The Beasts Boxed Set

Chapter 2

Vivian Davis

Vivian DavisI sat in the back of the private ambulance Snook provided and dealt out the cards for yet another round of solitaire. As usual, he’d offered to let me sit next to him and watch the fights. I declined. Again. Politely. I sat in the rig. I waited. I patched up the fighters who needed stitches or fluids. Sometimes antibiotics. On the rare occasion, we would actually take them to a nearby hospital, where I would describe picking up the wounded man after a bar brawl or street fight.

In this neighborhood the doctors and nurses didn’t even bat an eye. No one asked questions because no one wanted to know. Gunshot wounds were much more common in the emergency room on a Friday night. Someone who had a concussion, a few lacerations, or an internal bleed from a fistfight was generally low priority.

Judging by the screaming roar of the crowd coming from inside, tonight was going to be a hospital night.

With a sigh, I laid out my cards on top of the empty stretcher. I could play the game on my phone app, but I liked the tactile feeling of shuffling the deck, placing the cards. Counting them in my hands. Touching the phone screen lacked a certain satisfaction. I liked to feel things. Real things. Which meant I was old, or old-school. Maybe both.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.” Snook’s driver, Wayne, cursed as he hopped up into the driver’s seat. He’d gone inside to take a look around. He liked to assess the fighters, guess what kind of injuries we’d be dealing with.

“That bad?”

“That bad. They’re like animals tonight. Screaming for blood.” He and I both knew he wasn’t talking about the fighters.

“Maybe it’s just too much tequila.” I tried to laugh, but his warning made me anxious. There was something different about tonight, something that had me on edge. Nervous. I had no logical reason, just gut instinct. But when I felt like this, I paid attention.

Wayne gave a non-committal grunt from the driver’s seat of the ambulance.

I was working tonight because Snook paid well, in cash. I needed the money to pay for my girls’ school. Besides, I’d done worse jobs for far less money. I had no intention of looking a gift horse in the mouth.

“Viv, it’s bad tonight. You stay the hell out of there.” Wayne’s intense stare was focused on the large metal door that divided the two large sections of the old parking garage. Fights on one side, spectator parking and this ambulance on the other.

“No problem. I don’t want to see it.” I counted three cards and flipped the small collection face up. Damn. Nothing to play. “It’s bad enough cleaning up the mess afterward.”

Wayne lit a cigarette. He knew I hated the smoke, but we had all the doors open and he exhaled out the driver’s side window, away from where I sat in the back.

“One of these days, one of them boys is going to end up dead.”

“No.”

“It’s inevitable. You know that.”

“Not while I’m here.” But I knew he was right. The fights seemed to be growing more and more violent, as did the crowd Snook’s club seemed to attract. “I don’t do corpses.”

“We’ll see. Tonight may be our lucky night.”

“Shut-up, Wayne.” I’d been thinking the exact same thing the last few weeks. What would I do when the first dead body was carried out that door?

My paramedic’s uniform pants were suddenly too tight, my belt digging into my stomach until I fought down vomit. The button-up shirt’s starched collar circled my neck like a noose. I wouldn’t do dead. No matter how much Snook offered to pay me. Stitching up a cut was one thing. Carting corpses was completely different. No. Hell no.

Hell no.I gathered up the cards and tossed them aside, no longer interested in the game.

Wayne took a deep drag on his cigarette, watching me the entire time with those wise, old eyes.

I’d been born in this shithole. I’d survived this long. I knew everyone and everyone knew me. If Snook really did start allowing the boys to fight to the death—

The central door to the parking garage slammed open, the heavy metal banging on the concrete wall. A bare-chested giant walked toward me. He had to be close to seven feet tall. Maybe taller. His lips were full, jaw cut like a marble statue. And his eyes. Whoa, his eyes. They were so pale a blue they looked like they were glowing at me out of the shadows.

He bled from multiple cuts on his body—his magnificent, muscular, holy-mother-of-God body. Normally I could look and dismiss a man’s physique. Not right now. So much for professional detachment.

God! I could not stop staring. More like drooling.

