Page 26 of Love Gamble
“What women?” Gio replies, smirking. Tatum isn’t here, so it looks like his president is going to take the brunt of the anger. “You mean those pretty little things at the lake one of my men had an innocent chat with? How were we supposed to know that they belong to you? You don’t own all the women in this town, Devil.”
We all know that Tatum knew exactly who we are and what he was doing.
River steps forward and stares Gio in the eye. The two of them are about the same height, but Gio is a lot wider than River.
Instead of saying anything, River just smiles at him. It’s an evil smile, and it sends chills up my spine.
And then he head-butts Gio right in the face.
And then chaos breaks out.
I grab one of the men and hit him square in the nose, and from there it’s just a violent outburst of punching and hitting until we hear the wail of sirens.
Then we get the hell out of there, rushing to our motorcycles.
I know it’s messed up, but I haven’t felt this alive in a long time, and looking around the group of men, I think that they feel the same way.
River looks over at me and smiles, blood covering all of his teeth.
Jesus Christ.
I’m glad he’s on our side.
But then the sound of a bike pulling up grabs our attention. The rider is in all black and he pulls right up beside River. He turns his bike off, helmet still on, and slowly takes a riding glove off a finger at a time. Finally he pulls off his helmet and River’s smile drops.
“Tatum.”
The man in question, bald, with dead brown eyes, looks over at him. “Hello there, brother.”
River lunges for him, jumping on him just as he gets off his bike, repeatedly punching him. The man doesn’t back down, though, and gives as good as he gets.
One of the men bumps into my shoulder, pushing me back, which breaks me from my surprise, and I jump back into the pit of male ego.
They are going to regret the day they ever decided to test us.
And as for Corey?
I’m done playing games.
She’s going to be mine.
Chapter Twelve
Corey
The men return looking a little worse for wear, but no one is overly injured, so I’m taking that as a win. As soon as Damon steps through the door I want to run over to him but settle for scanning him to make sure he’s okay. And aside from a cut lip, he is. And although River has blood on his face and mouth, he looks okay, too.
“What happened?” I ask Damon as he approaches me in the kitchen a little later. We’re alone; everyone else headed for bed while I was just finishing restocking the pantry with snacks. “I mean, besides the fighting.”
“Nothing else happened,” he replies, lip twitching. He watches me intensely, the weight of his gaze like a touch on my skin. “We went in there and beat the shit out of each other and then the cops came.”
“Tatum?” I ask, clearing my throat.
“He and River fought hard,” he admits, lifting me with his big hands so I’m sitting on the kitchen countertop, sending a shiver down my body from the unexpected contact. The way he just carried me so easily...holy shit. That was sexy as fuck.
“I’ve heard a little about Tatum, but you’re going to have to explain the whole situation to me a little better,” he says, arching his brow.
“River and I have different fathers, which River didn’t actually know until recently,” I say, swallowing hard. “River’s dad is Romeo’s dad. I’m sure you heard all about it. Matthew and I had the same father, Robert. He was an asshole. But anyway, before he met my mother he had another son, Tatum. He didn’t have much to do with him at all. In fact, the first time I met him was at my father’s funeral.”