by Jackson Kane
I couldn't wait to tell...
Why did I still think of him first? After my many failures and too few victories, Bastien’s name was the first in my head.
I had friends too, but they mostly just came to parties with me. None of them really knew me as well as Bastien. I doubt I would've even liked any of them if I'd met them in high school.
Bastien probably would've made some kind of joke about my head being too big to fit through doors now that I was a celebrity. For as angry at him as I still was, I hoped he was ok. I wished I could just get over him, but a big part of me was glad I couldn't.
My phone rang a few minutes later. It was one of my costars, Samantha Woods.
“Hey, Samantha?”
“Hi Olivia! I just heard the news and wanted to congratulate you on joining the cast.” Her voice was bright and sweet. “I was wondering if you wanted to grab a coffee with me? We can talk about the project and everything.”
“Uh, sure!” I said. Maybe this was what I needed. None of the guys Dad had tried to set me up with could distract me from Bastien. Maybe I just needed a different kind of friend? “That sounds great.”
I had met so many famous people, and none held a candle to Bastien. I knew I would never meet anyone like him again. All I could hope for now was that his hold over me would eventually go away.
Or, that someday he might come back to me.
Present
I made my way into what looked like an abandoned warehouse. I had no idea what the dress code was at one of these fights, so I tried to appear as nondescript as possible. Michelle would've given me so much hell if I was recognized here. I wore a large, dark hoodie and the plainest jeans I had.
The look reminded me of the clothes I wore back in high school.
A well-groomed, clean-shaven man stood by a stairwell that led further down. He reminded me of a bouncer, like at a club. His head was down, browsing something on his phone.
I paused, making as little noise as possible. I was all alone in a really, really bad part of town, heading into an illegal fighting club.
Run away before he sees you!
My anxiety threatened to overwhelm me. I'd never done anything like this before.
What do I even say to the man?
Was there some sort of code word I had to give him to get in? I should have asked that bartender more questions!
He snapped his gaze up at me, carefully looking me over. “You looking for something?”
“I—” I swallowed the lump that rose in the back of my throat and forced myself to answer. I needed to say something. 'It's all just acting,' Bastien's voice echoed in my memory.
“Yeah,” I said, feigning confidence like I belonged there. “I'm here for the fight.”
“There's no fight here.” He eyed me skeptically, then went back to his phone. “Please leave.”
What? There had to be!
This was the location Bastien had written down and it was way too sketchy not to have something going on. This had to be the right place.
Part of me was relieved at being turned away.
I tried, didn't I? I could leave knowing that I at least made the effort. Besides, Bastien left me, not the other way around. Maybe he wanted to be left alone. Dozens more excuses crowded into my frightened mind.
Did he really want to be left alone after his father died?
Dammit. No. I came here for a reason.
“Don't fuck with me, asshole.” I swallowed and continued on. I couldn't leave until I saw Bastien.
“Excuse me?” His head shot back up and he eyed me hard.
Well, that got his attention.
“I came for the glass fight.” A steely reserve filled my tone, it sounded like I belonged there. “How much is it going to cost me to get in?”
“Wards,” the bouncer snorted. He shook his head now that he’d recognized me then stepped aside. “Go ‘head.”
Wards? Plural? I brushed past him wondering what he meant.
I heard the cheers echoing up the stairwell when I reached the next landing. This was where people watched men get beaten to death. The thought made me shiver.
This was Bastien's world.
Soon after that, I saw the crowd standing around a filthy, blood-streaked circle. All I could make out from my obscured vantage point was that there were three men fighting, each of them stained red and glistening in the hard-fluorescent light.
I couldn't immediately make out who was fighting right away. It was just a mass of limbs flailing and grunts. My stomach knotted and twisted with the sound of every sickening blow that landed. The cheers that followed made me sick. I pushed closer, praying that I made it in time.
Please let that not be him in there. Please, please, please, let that not be him!
I broke through the throng of smoking and cursing businessmen, and found myself at the edge of the circle.
And there was Bastien.
A kick to the back of his legs dropped Bastien to his knees. He was shirtless and so horribly bloody. I was queasy at the sight of what happened to him, it made my heart ache worse than it ever had before.
“He lost! Let him go!” My scream was lost in the chaotic din of blood lust. No one heard me or no one cared.
“That's not how this works.” A fat, suited man next to me laughed at my naivety, cigar smoke billowed from his nose and mouth.
A fighter raised Bastien's head for crowd approval. The other fighter readied a strike and then I suddenly realized what the fat man meant. There was no forfeiting.
Oh my God... Was about to watch the man I love die?
Bastien looked right at me. His eyes looked dull and dazed. He smiled at me, letting the hand drop from over his heart. He was giving up.
His hand wiped away some of the blood on his chest and that's when I saw the tattoo. I thought he was protecting his chest from some blow, but it wasn't that at all. An image of the pendant I gave him was tattooed over his own heart. In the last few moments of his life, he was thinking about me…
How had I missed that until now?
