Shirtless male bartenders mix cocktails behind the counter, and metalheads fill almost every seat. Death metal band posters are plastered over the walls, and the air is thick with the yeasty scent of beer. We make our way through the crowd to a red vinyl booth near the back where Makayla, Sia, and Shilla a.k.a. Shayla are waiting.

    It’s been a long time since I was in a death metal bar, and the loud, heavy beat pulls me out of my funk. I haven’t stopped worrying about Jack ever since Amanda told us Gerry was no longer a client. Now that Amanda isn’t around to rein Gerry in, there is no one to stop him from carrying out his blackmail threat. Just how desperate is he to evict Club Sin? And how can I keep Jack safe?

    Except for a slight roundness of her cheeks, Sia doesn’t look like she just had a baby. Slim and pretty with long, dark hair, she is an incredible artist and her work is in high demand. I walk past her tattoo parlor every time I’m in Redemption, trying to work up the nerve to go inside. She thanks Amanda for sending Ray home and cracks us up with an impression of him complaining about women bossing him around while he lovingly cradles Sam in his arms.

    Shayla slides her cut, muscular body over to accommodate us, and Cora and I slide in beside her.

    “Help yourself.” She gestures to a tray of drinks on the table. “We started without you because we wanted to be all warmed up for the Redemption fighter bash fest.”

    Amanda laughs. “Sometimes the overbearing, protective, possessive alpha male thing gets a little too much, and we need to blow off some steam before we go home and cut our men down to size.”

    “Sex Bomb,” Shayla says, pointing to my drink as I take a sip. “Not that you need it.”

    Savoring the combined sweet-and-sour taste, I lean back in my seat and chat with Cora. After our talk at the coffee shop, she decided to be honest with Blade Saw. I’m not sure what she was thinking might happen, but, of course, he broke it off with her. Blade Saw, like most of the Redemption fighters, is not the kind of man who shares.

    “I don’t know how to get him back,” she moans. “That weekend we spent together was awesome. He actually likes sci-fi stuff, and he loved my robot shirts. He made me wear them when we had sex on the balcony, and that’s all he wanted me to wear all weekend. I can’t believe I have the longest dry spell on earth, and then I get and lose a perfect man in less than a month.”

    “He still wants you,” Shayla says, joining our conversation. “I almost knocked him out when we were training together the other night because he couldn’t take his eyes off you.”

    I sip my drink, considering. “Why don’t you get a robot shirt made with his name on it? Put his ring name on the back like you’re on his team. If he’s always watching you and he sees you in that shirt…”

    Amanda stirs her Maggot Brain, a nauseatingly green concoction that is foamy on top. “You’re good at the marketing and branding stuff. Really good. You should seriously consider doing something with that talent, maybe take some courses with a view to doing it professionally.”

    My cheeks burn, but in a good way. “I’d like to do that. I just never thought I was good enough.”

    “You are,” she says. “Never think you aren’t good enough. For anything or anyone.”

    The waitress stops by, and I order a round of whiskey from Jack’s distillery. At first I don’t tell them that Jack and Blade Saw own the distillery, but it turns out to be the worst-kept secret at Redemption, and everybody knows.

    “Hey, this is from Rampage’s and Blade Saw’s distillery.” Shayla gulps down her shot and orders another one. “Where is Rampage tonight? I’m surprised he let Penny out of his sight. The Redemption men fall hard for their women, but I never thought he would fall the hardest of all.”

    “I assume he’s at the gym.” I sip my whiskey, and the smooth, smoky taste reminds me of the night Jack poured whiskey on me and licked it off. “We kinda broke it off, so I guess he’ll be there tonight.”

    Everyone laughs.

    “Not a chance,” Sia says.

    Makayla grins. “He’ll come looking for you.”

    “He’s probably already on his way.” Amanda looks out over the dance floor. “No way could Ray keep that secret. He was probably texting everyone before we even left the office.”

    “They tend to travel in packs.” Shayla flexes her biceps. “Sometimes I go with them if they think things are gonna get really rough.”

    Over the next few hours, I drown my sorrows in too many drinks. Shayla tries to cheer me up by doing impressions of the fighters at Redemption, and Sia tells us stories about Ray and their new baby. Who would have imagined Ray would be such a good dad? Or that he would be a total pushover, picking Sam up and singing to him every time he cries? Amanda hints that she and Jake might have finally set a wedding date. And Makayla tells us all the different ways she has escaped from under Torment’s overprotective thumb.

    “Does he know you’re here?” Sia asks.

    “I bought a wig and caught a ride with the cleaner,” Makayla says. “I texted after I was safely away to tell him I was going out with friends. Otherwise he’d call the police and report me missing after an hour. I always turn off my phone because if I don’t he uses an app to try and track me and fills up my mailbox with ‘where are you’ messages.”

    “I collect them.” Amanda pulls out her phone. “I have a separate mailbox to store Jake’s ‘where are you’ messages. I read them when I need a laugh.”

    Now that I’ve got an alcohol-induced buzz going, I hit the dance floor with Cora and Shayla in tow, and we dance to Cannibal Corpse’s “Hammer Smashed Face,” with some hot biology majors from Berkeley. From the way they keep trying to feel us up, I figure they’re still learning about human anatomy, but Shayla isn’t in a teaching mood and abandons us to our octopus friends.