Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Shadow: I’m the rock of my club. The mild mannered one with a quick wit. But there’s a reason they call me Shadow, and it’s not the color of my skin or the way I blend into the night, so no one can see death coming. There’s a darkness in my soul. A rage that sometimes burns out of control. But then I meet my little Millie. She’s fierce in a tiny package. Can probably even take me in a fight. And I want her desperately.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter One
“They call her The Russian,” Venus said as they walked into the underground garage where fights had been set up for the night. “Is different from fight Samson fought with Fury couple years back. This one’s fight-until-you-lose kind of thing.”
Word was there was a fighter who hadn’t been beaten since she’d started. Venus was convinced this woman was her sister. “Have you seen her fight?” Shadow asked.
“Nyet. But Data said his wife, Zora, made positive ID through Russian hacker friend.” Venus shrugged. “I’ll know soon.”
Shadow just grinned and shook his head, following Venus into the fray. It wasn’t like the woman was inconspicuous or anything. She dressed from head to toe in hot pink. Her hair and nails and lips were pink, as well as her bike. Her fucking eyes were pink. That and her accent, and she stood out something fierce. Shadow didn’t mind, though. Made it easier for him to blend in. He was fucking big but disappearing in a crowd or in the shadows was his specialty. It was how he’d gotten his road name. Not because he was a very dark-skinned African American. Because he could just vanish when he wanted to. Right in plain sight. Having such a flamboyant traveling companion made it that much easier.
The crowd let up a roar in celebration as the announcer called the end of the match. There were angry shouts but not the killing rage like he’d experienced when Fury’s ol’ lady had kicked Shadow’s ass. He smiled remembering that night. Yeah, they’d almost died, but Shadow could just imagine the shocked silence that followed him hitting the mat like a big fucking tree being felled.
As they approached the ring, Shadow scanned the place, looking for the girl in question. He had no idea who he was looking for, but he figured he’d know her when he saw her. The Russian. Right.
“Look,” Venus said, her voice barely above a whisper. Had he not been so close to her, Shadow wasn’t sure he’d have heard her. “There she is.” The woman looked proud as a motherfucker. Her smile was carnivorously, viciously gleeful. Shadow couldn’t blame her. “My little sister, Lyudmila.”
“Handful of a name,” Shadow commented as he sized the girl up.
“Handful of a girl.” Venus grinned. “Always was. I called her Millie just to piss her off, but it stuck.”
The man they carried out of the ring wasn’t as big as Shadow, but he was just as muscular. That wasn’t the issue, though. The woman who’d fought him stood in the corner of the ring, braced on one hand against the turnbuckle, her hip cocked. She had short-cropped hair dyed in several shades of blue from a pale turquoise to nearly black. In her other hand, she had a joint she pulled from occasionally while they cleaned up the mess behind her. And she might have been five feet tall. Maybe. If she were in heels.
Shadow felt his face split into a big grin. “Wee little thing.”
“Don’t let size fool you. She packs punch.” Venus couldn’t have sounded more proud.
The little thing wore a black vest and black pants. Both looked to be leather. Both were studded with silver spikes at the seams and around her waist. Matching black wristbands accompanied the vest and pants, as well as a studded dog collar. She wore dark makeup over her pale skin so that around her eyes was blackened, and her cheeks were highlighted in a very dark blue that matched her lipstick. Rounding up the outfit were thick black boots. All in all, very Goth.
With that outfit, Shadow expected loads of piercings and tats but saw none. Not even a piercing in her delicate earlobes. The closer he got, the more she appealed to him. He couldn’t help but grin. “I think I’m in love with your sister, Venus. Just throwing that out there.”
Venus chuckled, but there was no humor in the sound. “Good luck with that.”
The announcer laid out the next round, though Shadow wasn’t paying much attention. He was sizing up the young woman in front of him. She was younger than Venus but seemed harder. Like she’d love nothing more than to take a motherfucker out just because she’d had a bad morning.
Her opponent ducked into the ring, and they closed the cage door, locking them both in. The man she was supposed to fight this time was smaller. Leaner and shorter, but he held himself like he knew what he was doing. He didn’t waste time showboating or playing up the crowd. He just assumed a boxer’s stance and danced from foot to foot waiting on the call to battle. Millie just stood there, her back to him, calmly taking another hit from her joint.
The instant the bell rang, the man charged. Millie whirled around just as he bore down on her, shoving the lit end of her joint in his eye. The man screamed in agony, covering his eye with both hands and shuffling backward so abruptly that he fell on his ass. Millie pounced, straddling his chest, pinning his arms with her knees as she proceeded to pound the now defenseless man into the mat. Blood sprayed where her fists connected with his nose. The man didn’t offer any defense after the first three or four blows, and the ref finally pulled Millie off him. She calmly walked back to her corner to stand, again facing away from the center.