Free Uncaged Love: Volume 6 (Uncaged Love #6) by JJ Knight Page A

out of my mind, their hands on me.
    Officer Jones works hard to keep me distracted. “Who’s the biggest punk you’ve ever taken on?” he asks.
    “I jumped two former heavyweight boxers once. With my arm in a sling.”
    He chortles. I realize it’s nice, making him laugh. It’s definitely a relief from the horror of this night.
    “I bet you did. How many fights do you have under your belt?” he asks.
    “Official ones, or back alley?” I ask.
    He laughs again. “I’d say we could use someone like you on the force, but I don’t think we could contain you.”
    “I might embarrass some of your hotshot cops,” I say, knowing this is what he wants to hear.
    “If you went up against any one of them,” he says with a wink, “I’d put my money on you.”
    We pull up in front of Mom’s house. “Thanks for the ride,” I tell him. Light spills out on the porch as Mom opens her door. I called her before we got to my place, letting her know I was coming.
    “My pleasure,” he says. “You let us know if you see any sign of those guys. We’ll be patrolling this block pretty heavy.”
    “Thank you,” I say, and open the door. “And tell Officer Su thank you as well. They went to some trouble for me.”
    “Yeah, that window is not going to look great on their beat report,” he says. “One day they’ll give her somebody other than a rookie.”
    I nod and step out onto the street. I shoulder my overnight bag and head up to Mom’s house.
    “You going to tell me what happened?” she asks, holding open the door.
    Hudson is sitting on the sofa below the window, leaning on his elbows. “Hey,” he says.
    I sit down next to him and drop the bag on the floor. “They’re in big trouble now,” I say.
    “Who?” Mom demands. “Those boys who busted up Hudson’s car?”
    I decide to keep it simple. “Yeah.”
    “What happened?” She drops into a rocking chair.
    I glance over at Hudson. I have to figure out how to creatively edit the story. “I went to where they work out. I wanted to talk to their trainer, let him know that their criminal activity was going to jeopardize their competition.”
    She nods, as if this sounds reasonable.
    “But their trainer left with an unspoken approval that I was fair game.”
    Mom stops rocking. “For what?”
    I shrug. “We got into an altercation. The cops came.”
    She grips the arms of the chair. “Are you hurt?”
    I shake my head. “Nope. The police got there. The boys ran. But now they’ll face charges, if I decide to file them.”
    “Of course you will!” she says. “These boys need to be held accountable for their actions.”
    I wish it were that easy. “I just don’t want to hit the news right before the wedding.”
    She frowns. She gets that. She stands up. “I’m going to make some tea. We could all use a little soothing.”
    Hudson and I look at each other as if to say, yeah, THAT is going to help.
    A strange feeling comes over me. It’s unfamiliar, a warmth creeping up despite the nightmare I’ve just escaped. These people care about me. We understand each other.
    Hudson leans in. “So what really happened?”
    I can’t tell him either, not about what they intended to do. I don’t know what came over them, why they thought they could get away with that. Unless they intended to kill me too. I shudder.
    “I couldn’t bring them down,” I say. “I didn’t have the power.”
    “Three on one,” Hudson says. “Nobody could do that.”
    “Colt could,” I say grimly. And if he finds out about it, he will. “We’ll have to keep this quiet or the wedding will never happen without a disaster.”
    Hudson leans his head back on the sofa. “I feel like this is all my fault. I did that stupid fight.”
    I elbow him. “It’s not your fault they are punks. I’ve encountered plenty of them in fighting circles. And out of them.” I remember the boys on the street the day I met Colt. And the ones I worked with. And my stepbrother. So many rotten