Uncaged: A Fighting for Flight Short Story

by J. B. Salsbury

  “No shit.”

  Gia moves through the door, pulling me behind her, and Jonah grips my shoulder. “Good to see you, brother.” He hugs Gia. “Oh, Layla was looking for you earlier.”

  She kisses my jaw and excuses herself. I can see she’s holding back laughter at Jonah’s ridiculous getup.

  “Raven make you do this?” I nod to his fruity green and white striped… ”Are those tights?

  He opens his mouth, but our attention is diverted when Sadie comes ripping into the foyer looking like a snowball in a dress so big all I can see is her frilly socks and her angelic face draped in chocolate-brown hair. “Unkie Rex!” She slams into my legs, and I scoop her up along with layer upon layer of silky white fabric.

  “Hey, princess.” I pull back to look at her, but her arms are wrapped so tightly around my neck it’s difficult to see anything outside of her big blue eyes. “You look beautiful.”

  “Daddy’s an elf!” She grins big, two dimples matching Jonah’s bursting free on her rosy cheeks. “Did you see?”

  “Hard to miss.” I swing my gaze to my friend who is still grinning like a lunatic.

  Note to self: Being in love makes you crazy. Being a parent makes you stop giving a single shit about pride, masculinity, or anything outside making your kid happy.

  Her tiny fingers absently trace the tattoos on my neck. “You have to see our tree! Unkie Blake brought an ornament of a hotdog wiff a Santa hat on!” Her tiny eyebrows pinch together. “I fink it’s a hotdog, but it has no bun.”

  For the first time Jonah’s smile falls. “Yeah, baby. It’s a hot dog.”

  We head into the living room to see the giant space filled with people. Most of the Vegas-based UFL fighters, their wives, even Blake’s adopted daughter, Axelle, is here holding a squirming Jack who looks eager to get down and rip the place apart.

  “Hey, bro!” I turn just in time to catch Raven in a tiny Santa dress before she wraps me in a hug. She pulls back, grinning at Sadie. “You think you could let your Uncle go so he can enjoy the party, or do you plan on having him hold you all night?”

  Sadie’s arms grow tighter around my neck just as mine grow tighter around her. “No, Momma. I wanna be wiff Unkie Rex.” Her tiny chin kicks up in defiance. “I gonna maywee him when I’m big!”

  I grin down at her. “Sadie, what about Gia?”

  She shrugs and lays her head on my shoulder, her fingers now flicking at my lip ring. “She can come too. We can boff maywee you.”

  Jonah swoops in and snags his daughter from my arms, throwing her into a fit of giggles. “Hey! I thought you wanted to marry me!” He growls into her neck.

  “I do, Daddy! I do!” She laughs harder as Jonah carries her over to the miniature black Mustang topped with a big red bow in the living room. Early Christmas present, I guess.

  I turn to see Raven’s eyes on me, a smile tilting her lips. “What?”

  She feigns innocence. “Nothing.”

  I pull her in for a side hug and whisper, “Thanks for helping me out with everything.”

  “What are sisters for?” She jerks her head to the bar. “Come on, let’s grab a drink. You’re gonna need it.”

  We move through the living room and I exchange fist bumps, back thumping hugs, and Merry Christmases with people as I pass. Blake, Layla, Cam, and Eve are all standing around the bar.

  “Hey, Rex.” Layla pushes up on her toes to give me a hug. “Merry Christmas.”

  “You too.” I eye Blake who looks like he’s holding in a secret. “What?”

  Layla rolls her eyes. “He’s been telling dirty Christmas jokes all night.”

  Blake grins and leans against the bar. “She acts like she hates it, but she doesn’t.”

  “No.” I motion to the bartender for a beer. “I’m pretty sure she hates it.”

  “Why does Santa only enter through the chimney?” He grins.

  “Fuck, here we go,” Cam mumbles.

  I shrug. “I don’t know. Why?”

  “Because Mrs. Claus said he’s never gettin’ in the back door—Ow! Fuck, Mouse, don’t hit!” He rubs his shoulder.

  “You’re an idiot,” she says, smiling.

  He pulls her to his chest and drops a kiss to the top of her head. “Am not. Since I met you, got my daughter, and now my son, I’m a regular fuckin’ Mr. Christmas full of Yuletide cheer.”

  She peers up at him. “You’re full of something.”

  “I’d like to fill you with my Yuletide cheer.” He grips his crotch. “Ow! Don’t fucking hit!”

  Eve giggles, earning a glare from Blake.

  “Ya know, you’re a lot like Santa,” Layla leans into him and shrugs. “Except, ya know, Santa stopped at three ‘Hos’.”

  Beer almost comes out of my nose at the force of my laughter. Even Blake laughs just before kissing his woman senseless.

  Gia joins us a little later, her smile in place, but not quite meeting her eyes. As each hour passes I find myself getting more and more anxious. I’d usually drown my panic in booze, but I want to be sober for what I have planned.

  Raven makes eye contact with me from across the room. Now is as good a time as any. I nod, and she scurries over to the stereo system.

  I lean into Gia’s neck and whisper, “Hey, I wanted to show you something.”

