Page 28 of Bloom in Darkness

My voice comes out low enough that the people nearest us stop pretending they aren’t listening, but Forrest keeps his hand against my chest. “Caelan will handle him. You know what it would do to him if you climbed in there and finished this for him.”

My feet stay where they are while Danner pushes Caelan backward and tries to crowd him, making him carry more weight through the bad side.

Caelan’s knee buckles enough this time that half the room sees it. My hands curl harder, nails biting into my palms, but Caelan catches the ropes for one second, gets his balance, and lets Danner come in too confident before stepping off-line at the last second, catching his arm, and using the larger man’s forward momentum to drive him shoulder-first into the corner. Danner turns too slowly. Caelan hits him once to the body, once to the jaw, and then again before he can get his guard back up.

Danner drops to one knee, and the referee moves between them while Caelan backs off, breathing harder now. He never looks toward me, but after this many years together, there’s no chance he doesn’t know exactly where I’m standing.

Danner makes the count and gets back up. Stupid bastard. The last minute feels ten times longer than it should, with Danner tired, sloppy, and angry while Caelan is hurting and getting meaner about it, which usually means he’s stopped trying to outwork somebody and started charging them for every mistake.

The bell finally rings with Caelan still standing, which is the only reason I manage to wait for the sound before I’m through the ropes.

The referee is still waving them apart when Caelan turns toward me. One look at my face, and he lifts a hand like he thinks he can negotiate this. “Oh, fuck. Bryn, before you—”

I put one arm behind his back, the other beneath his knees, and lift him straight off the mat before he gets any farther.

Caelan hooks an arm around my shoulders as I carry him into the back corridor. “You know I won.”

“I saw.” His pulse is fast against my neck, his bad leg tensing in my arms every few steps. “I’m still furious.”

“You can manage furious and impressed at the same time.” He shifts, then goes quiet when the movement catches his knee.

I look down when his leg tightens again. “How bad?”

Caelan’s mouth flattens. “I was going to tell you before you kidnapped me in front of half the Forge.”

“You weren’t walking out of there.” I shoulder open the recovery-room door and carry him inside. When Caelan tries to protest, I glare down at him. “You made your point. There was no reason to injure yourself any further.”

The room is barely bigger than a storage closet, but it has a couch, a narrow examination table, a cabinet full of wraps and ice packs, and a bathroom attached to the back wall. I set Caelan down carefully on the couch and crouch in front of him.

Caelan reaches for my shoulder. “Bryn.”

I ignore the warning, cupping both hands around his left knee. “Tell me where.”

“Outside of the joint. Same place as before.”

My fingers move carefully along the edge until his thigh tightens beneath my hand. “There?”

Caelan exhales through his nose. “Yeah. A little.”

“It doesn’t hurt that bad, big guy. I promise.”

I look up and hold his stare until his mouth flattens.

“Fine. Yes, it fucking hurts.”

I take my hands away from his knee. “You could’ve made the old injury worse.”

“It’s irritated. I know what a tear feels like, and this isn’t one.” He catches my wrist and rubs his thumb once over the inside. “Babe. I’m okay.”

“Knowing what a tear feels like isn’t comforting.” I keep glaring at him because it’s easier than admitting how badly watching his knee buckle scared me, some of the tension finally easing when his thumb moves across my skin again.

“It wasn’t supposed to be comforting. Just the truth, Bryn. I’m okay, I promise.”

I stand and head toward the bathroom, ignoring Caelan when he asks where I’m going. By the time I have the water running and two towels pulled from the shelf, he’s figured it out.

“Are you seriously running me a bath?”

“Yes.” I test the temperature again and turn it hotter.