really fight.

Wyatt obviously wasn’t pondering his lost career. He was completely focused on one goal, making Romeo hurt. Wyatt started railing on him, catching him in the jaw and the side of the face. His fists flew at him over and over again, and Romeo did have a fight in five days. He might want to keep Jules happy, but he couldn’t afford the type of injuries Wyatt was hell-bent on.

He hooked his foot behind Wyatt’s, throwing him off balance, and then caught him in the side, a kidney punch, following the rules Wyatt had set. When he gasped, Romeo punched him once more, his fist connecting with Wyatt’s jaw. Romeo used the opportunity to slip from between Wyatt and the cage, bouncing closer to the center of the mat.

Wyatt spun, his fists flying wild. Romeo dodged him. They’d been boxing, using hard-core street fighting, but Romeo switched gears, using karate to block his punches, and Wyatt handled the change effortlessly. His foot connected with Romeo’s solar plexus, knocking the air out of him. Then he jumped forward, his fist aimed at Romeo’s face, and he barely blocked it.





251

Romeo’s head hurt, his ribs throbbed, and it was clear Wyatt was tapping into some sort of anger fuel Romeo couldn’t compete with after forty-eight hours of no sleep. Needing two seconds to breathe, Romeo took a punch in the side just to bring Wyatt close enough to knock his feet out from under him.

When Wyatt fell flat on his back on the mat, Romeo bounced away from him, fighting to clear his thinking and see past the blood and swelling from his left eye. His chest was heaving, his body drenched in sweat, but he knew he could do this. He could give Wyatt three rounds, and once he let the sheriff get it all out of him, he could fix things with Jules.

It felt like he was earning the right to apologize by taking the beating from her furious twin brother.

When Wyatt came back wild and furious, catching him with another right hook, Romeo just took it rather than fight against it, and it was one of the hardest things he’d done in his life. He realized right then it required a lot more strength to take a beating passively rather than defend himself. It went against every instinct he had, but he stayed where he was.

Romeo completely stopped fighting on the defense and focused instead on just staying on his feet, because he wasn’t going to cower from the pain. When Wyatt forced him back against the cage, his fist flying against Romeo’s face repeatedly, Romeo realized he was going to experience his first full-fledged knockout, and he wasn’t going to do a damn thing to stop it.