Read Two To Go: Bayou Heat (Pantera Security League Book 2) for Free Online Page B

filled with disapproval. “You whine like a baby.”
    There was a muttered curse from Larry as he hauled himself to his feet.
    “Think you’re tough, bitch?” he snapped.
    Max thought about being pissed for the verbal cut the asshole had sent her way, but truly he felt more pity for the guy. He was about to get axed. Like sliced down the middle and put in a hole.
    Elyon raised her hand, wiggling her fingers in invitation. Larry didn’t disappoint. Without pondering the inevitable consequences, he tried to wrap her in his huge arms. For a few seconds, Elyon allowed it to happen, wanting to be close enough to reach down and grab him by the balls.
    For the space of a second, Larry grinned, unaware that he’d just lumbered into a trap.
    Then Elyon squeezed her fingers and the man shrieked at a shrill octave that nearly burst Max’s eardrums.
    “So you tell me, bubba,” Elyon said with a smug smile. “Do you think I’m tough?”
    The man continued to scream as Max vaulted out of the ring and landed next to her.
    “Elyon, don’t play with them,” he chided.
    She sent him an overly innocent glance. “But it’s so much fun.”
    “You’re getting blood everywhere.” He shook his head, his lips twitching. “And we haven’t finished your tour.”
    “Fine.”
    She heaved a sigh, released her grip on the man’s swollen ’nads and kicked him aside. Instantly Larry crumpled into a pile of quivering pain. Right next to his cousin who was still trying to stop the gush of blood from his nose.
    Max shook his head, moving to lay a hand on Elyon’s lower back.
    “Come on, Rocky, the cages are this way,” he said, steering her toward the heavy steel doors on the far end of the gym.
    Wiping a splatter of blood off her chin, Elyon fell into step beside him. She wasn’t even breathing hard, Max noticed. Damn. Kickass, and sexy as hell. A lethal combination. In all his time in captivity, he hadn’t met a Pantera female. This one was truly something else, and he couldn’t deny his overwhelming attraction to her.
    “We need to get out of here,” she whispered as he pushed open the doors and they stepped into the large, open space. Around the walls were rows of bleachers and in the center was a raised floor surrounded by ten-foot netting. At one time there had actually been steel cages, but as the sport became a million-dollar business, the sponsors of the matches had started to take care to ensure their best fighters weren’t accidentally injured during a battle.
    The smell of bleach hit him first, revealing that they’d already cleaned the area, although the lingering stench of old blood and sweat could still be detected. As if it’d been embedded in the very fabric of the room. He recoiled as he always did. The fucking smell…
    “I can’t leave,” he told her, leading her to the edge of the cage.
    She leaned forward, pretending to study the heavy mat. “Together we can get past any guards,” she said. “Unless Victor has some secret security system?”
    Max released a short laugh. “I’m not worried about the guards,” he assured her. “And I’m sure the hell not worried about Victor. I could’ve left this shithole any time.”
    She sent him a puzzled glance. “Seriously? Then why do you want to stay?”
    Want to stay? He almost laughed. Bitter and rage-filled. He was desperate to escape. But the price was far too high.
    Although the gym wasn’t nearly as bad as the torture he’d suffered in Benson’s lab, he hated every minute of it. The isolation. The brutal fights. The knowledge that the minute he left his loft apartment upstairs he was constantly on camera.
    It wore his nerves raw.
    But from the age of fifteen, he’d accepted that his life would no longer be his own.
    “They have my parents,” he said.
    She straightened, eying him with an unreadable expression. “How long?”
    “For years now. Too many goddamn years.”
    She exhaled heavily. “Where?”
    He shrugged. “In New