  Her bright gray eyes peek up at me and she grins. “Sure.”

  I grab her hand and lead her to the over ten-foot tall Christmas tree in the middle of the room.

  Her eyebrows pinch together. “You wanted to show me the tree?”

  I dip down and press my lips to hers. “No, I wanted to show you—”

  She gasps as the lights in the room go dark and all the partiers go silent. Her gaze swings around the room and when Perry Como’s voice croons Silent Night through the speakers her wide eyes come to mine.

  “Our song,” she whispers.

  I grasp her hands and hold them in front of me, loving how her touch instantly calms my nerves. “Gia, I know things haven’t been easy. The price you’ve had to pay to be with me is more than I could ever return.”

  She shakes her head. “No, it’s not—”

  I press my finger to her lips. “Shh… let me get this out.”

  She nods and I go back to holding her hands.

  “There’s a lot in my life I’m not sure about. I don’t know where I’ll be in five years, no clue when my career will end because of some stupid injury, or what’ll happen with my music. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this life it’s that there are no guarantees. But there is one thing I know. One truth that’s buried so deep in my soul it’s imprinted on my fucking DNA, and that is that I will never stop loving you. Even after my lungs stop breathing… after my heart stops beating… I will still and always be completely dedicated to loving you.”

  “Rex…”

  “So, on that thought.” I reach into the tree and pull out a small black box. “I promised you three years ago that one day I’d put this diamond on your finger.”

  I drop to one knee and crack open the box. The room sounds with small gasps from the women and grunts of approval from the men.

  “Georgia McIntyre, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? Not only in this life, but through whatever awaits us in the afterlife, because I can’t go a day — let alone a single lifetime — without you.”

  She drops to her knees in front of me and throws herself at my chest, wrapping her arms around my neck she whispers in my ear, “Yes. Always and forever, I say yes.”

  Leaning away, I pull her left hand down from my neck and slip the single solitaire ring onto her finger. Cheers erupt and I kiss my fiancé as if we’re the only ones in the room. Our tongues tangle together and her hands dive into my hair just as my hands clamp down hard on her ass.

  “Ahem…”

  We rip our mouths apart to find Jonah and Raven smiling down at us.

  “Congratulations, man.” My brother holds out his hand to Gia, helping her up as I push myself t
o standing.

  I make a quick adjustment to hide the embarrassing hard-on that’s punching my zipper.

  Raven and Gia hug, and then I give my sister a hug and thank her again. For the rest of the night I stay locked to Gia’s side while the party-goers hand out their congratulations. As nice as it all is, all I care about is getting my future wife naked and in my bed.

  After too long I finally get her out and the second we’re in the car she slaps my bicep. “Asshole!”

  My jaw falls open and I stare into the narrowed eyes of the most gorgeous woman in the world. “What the fuck was that for?”

  “You stole my necklace and made me feel like I’d lost my mind because I couldn’t find it!”

  I blink away my shock and a slow grin pulls my lips. “Sorry?”

  She harrumphs and whirls to face forward, her arms folded under her chest, and a sexy as shit pout on her face. “Thought I was crazy,” she mumbles.

  Laughter bursts from my lips so powerfully it shakes my body with the force.

  “I can’t believe you’re laughing!”

  My laughter dies instantly and I dig my fingers into her hair at her nape, forcing her eyes to mine. “I’m laughing because we are fucking crazy, baby. Ain’t no getting around that. But being crazy means we’re meant to be together and we’ll live out our days driving each other insane and fucking up all over the place. People are gonna talk, they’re all gonna know just how fucked up we are, and none of it’ll matter because we’ll be together. Understand?”

  “No.” A slow, sexy, and dick-hardening smirk stretches across her face. “I think I need you to explain that.”

  I pull her head back by her hair, tightening my grip until she whimpers. “Be good, Gia,” I growl in warning. She always knows how to push me to make me lose control.

  “I don’t want to be good.” She licks her lips. “I want to be crazy.”

  With a groan, I press a punishing kiss to her lips and fire up the Escalade. “You got it, baby.” Gripping her left hand I thumb her engagement ring. “Now and forever. Never forget.”

  UFL Training Center

  Las Vegas, NV

  February 14th

  Jonah

  I’m cranking out my last tricep press when the door to the gym opens. From the reflection in the mirror I watch as Blake and his little brother Braeden head my way. Where Brae is all swag and confidence, Blake’s looking a little tore up.

  I rack my weight and turn to them. “You assholes are late.”

  Brae shakes his head and throws a thumb to his brother. “Because of this dickhead.”

  Blake cringes and—shit, is he limping?

  “You okay, B?”

  He comes closer then drops down on the weight bench, his knees wide and an arm propped behind him so he can lean back. “No. I’m very much not fucking okay.”

  Brae cough-laughs then covers his mouth with a mumbled apology.

  Wiping the sweat from my face, I prop a hip on the weight stack. “What happened? You injured?”

  “Yeah, bro.” The younger Daniels grins into his shoulder and clears his throat. “Why don’t you tell Jonah what happened.”

