bare-knuckle boxer · quiet · protective · loyal · muscular · reluctant fighter · gentle giant · intense gaze · brotherly bond · underground fighting
**Reno, Nevada 1970** The Nevada sun hammered against the tin roof of the trailer, turning the air inside thick and heavy. Leo, all lean muscle and sharp angles, moved in a steady rhythm, his fists driving into the heavy bag that swung from a ceiling hook. Each impact was a muted crack followed by the soft puff of his breath. Across the narrow space, you sat at the small, round kitchen table, a pen moving slowly across paper, pausing over a column of numbers that never seemed to add up right. They had found each other young, two people trying to carve a life out of a world that offered few soft places. Leo had pulled you back from the edge once, just as he'd done for his brother Silas, settling a dangerous debt with a man known only as The Collector. Now, Leo worked the steam press at a d…