by L. P. Dover
I stormed up the steps and into the ring, which made the man falter. I wasn’t the weak and scared little girl he wanted. Camden shut the cage door and locked it so neither one of us could get out unless he opened it. That didn’t bother me. The man circled around the ring and snapped the flogger against the mat.
“Do you like the sound of that? It’s going to sound great once it hits your flesh.”
I countered him, concentrating on his movements. “Or better yet,” I began, “the sound of your screams when I’m done with you, you worthless piece of shit.”
Snarling, his arm reared back, but I jumped out of the way and tumbled across the mat before the flogger could touch me. One hit with it and it would tear my skin wide open. If I bled, I was in trouble.
His eyes went wide when I deflected him. “You stupid cunt. Do you honestly think you’re going to get away from me?”
He charged again and I kicked his legs out from under him, making him topple to the ground. The flogger flew out of his hand and I jumped for it, grabbing it before he could. His hand grasped my ankle and he pulled me down to the mat, but that was as far as he would get with me. I kicked him in the face so hard, blood instantly gushed out of his nose. It wasn’t enough though. The fight was considered over, but I didn’t want it to be over.
Camden opened the door and waved for me to come out, but I shook my head. With the flogger in hand, I clenched it tight and glared at Scar and Rage, the man who I assumed was hiding underneath the hood. Maybe he was so fucking ugly no one could stand to see his face. “You want blood?” I shouted to the crowd. “You want to see women suffer? How about I show you what happens when you mess with the wrong one?”
Lifting the flogger in the air, I slapped it down on the guy’s back and the ripping sound of his clothes and skin echoed through the room. Blood seeped through his shirt and I smiled. The laugh that came from within sounded so foreign to my ears that I barely recognized myself. I was so overwrought with anger, I wanted to make everyone suffer.
The man crawling across the floor tried to get away from me, but I kept smacking the flogger against his back. All I could see was red, I didn’t want to stop. I blocked out everyone and everything except the man on the mat who passed out cold, most likely from the pain. His back was covered in blood and his shirt was in tatters. Before I could hit him again, a set of arms grabbed me around my waist and jerked me out of the cage.
“I’m not done,” I shouted angrily. As I was being pulled away from the cage, the men surrounding it gave me a wide berth. Fear was all I could see in their faces and I relished in it. The flogger was torn out of my hands and when I looked down they were covered in blood. My body started to shake and my teeth chattered. There was so much blood.
“Gabby, you’re shaking,” Camden shouted. He lifted me up in his arms and rushed me out of the room. The lights above started to blur and I couldn’t stop shivering. I felt like I wasn’t even in my body anymore. My chest rose and fell as I struggled to breathe and I could hear my heart pounding in my ears.
“She’s going into shock. Get me something to wrap her up in,” Camden demanded. He set me on the couch in Scar’s office and rushed out of the room. The last thing I remembered before the blackness took me was a cloaked figure leaning over my body and the feel of his hands on my face. I was frozen as he touched my body and wrapped me in a blanket. Even when he leaned over and kissed me, I couldn’t move.
“Soon,” he whispered. “Soon, you’ll be mine.” My eyes closed and I surrendered to the darkness. I was never going to be his.
AFTER DEREK AND I practiced around the track, he showed me some techniques to help maneuver the turns easier. I also showed his crew some of the ways to make his car faster and more efficient. It was a win-win. We were on our second round of drinks when a call came through on my phone.
“Hey, sunshine,” I answered.
“Sorry to disappoint.”
“Who the fuck is this?” I growled, getting to my feet.
“Pax, it’s Camden. Calm the fuck down. Where are you? I need you to get back to your house right now.”
“Why do you have Gabby’s phone? Where is she?” I demanded.
“She’s with me, but I don’t know how to unlock your gate. Either you give me the code or I wait on you.”