That didn’t make any sense! I’d seen him shirtless dozens of time since he crashed back into my life. That was something I was going to have to ask him, but to do that he had to survive this crazy fight.
I breathed hard, fire of resolve crackling in my veins. He needed my help! I couldn’t possibly give up on him now.
“Bastien!” I screamed with desperation. If they weren’t going to let him give up then there was only one other way he was going to get out of this alive. I tore off my hoodie and brushed the hair back out of my face. “It’s Olivia! I’m here. You need to get up and fight! Fight for me!”
I heard the men around me say my name in disbelief. I should’ve been thinking about how I was a well-known celebrity who was about to become infamous, but I didn’t care what this was going to do to my marketability.
A few pulled out their phones and began taking videos. My career just took its second big hit of the day. There was no hiding my presence now. Tomorrow it would be all over the news. The crowd's previous uproar fell to a near deafening silence. Even the other fighters seemed surprised, but not enough to let Bastien go.
“Get up, Bastien!” I said, nearly in tears. “I’m your good luck charm. You have to win!”
The fire of recognition finally sparked in Bastien's eyes.
Bastien brutally lashed out, striking one of the distracted fighters in the balls. The man who held Bastien's hair collapsed in a quivering heap. The other fighter hopped away and got his guard back up.
This fight wasn't over yet.
Bastien's fatigued muscles went taught. He looked like he was made of solid steel. Bastien moved, blocked and countered each blow with strength and confidence. Where my heart had stopped earlier, now, watching Bastien fight, it raced out of control.
I'd never seen him look so powerful before. Gone was the beaten version of him from moments earlier, now a man with something to fight for stood in his place.
Bastien narrowly avoided an extremely quick uppercut, then countered with a heavy knee that caused his opponent to double over. Bastien delivered a mean right cross that knocked the man out immediately.
Bastien had somehow won!
I rushed up and hugged him. I wiped away the blood and sweat from his face, and I kissed him with the desperation of someone reuniting with a loved one they thought was dead.
Bastien groaned in pain, but refused to let me pull away from him.
I hugged him again, looking out over the dumbfounded crowd. Speculation ran wild all around us, but neither of us paid it any attention. Despite the catastrophic damage I'd done to my career, when Bastien kissed me, I truly felt like everything was going to be alright.
In the back by the door that led to the staircase back up, I saw an eerily familiar silhouette. I did a double take, but I was right. There in the back of the crowd, eyeing me angrily, was my father.
What the hell was he doing here?
I knew he was in L.A. shooting his own film, but him coming to an underground fight didn't make any sense.
He was gambling again!
How desperately did he need money if he was at a venue like this?
For a moment, I thought he might run up and scream at me for destroying his legacy, but then I saw the number of phones aimed at me and knew that he wouldn't dare. He'd never want any evidence of him at a seedy place like this.
I stared back at him defiantly, my back straightening. I wanted him to see me like this. I was done apologizing. I was proud to stand with the man I loved, regardless of the consequences.
“Say it again.” Bastien said, pulling my gaze back to someone worthwhile.
“Say what again?” I helped Bastien out of the hot lights and the slick, blood stained fighting circle.
“Tell me you love me, Olivia.” There was a twinkle in the eye that wasn't too swollen.
“You are such an idiot. What were you thinking? You almost got yourself killed!” All my balled-up emotions flooded out. I could've lost him forever; the thought terrified me. “And if you ever do anything this foolish again, I will never have sex with you ever again!”
“I love you, too.” Bastien just smiled.
“Let's get you to a hospital, 'Bash.'” Despite my anger, he managed to pull a small smile out of me. My anger dissolved into relief that Bastien was alive. I dragged my fingers gently over the tattoo of my heart pendant on his chest. It even had the O in the middle. “I'm yours remember? I'll always love you.”
Our beautiful moment didn’t last long.
Two large men slipped through the crowd and told us to come with them. Bastien glared at them. He raised his fists defensively and refused.
“This isn’t a request you’re allowed to turn down.” One of the men said, pulling back his blazer to reveal the handle of his gun.
Chapter 24
Bastien
Past
“My name’s John Warwick and I’ve been watching you these past few months, kid,” the well dressed dark-skinned man said after I collected my winnings from the night’s fight. “You have more spirit than I’ve ever seen in a fighter. Why are you wasting your talent on these thugs? Go pro. You could be rich and famous.”
Supposedly this guy was some crazy billionaire: Eccentric, elusive and completely unpredictable. That would explain why he’s here.
Underground fighting brought out all the crazies.
“I don’t care about any of that.” I hefted my duffle bag and walked away.
“What do you care about?” He asked, keeping pace with me.
“At this point?” I slowed a moment to consider the question. No one had ever asked me that. What was keeping me going? “Just my mistakes.”
“I want you to be my bodyguard. Name your price.”
“I don’t want your money. I’m doing fine on my own.” I started walking toward the exit again. I was tired, beat to hell, hungry enough to eat a horse, and I had places to be. I couldn’t waste time on some bored rich asshole.
