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Fuck.

Fine, I more than cared about him.

“Let’s go,” Hugo said, nudging me toward the cage. “It’s three minutes. You can survive anything for three minutes.”

I tried my best to get angry at Vaughn so I could put up some semblance of a fight. And it should have been easy. God knew, he’d given me enough to be angry over. All those sleepless nights. All the times he’d fucked someone else while thinking of me.

But when I stepped into that cage and looked across to finally see his face, I lost whatever trace of anger I’d managed to scrounge up.

He was fucking hot. Not a surprise.

But Vaughn’s face was pinched with an emotion I’d never seen on him before, not even when he’d truly hated me.

He wasn’t angry. He was furious.

White-hot rage poured off his body. Glowed in his eyes. Showed in every inch of the taped hands he’d already clenched into fists.

Oh fuck.

Well… fuck him.

Fuck him right off.

He had no idea why I was doing this. The mess my life had become since he left. The shit I was dealing with because of my fucking family.

He had no idea that he was the only thing I wanted. The only fucking thing I could see anymore.

That I was doing this because I was tired of waiting for just the right time to make things happen in my life. Tired of seeing my father force people under his thumb.

I was doing this because I wanted to stand up and be brave, goddammit.

Vaughn made me want to be brave.

And if he wasn’t gonna give me a chance to explain all that, then I’d… I’d make him.

So, as soon as the bell rang, I tried.

For about three seconds, I whaled on him. Unleashed all my fear and frustrated love.

But then I realized he wasn’t fighting back.

Vaughn must have seen the horror in my face.

His hand fisted around the back of my neck, dragging me in like he was about to finally start fighting. Instead, he growled against my ear. “You need the money, sweetheart? Then take me down.”

And then he shoved me away hard enough to make it look like I’d broken free.

The crowd roared.

I stood there for half a second, chest heaving, completely lost.

He… he knew?

Vaughn knew I needed money… and he was willing to let me take him down to get it?

He’d called me sweetheart in the same soft way he always did.

The way that sounded real.