Rohan didn’t have a single scar that Jameson could see. Shirtless, there was no minimizing the breadth of his shoulders, the hyper-definition of muscles, sharpest where they met bone. There was no visible tension in the way the Factotum stood, and Jameson was hit with a sudden premonition that there would be no blank space with this opponent.
No weaknesses.
No openings.
No time between moves.
This should be fun. Jameson felt the adrenaline building inside him—the anticipation, the awareness that he wasn’t going to get out of this fight unscathed.
This was going to hurt.
 |
Blood dripped down his temple. The metallic taste of it was thick in his mouth. His body was mottled with bruises. But on the plus side, only three of his many bruised ribs felt cracked.
Rohan threw him face-first onto the rock-hard mat, and for the first time over the past nineteen rounds, the Factotum spoke. “Stay down.”
Jameson laughed. It came out ugly and garbled, so Rohan could be excused for not recognizing the genuine humor in it.
Hawthornes didn’t stay down.
Besides, it wasn’t like Jameson hadn’t gotten in some good hits of his
own. Rohan’s lip was split, his ribs as busted as Jameson’s. The only advantage the Factotum had, really, was that neither of his eyes was swollen shut.
Jameson forced his knees to bend and got them underneath him. The heels of his hands dug into the mat. He breathed through the pain, focusing on it, drawing strength from it, then brought his head up, well aware that the expression on his face probably looked, to the crowd, a little manic.
One foot underneath him, then the other.
Rohan returned to his corner, an expression like regret in his deep brown eyes.
He’s stronger, Jameson thought. I was faster. At this point, Jameson’s speed was past tense. Where his own fighting style was a mix of those he’d mastered across his childhood, Rohan’s defied description.
The Factotum fought every single round like he was fighting to survive.
There was only one way to counter instincts like that, especially with injuries slowing him down. Stop trying to. Jameson couldn’t anticipate Rohan’s next move. He couldn’t match his strength—or his reach. If I fight to survive, I’ll lose. The only thing that could beat survival was a death wish.
No fear. No pain. Less strategy—and more risk.
He ran straight at Rohan, his head down. Get inside his reach. Just before they collided, Jameson threw his right elbow up, catching the Factotum under his chin. Rohan weathered the blow and countered, but Jameson barely felt it, because the elbow to the chin had never been the point.
The point was his other arm, snaking around Rohan’s neck from behind.
 |
Rohan was down. To the crowd it might have looked like he was out, but Jameson knew better. He saw the tension in the back of the Factotum’s hands, the ripple moving up his arms. Any second, Rohan was going to push back up.
But he didn’t.
It wasn’t until Jameson looked out at the crowd and saw the Proprietor
holding his employee’s gaze that Jameson realized. He’s giving an order.
Rohan stayed down.
Jameson dragged himself from the ring, barely standing. Avery was there in an instant, propping him up on one side, and another figure slid in on the other.
Zella. “If you bleed on this gown,” the duchess warned, “I’m dropping you.”
“Bloodstains,” Jameson slurred with a grin that set his face on fire. “The point at which outsiders no longer stick together.”
On his other side, Avery’s body pushed in closer to his. “I told your brothers you were fine,” she muttered. “I promised Grayson you weren’t spiraling. And Nash? He’s going to kill you—and me.”
“Libby won’t let him. Killing bad. Cupcakes good.” Jameson ignored the pain and turned, looking for the Proprietor through the crowd—but the man was gone. And when Jameson swung his screaming head back toward the ring, so was Rohan.
