Kicker (DS Fight Club Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

care, if not more, as he did with Tig’s wrappings.
    “Nice score with Fight of the Night, Mashburn,” Pierce said.
    “Thanks.”
    “Tell Dig congratulations on his win, too.”
    Tig barked a laugh. “Oh, hell no. You want to talk to Dig, you do it yourself. Jesus Christ.” Tig shook his head in disbelief. Barely eight months before, Pierce had broken Dig’s arm severely enough that the doctors had thought it was a career-ending injury. Matters got even worse a few months later when Pierce broke Colin’s jaw and snapped his arm during what was supposed to be an exposition fight. Thank goodness both Dig and Colin’s bodies had healed, but the rift between Pierce and the fighters of DS Fight Club had not mended
    “Where you fighting out of these days?” Tig asked.
    Pierce shook his head. “Nowhere. Here.” He looked like he was going to say something else, but he stopped himself in time.
    “That feel okay?” Ryan asked Pierce.
    “Yeah, that feels good. Thanks. Hey, man, no—”
    Ryan waved Pierce off. “Ain’t no thing, man. Ain’t no thing.”
    Pierce flexed his hands and cracked his neck. “Thanks again. Tig, good luck out there.”
    “You, too.”
    Tig and Ryan watched Pierce walk away and push through the crowd.
    “You ever get the idea that that dude’s a whole lot more complicated than he seems?” Ryan mused as he traded wraps for bandages.
    Tig huffed a laugh. “Yeah. Yeah, I think he just might be.”
    *****
    Because Tig had won Fight of the Night in a legitimate fight the night before, instead of going on near the beginning of the card, he went on next to last, which gave him plenty of time to watch the crowd and see who was actually at the fight.
    Most of the usual suspects—namely thefighters and that ass Carter—were in attendance, but there were two surprising faces: Jett Raptor and Tom, a guy that Tig recognized as the matchmaker from Raptor Pryde, as well as some other men that looked more like scouts than anything.
    What the hell were they doing here? Had Raptor returned to recruiting from the underground fight circuit?
    He shook his head to clear it. He needed to concentrate on this fight as opposed to letting his mind run amok with increasingly implausible scenarios.
    “Mashburn. You’re up next,” Carter bellowed.
    Tig cracked his neck and headed down to the makeshift octagon to take care of business.
    *****
    Tig did not get out of the construction yard until after the last fight because, unlike the usual procedure, all the fighters had to wait until the very end to receive their winnings.
    That meant that Tig was a wreck. Every single one of his senses pinged with warnings, and even more so because of the prevalence of unfamiliar faces at the fight.
    Carter put a thick envelope in Tig’s hand, but he did not look happy as he glanced toward Raptor. Tig huffed a laugh and was tempted to give his former trainer the finger, but refrained, at least for the time being.
    “Let’s go. Go, go, go. We gotta move, Tig.” Ryan shoved Tig in front of him, walking so quickly that he forced Tig to trot.
    “What is going on, Goody?”
    “Shit’s about to get real, Tig. Please tell me you didn’t park your truck in the lot. . . .”
    “Nah. I parked around the corner. Didn’t want to risk getting completely blocked in. But I didn’t get my—”
    “Doesn’t matter. We gotta go. I’m right here. Get in.” Ryan unlocked the door, climbed in the car, and glared at Tig.
    “Damn, all right, Goody,” Tig muttered, reluctantly getting in the car. He had barely closed the door before Ryan sped away. “What the fuck is going on?”
    And then they heard the sirens.
    “That’s what’s going on, Tig. Place was about to raided.”
    “Holy shit. How did you know?”
    Ryan looked uncomfortable and just shook his head.
    “How much did you bet, Tig?”
    “What?”
    Ryan heaved a big sigh. “How much did you bet? You bet on yourself, right? How much?” Ryan cut his eyes to the man in