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hers.
    Before the men were called together again, Bishop turned to face her, leaning on the ropes, smiling lazily. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he was drunk or high, but she knew he didn’t use any of those substances. He took her chin in his hand and drew her face close. Kissed her, gentle at first, then harder, pulling back with a quick nip at her lower lip.
    “Kick their asses,” she told him.
    “For you, babe, sure.”
    * * *
    Bishop lunged for the bigger of the two men. While the shorter man gave him several good punches to his ribs, Bishop concentrated all his energies on the giant in front of him. A punch to the big man’s solar plexus rendered him useless for several minutes, and Bishop took that opportunity to fuck up his face as much as he could before delivering a last stunning blow to the side of his head. Before the larger man hit the mat, Bishop turned on the guy who was trying to get on his back, like some kind of spider monkey on crack, and slammed him against the ropes.
    The guy went backward and then came flying toward Bishop, unable to stop himself. Bishop head-butted him and stared at him for the two seconds the guy remained standing, a dazed look in his eyes before he surrendered to the inevitable unconsciousness.
    And that’s when a third man climbed into the ring. No one stopped him even though the bouncers were supposed to. That was the rule—the fights were laid out in advance. There were never surprises like this.
    The surprise was a member of the LoV MC—and he was gunning for Bishop. Bishop hadn’t even known he’d been fighting an LoV member—Keller kept them away from him because of the bad blood between their MCs.
    There weren’t many LoV that hung around here, but enough to keep Bishop on high alert. Just like he was now.
    “My fucking brother,” the LoV howled, pointing to the unconscious man on the ground. He pulled out a knife and circled Bishop, both of them stepping over the bodies of the prone men on the ground.
    The crowd roared at this turn of events. As much as they liked it when Bishop won, they also liked this added competition, the pissed-off look on Bishop’s face...and the smile on Keller’s.
    So it wasn’t planned, but it worked to Keller’s advantage—it would show the compound what happened to people who didn’t follow the rules.
    Bishop let the LoV circle him, swiping the knife back and forth, waiting for Bishop to jump away. But Bishop stood his ground, never taking his eyes from the man’s. And that made the guy falter a little, because he was probably thinking, “Who doesn’t get scared of a knife being shoved at him?”
    Bishop guessed he didn’t. And he was also tired and bored and wanted to get the hell out of there. He moved forward, grabbed the LoV’s wrist and disarmed him. He glanced at Keller, who nodded mildly, before driving the knife cleanly through the man’s carotid. The crowd gasped, then screamed...and then the motherfuckers started to clap, like this was some kind of amazing event. Like Bishop hadn’t just killed an MC man for approaching him in the ring unauthorized.
    Like Keller hadn’t orchestrated the whole fucking thing as a test of Bishop’s loyalty.
    Bishop forced himself to pass, every single time. Accepted his fate as gracefully as he could, even as he wiped the blood from his hands.
    The ref called the fight in Bishop’s favor, raised his arm above his head for several seconds as the crowd cheered. People won a lot of money because of Bishop, so they were more than happy to be happy for him.
    Until several more LoV members jumped into the ring. The crowd screamed—Bishop barely had time to look toward Keller for approval to take out these assholes before the riots began.
    But Keller shook his head no. That meant, fight them off but no more killing. And so he did. In the background, he heard shots fired to the ceiling. He was pretty sure there’d be tear gas set off at any moment if the warning shots