"It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight. Risin' up to the challenge of our rival." - Survivor, Eye of the Tiger

The Beast.

The group of men circled Kai, like a pack of ravenous dogs circling a wounded cat, just waiting for the moment to lunge in and tear the outnumbered animal apart. My eyes searched all around for someone to come and help him. Kai had the advantage of height, but I had seen large men who couldn't move quickly, and were immediately swarmed and overtaken. I turned to dart down the street from where we had come, in order to find help, but another stray outlaw slipped from the shadows. He cut off my path and snickered, the silver of his capped tooth catching the dim streetlights. It glimmered like a lone star among a silent, tense sky.

"Going somewhere, little one?" he asked in a high-pitched voice that made me wonder if his balls had dropped yet from puberty. He looked close to forty, with a rounding belly and a trademark Fu Manchu mustache that hung past the collar of his thick leather jacket. He reached out and snatched my arm with his grubby little hand, clenching his fingertips into the fabric and causing me to yelp. He snapped me around, pressing his front into my back and whispered into my ear, "You're gonna watch your friend get his ass handed to him."

My eyes flitted around to our surroundings, my brain working a million miles a minute to devise a plan for getting us both out of there safely. Like a lion, Kai flexed his arms as he readied himself, and you could almost envision his thick wall of muscles rippling with each precise movement. His massive body steadied and his feet planted strategically with one slightly in front of the other, keeping him effectively on balance. Those firm hands that were so gentle as he stroked my skin affectionately, curled into mighty balls.

In a split second, the first man lunged and Kai tactically grabbed his forearm and whirled him around, sending him crashing into the brick wall of the nearby alley. I bit my bottom lip as the next two men lunged, fists flying. Kai looked like a glorious Goliath, all poised and unstoppable.

His fist connected with the first man, knocking him to the ground. Kai's large boot planted itself into his chest, holding him down and he sent a furious blow into the other man's stomach, doubling him over. With one man distracted, Kai began raining down punch after punch on the man who had been previously held hostage by his large black boot. Blow after blow, and I could feel the outlaw holding me tense up. He was worried, and it afforded me the opportunity to catch him off guard.

As Kai beat on the men without breaking a sweat, like a vicious boxer in the ring, I shifted my weight and reached back. Snagging the outlaw's crotch in my hand, I twisted and he let out a sharp, unsuspecting scream. Digging my fingernails into the jean material of his heavy duty pants, I gave it a final twist, as I pivoted my weight and slipped under his imposing grip. Face to face with Mustache Man, I levied a blow of my own. Pulling my leg back, I thrust my foot directly into his bulging gut, causing him to stagger backwards. Turning to the side, I rammed my elbow into his chest, which knocked the wind out of him, throwing him helplessly to the ground.

Jumping on Mustache, I straddled his chest and I punched him in the nose several times. The sound of bone cracking under my delicate knuckles pierced my eardrums, but I halted when the thick river of blood spewed from the cut across the bridge of his nose, coating my knuckles in crimson.

A huff from behind me caused me to snap my head in Kai's direction, as I watched one of the outlaws land a pretty sizable blow of his own to the side of Kai's beautiful face. Like waving a red flag in front of a charging bull, there was nothing I wanted more than to enact my own special brand of fight onto the man who had hurt the guy I was falling in desperate love with.

Wait... My brain paused, as my heart tried to catch up. Frantically beating with excitement and worry, had I just confessed to myself, while straddling a gross excuse for an outlaw, that I was falling in love?

Rachel Palmiero. In love... In soul shattering love with someone I had just met.

Another blow landed across Kai's chest, snapping me out of my temporary loss for words and movement. Looking at the unconscious outlaw beneath me, I turned and crawled off him and stood. Tracking the movements of the fight with my eyes, I almost didn't see the first outlaw, finally make his way out of the alley.

The light bounced off the blade of the knife he held in his small hand. He staggered for a few moments, right before he smiled deviously, and stalked towards Kai's unsuspecting back. Mere inches away from stabbing the boy I didn't think I could do without, I reacted. I snatched up the first thing I could get my hands on and ran.

I ran like I had never ran before. Just a few short steps, but time seemed to tick on forever. Everything was in slow motion, as my hand raised and in a swift, fluid motion, I smashed the half empty, discarded bottle of Jack Daniels across the side of the man's face.

I used all my weight in that one swing. The crashing of the dark colored glass as it made contact with his skin, boomed above the commotion of the fight. Kai's face snapped in my direction, as the outlaw with the long blade dropped to his knees, a giant gash across his face now spurting blood and bits of glass. The knife dropped to the ground with a clank, and Kai used the opportunity to barrel into the remaining outlaw with his bloodied fists.

