Untamed: Bad Boy Fighter Romance (Fighting for Gisele #2)
Read Untamed: Bad Boy Fighter Romance (Fighting for Gisele #2) Online
Authors: Emily Jane Trent
UNTAMED
Fighting For Gisele: Book 2
By
Emily Jane Trent
Contents
When Micah’s fist connected with Vik’s face, the man went down. Adrenaline flooded Micah’s body and rage filled his veins. The
boyfriend
had appeared without warning, threatened Gisele, then pushed her to the ground.
Micah’s response was instantaneous; lightning fast, he’d punched the asshole in the gut, then knocked him out. In his peripheral vision, he saw Gisele struggling to get up, and stepped toward her. When she looked at him, Micah couldn’t hide his emotions, and witnessed the devastation on her face when she saw that he felt betrayed.
Some hotel employee was assisting Gisele, and two men grabbed Micah, as if he might attack again. There was no need for that. The offender was unconscious. Hormones coursing through Micah’s veins made his senses sharp and magnified his strength.
Yet Micah didn’t fight them, just let them lead him out of the room. Gisele had help, and Vik wasn’t moving. She was safe for now. As he turned away, feelings of anger and disappointment gripped him. He only vaguely heard the voices around him.
When the police arrived, one officer cuffed Micah, while the other spoke to the desk clerk. It wasn’t his first run-in with law enforcement, so he didn’t resist. He wasn’t concerned with what they intended to do with him; his only thought was about what would happen to Gisele.
The two cops, dressed in tan uniforms, dragged him out a bit more roughly than was necessary, but Micah barely noticed. It took more than that to intimidate him. He walked over to the vehicle and slid into the back seat, then the driver shut the door. It was still early, just beginning to get warm. The palm trees shimmered, and the lush resort grounds seemed to bask in the sun, but it only made Micah sad.
It hadn’t been long since Gisele sat next to him at the lake. Then Vik’s discovery of their weekend together, and his unexpected arrival, had stolen the joy from Micah’s heart. Now Gisele was on her own, while Micah was hauled off to jail.
As his body calmed, his fist started to hurt, and he wondered if he’d broken something. The cuffs around his wrists were too tight, and the seat was uncomfortable. Everything was black: the seats, the floor, and the metal bars between Micah and the officers in front.
The guy on the right called in a status report while the driver started up the car. It wasn’t a fast run with flashing lights, but a slow ride to be questioned and probably booked for assault and battery. This wasn’t Micah’s first fight as a result of being provoked.
Any implement that could be used to cause bodily harm was considered a deadly weapon, and that included Micah’s fist. Since his punch was his signature as an amateur boxer, he could hardly deny that it was a weapon. He’d made sure it was.
Micah’s sense of sight and smell was still acute from the recent threat. He picked up scents of other sweaty bodies that had occupied the back seat before he had, mingled with a police breakfast of coffee and greasy food. As the excess adrenaline in his body eased off, Micah began to relax.
But he was pissed; the situation sucked. Micah was mostly ticked off at Vik for harming Gisele, but even more angry that Gisele was now out of reach. He wasn’t having any of it. There had to be a way to finagle his way out of the hands of the police and get back to her.
Gisele had looked okay, but Vik had shoved her hard. Micah wondered if she was badly hurt. Compounding matters, his suspicions about the mob had been confirmed. Gisele was in a vulnerable situation. This wasn’t an isolated instance of a jealous boyfriend coming after his woman.
On the way to the station, questions raced through Micah’s mind, such as how Vik knew where they were. Gisele had been surprised to see him, so it wasn’t likely that she’d texted her location. But someone had known Gisele was at the lake with him, and seen fit to share that information.
Micah was savvy enough to know that Gisele was in more danger than she knew. He didn’t fully understand her connection with the mob, but his protective instincts kicked in. She had to be made aware of what she faced, but locked in a jail cell, Micah couldn’t do that anytime soon.
