Faster.

Harder.

Stronger.

Hayes Morrison pushed herself past her limits. She had to be better, faster, stronger. Her goals left no room for failure. No option to attain anything less than absolute perfection. She had everything planned out. All her dreams had been within her grasp; so close, yet, so far.

Then it happened.

A careless accident.

One drunken night.

Two stupid boys.

They walked away. Hayes spent six months switching between a hospital and rehab. Her dreams of being an Olympic sprinter dashed in a split second because two stupid frat boys decided to drink and drive instead of calling a cab.

After a long night of studying for finals, she had chosen to celebrate by going for an early morning run. The moon had been bright, she had all the right reflective gear on; they should have seen her. They should have stopped. They shouldn’t have been in the damn car.

Hayes never saw it coming. She hadn’t heard anything but the tires squealing as they sped off after hitting her. Tearing muscles from bone, ripping skin wide open, leaving her for dead. She remembered laying there in pain believing she was going to die, wishing she’d tried out for the Olympics sooner, that she’d followed her dreams instead of waiting for her brother to return home from the Navy.

He was her best friend growing up. Being seven years older than her never made a difference to them. At sixteen, she’d been cocky, knowing she’d make it to the 2020 Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo. She believed Ryder would have been there, too. That night changed both their lives in very different ways.

Hayes was left with a permanent limp.

Ryder was left dead and burned in a cave in Syria after weeks of torture by ISIS.

He was a believer in God and country.

She believed in him.

Now she had nothing. No Ryder to cheer her on and challenge her on a professional level. Nothing to work towards. She was going to have a limp from the accident for the rest of her life. No surgery in the world could fix her busted hip and knee.

Growing up in San Diego, California, close to one of the bigger Naval bases, her family hadn’t been surprised that Ryder followed in their grandfather’s footsteps by enlisting. They had spent hours every day running on the beach of San Diego Bay training Hayes. She’d always chased after the gold; ever since she was a little girl.

Ryder had always been fascinated by the Navy—the drills, the routine, the constant challenge. All through his enlistment and graduation with top honors, she’d been his biggest cheerleader. Their parents had been proud, yet nervous when he’d been accepted into the Pacific Fleet. They hadn’t been aware that he did anything other than logistics on one of the fleet’s bigger ships, so they had no idea he’d been called to action in Syria.

More than once.

When Hayes had finally been found hours after being hit, by a teacher from her school that travelled the road she ran to school, she had no idea her brother was even missing. No idea her parents had gotten a terrifying knock on their door minutes after she’d left.

That had all happened nearly two years ago. She still felt the immense loss of her brother, of her dreams. She kept pushing herself to do more than she could if only to make him proud. To give him something to hold on to, even in death.

It beat wallowing in the pain.

Not long after Ryder’s death and her accident, they had moved to Loveland, Colorado. A sleepy little city that had accepted them like old friends. Hayes had a hard time fitting in because of rehab and needing the use of forearm braces to walk while doing it. On her seventeenth birthday, she’d had enough and forced her mind to make her body submit. She wanted to be normal again. To have friends, go out, meet boys. The normal teenage girl stuff. Much to her disappointment, it had never happened. She’d never fit in and found it hard to fight her way out of the depression that had taken her hostage.

When her parents noticed, which pressured them to emerge from their own grief, the worry she saw in their eyes only added to her guilt. So, she began running again, trying to show them she was moving forward. Even when she wasn’t.

Running erased everything in her mind. It gave her peace. Quieted the whispered voices trying to drag her down. The very reason she was up at the ass crack of dawn covering the length of Sunnyside Park before going to school. With only one month left before graduation, Hayes struggled with the choice of attending college or not, even though she’d been accepted to a couple.

Working at the local grocery store wasn’t something she wanted to do for the rest of her life, either. Full-out running wasn’t exactly an option anymore. Jogging a mile a day was only a fraction of what she had been capable of. She hadn’t done a thing with her life yet, and already, she felt like a failure.

Veering off the path to the middle of the baseball field, she watched as the sun began to rise over the trees. The beautiful hues of color exploded as the sun rose. Birds took flight, a breeze blew, Hayes closed her eyes. Sun-kissed warmth hit her skin like a balm. She felt a single moment of peace. With Ryder’s image in her mind’s eye, she felt his presence as the wind melted around her.

A hard hit from behind ruined everything.

* * *

Shit. Levi hadn’t meant to ram the willowy redhead from behind so hard. He had been trying to stop her before she stepped into the stupid gopher hole in the middle of the damn field when he’d trip over one of his own.

Fucking rodents.

