Read Online Fighting Dirty: A Stepbrother Romance (When The Gloves Come Off Book 2) by Lila Moore - Free Book Online

Liam
     
     
     
     
    Tony grabs Riley and drags her out of the box seat and down the stairs. I try to push through the crowd to get to them, but it’s like trying to walk through a brick wall.
    A mass of people run at me. They lift me up on their shoulders and carry me. I crowd surf over them and try to force them to carry me to Riley, but that’s like trying to control the flow of a river by tossing a pebble into it.
    They’ve turned into a mob full of people who are excited by the violence and blood of the fight. Half these people are pissed because I just cost them a lot of money. The other half are delirious with excitement. I’ll be lucky I if I can get out of the building without being ripped apart.
    There was a time when being the focus of the crowd’s affections would have excited me, but now all I can think about is Riley. And it’s too late. Helplessly, I watch as Tony and his bodyguards leave through a side exit. Tony’s got a hold of her wrist. He’s squeezing tight and dragging her behind.
    Riley’s not making it easy for him. She’s got her heels dug into the ground and she’s twisting away from him. Tony’s unfazed by it. He may be short and overweight, but you underestimate him at your own cost. He’s a lot stronger than he looks. He pulls her behind him easily.
    They disappear out of the club.
    The crowd pulls me in the opposite direction. I need to get to Riley before it’s too late. Tony will force her to work in one of his whorehouses or worse. I manage to wrestle free of the grip the crowd has on me. I fall to the floor with a hard thump. My feet get knocked out from under me and I land on my ass.
    In the crowd’s rush to help me they practically trample me. Suddenly Lou’s standing before me. He wraps an arm around me and lifts me to my feet. People cheer. A man tries to force a drink into my hand; a woman I don’t recognize is screaming in my face: “Remember me, Liam? Remember me?”
    “Enough!” Lou’s voice booms.
    The people around me take a step back.
    “The kid will drink with you later. Now he needs to get cleaned up.”
    The only people who can hear him are the ones standing in our immediate vicinity. They let out a loud groan. The rest of the room still wants a piece of me. Lou wraps an arm around me protectively and leads me through the crowd. Using him as a shield is like a magic bullet. People step aside, leaving a path for us so we can make our way to the back rooms.
    Lou opens a door to one of the storage rooms and shoves me inside.
    “Lou, I’ve got to go. They took-” I stop midsentence when I see The Russian sitting on a bench. He’s covered in blood and sweat. He glares at me when I enter. “What the fuck is he doing here?” I ask Lou.
    “We need to talk,” The Russian says.
    “I don’t have time to talk to you.”
    “The fight was fixed.”
    His words give me a moment’s pause, but ultimately the fight doesn’t matter. Riley’s what’s important now.
    “I have to go,” I say.
    He stands up quickly, blocking my path. The last time I saw him, he was unconscious; he seems to have recovered quickly.
    “I’ll give you a real fight if you want one,” he says.
    I laugh. “Nothing would make me happier, but I have something more important to deal with.”
    The Russian doesn’t move out of my way.
    “I threw the fight,” he says.
    I step around him and head for the back exit.
    “Did you hear me? I let you win. What I want to know is why you held back? Why were you trying to throw the fight? And why did you stop?”
    “I wasn’t trying to throw the fight.”
    “Bullshit. Tony put you up to it, didn’t he?”
    I don’t say anything.
    “Of course he did,” The Russian says. “Who else would? But you didn’t go through with it. Do you want to know who asked me to throw the fight?”
    “I don’t care.”
    “It was Tony.”
    I’m halfway out the door, but that stops me in my tracks. I look down the alley. There’s no sign of Tony, his men,