Pulling out my wallet, I set a wad of cash onto the bar. Derek and his guys watched on in concern. “I have to go,” I told them. “Something’s wrong and I have to get back.” Derek nodded and I didn’t waste any more time. Rushing out to my car, it roared to life, the tires screeching as I stormed out of the parking lot.
“Why can’t she unlock the gate?” I asked. I didn’t trust Camden and I sure as hell wasn’t going to give him the code.
“Look, just hurry the fuck up and get here. She needs help.” And with that, he hung up and left me hanging. I had ten minutes to get back to my house and it was the longest ten minutes of my fucking life. So many questions raced through my mind. Why the fuck was she with Camden? And why couldn’t she talk to me?
When my house came into view, Camden’s car was parked outside the gate. I bolted out of my car and rushed up to his. Covered in sweat, he rolled his window down and the heat blasted out. Gabriella was in the passenger seat, draped in a blanket and passed out. Not only was she unconscious, but she was covered in blood.
“What the fuck happened to her?” I shouted, running to her side of the car. Ripping the door open, I reached in and took her face in my hands.
Camden sighed. “It’s not her blood, Pax. We need to get her inside now.”
My body shook with rage. I wanted to kill him for whatever he did to her. Storming over to my keypad, I punched in the code and the gates slowly opened. Once Camden started in through the gate, I got back into my car and followed.
I carried her inside, taking the steps two at a time, and laid her down on my bed. Camden came in and went straight to my bathroom and turned on the shower. The steam started billowing out into my room.
“What happened?” I demanded, clenching my teeth.
“I’ll tell you in a minute, but we need to get her in the hot water. She’s covered in blood and she’s in shock.”
He tried to take the blanket off of her, but I pushed him out of the way. “Don’t you fucking touch her. If it wasn’t for her, you’d be dead right now.”
“Yeah, well, take a fucking number.”
Once I had Gabriella out of the blanket, her clothes were torn and she was covered in dried up blood. I carried her into the bathroom and slammed the door so I could undress her. Holding her naked body in my arms, I sat her on my lap in the shower and let the hot water beat down her skin. The blood washed away, turning the water a light red as it washed down the drain. She had it everywhere, even underneath her nails.
Taking the soap, I washed every square inch of her skin and hair. Thankfully, she started to come around and gasped when her eyes opened. She tried to fight me, but I held her harder.
“Sunshine, it’s me,” I murmured. “You’re safe now.”
After she was rinsed off and clean, I held her in my arms and wrapped her up in a couple of towels.
“Pax?” she whispered.
“Yes, I’m here.” Now that she was covered, I took her into my room where Camden still sat waiting.
“Is she okay?” he asked.
I walked right past him and pulled the covers away on my bed and laid her down, covering her back up. Her skin was cold, even after the hot shower, so I rushed to my closet and snatched some extra blankets. Once she was secured underneath, her breathing started to calm and she passed out again.
“You need to start talking, now,” I demanded angrily.
After having a chance to get a good look at Camden, I saw even he was covered in spatters of blood. I hadn’t seen him in a while, but I’d heard about the jagged scar he now harbored on his face. Running his hands through his hair, he went to the corner of my room and sat down in the brown leather chair.
“She’s been fighting for Scar,” he blurted out.
Eyes wide, I jumped off the bed, my fists clenched by my side. “What the fuck do you mean she’s been fighting for Scar? How’s that possible? She’s been with me.” Not to mention, I thought Scar was in Vegas.
“She’s only done it twice, and I assume she had to lie to you to get away.”
Gabriella wouldn’t lie to me. She’d been with me every single day since she moved in. Then it hit me . . . the date with her mom. And then again tonight, when I was with Derek and his crew. Motherfucker. No wonder why she’d been acting weird. “What is Scar doing out here?”
“After my fight with Ryley, he moved everything out to L.A. He knew from the beginning that he wanted to get here and blackmail Gabriella.”
“What happened to her? Start from the beginning and tell me everything.”
