Veiled Spirits

Before Archer can ask me any other questions, the door pushes open behind Bishop. He quickly moves away from it to avoid being squished. Luca steps into the room, his eyes roaming over all of us before settling on me. He stares at me for a long moment without saying anything.

I start to fidget under his intense gaze. Noticing my nervous movements, Luca shakes himself out of whatever thoughts he was lost in. “The gym’s cleared out. I need to change, then I’m ready to spar.”

“Cool. You changing in here?”

He gives me a nod in confirmation. Not saying anything else, I pull open the heavy steel door and step out into the hallway. Bishop and Archer are hot on my heels.

CHAPTER 6

IZZY

When we reach the main gym space, I snort at what I see.

Cain’s doing some sort of punching drill, throwing punches and kicks at empty air. Aggie’s pretending to be his opponent. She’s landing ghostly punches on him and crowing her victory.

Aggie looks up as we enter. I raise my eyebrows to ask her what she’s doing. Aggie shrugs. “I’m bored. It’s not like I have a lot to entertain me, kid.”

Fair enough. Aggie’s been dead a long time. I imagine it gets boring and lonely watching everyone else live their lives while you’re frozen in one moment of time. Subtly dipping my chin, I let her know I heard her.

“Which ring does he want to use?” I ask Archer.

The Poisoned Vine is one of the biggest MMA gyms I’ve seen. It makes sense that it’s owned by the Nightshade Pack, since they’re wealthier than God. The Gallaghers are well off, but I’m not sure even we match them.

Then again, I’m not entirely sure their money comes from legal sources. There are rumors the Nightshades deal in arms and contract killing. Remembering their reputation just makes me angry all over again that Bishop’s been working for them without telling me.

What if he got hurt?

I’m not worth it. I wish he would just realize that.

“Probably the middle one.” Archer points to the ring smack-dab in the center of the gym. I’m doubly glad they cleared out everyone. With where Luca wants to spar, the whole gym would get a front-row seat to my beat down.

“Sounds good,” I respond before striding toward it. I strip off my hoodie as I walk. Having a loose top will just give Luca something to grab on to. He doesn’t need any more advantages over me than he already has.

Someone makes a strangled noise to my right. Turning, I see Cain roving his eyes over my torso. “You’re not wearing a shirt,” he grits out.

“Um. Yeah. I have a sports bra on,” I reply, confused about why he’s staring at me like I’m naked. My high-rise leggings come up to right over my belly button. With my sports bra, there’s, at most, six inches of my torso showing.

The boy needs to get out more if this is what gets him going.

After one last look at my bare midriff, Cain scrubs his hand over his face and turns away. I stare at him for a beat, wondering what his deal is.

“Your neck and shoulders are exposed, Izzy. You’re taunting his wolf,” Bishop informs me helpfully.

My eyes widen in realization.

Whoops.

I totally forgot wolves like to chow down on their mates to show possession. Usually, wolves mark their mate in the crook of the shoulder. My strappy black sports bra definitely shows off my neck and shoulders.

But I don’t have anything else with me to wear. He’s just going to have to deal with it. Shrugging, I continue to the boxing ring. It has a square perimeter blocked off by ropes. I wonder why Luca doesn’t want to spar in the octagon, which is usually used for MMA fighting.

I duck under the ropes to get into the ring. When I straighten, I turn toward the hallway we just came out of.

Luca prowls out of the corridor as I turn. I almost swallow my tongue when I see he’s wearing a pair of blue-and-white fighting shorts and nothing else. The entirety of his tanned torso is on display. My gaze bounces between his huge pecs, starkly defined abs, and the V that peeks out of his shorts.

Holy hell. He’s even bigger and more muscular than I thought.

I’m also distracted by his tattoos. On his left pec, he has a snarling wolf wrapped in vines. The vines have thorns and star-shaped flowers. Luca has more of the spiked vines trailing down his left arm.