by S. C. Ellen
The innuendo isn’t lost on me, but I’m not a beginner when it comes to dealing with men.
Taking him by complete surprise, I steal the cigarette from out of his mouth and bring it to my lips, taking a long drag from it. The smoke slowly and seductively escapes from my lips, and I know I have him with the way his pupils dilate and his jaw tics, like he’s trying hard to restrain himself from reacting.
I move in close to his ear with a whisper. “Wouldn’t you love to find out?” And with that I drop the cigarette onto the floor and stub it out with my black stiletto heel, not giving him the time to respond.
His face is one of surprise, and looks slightly impressed.
Reveling in my victory, I sashay my way through the door, putting a little pep in my step, and make my way out of Caution nightclub with only one shrewd thought bouncing around inside my mind.
Let the games begin.
Alayna
“Tessa, please, you have to do this for me!” I beg as I’m raiding her closet for an outfit to wear.
“Al, you know I would do anything for you, but I just can’t do this one.” She sighs, nervously fidgeting with a stray string hanging off the side of her queen-sized bed. “Besides, what would your dad say if he saw us there?”
I pause my search and sit on the bed next to her with a frustrated breath. “I’m tired of being held back because of this life, Tess. I’m suffocating in it. My life shouldn’t be affected because of what I was born into. It’s wrong. I may be the daughter of a mafia boss, but that shouldn’t taint my hands in blood I never played a part in spilling.”
She looks sorrowfully at me. “The sins of another man might as well be your own, Al. Your association to the mob life seals that, or at least that’s how people not part of this life view it, which is why I chose to stay far away from it all.”
“It shouldn’t have to be like that. Freedom is a basic human right…for everyone,” I bitterly state.
She places a comforting hand on my back. “Not for us, Al. Freedom is a privilege in our world, not a certainty.”
I stare at her for a moment, taking in what she just said, with the thought weighing heavily on my mind. She’s right, that answer is crystal clear. So, who am I fooling?
I shake the thought away, getting back to the task at hand.
“So, the underground tonight?” I ask again, attempting to lighten the mood. And I can see the bit of hesitation still resting on her features. “Come on, Tess, think of how fun it’ll be!” I take her by the hand and all but shake her into acquiescing.
“Oh yeah, men beating the shit out of each other. Real fun!” She rolls her eyes.
I know this opportunity isn’t going to present itself again, and this may very well be my last chance to get in, so it seems that I have to bring out the big guns. “Please, Tess? You’re my best friend, and I want to share this big moment in my life with you. Think of one day when we are old and covered in wrinkles, and all we do is sit around and knit sweaters for our cats all day, because that’s all that we can do! When we could be making some amazing memories now that we will be able to look back on and talk about. But that won’t happen if you’re too afraid to do anything. We can’t let our youth go to waste. Come on, think of the boring cat ladies we will eventually become! They need some pizazz in their life!”
And I know I have her hooked once she lets out an audible sigh and a shrug of her shoulders. “Ugh! Fine! You’re a really good manipulator, you know that? Also, you are super weird.”
I kiss her on the cheek and sing out in delight. “Yes, yes, I am, and I embrace my weirdness. Thank you!”
“I have nothing to wear, though, so we need to go on a quick shopping trip,” she exclaims while walking over to her abundantly overfilled closet and rummaging through it.
“You know I can never refuse a reason to shop. And I know exactly what you should wear for tonight.”
“And what’s that?”
“Something short and tight.” I smirk.
A couple of hours later we’re back with a handful of bags full of the best clothes we could find. I, for one, love getting dolled up, so I get right to my hair and makeup, as Tessa takes a quick shower.
I decide to leave my hair in long curls but wash off the makeup I had on before to apply something a bit bolder and more evening appropriate. I go with a sultry, smokey eye for my lids, and load up on some heavy black eyeliner that makes my blue eyes pop even brighter. I brush on some mild blush to my high cheekbones, add a bit of mascara, and finish my makeup in no time.
