4-UNDERGROUND

Kaelyn watched her with a quiet certainty that unsettled her more than it should have.

“I thought you would have called by now,” he said, his voice smooth.

Rose slipped behind the bar, reaching for a glass she did not need, more for something to do with her hands than anything else.

“I’ve been busy,” she replied, not looking at him straight away.

“I have a job for you, and you need to come with me right away.”

She glanced up then, brow lifting slightly.

“Now? At this time of night?”

The door opened before he could answer.

Luke stepped in behind the bar, his presence breaking the tension.

“I’ve been speaking with Kaelyn,” he said, moving straight toward the bar. “There’s a problem in the underground circuit. An undefeated contender, bleeding the wrong people dry.”

Kaelyn’s gaze did not leave Rose.

“Lucas tells me you know your way around a ring,” he said. “That you were undefeated, in your time.”

Her fingers tightened slightly around the glass.

“That was a long time ago,” she said. “I don’t fight anymore.”

“I don’t think the rogue you brought me would agree. You will come with me.”

There was a command in his voice that left no room for argument.

“If Lucas is right, and I think he is,” Kaelyn continued, “I’m placing an eye-watering amount of money on you.”

Her eyes cut to Luke.

“It’s too dangerous,” she said, the memory pressing in. “I was drawing the wrong kind of attention; people wanted me gone.”

Kaelyn stared at her then, the way he looked at her made her feel on edge.

“Do you think I am not dangerous?” He said it so quietly with no change in his expression. But something beneath it shifted, and for a second she understood exactly how quickly this could turn.

Luke leaned against the bar, arms folded, a faint grin touching his mouth.

“She wasn’t just good,” he said. “Never seen anyone like her. Men twice her size stepping in thinking they’d break her, walking out wondering what the hell they’d just been hit with.”

Kaelyn’s gaze dipped briefly, drinking her in, assessing her.

“And now you pour drinks,” he said.

She let the insult pass.

“I’m very good at it.”

His mouth curved slightly, though there was no warmth in it.

“You’ll be with me tonight,” he said. “And let me be clear, this is not a request.”

Something in her spine stiffened.

“The name you fought under,” he added, “The Wild Rose, I vaguely remember hearing of it.”

Her pulse shifted.

“That name is buried.”

“Not as deeply as you’d like.”

The glass in her hand met the bar a little harder than intended.

Luke handed her a gym bag.

“All your gears in there.”

She had no intention of refusing to follow him, even if she hated that fact.

As much as it pissed her off, she admitted that there was some kind of thrill there she couldn’t deny.

Outside, a black SUV idled, waiting.’

The driver  sat behind the wheel, his expression blank, giving nothing away as she slid into the back seat.  She recognized him as the third from the docks.

Kaelyn followed her into the back seat.

“Where’s your girlfriend?” she asked, her tone light, careless, though she did not miss the way his attention sharpened.

“Why do you care?”

She leaned back, turning her gaze toward the window, watching the city blur past.

“I don’t,” she said.

That wasn’t entirely true. The vision had awakened something in her, something that wanted and needed, and still twisted and turned in her like a living thing. She just didn’t quite understand it yet.

The car ghosted through the night, and her thoughts slipped where they always did when she let them.

Back to the ring. The place she had found herself in when her whole world had crumbled.

To the sweat and the blood, and the crowd that screamed her name, yet had no real interest in her, only in spectacle. She had fought anyone they put in front of her, men who underestimated her, women who wanted to make their name, and every time she stepped into that circle, she had felt something vicious pulse inside her.

She had been unstoppable until the wrong people started paying attention to her.

A half-breed, valuable to the wrong people.

She was just lucky Luke had been keeping an eye on her. She was still so green and naive then; he had pulled her out before they got to her.

He knew exactly what she was, because he was the same.

She became aware of Kaelyn’s gaze again, steady, unbroken.

She turned her head.

“Isn’t it getting close to dawn?” she asked, her tone shifting, testing. “Don’t your kind have a problem with the sun?”

He stared at her now, so every instinct she had leaned away from him.

“That would be a weakness,” he said, voice rough. “Do I strike you as weak?”

Her body reacted in a way she didn’t trust.

“I don’t know what you are,” she admitted.

He leaned closer then, not touching her,  but close enough that she felt the shift of him, the weight of his presence pressing into her space.

“You are something I haven’t seen before. I intend to know everything about you,” he said.

The words should have sounded like a line.

They didn’t.

Something in her body reacted before her mind caught up, a tightening low in her stomach, heat she did not trust.

She shifted slightly, grounding herself, forcing her thoughts into place.

“Why?” she asked, softer now, the word slipping out before she could stop it.

His gaze held hers, long enough that it began to feel like something more than looking.

“When you’ve lived as long as I have,” he said, “surprise becomes rare. You interest me.”

Her throat felt dry.

She wasn’t used to this attention, not from someone like him.

“So who am I fighting?” she asked, forcing the conversation back to the present.

“A woman who is not long out of prison,” he said. “She understands violence more than most. I heard her father is an alpha and her mother is human. She’s a battle maiden, and I haven’t seen her show mercy yet.”

“What if I beat her?”

“Then I reward you well.”

“And if I don’t.”

He stared at her mouth, that look of animal hunger there. Then he slowly met her eyes.

“Then you owe me.”

The words settled heavier than they should have.

“And what does that mean?”

His gaze dipped, just slightly, not enough to be obvious, but enough that she felt it.

“We’ll discover that together.”

The SUV slowed.

A warehouse rose out of the dark, lights cutting through the night like a beacon for something that should not exist.

Bianca stood outside, her posture loose, her expression bored, though her eyes flicked toward Rose the moment the car came to a stop.

Kaelyn stepped out first, moving around the vehicle with the same controlled ease, opening the door for her as if it were expected.

Rose took his hand.

The moment her fingers closed around his, another vision slammed  violently into her. Hard enough that her breath caught, her grip tightening before she could stop it.

Kaelyn’s hand still holding hers.

His gaze locked on her now, intent.

Her pulse hammered.

She couldn’t let go of him.

Her body rolled, and she stumbled straight into his chest.

He pulled her closer.

Staring up, she looked into his eyes, his body still wrapped around her protectively.

He pulled her tighter, not letting go.

“I like you here,” he whispered.

Then he leaned in closer and inhaled.

“Hmm, you still smell like roses.”

She regained her composure and stepped back, grabbing the bag from the car Luke had given her.

She straightened up, but he still gripped her hand, leading her into the warehouse.

As they passed, Bianca’s eyes locked onto hers, sharp and deliberate. Rose understood exactly what it meant. Bianca had just marked her as a threat.