Unleashed (A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance) (92 page)

I feel it in my bones… rage.

I want to protect her. I want to keep her safe. And that was a close call. Too fucking close. I should have noticed them following us.

My heart is pumping crazy fast, and I would be lying if I said that a part of me wasn’t thrilled. I didn’t enjoy it, but it brings into sharp focus just how much I enjoy fighting.

It’s not the violence of it, but it’s the… primal competition. There’s a lot of strategy to fighting, a lot of nuance, a lot of reading your opponent.

Those two guys were easy, untrained and drunk, and still it left adrenaline coursing through my veins.

I… I
miss
training. I miss having an opponent to compete against.

When my mother said I was good at so much more than fighting, she didn’t realize that even if that was true, nothing else but fighting can get my heart going like this.

Fighting, and Cassie.

“Hey,” I say, turning to her. “You okay?”

“Of course I’m okay. I’m fine. Just drunk boys.”

She tries to force the words out too quickly. She’s lying. She is a little shaken. I pull her in to my side, kiss her by her ear.

The thought that I just protected my little sister makes me laugh. I think about saying it, but our family status seems to bug her more than it bugs me. It’s just a fucking technicality, I don’t see what the big deal is.

“Will he really have to eat through a straw for months?”

“I don’t know. Maybe,” I say.

“You took them down quick.”

“They were drunk and slow. Two-on-one is never a position you want to find yourself in. In a fight, I mean.”

“Think our parents will be pissed we’re coming home so late?” she asks.

“No doubt your father will be. He’ll probably call you by your full name.”

“
Cassie Shannon
,” she says, mocking him, and I laugh. She’s got his facial expression down pat.

“I can’t believe my mother married your father.”

“I can’t believe your father married my mother. They seem totally wrong for each other, don’t they?”

I nod. “They do.”

“They’ll probably get divorced, won’t they?”

“Wouldn’t be her first divorce, won’t be her last.”

“This is going to be a really shitty
family
holiday, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” I say. “No doubt.”

She takes my hand, squeezes it tight, and I squeeze back.

And we walk back to our hotel without incident.

“Want to start training tonight?” she asks me. She gives me this cute smile that just melts all my residual rage away.

She has this weird control over me. God help me if she ever figures that out.

“Train?”

“Yeah. Show me some of Kaminski’s videos. Explain to me how he’ll fight you. We’ll go through it mentally, you know. They say it’s very powerful to visualize something you want to do before you go through with it. Helps you get prepared.”

I nod at her. “Sounds good, Cass.”

“You may have to teach me some stuff, but I’ll pick it up quick.”

“Of that I have no doubt.”