Vegas, Baby: The Complete Series by Fiona Davenport

4

Angelique

Watching Vince get creamed by Saint was difficult for me. Although I knew he more than deserved it, he was still my brother. I couldn’t help but remember the boy who’d played with me when I was little. How he’d made sure I got to school early for free breakfast and all the kids knew not to mess with me or they’d have to answer to him. But everything changed when I got to high school. It wasn’t my brother and me against the world anymore. He started to care about only one person—himself.

When the fight finally ended, I jumped to my feet and started toward Vince. I knew if I didn’t go check on him that he’d find a way to make me pay for it. My brother had grown into the kind of man who never forgot a perceived slight, even if it came from the sister he used to protect.

“I can’t let you do it,” Knox rumbled, gently grasping my arm to stop me. “You go over there to check on your brother, and Saint will lose what’s left of his mind. I wouldn’t put it past him to beat the shit out of your brother even more after they put him on the stretcher he’s already going to need to carry him out of here.”

With the head of the Lennox’s security holding me back, at least I had an excuse if my brother got the chance to confront me over it. And if Saint meant what he said, then maybe I wouldn’t have to worry about the threat to my safety anymore.

Knox must have misinterpreted my silence because he added, “I get that he’s family, and you’re worried about him. But they’ll make sure he gets medical attention for his injuries, even if the little bastard doesn’t deserve it.”

“I know,” I whispered as my gaze shifted to Saint. As freaking inappropriate as it was since he’d been up against my brother, watching him fight had turned me on. The six-pack abs, bunching biceps when he punched, powerful legs, animal magnetism...he was lethal grace in motion. I’d never seen anything like it before.

I stared at Saint as he did his interviews, expecting it to take longer than the few minutes he gave the throng of media. Before I knew it, he was stalking toward where I stood with Knox. Without saying a word, he hefted me over his shoulder. The crowd surrounding us cheered his name while Knox chuckled. “You’re welcome,” he called out as Saint strode away with me.

Saint lifted his free arm and gave Knox a quick wave as we moved through the crush of people. Everyone wanted to talk to him, but he didn’t stop. He kept moving until we hit the locker room with his name on the door. He slammed it shut behind us, set me on my feet, and twisted around to flip the lock. When Saint turned back to me, his nostrils flared, and his chest rose and fell as he took several deep breaths. “Explain.”

Although he still looked angry, I somehow knew it wasn’t aimed at me. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t intimidating. Because he was.

Taking a small step back, I stilled when a growl rumbled up his chest. My gaze locked with his and saw his eyes soften. “You’re safe with me. I would never hurt you, angel eyes.”

“Angelique,” I corrected when it dawned on me that he hadn’t been there when his friends asked for my name.

His lips kicked up in a grin. “It sounds like the nickname I picked for you was more perfect than I thought.”

My curiosity got the better of me, and I asked, “Why do you call me angel eyes?”

“Because the last thing I want to see before I go out of this world are those gorgeous eyes of yours.”

He put it out there so matter-of-factly, as though his admission wouldn’t rock my world. But it did. This incredible man seemed one hundred percent sincere as he claimed to want me in his life...forever. After spending less than five minutes with me. The whole thing should’ve had me trying to get past him to the door, but his declaration settled something inside me. The part that was already braced for the other shoe to drop. For the people in my life to disappoint me. Like my brother, the person responsible for me being in this mess—that just might turn into the best thing in my life—in the first place.

Swiveling on my heel, I crossed the small room and dropped onto the low bench against the wall. After patting the spot next to my right, I waited for Saint to join me before I said, “You might want to get comfortable. This could take a while.”

He untaped his hands, got up to grab a towel to rub over his sweat-dampened hair, took some pain relievers, and downed a sports drink. Once he was done, he returned to my side, lifted me up, and settled me on his lap so I was straddling him. One of his arms was wrapped around my lower back to anchor me in place, and he lifted the other to tuck a stray lock of hair behind my ear. “There. Now I’m ready to hear whatever you need to tell me.”

“Right here? Like this?” I gasped, wiggling on his lap until I felt his cock harden beneath my butt.

“Exactly like this.” His arm tightened around me. “I’m not letting you go now that I’ve gotten my hands on you.”

The tiny bottoms of my ring girl uniform grew damp, and I wondered if he’d be able to feel it. My cheeks reddened as I whispered, “It’s not your hands that I was talking about.”

He brushed a kiss against my forehead and lifted his hips to press more firmly against me. “Me getting hard around you is something you’re going to have to get used to, angel eyes. It’s going to happen often. As in, all the time.”

“Alrighty then.” I cleared my throat and did my best to ignore the incredibly hard and large bulge beneath me. “I guess this is the part where I explain how I ended up here, huh?”

He cupped my cheek with his hand. “Please.”

I nodded, and the calluses on his palm rubbed against my skin, sending a little shiver down my spine. “My childhood wasn’t all that great, and Vince used to be the only person I could really depend on. But all that changed three or four years ago. It was like my brother turned into someone I didn’t know, into someone I didn’t even want to know, even after everything he did for me when we were kids.”

“What’d he get into?” Saint asked after I paused to pull myself together so I didn’t end up bawling in his arms.

“He fell in with a bad crowd and wasn’t around as often. Started to drink a lot and dabbled with some drugs here or there. But it wasn’t the drugs or alcohol that got him into trouble.” I dropped my forehead against Saint’s shoulder. “It was the gambling that turned out to be his real vice. He doesn’t think straight when he’s at the tables, and he risks way more than he can afford. He’s always been able to figure out a way to pay off his gambling debts in the past, but this time is different. I don’t know how much he owes, but it has to be a lot—like enough to beat the shit out of him if he didn’t get the chance to fight you tonight—a lot. Enough for him to tell me the five grand I’d earn by being a ring girl during the match would barely put a dent in his debt but might be enough so his bookie wouldn’t come after me, too.”

“That fucking motherfucker,” Saint growled. “He deserves a hell of a lot more than the beatdown I gave him in the ring for putting your safety at risk.”

Shrugging my shoulders, I lifted my head to offer him a small smile. “I don’t think he ever thought about what might happen to me in this whole mess. Not until his bookie took notice of me.”

“Who’s his bookie?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I never asked because it didn’t really matter since I didn’t have the money to pay off his debt. I was going to give Vince what I earned tonight so he could hand it over.”

“It’s got to be Jimmy Benton,” Saint rumbled.

“I’ve never heard of him.”

“Forget I mentioned his name,” Saint commanded. “He isn’t someone you need to worry about anymore.”

I felt exhausted after everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours, and I was starting to freak out because Saint looked angrier than he had when he’d been fighting my brother. Squeezing my eyes shut, I voiced my biggest fear, “Does that mean you haven’t changed your mind about what you said before? How I’ll always be safe with you and don’t need to worry about money again?”