Standing there, I tried to catch my breath. Kai slowly turned and met my gaze, as we stood in the middle of the forgotten bodies of our foes.

"Holy shit!" he proclaimed, as he looked down at the broken glass neck of the bottle in my hand.

He reached over and pried the jagged section of glass from my death grip and let it drop to the ground. I closed my eyes, as my heart beat frantically in my chest. I felt his soft touch across my skin, bringing me back to the present.

"Queenie?" His deep voice soothed my fearful ears. Ears not fearful because of the altercation, but because of my own feelings. "Are you ok?" he asked, as he cupped the side of my face.

I nodded my head, keeping my eyes closed for just a minute more. If I looked at him right now, I would be lost. Lost in that forest of green, unable to rationally think. I couldn't afford to not be able to rationally think. We had just had a fight with outlaws from a different club. I was supposed to be laying low, and not bringing undue attention down on my family.

My dad was going to kill me.

Finally inhaling a deep breath, I opened my eyes. Kai leaned down and pulled me close to him. My hands gripped the wool of his torn coat, as I held onto his firm body, pressing him against me like he was a security blanket that I needed in order to keep the nightmares away.

He pulled away from me and tugged me around the corner, away from the evidence of our fight. Out of sight, he started to check me over to make sure I was unharmed.

"I'm ok," I stated, as I pushed his worried hands away. I locked eyes with him and could see that he was just as shell-shocked as I was. "What happened back there?" I asked, hoping that it was an easy explanation.

"Stupid club shit," he admitted and I shot a glare in his direction. Briefly giving in, he continued, "That one dude, Smiley, has been gunning for me for a while. His Prez warned him to not cause shit, but when you got a beef, sometimes it's hard to let shit go."

"Those are the same colors that Cecelia's boyfriend wears," I stated. I had caught a glimpse of the winking devil and dice patches when Barrett had picked Cecelia up from school. I always stored stuff like that in my bank of random information, because you never knew when something would be useful to solve a dilemma.

"Devil's Henchmen. Rotten's... I mean Barrett's father's the Prez."

"Barrett is Devil's son?" I asked in shock. I had heard stories of the old days back in Ireland, when my father and uncle used to sell guns to the infamous Sean "Devil" James. He was one of the reasons why my father felt that this coast was suitable when making the immigration several years before I was born.

You kept close to those you had connections to. What was the old saying? Keep friends close, but enemies closer? Well, the same was true for men who could easily be your friend one moment, then your mortal enemy the next. In this life, it didn't take much to make men turn on one another. Money and power, but most importantly, the love of money and power. Leave it to the Irish to be able to take it a step further though, because sometimes, enemies were simply made over one too many pints of the dark ale and an irrational cloud of drunkenness.

"So, that's why you stay out of their areas? Your two clubs don't see eye to eye?" I prodded, and Kai sighed. He didn't want to expose things that were privy to only his club, but he also didn't want me to turn and walk away because he was keeping secrets.

"I stay out of their areas because shit like this is always bound to happen. My father's not the kind of man who takes shit lyin' down. Just like Devil. Neither one wants the other in their territory, and we've been buttin' heads with them since our club opened up over by the Bluff."

"And now your dating another problem," I stated and Kai looked over at me in confusion. "You know who my dad is right?"

"Yeah, I do. I'm not gonna lie to you and say I don't," he admitted.

I exhaled a sharp breath. Deep in my gut I had felt the warning signs. The signs to stay away from Kai. The words left my lips before I could stop them, "So, is that why you pursued me? You wanted to kick the Henchmen in the gut by dating their biggest ally's daughter?"

Kai let out a sharp laugh, as he inched closer, pressing his strong body against mine to keep me firmly locked in place against the brick wall of the dark alley. "Is that what you think, gorgeous girl? I might have been intrigued when I heard your name, but I don't feel what I feel because of how much this will piss off a club I've got a beef with."

"What exactly do you feel?' I asked in a whisper.

He didn't respond, he just pressed his lips firmly against mine, letting the warmth of his fiery kiss tell me all I needed to know. I wasn't ready to admit out loud that I was falling for him, and he wasn't ready for me to hear that he felt the same. I didn't care about the heap of trouble I was going to be in when word got out that I hurt men who had an alliance with my father. I just cared about the boy with the broken knuckles. The one who had let me save him for a change.

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A/N: Hey!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Don't forget to vote and leave any comments (no matter what they are)

A few of you had faith that Rachel would kick ass and take names, so hopefully, you weren't disappointed. Kai also handles himself pretty well.

So, Kai admits to bad blood between his club (the Nightmare Assassins) and the Devil's Henchmen. Do you believe him when he says that he's not dating Rachel just to stick it to them?

<3 Amina