Dn nced at him for a few seconds, then looked away, totally uninterested. "Never seen him before."
ra was even more confused. Never seen him before?
Then why was this guy so scared of him?
Grayson tried to put on a brave face, but he was still kneeling on the ground, frozen with fear.
ra saw how rattled he was and couldn''t help herself. "Why don''t you drag those bodies a little farther away and take a breather beforeing back in?"
Grayson was out of the cave in a sh, practically crawling on his knees—faster than a snake.
ra heard the noise outside and figured he was moving the bodies. She leaned back against the wall, settling in for a little rest.
After dragging the corpses about a hundred meters away, Grayson hovered at the cave entrance, not daring to step inside again.<fn5bde> Chapters first released on FιndNovel</fn5bde>
He''d already finished all his food and was starving. Nights here got seriously cold —if he left without a n, he might not survive. But with that grim reaper inside, he was too scared to go back in, either.
His mind drifted back to when he first met ra at an underground fight club. Back then, he was just tagging along, betting on matches-basic strategy, really, since ra always seemed to pick the winner.
He raked in a pile of cash just by copying her bets. His allowance was almost gone, but that night, he nearly won twenty million. He got so excited, he hugged ra-just once. But in the next match, the fighter they backed chickened out at thest minute, and someone else stepped in.
The new guy wore a mask. No one could see his face.
For several matches after that, ra didn''t bet on the neer, but he kept winning anyway.
ra had looked puzzled, like she had no clue who the guy was.
Grayson thought it was weird, too. Where did this guye from? He wasn''t on any of the fight lists, and suddenly he was in the ring, unstoppable.
Eventually, ra seemed to lose interest. She tossed her chips on the table and left, but Grayson couldn''t just walk away-not when he was so close to winning that kind of money. He waited until the masked guy left the ring and then snuck backstage, hoping to bribe him to throw a fight.
He''d barely turned a dark corner when someone grabbed him by the throat, nearly choking him out.
The man''s grip was like steel, his eyes cold and emotionless. "Stay away from her."
Grayson''s legs nearly gave out. Who was this guy? When he got a closer look at the man''s fight gear and caught the scent of blood, he realized it was the same nightmare from the ring.
It felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. Grayson could barely breathe. He was sure he was about to die.
At thest second, the man threw him against the wall. Pain shot through his whole body, and he scrambled backward, terrified.
"What the hell is your problem? I just met her tonight! I only bet the same way she did. I only found out her name was ra tonight."
He''d just wanted to make some easy money and thought ra was cool to hang out with. No way did he expect to run into this psycho.
Grayson was a Bolton, after all—the Boltons were a big deal in North America, and they even had ties to the Fergusons. Who would dare treat him like this?
He''d never been pushed around like that before, so he tried to follow the guy.
That''s when he saw him take off his mask. Underneath, the guy was actually really good-looking.
Even Grayson had to admit it. But the memory of that vicious fighting and the way the guy''s eyes almostnded on him-he was so freaked out he nearly pissed himself.
He never got over that close call. Sometimes he wondered what the hell he was thinking, following that guy.
After that, he never went back to the fight club. He didn''t even dare contact ra, afraid that nightmare would show up again.
He never thought he''d run into that same monster, yearster, in this godforsaken ce.
Those old fights had messed him up for good.
Now, he just paced back and forth at the cave entrance, too scared to go inside.