Tessa gets out of the shower and I immediately get started on her. Her honey-brown hair is cut into layers that frame her face, so I decide to straighten it, just to sharpen the shape of her oval facial structure. I also bring out her green eyes with a dark brown eyeshadow and top off her look with a bold red lip.
She looks stunning, and I know Jase would totally thank me later.
“Whoa… we look great!” she says as she examines the both of us in the mirror once we’re finished.
“What time is it?” I ask as I straighten out the cute laced top I have on that definitely shows a great deal of cleavage.
“9:03!” Tessa tells me as she checks the screen on her phone.
“Okay, it’s a twenty-minute drive from here to Caution, so we should leave now so that we have some time to spare,” I state as I pack up my purse and grab my keys as we both head to the door.
We get there at 9:28, finally finding a parking spot in the far back corner of the long lot already filled with cars.
“I don’t know if I’m more excited or nervous.” I say, as I fidget in my seat.
“Well, we made it this far. No turning back now.” Tessa laughs.
Not only am I nervous about this whole plan, but I’m also nervous as to how Tessa will take the news about Jase’s debut tonight. I decide now would be the best time to tell her, instead of her finding out herself, the hard way.
“So…did I tell you that Jase may be, uh…fighting tonight?” I anxiously bite my lip, waiting to see how she’ll react to hearing that.
Her head whips toward me. “He what!?”
“Did I forget to mention that?” I feign innocence.
“Yeah, you did!” she fumes.
I let out a deep sigh, “Well, I would apologize, but I wouldn’t be sincere about it because I know if I told you earlier you wouldn’t have agreed. Besides, now is not the time to dwell on it because in about a minute we are supposed to meet Lance at the side alley over there. So, let’s go!” I open my car door and thankfully see Tessa get out, as well.
“You so owe me for this!” she angrily whisper-yells out at me.
“I know! And I will make it up to you, I promise!”
We hastily make our way into the alley of the nightclub, and there’s no one but us down this dark pathway.
A minute goes by… and no sign of anyone.
Damn Jase, I knew he wouldn’t come through. That motherfu-
“Alayna? Is that you?” a deep voice sounds from the other end of the alley.
“Lance?” I hesitantly ask.
“Yeah, it’s me! Hurry up and follow before someone sees us.”
Tessa and I reach Lance as he takes us to the abandoned shack out in the back of the building.
He opens up a rusty old side door and leads us through a dark hallway and down a flight of concrete stairs. In the dim lighting, the room appears to be a lot more narrow than it is, and my nerves are starting to get the best of me.
Lance finally stops at the end of a corridor and turns to us with a bright and crooked grin. It seems to get more animated right before he opens a large steel door.
Straight away, as my eyes adjust to the lighting in the room, I scan the crowd of what seems to be a hundred or more people filling the stands that surround a huge metal cage. I hear the loud shouting of bets and curses everywhere, coupled with the stench of sweat, beer, and stale cigarettes filling my senses.
I love it already.
We walk farther inside, and I spot the bar at the far right and immediately avoid it at all costs.
“You guys want to place some bets?” Lance asks a bit loudly to overpower the noise of the rowdy crowd.
“Of course!” I all but cheer.
We make our way to the left side of the cage where a line is forming to place bets.
“Who’re you betting on?” I ask Tessa once we reach the table.
“As crazy as it sounds, I think I’m going to bet on your brother.”
Surprised at the thought, I see her place two hundred dollars on a wager for Jase. Curiosity sets me off, and I check the betting sheet on the table in front of us seeing that for every hundred she puts in, she will get another hundred on top of it if he wins because he is the new underdog. My eyebrow raises mockingly at her and her brashness. She shakes her head and tells me she has faith that Jase is going to come out as the victor.
“Apparently he’s fighting some guy named Billy, and with a name like that, you know there’s no way your brother can lose.” She giggles.
