Free Fierce Protector: Hard to Handle trilogy, Book 1 by Janine Kane Page A

would only embolden him. “You have no idea where I am, numbnuts. I made sure of that.”
    “You made sure of nothing,” he said, half whispered as if to underline the threat. “I know exactly where you are.”
    “Bullshit!”
    “And I’ll be seeing you soon.” The line went dead.
    ***
    By the time everyone had taken a shower and was ready to go, there was only a half hour left before the event. Tyler shooed them out of the door and into Eva’s Pontiac for the short journey to the local gym.
    “If you’ve never seen anything like this before,” Tyler enthused, “you’re in for a treat.”
    “You mean, the treat of watching extremely highly training warriors beating the bejesus out of each other?” Trish asked sarcastically.
    “It’s an art form , honey. That’s why that call it Mixed Martial Arts .” Neither of the women were convinced. “OK, can’t you just be impressed by some seriously sculpted male forms instead?”
    Trish giggled. “ That , we can appreciate.” She nudged Eva, noticing that her friend seemed a little withdrawn. Just nervous about seeing Zack again , she reasoned. Any girl in her right mind would be.
    Tyler agreed. “Yeah, you and half the women of Texas. Mitch told me that Zack got quite the ovation Zack last time” he reported. “You’d have thought freaking Ironman had flown in for a visit or something.” Zack’s standing among the local women couldn’t have been higher. The only issue was his extreme selectivity; none of the adoring females he so politely kept at arm’s length had ever succeeded in getting a date with him, let alone enjoying his perfectly toned musculature. It was frustrating for some, a turn-off for others, but for the vast majority it had created a uniquely alluring combination: hot, human and hard-to-get.
    To their surprise, Zack had arranged tickets for them at the front desk, and all three were ringside. Just as they took their seats in the modest, 300-seat arena, Eva noticed Mitch arriving with another guy, assumedly Zack’s other lifelong buddy, Flynn. “I’m just going to say hi, OK?” She slipped between the rows of seating and excused herself around some expectant members of the audience before tapping Mitch on the shoulder.
    “Hey, little lady. You ready to see something special?” Mitch introduced Flynn who had, up to that point, only heard of Eva from Mitch and Zack.
    “Nice to meet ya,” said Flynn with a friendly smile. “Wow, it just goes to show Zack’s still not given to exaggeration.” Eva gave him a quizzical look. “He said you’re the prettiest girl in Texas, and he ain’t wrong, right Mitch?” Flynn took in the sight of Eva’s slender frame and the long, auburn hair which so perfectly framed her face. And what a face.
    “Dude, you can get yourself in trouble with an ex-SEAL martial artist if you want, but I ain’t letting her know nothing that Zack said.” Eva giggled at length, enjoying the social slapstick as these two men acted out a bumbling, Texan version of the Marx brothers.
    “Want to tell me how this works?” she said, eager to defuse their embarrassment.
    “Sure,” said Mitch. “It’s just three knockout tournaments, and they’re all a little different. The first up will be the juniors.”
    “The under eighteens,” added Flynn helpfully.
    “They have their own mini-tournament, and the folks who’s here now are mostly their moms and dads,” Mitch explained.
    “Then there’s the Non-GI tournament,” announced Flynn. Eva arched an eyebrow. “Non-military types,” he explained. “I know Zack ain’t serving no more, but he’s definitely in the GI category. You’ll see why.”
    “After that,” Mitch concluded, “is the GI tournament, during which Petty Officer First Class Zachary Norcross, US Navy, retired,” he said, forming parentheses with his curved hands, “will annihilate at least one opponent in front of a huge, screaming crowd of hot women.”
    “Mitch,” Flynn sighed. “