“Son of a monkey biscuit!” He heard her cursing as he untangled their limbs. “What’s wrong with you?”

He wasn’t sure whether to laugh or what. “I’m sorry, sugar.” Holding out a hand as he stood, he pulled her up. An electric pulse zapped through his arm as their skin touched.

“What’d you run into me for?” she demanded, full of spit and fire. Her eyes, he was mesmerized by their radiance. They shone bright like the blue sky. Trying to discover every sparkle they emitted, he nearly missed her impatient growl as she turned to walk away.

“Wait!” he called, grabbing her fingers. “I was trying to stop you from tripping in the fucking gopher hole. Suckers have dug up nearly the entire field.”

She huffed out an annoyed breath before asking, “And you thought the best way to do that was tackle me to the ground?” With one hand on her hip and her foot tapping on the grass, he had to force back the laugh trying to rip from his throat.

“No, sugar.” Pointing behind him, he told her, “I went to grab your arm and tripped over another fucking hole. Might bring out my pellet gun soon.” He grumbled the last part more to himself than anything.

“Must you swear?” Taken aback by her question, he smiled, making sure his dimple appeared and hoping to get on her good side. “Nice try, dimples,” she huffed. Turning, she walked away from him before switching to a light jog.

Dropping to his knees, Levi brought his hands to his chest, whispering aloud, “Be still my beating fucking heart. I think I’m in love.” He was kidding, of course. Love at first sight didn’t really exist.

Watching her like a creeper until she was out of sight, he had to wonder if maybe it did? Shaking the thought from his head, he knew he had to walk away. He couldn’t deal with it. He was training for his next fight against one of the biggest names in the Colorado underground circuit.

He had one week to be ready. His winning streak of 16-0 could be broken, and he wasn’t ready for that yet. His brothers kept asking him about the bruises and the black eyes. Where he went every Saturday night. But he wasn’t ready to tell them. The compulsion he felt to beat the crap out of someone confused him. It was more than just the violence of the act, and he didn’t know why or what it meant.

If his mother ever found out, she’d kick his ass around the world and back. Worse than any other fighter could, too. Disappointing her wasn’t something he would handle well, either. She was the strongest woman he knew and finding out he was fighting would destroy her. For the time being, it had to remain a secret.

Jogging out of the park, his mind swirled with thoughts of the redhead as he’d plowed her to the ground. The way she molded to his body. A feeling he could most definitely get used to. As he pumped his legs harder, he thought back to when she walked away and the light limp he’d noticed. Curiosity piqued, he wondered if he’d see her again. More importantly, he realized he wanted to see her again.

“Son of a bitch!”

His best-laid plans may have just been tossed out the window by his attraction to a mystery woman with a limp. And now that he was thinking about her, she looked young. He prayed to God she was at least legal, or he’d be screwed six ways to Sunday.

Thrust from his thoughts as his phone rang, he suffered a quick moment of regret. “Yeah?” he demanded, not bothering to look at the caller ID.

“Yo! Knuckles, my man, how you been?” Cringing as he heard his announcer/agent, Casper, on the other end of the line. The man was an overbearing ass. He liked to push Levi more than was wise.

“What?” he snapped.

“Someone needs to get laid.” It was a joke to him, not to Levi. “Look, man, I just want to be sure you’re ready for the fight on Saturday. You’re training, right? You need at least six hours a day.”

He heard the same fucking spiel every day, and frankly, he was getting sick of it. “Casp?” Levi grunted.

“Yo?” One day he was gonna knock the other man’s happy voice down his throat.

“Back off. I got this. You ain’t gonna lose no fucking money on me.” He was cocksure. Confidence in himself was what had gotten him this far, so he wasn’t wavering any time soon.

“Sure, sure, man. I know.” Jackass didn’t sound confident.

“You bet against me, bro?”

“Hell no! This guy, though, he’s huge. Just want you prepared.”

“I’m ready, Casp. You better have cash in hand when I walk out.” Hanging up, Levi got his head in the game. Forgetting about the spitfire he’d run down, he continued on with his daily training.

The run back to his house was refreshing. He pushed harder than he normally would. His opponent this weekend was nothing to take lightly. If Levi wasn’t prepared, the other man could and would kill him.

Since he started fighting in the underground ring, he’d lost a piece of himself. Something he didn’t even realize he had. Looking at strangers as opponents rather than ordinary people wasn’t how he had pictured himself. Yet that’s just what he did. He sized up every man he saw, wondering how many hits to the temple it would take to knock them out. Would they make him enough money in a night to be worth it?

