Page 45 of Montana Mystery

But aside from blowing our cover, all the eyes in the room were on us.

“Mark was undefeated,” he said, too casually. “Never seen him get taken down like that. Ever.”

“Not my fault your guy screwed up.” Or that you underestimated me, I added silently.

“Congratulations. I mean it. But,” Max seemed nervous now, “as far as your payment, we don’t have that kind of money on site.”

I could give a shit about the money, but this gave me an opportunity. Max in my debt put us in a position of strength. “So you let me bet that much, expecting me to pay it, but you can’t do the same?” The disgust dripped through my voice. “Some operation you’ve got here.”

“You’ll get your money,” he snarled. “You just have to come back next fight night to get it. We pay our debts, and we collect them. Just ask little Katie here about that. She knows all about it.”

Kate smiled weakly, even as Max tightened his arm, practically pulling her against the front of his body.

“Fine,” I spat. “I’ll come back and collect. But I want something now.”

He looked pissed, and I didn’t care. “We can give you five.”

I shook my head. “No. I want something from you.” My eyes fell on Kate. “I want her.”

“What?” she gasped, eyes angry. “I’m not a thing that you can buy—”

He shook her once, and she went quiet.

“I’ll even knock three grand off the total,” I said. My gut wanted to go higher, but I also didn’t want to tip him off that I was more interested in Kate as anything more than a business transaction.

Max glanced back in the direction of the door he’d gone through earlier. I wasn’t even sure he realized he’d done it. Then he looked down at Kate, long and hard. All I could see was the anger on his face when he made the decision. “Fine.”

He shoved her at me, and I caught her.

“Are you serious?” She played her part perfectly. “You can’t just sell me to some guy I don’t know.”

Max smirked. “I think you’re forgetting what you owe me, Katie. Let’s be honest about this. You were already jumping into my bed to pay off one debt. No point in being upset about paying off another. We’ll have our moment.”

Kate lunged, and I held her back, acting like I didn’t even care that I’d just bought a woman. “You have my number,” I said to Max and pulled Kate toward the door.

The look he gave me was lethal.

In my arms, Kate put up a good show of resisting. But that’s all it was. A show. Beneath everything, I could feel her relief, even as I held her still and put her coat on her before marching her outside.

Until we were around the corner of the barn and no longer in sight.

Chapter 15

Kate

I was shaking, and I couldn’t seem to stop. Snow came down hard around Noah and me as he marched me out of the party and into the darkness.

He waited until we were out of sight before wrapping me up in his arms. “Are you okay?”

That wasn’t an easy question to answer right now. Was I okay? I didn’t know. What I did know was that I hadn’t been prepared for this.

The awfulness of the dogfights. Max touching me—selling me—and Noah’s fighting...

I had known Noah was a former SEAL, and a warrior, but knowing that and seeing that in action were two very different things. The scars he had? I had no idea what they were from. But those weren’t the kinds of scars you got from climbing trees or playing sports. Someone had hurt him.

The way he’d taken that man down was brutal. The sound of Noah’s fist hitting his face would stay with me for a long time. I’d never seen any kind of fight up close before, and it wasn’t like I’d thought.

It wasn’t like what you saw in the movies. Which was a stupid thing to think, but it was the truth. On screen, it seemed exciting and easy. Watching it up close had let me see the true nature of it. The life and death quality. The reality that at any second, one or the other could no longer be alive.