Tap Out (Fight It Out MMA Series Book 2)

by Terra Kelly

  The van stopped behind us and didn’t do anything for several minutes. Then two figures that looked to be men, by their large frames, hopped out and quickly walked up to our doors. They were wearing masks, so we couldn’t see their faces. Without hesitation, both men smashed in the windows and quickly punched us.

  I tried to stay awake after the hit, but my brain was shutting down. As everything started to fade to black, I felt the mystery man place something over my head.

  “Rise and shine,” a male voice said from beside my ear. I lifted my head a little too quickly and felt a sharp pain run down my neck and through my spine. There was something covering my head. Whatever the fabric was, it smelled awful. I tried to think about something else to take my mind away from the stench swirling around me. “Not ready to join the party?” the guy with a deep voice said while laughing.

  “I’m up,” I whispered. Even though my face was covered with the awful fabric, I closed my eyes. My mind wondered back to when I was first learning about mixed martial arts. It wasn’t about what you could see around you; it was about letting your senses tell you everything.

  I could remember when Lily’s father had us both sit down on the floor with our legs crossed in front of us. He then encouraged Lily and I to close our eyes and think about what we could smell and what sounds were around us.

  As I tried to do that very thing while mentally pushing away the strong scent coming from the fabric. I got secretly excited when I could hear a train off in the distance. It had to be a hundred yards away at least because the sound was very quiet. Then there was a sudden smell of tobacco and beer.

  “Think I can trust you to keep quiet if I remove this thing?” the guy with awful smelling breath said and then tugged on the bag covering my head.

  I didn’t show my emotions when I heard tires moving over gravel to the right of me. The sound made me scared because I knew I had to be in the middle of nowhere. “Yeah, you can.” Before the guy removed the bag, I quickly opened my eyes. “Where’s my boyfriend?” I knew Brooks was not in the room with me.

  “He’s fine.” The guy laughed and took a few steps backward toward the door.

  I glanced around and had no idea where I was. The room I was locked in was dark, so I couldn’t see the size of the space. “Why are you doing this to us?”

  “You’ll find out soon enough.” Then the asshole closed and locked the door.

  I stood up on shaky legs and walked over to where the man was just standing. It was a thick wooden structure, and it appeared that the locks were all on the outside. Slowly I made my way around the darkened room, trying to use my senses to see what was on the walls. It felt like brick all around me, and the space had to be only about six by eight feet.

  There was a sound coming from the other side of the wall in the area where I was standing. I fell to my knees and placed my ear closer to the brick, trying to hear. It was a male voice. “Brooks,” I said in a loud whisper.

  “Yeah. Are you okay?” I could barely hear him.

  “I think so. Have you figured out where we’re at?”

  “Not yet.”

  There was a loud sound on the door, like someone was banging their fists. “Shut the fuck up in there.”

  I let my body fall back against the wall and folded myself into the fetal position, trying to visualize myself closer to Brooks. Placing my hand on the cold brick, I closed my eyes. Before I fell asleep from weakness and exhaustion, I thought about how I needed to use my fighting skills to get us out of this mess.

  Seventeen

  I woke to footsteps. Then the door swung open, and the same man from earlier was standing in the doorway. “Good morning, sunshine.” The guy used my nickname. Either he knew my nickname or just wanted to make me feel welcome in his hell hole.

  I was still in the same position I went to sleep in several hours ago. It took me a moment to stand up. “Are we not allowed to eat?”

  “Well, funny you asked. That’s where we’re heading if you can walk on your own.” I noticed my leg was locked up, causing me to limp. Ignoring the pain, I headed toward him. “I had a feeling you would want to join us.”

  Did he say us? Would Brooks be there, too? I wasn’t in the mood to ask the guy, so I followed behind him in silence. The moment I stepped out of the room, there were bright lights shining in my eyes. We were in a basement of some kind with LED-type lights shining in every direction. I started to take mental notes of my surroundings. The walls were brick, just like my room. I noticed water dripping down around mold and mildew. We had to be just below ground with the presence of water.

  As we rounded a corner, I looked at the gun holstered on the asshole’s side. I thought about all the ways I could easily grab the gun and take him down. There had to be a reason why my hands weren’t tied up. Did they think they were tougher than me?

  “Wait here,” he said and raised his fist for me to stop.

  I noticed movement from the corner of my eye and turned to see Brooks walking my way. He looked like shit. When I tried to step forward and reach for his hand, the man next to him stepped in between us.

  “Are you okay?” I said, already knowing the answer. He had cuts all over his face. Blood in every direction, and he was holding his arm close to his chest. “Your arm.” I reached forward, wanting to console him.

  “I’m okay. I promise,” he said, without smiling.

  The asshole looking after me walked back out in the hallway. “Oh, the two love birds are back together. How sweet.” He reached out and grabbed hold of my bicep. “Let’s chat in here.” Then he shoved my body through the doorway. “Sit,” he said and pointed to two empty chairs in the center of the room.