I pick up a schedule and see that Jase is going up against the Billy guy…and Blizzard. That’s one fight I want nothing to do with. So, I see another fight that Blizzard is in, and apparently, he’s going up against a guy named Nikki Slasher. I don’t even know why, or what comes over me to do so, but I place a bet of five hundred on Blizzard. I tell myself it’s probably because the payout is ten-to-one odds and I stand to make a ton of money, but then again, I never was one for gambling, especially on complete strangers.
“You sure you want to bet on this one, miss?” a man working at the bets counter questions.
“Yeah, why?”
“Well, as good as Blizzard is, Nikki ain’t no joke. He is the only guy I know who can actually take on Blizzard.”
“Well, I know Blizzard can do it.” I don’t know why I have so much faith in this Blizzard guy when I have no idea who he is, or what I’m even doing, but with all the things I’ve heard about him, it makes me think that he’s some sort of ultimate badass, and I’m excited to finally see him in action.
So, with that I take my ticket, and Lance leads us to three empty chairs right in front of the cage.
“You must have a lot of confidence in Blizzard to bet that much on him,” Lance teases.
“Go big or go home, right?”
“He’ll appreciate that.” Lance chuckles.
“You know him?” I ask with a hint of bewilderment in my tone.
“You could say that.”
Before I can question him further, the lights suddenly dim, and the crowd erupts into cheers.
An announcer appears from behind the loudspeakers, causing excitement to bubble up inside of me as the event finally begins.
The first couple of fights happen in a blur as I’m too fascinated by all of the commotion and the vivid matches; time sort of passes in a daze.
“You guys want some beers?” Lance offers, getting up from his seat.
I pull my gaze from the match just as one of the fighters brutally knocks out his opponent with a stiff uppercut.
“Yeah, sure, thanks!” Tessa and I say in unison, both too focused on the fight happening just a few feet away from us.
“Your brother’s fight is next,” she notes, and I can see the anxious look in her eye.
“I hope he doesn’t get his ass kicked.”
“Same, I got two hundred bucks on the bastard, and this chick needs some new shoes.” And that has us laughing until the announcer comes back on.
“Now, with a new underdog in the game, let’s give a warm welcome to JASE PENTALINI!”
Most applaud and cheer him on—probably because they know he’s the boss’s son—as he runs inside of the cage, but a few of the ballsy people ‘boo.’ I am among those ballsy people as his eyes flash on me for a brief second, before they lock onto Tessa. He stares at her for a moment until a huge grin spreads across his face, and he continues on with his warm-up.
“And now let’s make way for BILLY THE BOULDER!!!”
The crowd breaks out into cheers as the huge man barrels his way through them and into the cage.
Both Jase and Billy take their respective corners with narrowed eyes trained onto one another.
“The bloodier the better, boys,” the ref says to them just as a bell rings from somewhere, and the two boys go at it.
Both of them waste no time. Billy attempts to swing a right hook, but Jase dodges it and lands a punch right in the man’s abdomen.
Billy looks unaffected as he swings again on Jase, this time landing it on his jaw.
The crowd erupts at the action.
I take a glance at Tessa, and she is on the edge of her seat, biting anxiously on her nails.
Billy lands another hit, right on the side of his ribs, and Jase stumbles for a second but quickly recovers.
He swings a right jab but misses, and Billy hits him with a painful blow to the eye.
“BEAT HIS ASS, JASE!” I whip my head around, surprised by Tessa’s outburst, and slightly amused by it.
Jase’s eyes connect with hers for a quick second, shock clear on his face.
With the distraction Tessa caused from the sidelines, Billy lands another punch to Jase’s gut.
The fire in Jase’s eyes is so evident that I’m a little shaken at the sight of it.
Jase retaliates by connecting a nasty jab right to the man’s nose, and blood immediately pours out of it.
Now with the upper hand, Jase uppercuts Billy with a left knee landing onto the side of his ribs.
Billy tries to land another hit on him but is knocked out by Jase’s fist with a hard blow to the face.
