Dots flashed in front of my eyes.

The room faded.

Wake the fuck up.

My chest heaved as I sucked in air and stumbled away from him.

He tossed back his head and let out a roar. The crowd egged him on, clapping and calling his name.

I shook the hits off, rose up, and went at him again, this time using an elbow strike combination with leg kicks. He took both hits to the chest and went down to his knees. Success. I pounced and we wrestled to the floor, the hard concrete grinding in my shoulder as we grappled for control. I used a forearm submission move.

I pushed him down and got in one … two … three quick punches.

Dir-ty Eng-lish! Dir-ty Eng-lish! the crowd chanted.

He goosed up with a head-butt as I pounded him; I swerved.

He bucked up again, this time stronger. My purchase slipped. Dammit.

Not yet.

He grunted and blood spurted from his face as I hit his nose with my palm.

I lowered him closer to the ground until his nose kissed concrete.

“Fight’s over, Yeti,” I muttered, and in the millisecond it took me to breath those words, he contorted, loosened the hold and jabbed with his knee, connecting with part of my upper throat.

I gagged and fell back.

Girls screamed. Guys yelled. Max yelled from the sidelines. No clue what he said.

Bugger!

I lost steam. Fast. I couldn’t fucking breathe.

He grinned maniacally and came at me, jabbing at my face. He got my right eye. I kept moving. Avoiding. Dodging. Trying to breathe.

Using all the strength I had, I rolled my hips and retaliated with a jab-cross. The left hook went straight for the liver and the right aimed for the area under his heart. I yelled as it ripped out of me.

He stumbled backward into the crowd, who shoved him back in.

I growled and tore into him, swapping messy blows and kicks, neither of us willing to give in. I scanned the crowd as I paced, looking for blond hair.

I found Elizabeth. And Blake was with her?

Slam! His knee did a punching stab and hit my liver. I crumpled as pain ricocheted through my lower body. Gasping for air, I arched back just as he missed nailing me with a high left leg kick. I swayed around the ring.

Shit-motherfucking-hell.

“Fight’s over, English,” he taunted as he landed another jab to my gut.

Again.

Again.

Air whooshed out and the room spun. My bare feet fumbled around the ring and I tripped and fell to my knees.

Air. Needed fucking air.

Sirens reached my ears first. Then the screams of the spectators as they ran for the exit doors.

“Cops are coming,” a mummy screamed as he ran past and then climbed out one of the windows that lined the south side of the warehouse.

Now it was a madhouse.

Yeti did a crude gesture with his dick and then pointed his finger at me. “This isn’t over. You got lucky this time, English. Next time, I’ll kill you then I’ll fuck you.” He rocked his hips and laughed. As I watched him, he jogged over to his manager and then darted out a door that led to a myriad of offices in the back. I had no clue if there was an exit back there.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Max yelled as he grabbed my arm and tugged me toward the main doors of the warehouse.

“Wait,” I wheezed out and pulled loose from him. “Where’s Dax?” I scanned the room, looking for his build. “And Elizabeth? She’s here somewhere.”

“Don’t be an idiot. You’re the one they’ll arrest,” he yelled at me.

The sirens blared loud now, the flashing blue lights ricocheting into the cracked windows.

I turned to him. “Go on. I’m coming right behind you.”

He groaned and gave up on me and ran for the door.

I stood in the middle of the chaos. Most of the place had emptied except for the people who’d been on the top level and were trying to maneuver the rickety stairwells.

No blond hair. No Dax as far as I could tell.

“This way!” a voice called from across the warehouse, nearly thirty feet away.

Dax stood at a broken window, poised to crawl through. Elizabeth stood next to him, her eyes like saucers. She motioned with wild hands for me to come on.

The squeal of tires came to a stop outside the warehouse. Car doors opened. Voices yelled.

I sprinted toward them. Dammit, I was too far away.

“Push her out first,” I yelled. “Cops are right behind me.”

He got what I meant and hoisted her up, careful to avoid the jagged shards of glass. Her legs disappeared over the edge.

“Go, Dax!”

He shook his head, a pleading look on his face as he watched me run through a group of girls who’d had too much to drink and were trying to get out.

He sent me one final look and jumped through the window. Through the panes of the glass, I saw his shadow grab Elizabeth’s and run for a neighboring building’s ally.

I ran hard toward the window and dove headfirst through it. Hitting the ground, I rolled back to my feet and kept moving.

Shouts came through the window from the interior of the warehouse.

Shit. The cops had come inside.

Go, go, go, I told myself.

I turned the corner of the building and darted down the dark alley where I was hoping Dax had gone. They weren’t there, so I kept running between buildings and calling their names. My fear was the cops would spread out, but with five hundred people going in every direction, I hoped they had their hands full.

Where were they?

I turned down a small side street nearly a block over when I saw them waving at me as they waited next to a dumpster in an alley.

I jogged over to them.

Dax sent me a wild look. “Cops? What the hell? That’s never happened—and my car is parked over there,” he wailed as he bent over to catch his breath. “Fun times, bro.”

I moved my attention to Elizabeth, who stood frozen as she watched me, her chest rising rapidly.

Her eyes suddenly widened. “Your hands are bleeding.”

I looked down, realizing I must have cut them when I’d hit the ground running.

She picked them up to inspect them and dabbed at them with the end of her tank. “This is crazy. We need to get you to the ER.”

My first instinct was to pull away from her touch, especially since my hands were swollen from fighting, but I didn’t move, the heat of her body intoxicating. She smelled like lemons or something fruity and I wanted to pull her to me and inhale deeply. “I’m fine,” I said gruffly.

“You’re not fine!” she snarled. Angry.

God, I loved that fire in her eyes.

“Why do you care so much anyway?”

She puffed up even more, blue eyes flashing as she dropped my hand and took a step back. I took in the soft curves of her breasts as she crossed her arms, the way her throat moved when she swallowed. My body tightened, my cock hardening. I told myself it was the usual leftover adrenaline, where I felt like I could fuck forever, but it was all her.

I wanted her, my pride be damned. All the turmoil from the past few days disappeared, and she was all that mattered.

I turned to Dax. “Go get my car. It’s three blocks east of here in an open lot on Chester Street. Key’s on the top of the driver’s side tire.” I paused. “And give us a few minutes before you come back.”

He rose up, his eyes jumping between me and Elizabeth. “Okay,” he said uncertainly. “You guys good here in the alley? Elizabeth?”

I cocked an eye at her, letting her see the heat in my gaze. You are mine, it said. “You okay alone with me?” I asked, a twist to my lips, daring her to say no.

She nodded and Dax ran off into the darkness, but neither one of us watched him leave, both of us wrapped up in each other. She was still angry, and I was just horny.

“Declan—” she started.

“Come here.”

She licked her lips. “Why?”