Camden sighed and hung his head back. “She did it for you. Scar threatened your life unless she did as he said. So, she did it. She agreed to three fights and after that you’d be set free. But as you could probably guess, that’s not the truth. The letters she’s been getting are coming from a guy named Rage. Do you know him? It looks like he’s had a fascination of her after seeing her the night of the fight in Vegas. He’s the one who wants you out of the way.”
So that was who it was. I’d heard of Rage, but I didn’t know the details. He wasn’t around when I fought at the Dark Side. I heard he was ruthless, and never hesitated to kill. But if he was there with Gabby . . .
“So help me God, he better not have touched her,” I stormed. “Has he done anything to her?”
Camden looked at me and shook his head. “No, not yet. After she almost killed a guy tonight, I got her out of there as fast as I could. When I told her they were coming after you, she snapped.”
“A guy? What was she doing fighting a guy?”
“That’s the twisted part,” he explained. “Scar wanted to cater to his clientele and give them a weak girl they could fuck around with. He made a lot of money off of her. After tonight, I don’t know what’s going to happen. She did her own thing and dominated the douchebag. The pussy even pissed himself because he was scared.”
Over my shoulder, Gabriella laid quietly in my bed. She asked me earlier to show her some moves on how to fight dirty. That was the reason why she asked, she needed my help. “So what happens now? You say they’re coming after me . . . when?”
“I don’t know,” Camden answered truthfully. “But I do know they’re going to use Gabriella as bait. They’ll take her and make you fight.”
“Then I’ll fight. I’ll do anything for her.”
Getting to his feet, Camden glanced over at Gabriella, eyes melancholy. “I sure hope so. I’ve never met Rage, but I do know he’s one fucked up bastard. There’s no telling what he’ll do to her if he wins.”
That was not my worry, because now that I knew, I would be ready. I would fight until the end. Even if I had to kill him.
PAXTON WAS IN the ring with the hooded Rage and the sound of swords clanging together hung in the air. I screamed, but no one could hear me. Rage sliced Paxton’s midsection, and I raced up to the cage, fighting to get in. Over and over, I pounded on the cage, my own fists broken and bloody from the metal.
Lying on the ground, Paxton turned his tormented gaze toward me. “I’m sorry,” he whispered before the life left his eyes.
Rage’s face was covered by the hood, but he dropped his sword and started for the cage door. It swung open and he came straight to me. I tried to run away, but I couldn’t move. Arms holding me firm, I fought against him, beating against his chest. Lifting his arm, he grasped the top of his hood and slowly started to pull it back. I was scared to see what was underneath and fought even harder.
Tears blurred my vision because Pax was dead. He was gone. “Get your hands off me,” I screamed.
“You belong to me now, Gabriella. I’m not letting you go.”
“No!”
“Gabby, wake up.” I heard the words in Paxton’s voice, and it made me cry harder. “Open your eyes,” he ordered again.
The pillow was soaked when I opened my eyes. Looking around, I found Pax in front of me, alive and regarding me wearily.
“You’re alive,” I whispered.
It’d been just a nightmare, but then I realized I was still in it. My mind was a jumbled mess, and I had no idea how I’d gotten back to the land of the living. The last thing I remembered was falling into darkness with Rage above me saying I’d be his soon. By the look in Paxton’s eyes, he knew what had happened, that I had lied to him.
“You know?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yes. Camden brought you home, covered in blood and in shock. Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?”
My eyes burned. “Because I didn’t want you involved. I knew you would try to come to my rescue. They would kill you.”
“It looks like Rage wants that anyway, Gabby. I don’t think we have a choice. I just hate you had to go through all of this alone.”
“I’ll be fine. It was terrifying, but I got through it. The fighting wasn’t a big deal. It’s the knowing that Rage was there, watching me. He was there at the race too, Paxton. He’s been following us.”
His eyes went wide. “What do you mean he was at the race? How do you know that?”
My head hurt, but I sat up and held the blanket to my chest, clutching it tight. Just knowing a homicidal stalker was just outside the room as we had sex made me shiver. “It was after our go in the announcer’s box. When I went back up there to find my phone, I saw a black rose near the door, all broken and torn apart. He was there.”