With that part he lost of himself, he also found something new. An inner strength he never even knew he had. When Casper found him after a drunken bar fight, the man said he knew, immediately, that Levi was meant for the octagon. That he could be a prized fighter. At the time, Levi had laughed in his face, not listening or caring about what anyone thought of him. Now, he wanted to be the best so he could beat the best.

He had no need for the money or the fame. Instead, setting out to prove to himself that he could be something outside of what his big brother was. Nox was a great sibling and a great man. Someone he’d looked up to his entire life. But he was also the person that everyone thought it okay to measure Levi up to. Ever since he could remember, almost everyone they’d met compared him and his brothers. No one knew why; that’s just the way it was. His parents never treated any one of them differently than the other. There was no favoritism. They each got the same chances in life thanks to his mother’s love and their father’s encouragement.

Fighting gave Levi the opportunity to be his own man. Find his own way in life. So far, he was doing pretty fucking good. Any earnings he got from the fights he donated to various charities across the state. Usually to whoever was in need the most at the time. He remained anonymous because even though he felt no shame at what he was doing, he knew his mother would be terrified that he’d get hurt, and his brothers would be pissed he’d never told them. So, for now, it would have to remain his dirty little secret, and he was okay with that.

Seeing Loch’s car as he ran up the driveway, he was shocked. It was barely six a.m., and his brother was never up that early let alone out driving around. As his brother stepped from his ‘60 Mustang Cobra, a car he and Nox had helped him restore when he was seventeen, Levi saw the worry on his face.

“Yo, man, what’s up?” His question was casual.

Loch looked anywhere but at him, scratching his head. He finally said, “I’ve got a problem.”

He still wouldn’t look directly at Levi. “Talk me, bro,” Levi encouraged, hoping he would. Loch wasn’t usually quiet. He was always the outgoing one of the three when they were together.

“Can we go inside?” he asked looking around.

Nodding his head, Levi headed to the front door, turning to glance behind him to make sure the man was following. Unlocking the door, they stepped inside, and Levi went straight for the kitchen, opening the fridge and chugging down a bottle of water as he waited for his brother to speak.

“C’mon, Lochlan, what’s going on?” He finally got tired of the silence.

Taking a deep breath, Loch finally began. “There’s this girl, she’s…everything.”

Interesting.

“She’s from the Mormon congregation a county over.” Hence the man’s nervous energy. Levi understood now.

“What…How…Uh…I got nothing, man.” He had no idea how to proceed with that bombshell.

“Exactly my problem, man.” Lochlan was quiet for a moment before continuing on. “She has this look in her eyes. Not quite fear…more like heartache. Like she wants something for herself only she has no idea how to get it or what to do about it.”

“Have you spoken to her?”

“Lev…” The seriousness in Loch’s tone had him meeting his brother’s eyes. “She’s underage.”

Fireworks were going off in his mind like a bomb.

“Shit.”

“About sums it up, yeah.” Loch was clearly taken with the girl. Wanting to know her but unable to act on it.

“What are you gonna do?” He would support his youngest sibling in anything he chose.

“What I want to do versus what I will do are two different things right now, Lev. I can’t do anything. I want to steal her away and never let her go.”

Wow!

“How do you even know her?”

“Her parents bring in their vehicle for maintenance. I actually think someone’s been sabotaging it.” A smirk played on his lips.

“You think it’s her?”

“I dunno. She’s always trying to get my attention, so maybe? It’s not like I see her anywhere else in town.”

“You’ve never spoken to her at all?” He had to have? Right?

“Not once. I recognized, immediately, that she was underage. I won’t risk that. No matter how much I want to get to know her,” Loch explained, and he understood the man’s hesitance. Her parents were fucking Mormons. They wouldn’t hesitate to call foul on anything Loch did, especially coming from the congregation they did.

“What else do you know about her?”

“Nothing.” His voice was quiet.

“What’s her name?” Loch had to know that much. He levelled Levi with a look that clearly said, What part of nothing did you not get?

“Okay, okay. Christ.”

“I don’t know what the fuck to do. She’s all I think about, and I don’t even know her fucking name!”

“Calm down, jackass. Next time she’s there, come get me. I’ll meet her and find out what I can,” Levi suggested.

Loch’s snort of derision wasn’t encouraging. “Her mother barely lets her out of her sight, let alone talk to a man.”

That could be a problem. “Let me worry about that. We do have another brother and a pretty sweet sister-in-law if you haven’t forgotten.” He wiggled his eyebrows, a plan forming already.

Soph was never far from the shop when she wasn’t working there. Taking online courses, she almost always wanted to be near Nox in case she got stuck on something. The woman was smart as a whip, yet her mother beat it into her that she was dumb as a rock. He would never understand women.