As he came closer, I froze in place, hypnotized. Couldn’t even blink. Damn. He was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen. Ever. Not only was he professional-basketball-player tall, he completed the look with broad shoulders and powerful thighs. His chest was thicker than any man’s had a right to be, and his torso tapered into a perfect V shape filling his fighter’s shorts. His thick hair shone in the artificial light. The black and silver strands were unique. Striking. More than long enough to bury my fingers in and tug his mouth where I wanted him to go. Lips. Neck. n*****s…

Lower. I wanted his mouth on my p***y, his hands holding my thighs open as he—

Shit. I knew I was blushing now, but the sun had set, leaving the yellowish tinge of recessed lights to illuminate the covered parking area. Yellow would hide my blush very well. Thank God.

Shit.I should look away, stop gawking. He moved like he was aware of every cell in his body. Where it was. What it was doing. He was pure, raw power, coiled to strike. No shoes either. He wore nothing but a pair of plain black shorts that did absolutely nothing to hide the rather giant bulge between his legs. It drew my gaze like a beacon, and a shiver raced over my skin. He could feast on my p***y, and then I could ride that big c**k for dessert.

God. He was hot. s*x-on-a-stick hot.

A very tall stick.

I blinked, hard, and looked away before he caught me and I embarrassed myself even more. But damn. Just damn. My n*****s had hardened to eager peaks. My panties had to be soaked. Every bit of skin felt sensitive, primed for his touch. And I felt ridiculous. Sure, he was handsome. Sensual. I wanted to jump on him, wrap my legs around him, and never, ever let go. But I couldn’t. Wouldn’t. I was a professional and he was bleeding. Injured.

I was an experienced woman, not a hormonal teenager.

I had to get a grip on myself. Get. A. Grip.

The massive s*x god was followed out the door by Snook himself. The two appeared to be arguing.

“I’m done.” The giant’s voice rumbled like an echo from a bass drum. So deep. Rich. I swallowed hard and tried to pay attention to the conversation as every feminine part of my body responded to that voice. I wanted him talking dirty to me as he pounded into me with that massive—

“I own you, Wolf. You’ll be here next Friday, or I’ll send the boys to bring you in.”

The giant shrugged as if he truly didn’t give a s**t about Snook or his threats. Wolf—that had to be his fighting name—didn’t even look at Snook. His gaze was searching the parking garage, darting everywhere, until his gaze locked onto me.

“Shit.” Wayne cursed.

I stared back. Couldn’t look away. Didn’t want to.

I wanted him. Inside me. On top of me. Under me.

Down, girl.

Down, girl.Enough. I didn’t drool over bleeding patients who needed my help. And I didn’t drool over men who were tangled up with Snook. Snook ran this part of town. He was a criminal, through and through. A bad guy who occasionally did good things for the community. He paid me, so I worked. And if it weren’t Snook running the dark side of this neighborhood, it would be someone else, someone worse. There was always someone worse.

One of Wolf’s cheeks was bruised, a small bit of dried blood clinging to his skin, but the slight discoloration did not detract from the godlike lines of his profile.

What the hell was happening to me? I had never, never ever reacted like this to any man. Insane. I’d lost my mind.

This was not good. Not good at all.

Snook cleared his throat to demand my attention. With an act of sheer will, I looked away from Wolf and waited for Snook to speak.

“Stitch him up and get him the f**k out of here.”

I didn’t respond, but my attention returned to Wolf. His glistening skin. His pale, perfect eyes.

Snook cursed. “f**k. What a mess. Clean him up and make it quick. Wayne, when she’s done with him, bring her inside.” Snook looked from Wayne back to the giant, his scowl deepening. “You should have killed them.”

“I’m done.” The large man’s voice dropped an octave, his anger evident in the slow rumble that moved through me, straight to my core. I licked my lips, trying to taste him on the air. Which was just dumb. So stupid. But everything about him made me feel a bit crazy and out of control.

I wondered what would he be like in bed? Would he go wild or would he be slow and gentle? Would he want to hold me afterward, or carry me to the shower and f**k me against the tile like a wild man as hot water poured down over us?

I was not a small woman. I was a bit taller than average and a lot curvier. I had an ass and round thighs and an abdomen that had carried twins. I was no thin little girl. But this guy was massive. Strong. He could hold me against the wall and have his wicked way with me.

Damn it. He was jaw-droppingly gorgeous. He was so far out of my league we weren’t even on the same planet.

So why did I want to use the scissors I had in the medical kit to cut his shorts off his body and jump him? Ride that hard body until I passed out with exhaustion?

