With no living relatives that were able to take him in, Rebel had been put into foster care. He’d been just old enough to remember his parents and to understand what was happening to him. He’d gone from a loving, regular family to being shoved into the system. He’d spent the most important years of his life, the years that shaped us all into the adults we became, in the hands of seven different families…all of them bad. He’d been left unsupervised in one, abandoned in another, abused in two more… He’d been angry and hurt and forced into shit.

He’d been arrested for petty theft, shoplifting, criminal damage, car theft, and assault. There was a six month stint in juvenile detention for aggravated assault. I could understand why he’d done these things, but it didn’t quite add up. The man on my screen didn’t match the man I’d met. At some point, he’d decided to try to change his life.

Scrolling to the last record, I saw that it was three years ago. He’d been clean since then. Not even a blip.

I didn’t have to be a genius to understand that he thought I’d leave him once I knew the truth about his past. A cop and a criminal. But what he didn’t realize was that I could understand where he was coming from. I got it because I worked with these people—from the crooks that didn’t want to change all the way to the men and women who were reformed and on the straight and narrow. He wasn’t a bad guy. He was just a victim of circumstance.

He wanted to change.

Exiting out of the database, I closed down the computer and gathered my things. Frommer glanced at me, a curious look on his face, but I didn’t have time for him.

Glancing at my watch, I wondered if it was too late to go back to The Underground. It was pushing three in the morning, and I knew he’d already be home or wherever. Hopefully sleeping…alone.

At the thought of him trying his luck with another woman in my absence, I felt jealousy pool in my gut. I guess his past didn’t bother me at all. Regardless, I’d already made my decision.

I wanted Kane ‘Rebel’ Sturgess for the man he was now and for the man he was trying to be. I’d be a fool to walk away from my first real chance at love.

Leaving the station and getting into my car, I decided that I had to do this now.

Double or nothing.

Part of my job was remembering stuff. Like where the guy who’d blown my mind lived.

Knocking on the door, all I could do was wait and see if Rebel was home. No backing out now. Fuck, I hoped he was home.

There was a dull thud from inside, followed by footsteps down the hall. The door was flung open and a half-naked Rebel stood before me in all his glory. I really liked his tight black boxers. They hung off his hips, pushed down while he was asleep, and his dick was accented against the material...

“Hey.” I leaned against the doorjamb, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Charlie?” he asked, rubbing the sleep from his eye with the palm of his hand. He stood there, staring at me like he thought I was already long gone.

“You gunna let me in?”

He stared at me for a full minute before moving back and opening the door wide. I pushed off the jamb and stepped around him into the dark apartment.

“I did what you asked,” I said, turning to face him as he closed the door and followed me in.

His eyes narrowed. “And?”

“I know everything.”

“All the gory details,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“I can see you’re trying to change,” I murmured. “The guy I see now is not the one in that file. I know what it’s like out—”

“You don’t know what it’s like out there,” he exclaimed, suddenly becoming animated.

“I do,” I snapped. “I see it every fucking day out there on the streets. I fight it. I see the horrible things left behind by violence.”

“You see them from your privileged position. From your high and mighty point of authority. You've never lived it, Charlie.”

“Why are you trying to push me away?” I cried. “I’ve seen some fucked up shit out there, Rebel. Fucked up shit. Domestic violence, assault, rape…murder. I’ve seen the shit things people do to others first hand and you’re saying that I can’t understand?”

His eyes blazed as his shoulders heaved. He was absolutely enraged. Not at me but himself.

“I’ve been shot at, hit, knifed…” I trailed off. “I might not be a criminal, but I live alongside it every day. Serve and protect.”

“From people like me.”

“No.” I shook my head. “Serve and protect…everyone.”

Rebel just stood there, frozen like a fucking lump. I realized that deep down he didn’t think he deserved this…us. He blamed himself for his parent’s death.

“It wasn’t your fault,” I whispered. “It wasn’t your fault they died, Kane.”

“Don’t.” His voice was thin…strained.

“I want you. I still want you.”

He sucked in a deep breath, his gaze fixed on mine. “I’m trying to get out,” he said. “I want to start over.”

I nodded.

“I need the money.”

“That’s why you’re fighting?”

“Nobody wants to hire a fuck-up like me. This is the only way.”

I stepped closer, desperate to touch him. “You don’t have to explain it to me.”

“I do…” His entire body was coiled, ready to pounce, but I wasn’t sure in which direction.

“I wanted you before, and I want you now,” I said. “Nothing has changed. I’m in as long as you are.”

“You want…” He sighed, his shoulders slumping.

“I think this is worth hanging onto and seeing where it goes, don’t you?”

Rebel tilted his head to the side, a ghost of a smile tugging at his lips. “The Underground?”

I still hadn’t decided what to do about that. Maybe I should drop the investigation, at least until Rebel got what he needed. I could let him get clear of the place before it was brought down. Now that I knew his story…it seemed like the thing to do. I’d have to think about that, but right now, I just wanted to reassure Rebel that I was in it with him.

“I’ll play the game.”

“But—”

“I want to see you fight,” I said through a sigh. “It’s who you are, and it’s fucking hot.”

“Charlie.” Rebel’s eyes blazed and he struck.

Pressing me back against the wall, he buried his hands into my hair, his body grinding against mine. Our tongues clashed hungrily, kissing the anger and despair from one another, as our hands groped for flesh, desperately peeling clothes away from skin.

This was what I felt for this man. Despite coming from different walks of life, me with my protect and serve and him with his eat or get eaten mentality, I felt something that was uncontrollable. He devoured me. Risking my life in the very place that could save his seemed the least I could do if I wanted to stay by his side.

Lifting me up into his arms, I clamped my legs around his waist, and he entered me, pinning my body against the wall. He thrust hard, over and over, and all that was left was pleasure.

Pleasure and a promise. We were in this together.

Chapter 12

Charlotte

I glanced at the text on my phone and smiled.

Rebel: You coming to see me win tonight, Sweet Lips?

I’d put his name into my contacts after leaving his place the day before. We’d decided it might be a good idea to have a day or two apart before whatever this thing was devoured us whole, but it seemed Rebel couldn’t help himself. I’d never shacked up with a man so fast in my entire life, but nothing had ever compared to the bang with which we began. It was dive in the deep end head first or nothing.

Unlocking my phone, I tapped in a reply. Sure thing, hot stuff.

Going back to The Underground was a risk, I knew that, and it took walking on the wild side to a whole new level. I wasn’t just having a romp with a sexy fighter, I was dealing with the devil for daring to conceal who I was. They all did it, though. Fighters took on pseudonyms, nobody gave out last names…and everyone kept tight-lipped on what was going on in that warehouse and where they’d come from. I was no different, except for the fact I was the one person who wouldn’t be welcome.