The thrashing of my heart drowned out the cacophony—all the hoots and hollers around me. I held my breath as my anticipation rose. I needed to see this fighter’s face. I wanted to deny that Krew Matthew Gatlin, the boy I fell for—the boy and the life that I ran from years ago, was here.
Life couldn’t be that cruel. Could it?
So many years had passed since I last saw his handsome face and the intense colors of his unique eyes. If Krew was the fighter, the last place I would want him to be was in that ring.
“What are you doing, Regi? You can’t stand that close.” Maya tried to yank me back, but I refused and pushed her hands off me. I wasn’t going to move, not until I saw the fighter’s face. I had to be sure it wasn’t Krew.
The fighter turned his back to me, pushed the hood off his head, and turned, shrugging off his robe.
His head was shaved, and it was glistening with sweat. His skin was covered in ink. Black and colored—too many tats to count. When he slowly turned around, my stomach bottomed out, and so did my heart.
Those eyes, and that all-too-familiar face.
My Krew.
Tears of the past were reborn. Anger, heartbreak, and fear slid in like a landslide trifecta, as memories from the last few days I had with Krew and Decker filled my head—those days before our lives imploded.
Then our eyes locked onto each other. Shock froze his features for a brief moment before he physically shook his head and turned to face his opponent.
I couldn’t catch my breath. A whirlwind of emotions clogged my throat, and I stood there as my lungs demanded more oxygen. This couldn’t be real. He couldn’t be real.
Maya had a death grip on my arm, and she finally pulled me away from the cage.
“Regi?” Maya tugged me to our seats. “Look at me.”
I swiped the tears away and uttered, “That’s Krew up there—my Krew.”
Maya glanced up at the cage and an odd look crossed her features. “I know,” she said somberly. “I’m just as shocked as you are.”
But was she really? The look on her face didn’t reflect her words.
And I was sure she had seen the line-up of fighters earlier. Maya was talking about a few of them on the ride here. She even admitted that she’d memorized the schedule and who was fighting tonight.
I turned back to get another look at the man I had missed so much, and my entire being turned to ice when I saw the bastard standing next to him. Another set of memories—dark and intruding, poured in, flooding my synapses. My mind scrambled to release the words clogging my throat. “I—I have to go.”
“Regi.” Maya cast another glance to the cage and frowned. “Go,” she urged, never looking away from the monster who had changed my world to black.
I didn’t respond as I tore out of her arms with only one thought in mind.
Run.
Chapter Two
Krew
What, the, fuck.
I thought I was seeing things, with how the adrenalin was running rampant through my body. My heart was pounding and a new kind of feeling—a nervous excitement, was filling the spaces between my ribs. I was ready to fight until the last person I expected to see in this place fractured my focus.
Regina K. Morton—my Regi was here.
Regina was one of the past loves of my life. The one I lost years ago.
She might be grown up now, and her features were slightly different, but I could never forget Regina’s beautiful face.
Her hair was short, a rich brown instead of the honey wheat blonde I remembered. And those eyes; they belonged to only one girl.
It had been years since I’d seen her—not since that sorry day when Decker, Regina and I climbed into a vehicle my brother Teke had stolen—though, we didn’t know it at the time. We’d figured out soon enough, when the cops started chasing us, but by then it was too late. That was the last time I saw her, or Decker.