  I sat down and looked back, waiting for Brooks to join me. He lowered his body very slowly onto the chair. As he adjusted in his seat, I noticed the deep gashes all over his back. It was hard to hold in my anger, but I needed to save it for when the time was right. The fuckers were not going to keep us here for much longer. I was going to make sure of that.

  The guy who brought Brooks into the room pulled my arms back and placed rope around each wrist. They didn’t do the same to Brooks, probably because of the status of his arm at the moment. I knew I could still lift up from the chair and fight without my arms if I was given the chance.

  The moment the room went silent, I turned to Brooks. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “Charlie, have they said anything to you yet?” He turned to me with a pained expression.

  “No, they dumped me in the room and left.” I could tell he was holding back something important. “What is it? Who did this, Brooks?”

  “I think it’s your father, C.”

  “What?” My father did all this? That seemed impossible when the thought flashed through my mind the first time. Then I let my brain register who we were talking about. My dad owned Hill Enterprise and was known to be dirty when it came to business deals. Loved control. Hated being ignored. “Fuck,” I said under my breath. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks. My father wanted to get what he had warned me about: my money. Since I’d brushed him off, he took matters into his own hands. “Have you seen my dad yet?”

  “No, but the guy who used me as a punching bag said some odd things earlier.”

  “Like what?”

  “This place is so much better than San Francisco. Charlie should listen next time.”

  “Fuck me.” I dropped my head. “I knew my father was dirty but not like this.”

  “Charlie,” he said and paused. When I looked directly in Brooks’s eyes, he continued. “That doesn’t mean you stop fighting to get the fuck out of here.”

  “Who said that would stop me?”

  “That’s the Charlie I fell in lo—”

  My head whipped up so fast. “What did you say?”

  “That’s the Charlie I fell for several months ago.”

  “You were going to say something else.”

  “Nope, that was it.”

  I scowled
at him and made myself smile. Hell, we had to find that light in the dark, right. “They’re watching and listening to us.” I nodded my head toward a camera in the corner of the room by the ceiling. “Escaping is out of the question.”

  “Plus the rope on your wrists and my shit arm are not going to get us very far,” Brooks said and glanced up at the camera.

  “What did they do to your arm?” I said, feeling a little nervous to hear the answer.

  “Let’s hold those stories until after we’re out of this mess.” He leaned over slightly so our shoulders were touching. “Charlie, you know you could kick ass even when tied to a chair.”

  “It’s possible. This will be the first time I have had to test that theory out.”

  “Just wait and see what they have up their sleeves.”

  “It won’t be good.”

  “No, I have a feeling this is only the beginning.”

  I watched Brooks for several long minutes. How the hell did this even happen? If it was my father, he would pay for laying a finger on my man.

  My stomach made a loud noise, begging for food. Just as my mind became a traitor and thought about tacos and donuts, the door clicked open from behind me. “Okay, who’s hungry?” a man said, and I realized his voice sounded familiar.

  The moment my oldest brother stepped around to face us, my heart sank. “Mason? Why are you doing this?”

  “I’m not.” Mason placed his hand over his heart.

  “Obviously you are if you’re here.”

  He stepped closer. “I’m helping Dad with his project. I love helping him. You know that, Charlotte.”

  I had no idea how crazy my family was until this very moment. It all made no sense. “If you care about me, then you would let me go.”

  Mason nodded. “I do care, but I can’t let you go.”

  “What does Dad want?”

  “You know what he wants.”

  “It’s not his to take.” I had just made a significant earning with the Liverpool fight. It was my money. My father didn’t deserve to get a dime.

  “You know Dad. When he wants something, he gets it.”

  “Greedy, fucker.”

  Mason reached forward and punched me, causing my head to fall back from the extreme blow. My head was still bent back when he reached forward and placed his hand on my head to pull me up. “Sorry about that. I hate when people speak so poorly about Dad.”

  I spit out blood and started to laugh. “I’m not people. I’m his fucking daughter.”

  Eighteen

  Mason and my favorite asshole were teaming up to untie my arms. “What, you can’t remove the rope yourself, big brother?” I teased and waited patiently for them to finish.

  “You think I’m going to suddenly start trusting you,” Mason said and stepped back in focus.

  “Trust is a hard thing to come by these days.”

  “Especially when it involves family.”

  I shook my head. “Interesting choice of words. What did I do to cause you to not trust me?”

  Mason was ten years older, so we didn’t do much together with the age gap between us. When he would come around for family gatherings or holidays, he seemed fine. I definitely didn’t share as much with him because he was always so close to Dad.

  His comment about trust threw me off. Never once did I go against my family, growing up. Dad just hated that I was more into fighting and less inclined to go to college. In my mind, that was the only issue between us. Well, until he approached me recently about paying him back for all the money he’d spent on me growing up. Which I knew was absurd.

  My hands were now on my lap. I could tell the rope was tied differently this time and forced me to have my arms crossed in front. Moving my arms up and down, I inspected the knots. A little shimmer of hope sprouted up the moment I noticed the knots were loose. There was a possibility I could work my hands free, but it would take a little time. The way they tied the rope made it possible for me to reach forward and eat. The assholes didn’t realize they also made it easier for me to escape.

