All I saw was red.
“You forced yourself on Kenzie,” I growled.
Chris continued his slow creep away from me toward the exit, but Jonah moved carefully in my direction to intercept.
Chris snarled at me. “I told you, she was acting like she wanted it. I didn’t do anything to her.” He pointed at his mangled face. “That bitch did this to me.”
I flew at him with hands outstretched and grabbed him by the throat, then took him down on his back, landing on him hard. He clawed at my hands as I squeezed his throat. His face turned bright red and his mouth flapped open as he struggled for air. He kicked frantically at me, at my legs and anything he could reach.
I felt his blows, but they didn’t hurt. What hurt was that this guy, who had pretended to be my friend, had forced himself on the woman I loved. I wanted blood.
Chris’s fists flew at my face and he hammered away, but I kept holding his neck. He didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as her.
Arms came from behind and wrapped around my neck and pulled.
“Ian,” Jonah shouted in my ear. “Don’t fucking do this. Whatever it is he did, it’s not worth going to jail, and it’s not worth throwing away your career. Let him go.”
Jonah tugged at me, trying to pull me off Chris, but I wouldn’t let go. I couldn’t. Not after what he’d done.
“This little shit deserves to die after what he’s put Kenzie through,” I growled.
“So you’ll spend the rest of your life locked up away from her, just to pay back this one guy?”
I loosened my grip a little as I let Jonah’s words sink in. Chris’s punches were weaker and fewer; he was about to pass out.
Jonah continued. “Wouldn’t it be better for her if you were out here so you could protect her from other slimeballs like him?”
I let go and allowed Jonah to pull me off Chris. Chris coughed and grabbed his throat, fighting to take in air while simultaneously scrambling backward to get away from me.
“I knew there was something going on between you two,” Chris said. His voice came out rough. “I saw you with her in the car that morning after your doctor visit. You kissed her. What was that about, Ian?”
Shit. He was right; I was a total dick. Not that it made what he did okay, but I’d been after his girlfriend since day one. I was no kind of friend.
“Why the fuck didn’t you say something?” I asked. “Confront me! Punch me! Why play like you never saw it?”
“Because if I’d confronted you, you would have still won. She still would have gone home with you.”
“But she chose you.”
“You still think that?” Chris laughed as he pulled himself back on his feet. “What a joke. When she came to break up with me that day, I knew what she was up to. I saw the fear in her eyes. I also saw how much she cared about you, how much she wanted you to fight here in Vegas.” He shrugged. “All she needed was a little motivation to stay with me. I gave her that motivation.”
His broad smile was begging me to punch him. What the hell had he done to her?
“I may have suggested that the only way I wouldn’t pull you from the fight was if she and I were still together.”
“No way.” I didn’t believe him. There was no way Kenzie would do that. Stay with someone for me?
He continued. “I suggested you might not recover from your injury soon enough. After that, she couldn’t keep her slutty hands off me.”
My fist flew at him, but he saw it too late. His eyes widened as my knuckles made contact with his jaw. His skull was thick, but I hit him fucking hard. He spun backward, landing on the floor, and his eyes fluttered closed. He was breathing, but he was out.
Good, because I couldn’t listen to one more second of his bullshit lies. There was no way Kenzie would sell herself for anything. She was smarter than that. If he’d been blackmailing her, she would have told me. We would have figured it out.
My knuckles hurt. Fuck. I’d taped up my hands but didn’t have my gloves on yet, and I had hit him really fucking hard.
Jonah glanced over at Chris, then turned to me. “You okay?”
I flexed my hand and moved my fingers. I’d definitely fucked up my right. Fuck. I shook my head.
“Is it broken?” His eyes were wide. Fighters broke bones often enough during a fight, but going into a fight with a fracture was sheer stupidity.
But I needed this fight. And I needed to win this fight. So I was about to do something seriously stupid. “Let’s re-tape it.”
“Shit,” Jonah said, giving me a knowing look.
He grabbed the tape, and we fixed up my hand as best we could. It still hurt like crazy, but I could deal with the pain. I just needed a whole new fight strategy.
“He’ll expect you to come in fighting with your fists,” Jonah said, apparently already on it. “So wear him out with kicks and your left. Make him dance around for a while. That way, when he pulls the fight to the mat, he’ll be tired. Then use all that shit we’ve been working on for the last few weeks. Listen to me, I’ll help you find your openings. He wants the fight to be about submission. Let’s make it all about his submission.”
I nodded and started visualizing the fight and the new strategy. It might work. It had to.
Determined, I pulled myself together. I could still win this thing. I started hopping again, the blood already rushing through my veins.
“Yeah,” I yelled.
There was a knock on the door before it opened. A man with a headset and a clipboard came in. “It’s time.” He glanced down to where Chris lay on the floor. “What’s wrong with him?”
Jonah shook his head. “He tried to force himself on a woman last night.”
The guy smirked and toed Chris, who stirred a little. Then the guy said, “Must have been some woman.”
Jonah laughed, but the guy was right. Kenzie was some woman.
Cade found us in the hallway and joined us as we headed to the arena entrance.