Free Raw: Devil's Fighters MC by Evelyn Glass Page B

fight.”
     
    Alyssa blinked. “That’s it?” she said. “That’s what you didn’t want to tell me?”
     
    “No, you don’t understand,” Xavier said. “I don’t mean a brawl. I mean a fight .”
     
    Alyssa frowned. Then, slowly, comprehension finally began to dawn on her. “You mean, like…an organized fight? Like some assholes do with dogs?”
     
    Xavier nodded. “Yeah. Like with dogs.”
     
    Alyssa’s insides went cold. She had heard rumors about the Devil’s Fighters and their ring of organized underground fighting, but they were the only rumors about the gang that had remained just that—rumors. Nobody was sure that ring actually existed.
     
    “So it’s true, then,” she said, horrified. “Your club has a fighting ring.”
     
    “Rings,” Xavier corrected, almost automatically.
     
    Alyssa’s eyes widened. “How many?” she asked before she could stop herself. “How widespread?”
     
    Xavier shook his head. “I can’t tell you that; you’re safer not knowing.”
     
    Alyssa snorted. “Believe me, after today, I feel anything but safe.”
     
    “You’re not in any trouble for helping Rick out there,” Xavier reassured. “No one’ll be pissed off about it.”
     
    “Yeah, I wasn’t talking about that.”
     
    Xavier frowned, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. “What were you talking about, then?”
     
    Alyssa shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
     
    Xavier hesitated, obviously torn between investigating and letting it go. He proved to be wiser than Alyssa would have given him credit for by choosing the latter—for the time being.
     
    “He’s my best friend, you know?” he said, busying himself with preparing coffee. He didn’t bother to ask whether Alyssa wanted some, and she didn’t bother to tell him that she would rather have tea; it was obvious that he needed something to do as much as she did, something to channel the tension into. “He’s a good man.”
     
    Alyssa arched an eyebrow. “Is he, now?”
     
    Xavier sighed. “Yes, Alyssa. Not all of us are monsters, especially those who fight in the rings. We’re just honorary members because of our competitor’s status.”
     
    Alyssa looked up sharply and stopped brushing the bowl they had filled with warm water. “Wait, what?”
     
    Xavier didn’t turn around from where he was watching the coffee brew. “You heard me.”
     
    “You’re a fighter ?”
     
    “I sure as hell am no vice president.”
     
    Alyssa was speechless. She had come up with countless different scenarios to justify Xavier’s role within the gang, but she sure as hell had never pictured him as a competitor in their fighting ring. Rings , as he had so promptly pointed out.
     
    “But why?” she cried, dumbfounded.
     
    Finally, Xavier turned around. He shrugged. “Why not?”
     
    Alyssa looked at him incredulously. “I can think of at least twenty different reasons why not off the top of my head.”
     
    He smiled, amused. “It’s not all bad.”
     
    “‘It’s not all bad?’” Alyssa repeated, astonished. “Are you fucking kidding me? Do you want to go back to the living room and take another look at your friend and then tell me that ‘it’s not all bad?’”
     
    Xavier cringed visibly. “It’s good money…” he tried weakly.
     
    “Oh my God,” Alyssa said, incredulous. She forgot all about the bowl. She turned off the water in the sink and wiped her hands dry. “Are you nuts? Did you know this is what you were going to do when you decided to join?”
     
    Xavier had the good grace to look embarrassed. “I did.”
     
    Alyssa stared at him. She just couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. It was one thing for him to have grown into a different person than the one Alyssa used to know, but this was just ridiculous; there had to be a limit to the amount of nonsense one could spew in under sixty seconds.
     
    “And you joined anyway?”
     
    “What choice did I have?”
     
    The