He didn’t regret slugging Vik, not for a second. The man was a menace who hadn’t batted an eyelash about roughing up a woman. Micah didn’t know how he’d treated Gisele so far, but he hadn’t seen any bruises or injuries. Yet Vik was now desperate enough to follow them to the lake and demand that Gisele return with him. How far would he go?
Micah cringed at recalling Vik’s words:
Gisele is my fiancée
. It was a knife to his heart. Yet the look on Gisele’s face when he had said it had expressed her shock. Was she shocked at the false claim? Or was she shocked that Vik had announced it, when Gisele hadn’t seen fit to share that bit of important information with Micah before that moment?
Micah tensed with anger; he wanted Gisele, and it irked him to step aside for another man. After having her in his arms the past couple of days, the loss of her was too much. Yet what should he do, or could he do? She hadn’t denied her relationship with Vik.
The hurt that Micah had seen in Gisele’s eyes made his heart wrench. Was it guilt he’d seen in her expression, or just distress that Vik had come between them? Micah’s ego would have him believe that the weekend he’d spent with her meant something.
Micah was a realist. It was quite possible that Vik was engaged to Gisele, and she’d failed to tell him. The truth was bitter, but he’d have to live with it…for the moment. But engaged or not, Micah had no intention of turning Gisele over to a brute.
Micah knew his type. If he hadn’t harmed her yet, he would. It was only a matter of time. But that wasn’t going to happen as long as Micah was around to protect her. There remained the fact that he might be hauled off to prison, but he’d just have to deal with it.
When the police car arrived at the station, the driver pulled into the employee lot. Micah looked up at the stone building, with its imposing structure. The metropolitan police department was closed to the public on weekends, but that didn’t prevent the officers from taking Micah inside to book him.
Since Micah had been cooperative, the cuffs were removed to get the paperwork done. As he’d suspected, he’d be charged with battery for punching Viktor Kovalenko and detained. There was no way he was walking out without going through a lot of red tape.
Micah gave his permanent address as his parents’ home in New York, and told the cops the name of the hotel where he’d been staying in Vegas. At age twenty-three, he hadn’t owned a home of his own, or even rented an apartment for more than a couple of months. He moved around with the boxing circuits, which prohibited putting down roots anywhere.
It was best not to mention the underground fighting, so Micah listed amateur boxer as his profession. That seemed to satisfy the police, and they moved the proceedings along, then allowed him to make a phone call.
Luke answered right away, and Micah kept it brief. “I got arrested, and they’re taking me to the Clark County jail. I need you to bail me out.”
The officers took the phone from Micah, then put him in a room to wait to be transported. It wasn’t long before he was cuffed again and shuffled into another police car. The prospect of spending the night in jail loomed, as it might be too late in the day to make bail.
At the detention center, Micah was put in a room with a couple of other guys. Each of them gave him a scrutinizing look, but upon seeing the size of his muscles, didn’t bother him. That wouldn’t last, but Micah didn’t plan to be in there long.
Stretched out on an uncomfortable mattress, Micah closed his eyes and thought of Gisele. He wasn’t as mad anymore, and wondered about her. After all that happened, it was unlikely that she had stayed at the resort. If she was at her condo, then Micah didn’t have to worry for a bit.
But Gisele’s injury might have required medical treatment. In all the commotion, he hadn’t been able to tell. She’d fallen to the floor, but he hadn’t noticed if she’d hit anything or had any cuts. His attention had been on her attacker, then he’d been pushed away from her. He’d asked the police, but they had refused to tell him anything.
As far as he knew, Gisele had only her brother Alek to rely on. Micah could only hope that he would take care of her until his release from prison. It was downright annoying to be locked up, but it would do no good to fight it. He was in for the night, of that he was sure.
*****
The first thing in the morning, Micah was let out of the cell. “Someone posted bail for you,” the officer said, then led him to the waiting room.