  “Okay, let’s eat.” Mason placed a small table in front of me. There was a plate with what looked like mashed potatoes, ground beef, and a few cooked carrots.

  “A meal fit for a king,” I said in a harsh tone. “What, no silverware?”

  “Caveman-style eating,” Brooks said under his breath.

  “You don’t need utensils. Just eat up. I need to be somewhere.” Mason was typing something into his phone and pacing the length of the room.

  “Well, at least we get to enjoy something from all the food groups.” I reached forward and dug my fingers down in the mashed potatoes. Before I shoved it into my mouth, I inspected the surface. “Is that an ant?” I took a closer look. “You mixed ants in our food?” I threw the shit back down on my plate.

  “You needed the protein.” Mason shrugged and continued to try to look busy.

  I dropped my hands to my lap. The rope was wrapped around my wrists in a figure eight. As I tried to pull one end up, I kept a close watch on my brother in the corner of my eye.

  “Charlie,” Brooks whispered. “Don’t do it.”

  I ignored his pleas. Had the assholes already managed to break my boyfriend? I knew he was stronger than what his words conveyed. I just needed to give him hope. Glancing in my brother’s direction to see which way he was facing, I lifted my wrist up and tried to use my teeth to free the knot. It took me what felt like thirty minutes, but was only a few minutes to loosen the rope enough to where I could slide my wrists out.

  “Seriously C, you don’t want to do this.”

  Brooks’s demeanor caught me off guard. “When did you become negative Nelly?”

  “When two men decided to tie me up and use me as a heavy bag.”

  I tried to move past his words. If I thought about what he said, it would show weakness. We couldn’t afford to be weak right now. My brother was only inches away from me with his back turned in my direction. I took the opening he offered and stood up quickly. When I attempted to lunge forward, my body dropped to the ground.

  “Boss, are you okay?” I could hear from above me.

  “That bitch.” My brother sounded pissed. “Thought you could double-cross me. You won’t win, Charlotte. Just give up and let Dad have what he wants.”

  It felt like a brick had been bashed into my head. Reaching back, I could feel liquid of some kind. As I looked at my hand, there was blood dripping off my fingers. Brooks called for me, but I didn’t have the strength to say I was going to be okay. I understood now why Brooks was so unsure; they were not going to let us out of here alive.

  “Hey.” I felt a hand cup my cheek. “Charlie, wake up.” I could hear someone talking to me but didn’t have the strength to respond. “Fuck, sunshine, you need to wake up.”

  I shoved my eyelids open, but everything was out of focus. “Where am I?” I whispered.

  “Oh, thank fuck,” Brooks said and bent to kiss my lips.

  Brooks was beside me. I wanted to jump up and down but didn’t have the energy. “My head feels like an anvil was dropped on it.”

  “Close,” he said and tucked his arm under my body. “It was the butt of a gun.”

  As everything started to come into focus, I could see that Brooks had more cuts and bruises. “Your face.” I reached up to touch him, but he pulled away. “Is it my fault?”

  I slowly moved my body to a sitting position and pushed back to lean against the cool brick wall. We were in the small six by eight room again. This time they allowed us to be together. I wonder what changed?

  “Charlie, don’t do that again.”

  “Do what?” I placed my hand on the right side of my head. The pain was almost unbearable. “Try to escape and get the fuck out of this mess?”

  He leaned over and kissed my temple. “Let’s think this through together.”

  “How the hell did you convince them to let us stay together?”

  “It was your brother’s idea.”
/>
  That took me by surprise. “Mason showed compassion? Is that possible?”

  With his good arm, he tugged me closer to his body. “Well, I wouldn’t say that.”

  I rested my head on his shoulder. “I feel like my head may split in two.” There was no doubt in my mind I had a serious concussion. The problem was, we were in a cell in the middle of nowhere land. I had to figure this one out on my own. I was thankful Brooks was near me.

  “I saw two more doors as we headed back to this room,” he said and rested his head on mine.

  “You did,” I said and avoided lifting my head.

  “The one asshole that was watching you”—Brooks reached for my hand—“he entered the hallway through one of the mystery doors. I could see a stairwell and bright lights.”

  “Think we’re in a house?” I laced my fingers with his. “It’s not like we were that far from civilization when they found us.”

  “I think so.”

  “So what now?”

  “Let’s get you feeling better first. Then talk about a plan to get us the fuck out of here.”

  “I vote we talk about getting out of here now.”

  He placed his palm over the side of my face. “Charlie—”

  I regretted the moment I lifted my head too quickly. “No, don’t say it. Not here.” If he wanted to confess his love to me, we were going to do that on the other side of this mess. Not when I was on the verge of vomiting from the pain and losing hope we would get out of here alive.

  Nineteen

  Brooks marked on the brick wall with a rock each day we had been held. It was now day five. I was finally feeling better. Well, my head at least didn’t feel like it would explode. I was worried about the long-term effects from not receiving medical attention after being hit over the head. Something I had to stop freaking out about because it didn’t matter now. The only thing we needed to focus on was our escape plan.