The arena is dead silent for a few seconds as the shock registers throughout.
Once everyone realizes what just happened, cheers start to break out everywhere.
Even I am bouncing up and down in obvious delight.
I take another look at Tessa, and she also has a bright smile on her face.
Jase winks at Tessa with a smirk, and waves. She waves back with a blush forming on her round cheeks. He then walks off to the back rooms where the fighters stay until it’s their time to head to the cage.
“Wow, that was intense,” Tessa exclaims as she wipes a few strands of sweat from her neck.
“Yeah, that was! And you’re two hundred dollars richer, thanks to Jase!” I joyously announce.
“Oh my God, I am!” she squeals in excitement.
“Damn, that was a good fight,” Lance says as he comes up with three beers in hand. “I saw it from over at the bar, and shit, it was intense.”
We each take our own drink and thank him.
“Seen your pops up there, you should have seen him, he was practically glowing from how proud he was of Jase.”
I couldn’t help but be proud right along with him. Jase did great! Who knew the big dummy had it in him?
My thoughts are interrupted when the announcer comes on to let us know it’s intermission.
The lights, raise and I see a huddle of people head toward the bar. Good thing Lance got ours when he did.
I take a quick drink of my beer, and see Jase exiting the room he just went into. He motions to his trainer to give him a second, as he makes his way over to where we are standing. An array of people congratulate him and pat him on the back while he makes his way over to us. Tessa quickly straightens herself up, and I can’t help but hold back a chuckle.
“Hey, guys…enjoy the fight?” Jase asks with a cocky smile and a flex of his muscles. I almost spew out my beer, while Tessa rolls her eyes and laughs anyway.
I take in his face, the same time Tessa does.
“You’re hurt,” she points out, an air of concern in her voice.
Jase places his fingers over the already-swelling bruise under his eye, and a cut just above his lip. “Oh, this little thing? Ehh, it’s nothing.” He shrugs it off, but I can feel Tessa’s whole demeanor take a turn for the worse in that instant, an
d I guess Jase feels it, too.
“Seriously, T, I’m fine,” he states with a hint of agitation etched in his tone.
“I knew this was a bad idea,” she whispers to herself.
“It’s just a small cut, Tessa. I’m not dead, am I?” Jase angrily remarks.
Tessa inhales a sharp intake of breath, and pain is evident in her expression.
I stand shocked, and even find that Lance is a bit uncomfortable by the way his muscles tense next to me.
Jase registers what he said, and regret flashes across his face.
“T… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it… I just…”
“Drop it, Jase. Just go, okay?” She casts her gaze down and avoids looking at him again.
“Fine. Whatever.” He bitterly runs a hand through his buzzed hair and punches the metal cage beside him as he walks away.
Once he’s gone, I look down at Tessa and see that she is trying to hold back a few of her tears.
“I’m sorry, Tess, you know how he is. He doesn’t think. I’m sorry I brought you here.” I feel guilty myself. I should have just listened to her when she told me she didn’t want to come.
“I’m fine, Al. I just don’t want to talk about it anymore, okay?” And just like that, the tears are gone, and she is taking a hefty chug of her beer.
I join her, and once intermission is over and the lights dim once again, mine and Tessa’s drinks are finished, with a slight buzz hedging our excitement even more.
“Now the fight we have all been waiting for, ladies and gentlemen…Nikki Slasher!!!” The announcer drawls out his name, intensifying the audience’s reaction.
He comes out with his own posse in tow. He has on a pair of headphones as he makes his way toward the ring, giving the crowd a long side glance and stopping once his eyes land on me.
Boy, oh boy, this Nikki guy is something, alright.
His piercing brown eyes are all but gawking at me as I take in his features. He has dirty-blond, tousled hair, and a nose that looks like it may have been broken once or twice before, but he somehow manages to pull off that look well. His chiseled chest is also on full display as I take in his rock-hard abs.
He smiles when he notices me checking him out, and I can’t help giving him a flirty smile back.