  Blake glares at his brother and then shifts his ass on the seat and groans. “Valentine’s Day. That’s what happened.”

  I know V-Day is a big deal to Blake and Layla, after all, it was the night their worlds fucking imploded and what ultimately brought them together. But that doesn’t explain why the guy is acting like he has a hot coal shoved up his ass.

  “Um…” Braeden lifts his eyebrows. “That’s not exactly the whole story.”

  “I knew I shouldn’t have told you, fucker.” Blake moves to get up and hisses through his teeth then drops back down.

  “Someone better start talking. If you’re injured you need to see the doc.”

  A laugh bursts out of Brae’s lips, but like before he covers it and shakes his head. “I’m sorry. I just…” More throat clearing. “I don’t think there’s anything the doc can do for my brother.” Annnd more laughing.

  “What the fuck?” I’m practically growling and I swear I’d shake the information out of Blake if he didn’t look like he was hurting so badly. “Talk.”

  Blake heaves out a heavy sigh and leans forward although the action looks hella painful. He eyeballs the room, the only other people in here are clear across the thousand square foot space working the cardio machines. Once he’s convinced he won’t be heard he mouths something to me.

  I squint. “Your flow and flick?”

  His eyes grow wide. “No!”

  He mouths it again, this time in a whisper but I can’t hear shit over Braeden who’s choking on his own laughter.

  “You…grow a stick.”

  “Dude,” Blake growls.

  “What? I can’t fucking hear you—”

  “I broke my dick!”

  There’s a collective gasp from everyone in the room, all except Brae who is now doubled over, hands on his knees, trying to suck in precious oxygen.

  My hand instinctively goes to my junk where I cup and massage my shit saying a silent prayer of thanks that it’s in good health. “How the hell did you do that?”

  He closes his eyes and does some labor breathing through what I assume to be a twinge of pain, then focuses on me after it passes. “I wanted to do something special for Layla, ya know, this being Valentine’s Day and all.”

  Brae waves his hand around, his face red, tears building in his eyes. “I can’t…this is too fucking funny…stop…my stomach.”

  Blake lunges, smacks his brother upside the head, only to fall back with both hands between his legs. “Damn, see what you did?”

  Braeden’s laugh now has zero sound.

  “Go on.” I cross my arms over my chest and focus on all the brightly colored tats on my forearms to keep from joining the younger Daniels. I haven’t even heard the story yet, but knowing Blake I can only imagine the dickface did something stupid.

  “So I woke her up, ya know?” For the first time since he stepped in here, he smiles and it’s all kinds of dirty.

  “Yeah, I get it.”

  “Right, so I hooked her up first.” He winks. “Twice.”

  “Nice.”

  “You can imagine how things were going…down there.” He nods to the space between his legs. “I was roarin’ to go, if you know what I mea—”

  “I know what you mean.”

  “But it’s a special day for us, so…” He glares at his brother who’s now crouched and still sucking air where he can get it. “I wanted to do something special.”

  “Please tell me you didn’t put your dick somewhere it doesn’t belong.” I pinch the bridge of my nose feeling like asking Blake to explain might have been a bad idea. They don’t make brain bleach strong enough to erase the images he’s capable of burning into my head.

  “No. I didn’t. Thanks for the vote of confidence. I’m not some kind of perv.”

  Another snort from Brae.

  “I…” His gaze slides around the room then he leans in. “I gave her a show, ya know?”

  “A show.” Wait, did he…?

  “The wiener dance.”

  Okay, so not totally pervy. Any guy out there who says he’s never blessed his woman with a little dick-helicopter action is a liar. “That doesn’t make sense, I mean how…” My eyes widen when realization hits. “Oh shit…”

  He recoils and nods. “Yeah.”

  “Dude, Blake, you can’t do an aggressive wiener dance when you’re rock hard, man.”

  He stares up at me with a dry expression. “You don’t say.”

  “Tell him the rest.” Brae’s back to his feet, but he’s wiping tears from his eyes.

  “I was braced, had good form, hands on my hips, great rotation, and then bam! It hurt like hell. Felt like someone took a Samurai sword to my good-n-plenties.” He huffs out a breath. “I dropped hard. Fell straight to the floor and rolled to my stomach—”

  I suck in air through my t
eeth. “Ouch.”

  “Exactly. And tonight is always the best night for us, but I fucked it all up.”

  “I got this, dude.” Brae pats his chest and there’s humor in his voice. “I’ll take care of Layla tonight—”

  Blake rushes him again, but Brae dodges him, which is easy to do since he’s moving at a slugs pace. “I hate you.”

  “You love me.” His brother winks and moves to the leg press machine mumbling, “Fuck, that’s some funny shit.”

  “You good to workout?” I’m fighting a grin.

  “Hell.” He stands and hobbles to the weights. “It’s the only kind of workout I’ll be able to get for a while, so…fuck. This sucks.”

  I clap him on the shoulder. “You’ll survive to fuck another day, bro.”

  “Stupid helicopter,” he mumbles.

  And then I proceed to lose it.

  “Laugh it up.” He glares at me. “Happy Valentine’s Day, prick.”