Page 47 of The Fighter

I was going to kill Devlin with my bare hands. “What you said doesn’t leave this room, Tav.”

“No.” His voice cracked. “I won’t. Ican’t.”

“You will?—”

“Tie me,” he gasped, and the words seemed to surprise him as much as me. “Tie me or I can’t do this. I need… I need?—”

“You need me to make you,” I whispered.

He exhaled, the tension in his shoulders easing as he realized he was understood. “Yeah, I need you tomake me.”

I was out of the tub in a flash, dripping water all over the floor as I padded into my bedroom and closet. I grabbed the first tie I saw, a solid red one. When I returned to the bathroom, his hands were still gripped on the bar, his gaze locked on the tie. I made quick work of tying his wrists together and then around the bar. Then I slipped the end into his palm. “You can tug and fight all you want, and the tie won’t come loose. But if you pull that end, the tie will unravel. I won’t tie you up in a way you can’t get out. Not right now. Don’t ask me to do that.”

His breath rasped out of him, and I swore I heard a whisperedthanksas I slipped back into the tub, adding some more lube to my fingers, and went back to work. I didn’t take it easy on him as I immediately slid three fingers inside. He moaned and his eyes fell closed.

I repeated the last question. “Tell me why you fight for Devlin, Tav.”

He licked his lips, then opened his eyes again. He tugged on the rope, and I could see the panic in the tense lines of his face, not from the bonds, but from being forced to spill his secrets. His gaze locked with mine. “My sister was fucking his brother Dennis.”

Dennis.Just the name of Devlin’s older half-brother had my whole body going cold, because I already feared where this story was heading.

“She met him at the same gym I trained at. I hated the fucker, but my sister was independent. Said she could take care of herself. And then she got pregnant.” Tav’s eyes went hard. The muscles in his neck corded, and I was glad I tied him up, because he might have put a fist through a wall or the tile of the tub ledge. “I overheard him talking to his brother—fucking Devlin—and turns out Dennis was married. I didn’t know and neither did my sister. So Dennis planned to…” Tav yanked on the tie, hard, and growled low in his chest, “get rid of her. Fucker was going to kill her. I didn’t tell her, because how the fuck was I supposed to tell her that her boyfriend was going to kill her? I trailed him one night, got him alone in an alley. He ran his mouth and I… I lost it. Fucking lost it. Beat him up and then strangled him.”

I forced myself not to shake. “Strangled him?”

Tav’s gaze was tortured. Pained. In agony. “He fought back, and I knew it was either going to be him or me. I didn’t mean to, but… I killed him. I made sure the one who walked out of that alley wasme.”

Killed him.

I wanted to drop my head to be able to hide a reaction from Tav, but I refused to break the eye contact with him in this moment where he was vulnerable. I’d forced this out of him, so I’d be with him in the moment.

I had known Dennis was killed. The rumor was that it happened in a mugging gone wrong. And I hadn’t been sad about it. Dennis had always been a fuckhead, and I had always suspected he’d have a short lifespan.

“In case you’re wondering, I don’t regret it,” Tav said, his eyes defiant. “Not one fucking bit. If he crawled out of his grave, I’d do it all over again if it meant keeping my sister alive.”

I didn’t even think before I said, “And I’d be beside you ready to help.” And then I’d add murderer alongside pimp under my list of accomplishments.

Tav blinked. Three fingers were inside of him, but I didn’t dare withdraw them. He was taking strength from me, sucking it right out of me with those eyes locked on mine. He needed me. Needed this. So I gave it all to him.

“You would?” he said softly.

“Yes,” I answered.

He shifted his hips and watched me for a minute then continued talking. “Devlin found out it was me. I don’t know how. Got six of his guys to beat me up. I’m a trained mixed martial arts fighter. Almost went pro before all this shit went down, but even I couldn’t take on six guys. They almost killed me. Devlin kept me in a basement for a while.” Another yank on the ropes. “Tied up. I thought I was going to lose my mind. I thought they killed my sister, and she’s all I ever cared about. She was all I had.”

Tied up.That was why he’d reacted so poorly when I’d tried to tie him and leave him. Fucking Devlin caused that and had left deep-seated trauma.

His muscles relaxed some then, like he was losing steam. I shifted closer to him and slipped in a fourth finger. His eyes fired, his hips worked a little, and then he found his voice again. “He told me I had to fight. If I didn’t, he’d kill my sister and the baby in her belly. I had no money, no choice. So I gave everything up that I had and I went off the grid. Underground. And to rub it in, to further fuck up my life, he told my sister I got into drugs and killed her boyfriend for no reason. He forbids me to have contact with her. So I’ve been fighting for Devlin for five years for my sister who thinks I’m a drug-addicted murderer. I’ve never met my nephew.”

I hated Devlin with every single cell in my body. He’d ruined Tav’s life, his sister’s life. What choice had Tav had, really? Let his sister be killed? Devlin would have found them if they ran. It was then I made the mistake of dropping my head and cutting off eye contact. But I needed a fucking minute and?—

Suddenly Tav’s body jerked, and water splashed toward the edges of the tub. I nearly lost my grip on him as he surged forward as much as the tie would allow. “Are you happy now? Are you fucking happy now?!” His voice boomed on the tile of the bathroom walls and spit flew from his mouth. “You know everything now, okay? You have it all. Is that what you wanted? To see me wrecked? It wasn’t enough to fuck me, you had to screw with my head? Well fuck you, Conrad!Fuck you!”

If he wasn’t tied to the towel bar, he might have killed me. He twisted his hips and thrashed his legs, throwing me off him as water sloshed out on the floor. I fell to the other side of the tub, and my back slammed onto tile. I gripped the edges to keep myself from falling under as Tav went wild. The towel bar creaked. Tile dust dropped to the ground. He was going to pull the damn thing out of the wall. He was losing his mind and his control as he roared, just like he’d done when he’d been tied to my bed.

I threw myself on top of him, gripping his head as I crashed my lips onto his. He fought the kissing, gnashing his teeth, trying to bite me, but I held on, gripping his hips with my knees, using my weight to settle his body.

It wasn’t easy. Tav was stronger than me, and I wondered what kind of destruction he could do if he’d had use of his arms. Eventually he calmed, stilled, his body vibrating under mine. I kissed harder now, daring to slip my tongue between those teeth that had been so eager to snap at me earlier.