Steele dragged his thumb over his lower lip, his face already full of ideas. "Well, in that case why are you putting panties on? If we're not allowed to take you away from the fight, you gotta make it a bit easier."
I snorted a laugh and shook my head. "I'm sure you'll make it work."
He shrugged, knowing full well my panties would prove exactly zero deterrent when he set his mind to it. Then again, if they knew I was going commando under my oversized hoodie, it'd drive them crazy.
With that evil thought, I stripped my underwear off again and left it on Steele's music stand.
"Come on, Max, we're gonna be late." He grabbed for me, and I laughed, dancing out of his reach on my dangerously high heels. I'd dressed to kill for tonight's fight, wearing my favorite, personalized The Archer hoodie—which fit me like a dress—paired with thigh-high, lace-up, black stiletto boots.
Steele sure as fuck seemed to appreciate the image it cut as I sat on his piano with my legs spread.
We climbed into one of his cars, a cherry-red Corvette that had recently been modified with bulletproof glass, and he took his time kissing me before pulling out of our old mansion. Because the fight was being held at The Laughing Clown, we'd gotten ready at our former residence. Technically it was still ours, but we hadn't spent more than a handful of nights there since that weekend the guys had surprised me with the mountain lodge. That was our home.
The Laughing Clown had recently undergone an extensive refurbishment. Hades had decided to take over a lot of my father's Shadow Grove revitalization projects. Except instead of doing it as a front for embezzlement for sleazy motherfuckers like Bree's dad, the Timberwolves were doing it to run them as actual businesses.
So, the creepy, old abandoned amusement park that had haunted my nightmares way too damn often was getting a facelift and a new name.
Anarchy.
It seemed oddly appropriate, considering the crowd it'd attracted for Archer's fight. Steele and I made our way through the costumed spectators, and I couldn't wipe the smile from my face. I knew Halloween was just a good excuse for a party—and therefore, alcohol sales as well as sales in the less legal side of gang business—but the Timberwolves were really doing me a favor with this fight night.
Closure was a beautiful thing. Being able to attend Archer's fight, knowing everything we'd been through in the two years since Riot Night, it was cathartic. The fact that Steele was at my side, his fingers tightly linked with mine, made it all the better.
"We should have reserved seats," Steele told me, his lips against my ear so he could be heard over the crowd and thumping music. Everyone was crazy hyped up for this fight, and the excitement was infectious.
Archer hadn't taken any fights since canceling the one after he was shot. He'd been offered plenty, sure, but he'd turned them all down. His official line was that he was still recovering, but I suspected he was just enjoying himself without the pressure of a looming fight to train for. Certainly, he'd healed quickly from his injuries, and Kody had been kicking his ass around our new home gym enough.
The boys had taken it on themselves to train me in just about every possible martial-arts and self-defense technique they knew, but I had no desire to try my luck in the octagon. That was all Archer's domain.
Steele and I found our front-row seats, emblazoned with The Archer's two corporate sponsors—Brilliance Diamonds and KJ-Fit.
Music started pounding through the speakers louder than the before, and a heavy death-metal tune announced the first of the fighters into the cage. He was a big guy, strongly muscled and sporting a full-back Timberwolf tattoo.
When Archer had been approached about the fight by Zed, he'd laughed and mocked the Timberwolf second that it was going to be embarrassing when he kept wiping the floor with their guys. Yet he couldn't turn it down. Not here, not on such a meaningful anniversary.
Still, I suspected this guy was going to give him a good run for his money.
The overly dramatic commentator did his bit to intro the Timberwolf fighter, and a huge section of the crowd went nuts for the big guy. Apparently, he also had a promising career in the professional MMA circuit. Hades had been aiming for star power to launch Anarchy, that was for sure.
Then Archer's intro music started, and my grin spread so wide I could barely contain it.
"I fucking love this song!" I needed to yell to be heard over the deafening roar of Archer's supporters, and Steele just gave me a self-conscious smile back. He knew how much I loved it, though, and just watched me with adoration in his eyes as I danced around to his tune, which he'd licensed to an up-and-coming rock band out of Hollywood.
It'd taken a bit of convincing for Steele to go main-stream, but the lead singer was the older brother of one of Seph's school friends. When I'd heard them play, I’d known they'd do justice to Steele's compositions.
Kody entered the fight cage with Archer to give him the usual pep talk, then he took Arch’s hat and hoodie from him. Archer's eyes were locked on me from the moment he entered my line of sight, though, and my heart swelled to bursting with sheer pride for my guys.
I blew him a kiss as the commentator rattled off the intro stats and whipped the crowd up into a screaming frenzy. He just winked back at me. A promise for later, after he'd won the fight.
Kody climbed out of the octagon and came over to where Steele and I waited, then greeted me with a long, passionate kiss. His hand firmly gripped my ass through the hoodie, and he groaned against my lips.
"Fuck me, you look so damn hot I'm tempted to drag you into the bathrooms before this fight even starts, babe." He was only halfway joking, and I knew it all too well. "This hair... Holy crap, I didn't know it was possible for you to be more breathtaking."
My eyes narrowed at him. "Not tonight, Casanova. I'm here for the fight. You can all fuck me senseless later."
Kody huffed a laugh and released his grip on me, but he kept his arm around my waist loosely. "I'll hold you to that, gorgeous."
I licked my lips, grinning as I met Archer's intense stare once more. He bounced on his toes, throwing warm-up punches, but his attention was all on me. We could have been in an empty warehouse for all he noticed the crowd of spectators.
"Go," I urged Kody, pushing him back toward Archer, "help him win this so we can celebrate."
He kissed me again but did as he was told. He turned his KJ-Fit cap backward as he strode around the cage to Archer, laser-focused on the job at hand.
"Wanna take bets?" Steele murmured as I sat back down beside him when the referee started the fight. We both knew the first part would just be Archer testing out his opponent, checking his speed and weaknesses, so we saved our energy for when it heated up.
I snorted a laugh. "We're not betting on Archer to lose, you asshole."
He just smirked. "You never know; Jimbo is a tough cookie and Arch is out of practice. The big bad wolf might mop the floor with your Sunshine."
I just rolled my eyes. "Jimbo. What a stupid name for a gang-affiliated UFC fighter. And Archer's hardly out of practice with how hard he's been training." He'd also had several mock fights at our mountain lodge with a few of UFC's greatest, so yeah, I was pretty confident he had this fight against Jimbo in the bag.