“Goddammit,” he hissed. “Has he followed us everywhere?”
I nodded. “Scar told me Rage was angry and didn’t like seeing us together. I think that’s why he moved the fights up the way he did. Rage is getting impatient.”
Paxton got to his feet and ran his hands through his hair. He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of boxers. “We need to figure out what to do. They’re going to come for you.”
Then Mason came to mind. He was going to help and now that Paxton knew what was going on, we could all work together. “I know that, but I have a plan. I haven’t told anyone, not even Camden about this.”
Paxton came back to the bed and sat down beside me. “What is it?”
I reached for his hand and brought it to my face. My dream still felt real, but in all reality, there was going to be a fight and it wasn’t going to be good. “I’ve been talking to Mason,” I explained. “He’s going to get a team put together like he did in Vegas, when he busted the last underground fighting ring.”
“I can’t believe you’ve done all of this behind my back.” He didn’t sound angry, but his jaw was firm, his green gaze unreadable.
“I wanted to protect you,” I whispered.
Lifting a hand to my face, he brushed his thumb across my lips. “You don’t have to protect me, Gabby. I just wish you would’ve confided in me. We could have figured this out together. I’m not going to let Rage or any other fucker take you away from me.”
“You promise?” I asked.
Slowly pulling the covers back, he stood and dropped his boxers to the floor, covering me with his body. He spread my legs with his knee and leaned on his elbows, his mouth close to mine. I opened for him and moaned when he went deep, tasting me greedily.
“I promise, Gabriella. Whatever I have to do to keep you safe, I’ll do it. Even if it means killing this guy to keep him away from you. I promise to always be there for you and trust you no matter what. You just have to trust me too.”
“I do,” I whispered.
It was early morning and we were both awake, lying in each other’s arms in silence. We hadn’t let go of each other since we’d made love. Thoughts of the night before still plagued my mind. I had no clue what happened to Cliff, and I had no idea what happened to the guy I fought. If Camden hadn’t stopped me, I probably would’ve killed him.
“I think I almost killed someone last night,” I confessed. “And what’s worse, I don’t know what happened to Cliff. He could be dead right now.”
“Cliff? What does he have to do with all of this?”
Here we go. I licked my dry lips and explained, “When Camden came to get me last night, Cliff saw us out in the parking lot. He knew there was something off with the situation and his cop instinct kicked in, so he followed us. I don’t know if Scar did anything to him. When I got up to go to the bathroom, I tried calling and texting, but nothing yet.”
Paxton held me tighter, his body my safe haven. “Whatever happens, there’s nothing you can do, Gabby. I hate to say it like that, but he shouldn’t have followed, especially when you told him to stay out of it. That was stupid on his part.”
A tear escaped the corner of my eye. “I know, but I still care about what happens to him.”
His jaw tensed. “Well, maybe he’ll call today. Now tell me about the fights.”
“The first fight wasn’t so bad. I pretended to be scared, which really pissed me off because all I wanted to do was beat the shit out of the fat fuck. He pulled my hair and dragged me around the mat. I had the worst headache after that. When he got me down on the mat and I felt how hard he was over it, I can’t begin to tell you how sick that made me.”
“How did you get up?”
Clearing my throat, I could still remember the way it felt to have his hard cock in my hand as I pulled it as hard as I could. The pain had to be excruciating, but he deserved it. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be able to have sex for a very long time.
“Let’s just say I broke his junk, if that’s even possible. Imagine a laffy taffy machine pulling taffy this way and that.”
“Holy fuck,” Paxton growled. The tension and anger flowed off his body in thick waves. “I can’t believe you had to do that. Where was Camden in all of this?”
“There wasn’t anything he could do. He already threatened to fight Rage for me, but if he kept pushing, he’d get booted out. If he wasn’t there, I don’t think I’d have handled it as well.”
