Page 142 of Dark Little Game

The way everything falls in place when I have a reason to fight.

I see a flash of movement from the other side of the yard and someone comes out from behind the trees.

My heart drops when I see that it’s Rayne.

No.

Don’t be here.

Not for this.

“Hunter,stop.”

I don’t know if he heard what the guys said about him, but there’s nothing that is going to stop me now.

I get to the group before Rayne does.

And the tall guy at the center of the group who called Rayne a “scholarship case?”

He doesn’t know how lucky he’s about to be.

He’sluckybecause I decide to leave my knife in my pocket. Heat flashes through my body as I close the distance between us, going in fast.

My knuckles hit his skin before he can even react.

The flash of pain is sudden, like anold friend.

The punch I land on the side of his face ismerciful.

My fist connects with his cheek and upper jaw, and I catch him off guard so badly that he stumbles backward, his back hitting the big grill behind him.

“Thefuck, man?” one of the other guys says.

Right as I land the second punch.

“Say it again,” I roar at the guy as he sits his ass down on the ground, his hand sliding in the fresh snow.

I’m over him a moment later, keeping him pinned.

Blood rushes in my ears.

I feel every beat of my heart as my pulse quickens.

And Irelishit.

The other guys are surrounding us, making feeble attempts to pull me off, but they don’t have a clue how to do it.

“Hunter,” Rayne says from beside me.

“Fucking say it again. I dare you to say it,” I’m telling the guy below me.

These guys bitched.

Gossiped.

But they have no sense of what a real fight is like.

The guy under me glances up at Rayne, then back to me, and finally, the pieces start to come together beneath his thick skull.