Luke stood by the clerk’s window, wearing jeans and a t-shirt. His casual attire and messy hair indicated that he’d had to get up early to make arrangements for Micah’s release. “Hey, man,” he said, and gave Micah a pat on the back.
“I hope I didn’t interrupt your beauty sleep,” Micah said.
“Not mine, but the redhead I was with objected to me leaving at light’s first dawn.”
“Sorry to ruin your love life.”
“No worries,” Luke said. “So how are you?”
“I’ll be a lot better when we get out of here.” Micah collected his belongings, which included his wallet and some other items. Apparently, the resort had cooperated by sending along his stuff from the room.
“Is there a blue Mustang outside?” Micah said to the clerk.
The man didn’t even look up. “No, sir. The rental company was called, and they went to recover it.”
It was just as well. Micah didn’t have any further use for it. Luke had a cab waiting for them, and when they got in, the cabbie headed back toward their hotel.
“I hired a criminal attorney for you,” Luke said. “It wasn’t easy getting a referral on a Sunday, but I managed to. It seems that criminal lawyers take emergency calls.”
“I would think their whole business is based on emergencies.”
“Yep, you could say that,” Luke said. “We posted bail, but in seventy-two hours there’s a hearing before a judge. You’re charged with assault with a deadly weapon, which I assume was
your fist
. The victim had reason to fear bodily harm. And there’s a second charge for battery, because you punched him.”
“I figured as much,” Micah said. “Did my attorney have any words of encouragement?”
“He did say that there are valid defenses to battery charges…such as if you were defending yourself or someone else from a physical attack.”
Micah doubted that would help him much, even though the victim had shoved Gisele. His career as a boxer, along with his physical strength, made others view him as a threat. It was usually the other guy who could claim he needed to defend himself, not Micah.
“Whether that is a valid defense depends on whether it’s
reasonable
,” Luke said. “That’s how the attorney put it. He says it would be a question for the jury to resolve, if your case goes to trial.”
Involvement in a trial, and a possible felony charge, was going to be a pain. Micah would have to talk to the attorney and see what his options were. For now he was free. He flexed his right hand and rubbed his wrist. His hand didn’t appear injured, so that was a relief.
It was bad enough to have some legal procedure interfere with his life, but an injury could prevent him from boxing. That would be worse. Micah had come of out of this pretty well, although the situation could go sour, depending on how his case proceeded from here.
When they got to the hotel, Micah headed straight to the bar, not caring that it was still morning. “I need a drink,” he said, and Luke followed him inside.
When they got a table and the whiskeys were served, Luke looked him over. “So are you okay?”
Micah swigged his drink. “I am…but I’m sure the other guy isn’t.”
“Care to tell me what happened?”
After another gulp, Micah took a breath. “Everything went to hell…that’s what happened.” Then he proceeded to tell Luke about the weekend he’d spent with Gisele, how things had looked promising, until her
actual boyfriend
had showed up.
Luke twirled his glass on the table. “Had you heard about this guy before?”
“Not a peep,” Micah said. “I should have suspected. A woman that looks like Gisele isn’t alone for long. But I hadn’t asked.” He shook his head. “I suppose I thought I had no competition, so it didn’t matter.”
“So you think that she’s engaged?”
Micah shrugged. “Who knows? The guy clearly knows her
well
, and that’s enough to be bad news.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Good question.” Micah drained his glass. “One thing I’m not going to do is let that creep get his hands on her. Whether she wants me or not, I won’t allow any man to mistreat her.”
Luke didn’t say anything.
Micah raised his glass, signaling the waiter for a refill. “Gisele needs me, whether she knows it or not.”
“No arguments.”
After drinks, Micah ordered food, then went up to his room for a badly needed shower. “I’ll be down in thirty minutes,” he said. “We can hit the casinos. I need to blow off some steam.”
In his room, Micah pulled out his phone and called Gisele. The drinks had loosened him up, and he wanted to talk to her. Mad or not, he needed to know if she was okay. There was no answer, so he left a message.