“A man who can’t be bought… I like that. Now I have to have you work for me.” He slowed to a stop at the warehouse’s exit.
Not going to happen, pal.
I adjusted my pack, but said nothing as I walked into the parking lot. Olivia had an event downtown. I wasn’t invited of course, but I liked to hang around within eyeshot just to make sure no one bothered her.
“You’re never going to get Olivia back like this you know.” Warwick called out after me. “Hell, you’re doing a shit job of even protecting her.”
“How do you know about her?” I stopped and turned around.
“That O on your chest is telling. Starving and down to your last two hundred dollars and what do you do? You get a symbol for her tattooed on you as a reminder.”
“That was you!” My fists balled up as I stormed back to him.
“No, I didn’t rob you. The tattoo artist was a friend of mine.” He laughed uproariously. “I’ve had people following you though. Not just you—” He corrected himself, before moving on.
He walked past me toward a small sports car parked at the back of the parking garage.
“Is it a coincidence that you pick underground fighting matches only in the cities that Olivia Ward is currently in?” He asked. “Of course not. I’m impressed at what you’ve done with so little. I’ve seen what you’ve done to her stalkers. Really efficient work!”
“What do you want?”
“I’ve already told you that.”
“Why me? There’s a thousand other fighters out there.”
“You’ve got heart and will stop at nothing.” He paused thoughtfully, then opened his driver’s door. “I admire that.”
“If you put that fanatical exuberance of yours to work for me, I’ll give you the resources to really keep her safe.” He got into his car and pushed open the passenger’s side door from within.
“Why do you give a shit about me keeping Olivia safe?”
“I have something of a vested interest in that girl,” Warwick said cryptically. His expression hinted at an old mistake that weighed heavily on him, but I couldn’t even guess at what the hell it was. “We all have things we need to atone for…”
Warwick saw the curious look on my face and quickly snapped out of it, his unwavering and confident smile slowly returned. “This is your chance to be more than just Bash. What do you say?”
Present
“Wait!” Olivia protested frantically when the two men forced us to drop to our knees. “I’m Olivia Ward. I’m a millionaire! I can pay you not to kill us.”
The thugs led us down a long hallway, far enough away from the fighting pit that no one would be able to hear what was about to happen to us. When I figured out that they were planning on executing us I tried to fight back, but was too exhausted.
All it took was a gun pressed to Olivia’s head to stop me dead in my tracks.
The assassins that were gunning for her family had finally caught up with us.
I wasn’t going to be able to punch my way out of this.
“A Ward’s promises mean two things to us. Jack and shit.” The grizzled men chuckled to themselves. It sounded like they’d gone through this routine before. “You might be a celebrity, but we know you’re broke.”
“I’m not broke.” I said, realizing I only had one real play.
“The hole her father’s in is going to take a hell of a lot more than one night of a fighter’s earnings—”
“I’m John Warwick’s beneficiary.” That got their attention.
“The billionaire?” One of them asked.
I nodded slowly, not daring to look over at Olivia.
“What?” Olivia asked.
“Go get your boss. I know he’s here.” I know he’s here. “Tell him I’ll double the debt her father owes.”
They shared a look, then one of the thugs stepped out of the room to call their boss.
“Beneficiary?” Olivia’s tone was
full of disbelief. “When were you going to tell me you were a billionaire?”
“I was going to tell you, I promise. I just…” Opening up to her like this was tougher than the fight. I sighed, lowering my head.
“But you’d rather I found out with a gun to my head?” She scoffed, betrayed by what I’d kept from her for so long. “What the hell, Bastien?”
“The night I left you, your father told me that I’d never amount to anything. He asked me what kind of a life I could really give you.” I looked at her with upturned eyes. “And I didn’t know the answer to that. Thinking that I might poison your future, your hopes and dreams, terrified me. It kept me up at night for years.
“I’m tired of you making decisions for me.” The anger in her voice was being replaced with sadness, and that stung me far more.
“I was going to tell you what happened right when I came back into your life. I wanted to! But I was afraid.”
“Of what?” She asked. “What could you possibly have been afraid of?”
“That you’d think he was right.” I said flatly. “I fell into this money, Olive. And if I can get us out of this I lose it all. The contract I signed with John was that I could use it to keep you safe, but once that was over I’d have to donate every cent to his favorite charities. All of it.
“If you knew then you’d have looked at me differently.” I stood up and extended a hand for her to do the same.
“Hey! I didn’t say you could get up,” barked the remaining enforcer, as he took a step toward us.
“What am I going to do?” I snapped at him. “Bleed on you? Your boss isn’t going to have you shoot us. We’re past that. Keep up.”
I helped Olivia to her feet.
“Thanks.” She appealed to me. “I never cared about the money.”
“Then I guess I needed to prove to myself that you could love me without knowing I was rich. That the Olivia I fell in love with could love the Bastien that I wanted to be.”
