Chapter 21

He’s got the pole, I’ve got the bobbers!

-T-shirt

Sawyer

“Yo,” a man yelled over the loud speaker. “Time to fight!”

I pursed my lips and turned to find everyone crowding around the ring where Silas and the man named Stone were warming up.

Silas handed his beer over the ropes to a woman standing there, and I suddenly had the irrational urge to go yank it out of her hands.

She didn’t deserve to hold his beer!

“Whoa, tiger. What’s got you so riled up?” Viddy asked.

“That woman standing next to the ring, the one who just took Silas’ beer. Who is she?” I asked.

Viddy’s eyes turned in that direction, but it was Adeline who answered me.

“That’s Tattie. She’s a…’hanger on,’ I guess you’d say,” Adeline answered.

“Hmm,” I said. “Has she slept with Silas?”

The table quieted. “Umm, we don’t know. Silas is very discreet about his relationships. I couldn’t tell you if he has or hasn’t.”

“Hmmm,” I said, getting out of my seat and walking towards the ring without another word to them.

I wasn’t used to being irrational.

The only man I’d ever dated I really didn’t care about all that much.

Hell, Isaac had slept with, and impregnated, another woman while we were supposed to be together, and I hadn’t reacted with so much as a ‘fuck you.’

But Silas handing his beer over to some chick dressed in a strapless dress and hooker shoes made me practically homicidal.

Pushing through the crowd now, I came to a stop when I reached the very edge of the ring, and reached up until I caught a hold of the rope.

Tattie eyed me with a malevolent look, and I couldn’t help the smirk I shot her when Silas saw me and immediately held up his hand to the man he was standing in front of, Stone.

“Yeah?” He asked, walking over to me.

I ran my hand down his shirt.

“You’re not going to take your shirt off like Stone did?” I teased.

He looked down at his shirt, then over at Stone, before turning back to me.

“I don’t want to distract him with my finely honed physique.”

I laughed.

It was one that bubbled up from the bottom of my belly and made my abs hurt.

God, I loved this man and his sense of humor.

“The Dixie Girls are calling you straight laced. They think you don’t know how to let go and loosen up,” I said, circling my finger around the collar of his shirt.

He winked, then, making my mouth go completely dry, he stepped back and ripped his shirt from his shoulders.

One good yank at the back of his collar had the entire thing folding over his arms and pooling at the base of his hands.

I sighed when I got a good look at his chest.

So muscular and mouthwatering.

“Here, hold this for me,” he ordered me. “And step down so you don’t get hurt.”

I reached out for the shirt and brought it into my chest, leaning far over the ropes to offer him my lips.

“Good luck,” I said right before he kissed me.

I moaned in his mouth when it got a little heavy, and he pulled away, leaving us both gasping.

“Thanks,” he muttered, turning back around to face Stone.

Grimacing, I stepped down and stood next to Tattie, ignoring the scowl she was throwing my direction.

Plus, my eyes were glued to the man in front of me in his sexy jeans that looked to be about a year past the time he should’ve thrown them away.

He had a gun holstered at his back, and I wondered why he hadn’t taken it off.

It was likely he never took it off. Or at least he didn’t when I was around.

He slept with it under his pillow at night and kept it on until we went to bed or he took a shower. But it was never more than an arm span away. I even felt it while I leaned against him when we were on the bike.

I admired his back like I always did.

He had Roman numeral dates on his shoulder blade, three of them, which I guessed were his kids’ birthdays.

He had a skull tattoo on his bicep, and a US flag just underneath that.

And he was sexy.

Oh, so sexy.

“You know he gets bored easily, right?” Titty…or whatever her name was, said.

I ignored her and kept my eyes on Silas as the man in the middle of the ring with the referee shirt held up his hand and started to speak.

“No hair pulling, scratching, guns, knives, ball grabbing, or bitch slapping allowed. Ready?” The referee called out.

Both men nodded, grinning, and all I could do was snort.

Ball grabbing or bitch slapping?

I mean, they really had to spell that out in the rules?

At the nods of both men, the referee held his hand up and said, “Start.”

I blinked when Silas’ fist shot out and connected immediately with Stone’s face.

“Ohhh,” I said, putting my hands over my mouth as my stomach knotted.

That had to hurt.

And it wasn’t over, because Stone returned the favor two seconds later.

Then they proceeded to beat the ever-loving shit out of each other.