Bad, Vivian. Bad. I was too experienced and too smart to get tangled up with one of Snook’s fighters.

Bad, Vivian. Bad. “You made a mistake in there,” Snook insisted. “A big, f*****g mistake.”

“I do not kill for sport.” So formal. Wolf’s words were clipped, his pronunciation perfect, as if he’d gone to private boarding school surrounded by rich snobs.

Snook ran his hand through his hair, clearly agitated. “I’ve seen it in your eyes. I know the look. You’re a killer.”

“I fought in the war. I served my time. I’m done with killing.” He spoke to Snook, but he was looking at me. Did he want me to know this about him? Why?

Which war? So he was a soldier? That made him even hotter.

Snook’s face was turning red with anger. I had never seen him like this before. Clearly he was not used to being challenged or, worse, defied in public. Something must have gone wrong with the fight. “You humiliated them. They’ll want blood.”

“They’ll have to do better than those little knives you gave them.” Wolf looked down his nose at Snook, reached out, and wrapped his hand around Snook’s neck. Squeezed. “I told you I would not fight to the death. You tried to force my hand. You’re lucky I don’t kill you.”

Knives? This fight club was all about boxing or mixed martial arts. There were no knives.

Snook’s hands wrapped around the giant’s wrist and pulled with no effect whatsoever. None. Jeez, this guy was even stronger than he looked.

“f**k. Fine. You’re finished.”

“Apologize to me, as a man of honor, or I will be forced to end your life.”

“f**k y—”

The air that should have been behind the second word coming out of Snook’s mouth was gone. Wolf snarled. His biceps flexed, and Snook dangled off the ground, feet swinging like a child’s as Wolf held him there, no signs of strain on his face. None. He wasn’t shaking. Hell, he hadn’t even adjusted his stance.

Holy s**t. Snook was not small. And this guy held him in the air with one hand?

one handMy entire body shivered with lust. Raw. Visceral. This was more than attraction.

“This is insane.” I was talking to myself, but my body was not listening. b***h had a mind of her own, and she wanted to jump out of the ambulance and on top of a complete stranger. A dangerous, sexy, mysterious stranger big enough to scare the infamous Miami Snook. Which, in all the years I’d grown up running the streets in this neighborhood, had seemed impossible.

Snook gave up the fight, lifted his hands to the sides of his head, and tried to speak.

“Sorry, Wolf. Sorry. My bad.” Each word was more rasp than spoken voice, but Wolf released him. Snook stepped back until he was beyond the larger man’s reach, took a deep breath, and then turned his attention to me. “Stitch him up and get inside. Rico and John need your attention.”

Both of them? I looked at Wolf again. Rico and John? He’d fought both of those brutes at the same time?

Both of them? andat the same time?I looked more closely at Wolf’s cuts. He was bleeding, but there were no pumping arteries or deep stab wounds. Nothing major. I would stitch him up, and he would live. I had no idea about the conditions of Rico or John. “How bad are they? Do I need to take care of them first?”

I’d taken care of both men in the past. Didn’t care for either of them.

“They’re downing shots at the bar. They can wait.” Snook tossed a thick envelope I assumed held my weekly payment onto the stretcher next to me, then turned on his heel and walked away.

I scrambled down from the back of the ambulance and moved out of the way so the sexy, bleeding fighter could step up and climb inside.

His hand brushed mine as he passed and I shivered, bunched my hand into a fist to keep myself from reaching for him.

Wolf’s weight caused the rig to dip. He sat on the stretcher, his head nearly touching the ceiling, and lifted an arm to inspect his wounds on that side. By my count, there were at least four large gashes that would require stitching. Which meant I got to touch.

touch.I climbed in to sit opposite him, looked from his torso to his face and forgot how to breathe. He was staring at me now, but his eyes didn’t look human. Were they glowing silver?

Frozen like a deer in headlights, we stared at one another for long seconds. I swayed, suddenly light-headed.

“Breathe, female. I will not allow anyone to harm you.” Even as he bossed me, Wolf looked at me like he wanted to eat me alive and spit out my bones. Truth be told, I wasn’t opposed to the eat-me-alive part of the scenario as long as he started in the right place.

I was no young virgin. I was a grown-ass woman. A professional.

“I can take care of myself.”

“No, you will not. Not anymore.”