Chapter 10
Four months after Nick’s loss to Ryker…
Nick might have won against Edgar, but Levi is livid. Nick almost threw the fight by getting himself in a really weird position and taking a hell of a punishment. Levi’s warned him about it so many times, but he hasn’t listened.
The locker room is full of reporters and medics. Edgar slashed both of Nick’s cheeks and then left an ugly gouge in his forehead. That fight had so much blood I almost lost my lunch. It was brutal. Not as vicious as Levi and Ryker’s bloody fight, but that’s only because the man I love was in that cage.
Levi leans against the wall. His arms are crossed, his scowl watching Nick.
“Levi…?” I tread carefully because he’s mad.
He arches his brow and turns his head to look at me.
“I’m going to the bathroom,” I say, mainly because I need to, partly because I need him to take a breather.
He glances toward the door on the other side of the room and then back to me. “Come on.”
He pushes off the wall and grabs my hand, leading me down the hall. “I’m going to ruin his ass in training. I’m going to work that shit move right out of his thoughts,” he grumbles. “You’d think he learned from Ryker. But the dumbass did it again. This time he was lucky.”
I don’t answer because it’s not worth the argument.
Abandoning Levi in the hall, I push open the door just in time to see a man sitting on a woman and punching her in the face. Her head bounces off the floor and her grunt is eerily cold and arid.
“Levi!” I scream out in sheer fear.
The man doesn’t move when he hears my voice, instead he says something else to the woman and slams his fist into her face again. Her body goes limp, arms and legs out straight.
Before my brain registers to jump on the man’s back, Levi pushes through the door and snatches him up by his throat. The guy tries to fight back, but Levi shoves his fist into his ribs and slams several punches into his face, instantly producing blood. The man stumbles, but Levi doesn’t stop his assault—his knuckles wailing into the guy as he falls out the door.
I spring to the side of the woman and gasp. This woman is…
“Levi, it’s Whitney!” I yell.
Levi’s head snaps my way and then he slams the guy on his back, mounts him and chokes him.
Her face is swollen and bloody. Her lip is busted open with blood trickling from it. I reach to touch her cheek but pull back, scared to death I’ll hurt her.
“What the fuck?” Adam snaps coming from around the corner.
“Go get Ryker!” Levi yells.
“He’s lined up to fight,” Adam replies.
“He’s not out there yet. Go fucking get him. And grab security,” Levi barks, panic searing his throat.
My heartbeat is erratic. Easily, I grab her hand. “Whitney?”
Please be alive.
Her eyes flutter, but she doesn’t move.
“Is she fucking alive?” Levi growls. He’s still sitting on the guy and holding his throat, but the guy isn’t moving.
“I…yes,” I answer.
“You’re a sorry motherfucker,” Levi spits at the guy and punches him in the stomach. The guy doesn’t move.
“Levi, what do I do?” I’m frantic and scared.
“What you’re doing,” he barks back.
First, I see Adam and then Ryker, and I call his name. His eyes land on us. I watch in slow motion everything scatter across his gaze—terror, anger, fear, and then murder explodes. He lunges toward Levi and the man, but Adam moves in front of him, trying to hold him back.
Levi stretches his arm out. “He’s out. I’ve got him. He’s out, man!”
It doesn’t comfort Ryker’s anger and he continues to push against Adam. Adam stumbles just as officers rush in. Two of them immediately jump on the guy on the floor, and three assist Levi, who has sprung to his feet to help Adam hold Ryker back.
Suddenly, Ryker snaps his head to Whitney and rushes to her side.
“Whit.” Frantic terror rides out with his exhale. He wipes his hand over her forehead, moving the bloody hair from her face. “Whitney. Wake up, baby.” It’s full of anguish and scared desperation.
And it breaks my heart. I glance to Levi. Anger has his eyes in slits, and worry has them glazed over.
Ryker checks her pulse and I watch him take a deep breath moments before the paramedics storm in.
“Move, please. Move,” one of the paramedics says.
Immediately, I’m in Levi’s side and he grips me tightly.
“Get off me,” the guy says behind us and I jump, twisting around to him. He yanks his shoulders away from the police officers.
Ryker’s wide worried eyes blink and land on the guy as his feet start toward him.
His left eye is swollen shut, his nose bleeding when he grins like the devil to Ryker. “You lost.”
I gasp as Levi pushes me out of the way, stepping in front of Ryker with Adam. “Don’t put yourself in jail. She needs you more,” Levi says.
Ryker looks past Levi, rage dripping from his eyes. “I’ll fucking kill you. You look over your shoulder for the rest of your life because I’m going to fucking murder you. Do you hear me, you fucking bastard? You’re fucking dead.”
The paramedics strap the man to the stretcher and wheel him off quickly.
Ryker jerks his arms from Adam and Levi. “Get the fuck off me.”
The paramedics rush out of the bathroom with Whitney on the stretcher, and Ryker grabs her lifeless hand at her side. “Whit?”
“I’m fucking going with you,” he looks to one of the paramedics. “I’m not leaving her side.”
He clambers into the back of the ambulance and they shut the door. With sirens blaring, they take off, disappearing out of the parking lot.
“Get your shit. We’re going to the hospital,” I tell Levi, grabbing his arm and pulling him back toward Nick’s room so we can get our things.
He stops. “Paige. That’s not our problem. She’s in good hands now.”
I shove his chest, scared irritation coursing through me. “Don’t. Don’t act like a heartless bastard. I know you better than that.” My voice shakes as anger tumbles out.
There’s turmoil in his eyes, but he agrees.
“Are you going?” A gravelly voice says from behind me.
Levi’s jaw ticks as he looks over me. “Yeah.”
“Whitney’s purse has everything Ryker needs. Would you take it to her?” Ryker’s coach asks…looking directly at me. Not Levi. “I have to handle some things with the association before I can leave. I don’t know how long it’ll take me.”
“Yeah,” I tell him taking her purse.