Ruthless Salvation

13

I did finally look up when someone entered rather than exited. A young guy who looked too sober and well-kept to wander in at this hour.

“We’re shutting down. You’ll have to come back tomorrow.”

The guy lifted his chin in acknowledgment. “Just here for Storm.” His eyes cut away dismissively, but I was now fully alert.

Who the f**k was this asshole?

Storm came bounding toward us before I could ask the guy his name. “Hey, Luke. I’m all set.” She wrapped her arm around his, offering up a devoted grin as he escorted her outside.

My phone was in pieces before I realized what I’d done.

Fucking hell.

I surged to my feet, then froze with my eyes on the door.

I wanted to follow them. I wanted to follow them so f*****g bad it physically pained me to remain in place, but that was exactly why I had to stay put. I had to get control of myself. I didn’t want to want her. I especially didn’t want to let outsiders into my sphere of control. Bad things happened when our lives were left to the whims of others. The only way to combat that was to keep a strict distance between me and anyone who didn’t carry the Byrne name.

No one else could be trusted.

That creed had served me well for a solid decade, but every time I turned around, she was there, immune to my efforts like f*****g Teflon.

I stared at the glossy black door, then down at my broken phone, before launching the damn thing at the wall across from me. The device crashed into a large beveled mirror, which shattered into thousands of pieces, scattering loudly on the ground below. f**k. Me.

Present

I WAS SO ANXIOUS ABOUT SEEING TORIN THE NEXT DAY THAT I ALMOST didn’t notice the mirror missing from the entry. It had hung next to the bathroom hallway near the club entrance in such a way that it reflected light deep into the club when anyone opened the door before the sun had set. Today, the only thing shining in the light was a thin layer of dust shaped in a perfect rectangle where the mirror used to hang.

“What happened there?” I asked Jolly over the music that was already playing.

He sat at the bar, scrolling on his phone, never looking away as he answered. “Cleaning crew.”

“Good grief, what’d they do—clean the thing with a brick?” Our mirrors survived nightly encounters with rowdy drunks. I wasn’t sure how the cleaning crew had managed to break the thing.

Jolly only grunted.

“You know what, Jolly? I’ve worked here six months now, and I’m beginning to think your nickname wasn’t an ode to your sparkling disposition.”

That earned me a side-eye glare.

I beamed at him. “Go ahead, tell me how you got the name. I want to hear the story.”

He took a weary breath and leaned back in his chair. “Since I know you won’t leave me alone until I tell you, I got the nickname when I was workin’ at a juvenile detention center.”

“You worked with troubled youth?”

“Not sure I’d put it that way. I was a juvenile corrections officer. That’s where I first met Torin.”

Did I hear him correctly? He met Torin at a juvie center? I turned my head so my right ear was closer to him. “Did you say you met Torin in a detention center?”

He looked at me like I was dense. “That’s what I said, wasn’t it?”

“The hearing in my left ear isn’t great. I thought maybe I’d misheard you. I didn’t realize you two had known each other that long.” I had so many questions, but I didn’t want to pry.

Jolly chose to ignore my casual probe into Torin’s and his past. He leaned back, resting his arm on the back of his chair to get a better view of me. “You’re a bit young for hearing loss.”

“Bad ear infection as a kid.” It was my turn to be evasive. “You gonna tell me any more about that detention center?”

“Nothin’ much to tell.” He shot me a challenging look and turned back to his phone.

Message received. If I wanted to know more about Torin in juvie, I would have to ask the man himself. That wasn’t happening anytime soon, especially after our exchange.

The only man who gets a taste of you inside my club is me. So unless you’re lookin’ to ride my c**k, this discussion’s over.

I’d played those words over in my mind hundreds of times, searing them into my brain. They were crass and harsh and shockingly unexpected, but they’d also made me so wet that I’d had to clean myself up in the bathroom minutes later. The entire situation baffled me.

“Always a pleasure chatting with ya, Jolly.” I patted him on the back and continued to the girls’ locker room. Micky was already seated at a vanity in her bra and underwear, but she was staring at her phone instead of getting ready.

“Hey, Mick. How’s it going?”

“Oh my God. Tell me you have tomorrow off.”

“I have tomorrow off.”

She lifted wide eyes to face me. “Wait, are you just saying that because

I told you to say it?”

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “No, Micky. I really have tomorrow off.”

“Hell to the yeah. You’re going out with me.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. It’s fight night, and I’ve wanted to go to one since Blaze told me about them. Torin has a match, and I would kill to see him in the ring. Something tells me he’ll be incredible.” She bit her lip in a way that made me unexpectedly stabby. I decided not to examine the odd reaction.

“I’m not sure that’s my scene.” I’d never understood how people could enjoy watching two men beat one another to a bloody pulp.

Micky was on her feet, hands on my shoulders like a coach pep-talking her star player to bring home the win. “Please, Storm. I don’t want to go alone, and I really, really want to go.”

“Aren’t those fights illegal?” I couldn’t risk getting arrested, and it was just as important that Torin not think I’d gone to watch him fight, though I had to admit to having a degree of curiosity.

Her head c****d impatiently to the side. “From what I hear, there are tons of people. And they have these things down to a science; there’s hardly any risk of it being busted.”

“Tons of people?” It was the wrong thing to say. I realized my mistake the second the words were out, and Micky’s lips spread in a giddy grin.

“Yes!” She threw her arms around me. “You won’t regret it. We’ll have so much fun watching all those rippling muscles.”

I hadn’t technically agreed, but I couldn’t seem to refute her either. She was so dang excited, and her mention of rippling muscles had conjured a mental image of Torin that made my throat suddenly dry. Surely, if there would be loads of people, he wouldn’t notice us in the crowd. I could assuage my curiosity and indulge my friend. It felt so good to have friends again that I wanted to do what I could to keep them.

“Alright, alright. You can figure out the plan and text me. I need to set up the bar before Jolly comes looking for me.”