She Fights Back

Lyra raised the crowbar high, that broken laugh still spilling from her lips as she closed in on the rising Bayley. She swung hard—metal whistling through the air—but Bayley had already found her footing in the gravel.

Bayley ducked under the wild arc, surged upward, and drove her shoulder into Lyra’s midsection. The impact folded Lyra in half. In one explosive motion Bayley lifted her, spun, and hurled her backward. Lyra’s body slammed into the chain-link fence with a violent rattle of metal. The whole section bowed outward under the force. The crowbar clattered away into the dark.

Bayley didn’t give her a second to breathe.

She closed the distance fast, eyes locked and burning. While Lyra was still tangled against the fence—dazed, one arm hooked in the links

—Bayley grabbed the front of Lyra’s top with both hands. Fingers dug into the fabric. With a sharp, determined yank she tried to rip it open and peel it up over Lyra’s head in one quick motion, using the fence to pin her in place.

“You wanted anything goes?” Bayley growled through clenched teeth, voice low and fierce as she wrenched at the material. “Then this is happening now.”