"I got blindsided by the first one. Before I realized it, they were on me."

"I hope you sent them limping away."

"Pretty much." But not before taking a good dose of punishment, which maybe he'd had coming. "Now let's talk about you."

Cannon shook his head. "I'm not done with you yet." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Who and why?"

d.a.m.n it, he didn't want to get into this. He couldn't get into it. "I was snooping, if you have to know."

"Snooping where?"

Near your house. "Let's just say I suspected a lady was being used by a sc.u.mbag p.r.i.c.k who isn't good enough for her."

Snorting, Cannon said, "Using, as in the way you use-"

"Hey, I'm always up front about avoiding monogamy." Bragging a little, he added, "And we both know the ladies use me in return."

Since he couldn't deny that, Cannon said only, "Go on."

"This lady is different."

One of Cannon's brows went up. "Meaning?"

Yeah, dumba.s.s. Explain that one. Armie took a minute to swab his face again with the towel. "You know what I'm saying."

"She's a nice girl?"

Real nice. The nicest. Too d.a.m.n nice to get used. "Something like that."

The other brow joined the first as Cannon studied him. "Since when do you concern yourself over nice girls?"

"Hey, I don't sleep with them, but doesn't mean I want them abused."

Cannon kept staring at him.

"What, d.a.m.n it?"

"I'm trying to picture you as a white knight, but the image isn't coming together. Too much rust in the metal."

"f.u.c.k you." Disgruntled over the interruption, Armie huffed. "You want to hear it or not?"

"I'm all ears."

Lying a.s.shole. He was all grins and hara.s.sment. "So I was doing some surveillance-"

"Alone?"

He worked his jaw. "Interrupt one more time and I swear to G.o.d-"

Cannon gestured for him to continue.

"I was alone, checking up on things, and I guess the b.a.s.t.a.r.d saw me. Only instead of facing me man to man, he sent his buddies after me. One of them hit me in the back of the head hard enough that I f.u.c.king saw stars and-"

Cannon grabbed his ear, using it to twist him so he could investigate.

"G.o.dd.a.m.n it, Cannon." Flinching, Armie tensed all over. His head still felt like it might fracture into pieces and his temples pulsed. "Lighten up."

"Stop whining." Cannon searched through his hair, pressed, whistled low and let him go. "You sure you don't have a concussion?"

"I might after you manhandling me!" Smoothing his hair back over the ma.s.sive goose egg, Armie grimaced again. "I don't know what they hit me with, but it left me stunned long enough for them to knock me to the ground." Amid a bunch of heavy boots and bad intentions.

"They didn't kill you," Cannon said, "so I a.s.sume you caught your wind?"

More like instincts had taken over and he'd done what had to be done to survive. Muscle memory could often be a lifesaver. "Yeah. I kicked out a knee." That guy would be limping for a good long while. "Nutted the other f.u.c.k."

"Good for you."

"The third nearly stove in my ribs before I caught his foot and got him down on the ground with me." And then Armie had made him regret the error of his ways.

Remembering brought him a little satisfaction. He cracked his aching knuckles.

"Give me some names."

Oh, s.h.i.t, Cannon sounded calmly furious-which boded well for no one. "Let it go. It's my business."

That perked him up. "Personal?" And then with more disbelief, "Over a woman?"

Armie gave him a dead stare. "Yeah, imagine that."

Shaking his head, Cannon said, "Can't."

The antagonism cracked, and Armie ended up laughing. Seriously, he did not get that involved, had no interest in a relationship and avoided nice ladies as though they had thorns. "Yeah, me either. Let's just say I felt like busting some heads and almost got caught up in more than I could handle."

"Four against one sucks."

"It wasn't that bad."

Cannon did that d.a.m.ned annoying quiet perusal of his, dragging it out until Armie felt like stomping away.

Finally he said, "I wouldn't mind busting some heads, too."

Dressed and showered after his workout, headed for the front door, Stack heard Cannon and paused beside them. "Whose heads are we busting?"

Cannon nodded at Armie. "The ones that did that to him."

Snorting, Stack said, "I think it was his last dating duo that put an a.s.s-whooping on him." With deliberate provocation, he asked Armie, "You tell Cannon about the lady's whip?"

"Whip?"

Armie rolled his eyes. "I already told you that was just a prop."

Cannon turned from Armie to Stack. "Let's hear it."

"The night of your fight we had a party here to watch. Armie left with a couple of women who seemed more into each other than him."

"Appearances are obviously deceiving," Armie said with smug satisfaction.

"The one chick had a whip in her belt." Stack grinned hugely. "Kinky."

"Only seems kinky the first time," Armie told him, totally deadpan.

Cannon turned back to Armie. "The two you mentioned?"

"Yeah, so? They liked it enough they returned for an encore."

"You didn't tell me about the whip."

"Because it didn't mean anything. It was like... I don't know. Jewelry or something."

Stack laughed. "Says the man who's now beat all to h.e.l.l and back."

Cannon narrowed his eyes. "He says four guys did that to him."

d.a.m.n it! "Big mouth. Did I say to announce it?" Armie didn't need his private business spread around.

Stack whistled low. "No s.h.i.t? Well, h.e.l.l, man, if we're retaliating, count me in."

"There you go," Cannon offered.

"Four against three? Since when do we gang up on idiots? It'd be a slaughter, and none of us wants that, so forget it." Searching out Yvette with his gaze, Armie found her in the back, fingers laced together, attention rapt as she listened to Denver explaining something to her. The kids, ranging in age from ten to sixteen, studied her wide-eyed. "Enough about me. What's wrong with you?"

As Cannon stared at her, he started breathing deeper. "Nothing."

"Yeah, right." It was all Armie could do not to laugh. "You look like you're going to jump her bones any second."

To Armie's surprise, Cannon growled, locked his hands together behind his neck and paced off toward the reception desk.

Wow. Armie and Stack shared a look.

Knowing Stack was on his way out, Armie said, "I got it."

"Go easy on him."

"That's not what he needs." After Stack nodded and left, Armie went after Cannon. "That bad, huh?"

"f.u.c.king unreal."

Seeing how his friend vibrated with constrained menace, he commiserated. "You did without before the fight, didn't you?"

Cannon didn't have to answer. Armie knew how obsessed he got when prepping for a fight, especially the past few weeks. Despite the urban legend of athletes abstaining, most of the guys he knew never turned down s.e.x. h.e.l.l, propositioned by the right woman, he'd be knocking boots the night before, using s.e.x to shake off the jitters that came with a big fight.

But not Cannon. He was too d.a.m.n selective from the get-go, and when in training he got downright picky. He turned away far more women than he laid.

In that, they were total opposites. It took a very rare woman for Armie to deny himself.

It took an even rarer woman for him to want to defend her honor. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Rather than go down that road and maybe tweak Cannon's interest again, Armie distracted him. "Thinking that way almost cost Gage the girl."

"Harper?"

"Yeah." Everyone knew the two of them were an item-though G.o.d knew Gage had nearly screwed it up. Armie grinned, remembering. "They were here the night of the fights, too, but they were so busy dancing around each other they missed more than they saw." He leaned in, eyebrows bobbing. "Gage dragged her off to the office and they didn't emerge until after your fight had ended. Harper had the look of a well-laid lady, and she agreed to move in with him, so Gage must've made us proud."

Cannon eased up enough to smile. "Good for them."

"Yeah," Armie agreed, but added, "if you're into that whole commitment thing."

"They are."

He agreed again. "Speaking of commitment..." He focused on Yvette. "I think Denver's going to show her a move."

Cannon jerked around so fast, Armie almost got hit with an elbow.

Apparently uncaring that sweat covered Denver's chest, Yvette allowed him to maneuver her into a standing rear naked choke. He put one arm under her chin with his hand on his opposite arm above his elbow, his other hand at the back of her head-in the right position to apply pressure.

Yvette automatically wrapped her hands over the beefy forearm around her neck. "Wow," Armie said, "I can't believe she's-"

Snarling, Cannon strode off.

"d.a.m.n." Seeing the set of Cannon's shoulders, Armie chased after him.

When he reached his side, he said, "You know you're going to make an a.s.s of yourself, right?"

Cannon kept walking without replying.

"Might make an a.s.s of her, too."

He turned on Armie so fast, Armie stepped back.

"Just saying." He held up his hands. "Denver won't hurt her-you know that. No reason to go all King Kong and s.h.i.t."

At that precise moment, they both heard Yvette laughing. They looked up to see Denver sprawled dramatically on the ground while Yvette held his fingers twisted.

"It's not even a real hold," Cannon complained.

Armie couldn't stop grinning. The kids, all of them needy in one way or another, snickered and elbowed each other and all in all had a good time at the absurd display.

Denver pretended to be in agony, which was pretty ridiculous given Yvette now barely held his pinky. She, too, kept laughing, her long hair spilling forward, a very sweet a.s.s on display as she bent toward Denver's supine form.