Fight It Out Series Box Set

by T M Kelly

“I have to,” Ray said and tried to push my body away with both arms.

  “Who’s calling the shots?”

  “Ella Nesta.”

  “What did you get yourself into?”

  “It’s my family. What do you know about family?”

  “I know a fucking lot about family. This shit, it’s definitely not your family. Do you really think they care about you?”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You tried to kill a woman who loved you to the core. You’re an idiot for letting that go. She was your family.”

  I knew I’d pissed him off, because the moment I lifted up, Ray hopped up and attempted to circle me. He had this face of determination. He was prepared to take me down. I grabbed his leg out from under his body. His back hit the concrete floor and I heard him cry out. Ray was not going to stop. Yet, I was not a killer. He leaned up and started to punch the side of my head.

  “You know how to stop this,” a guy yelled from behind me. It was Lincoln.

  “I’m not a killer,” I yelled.

  “No, you’re a protector. So protect Jenny.”

  Ray found a way to squeeze out of my hold and hop up. We were both standing now, and he was circling me. Every now and then he would jump forward quickly and kick my shin. Link was right; if we were to ensure Jenny was safe, Ray had to be out of the picture. The moment Ray attempted to kick me for the hundredth time, I reached out and grabbed his ankle, dropping him to the floor. I turned my body and wrapped my arm around his leg and held onto his foot. I dropped to my knees and put my body in a position that was opposite Ray. The moment I turned his ankle he screamed for me to stop. I didn’t, though. When I heard the bone in his ankle crack, I jumped up and laid one punch after another against the side of his face. Ray raised his arms probably begging me to stop, but I didn’t. Then something triggered inside my body and I paused. I couldn’t do this. There had to be another way to take him down. Killing Jenny’s husband was not the answer.

  Ray was lying there motionless, blood pouring out from a cut above his eye and his broken nose. This was why I left the CIA—it wasn’t who I was. I was a fighter, not a killer.

  Lincoln touched my arm. “Malik. Run.” Then he turned and started running toward a large open doorway. I jumped to my feet and pushed my way through the crowd. He slowed and let me catch up to him. “We need to get the fuck out of here.” There was yelling from behind me that seemed to be getting louder.

  “Get back here,” the woman from earlier yelled at the top of her lungs.

  I was struggling to run. My body was giving out on me. “How much farther?”

  “There.” He pointed to a black van waiting for us.

  Once I reached the open door, I fell inside. I turned to see several people moving toward the van with their fists raised in the air. “Get me the fuck out of here.” I rolled onto my back and threw my arm over my eyes. How was I going to tell Jenny I failed to protect her?

  32

  Kac

  Lincoln and I got separated when the fight with Malik and Ray broke out in the hallway. I happened to be standing far enough back to stay out of sight. The problem was, from my vantage point I noticed someone. My brother. He was down in the front, screaming obscenities and laughing as each punch was thrown toward my friend. Why was my brother, Devon, here?

  “Well that was boring,” the woman who seemed to be in charge said and turned my way. Several people tried to grab Malik and Lincoln before they could escape. In the commotion I somehow ended up next to the woman. “You’re new?”

  “Ray invited me.” It was the first thing that popped into my mind.

  “He seems to think he calls the shots.” She pushed her way through the crowd. “Follow me.” She raised her arm and waved for me to follow. “Why don’t you finish what that other man couldn’t?”

  Wait, she wanted me to kill Ray?

  I glanced around, looking for Devon. My brother and I lost touch several years ago. We had a problem agreeing on several things. One huge disagreement was following rules. Abiding by the laws. He hated being told what to do. I knew the laws were set for a reason.

  As I followed behind the woman, I noticed Devon watching me. He was behind a few men. I wondered if he would step forward and call me out. That’s all I needed. If it slipped I was a CIA agent, I was a dead man. He didn’t move, though.

  When we approached Ray, he was crawling on the concrete floor and sobbing. It was actually quite pathetic.

  The woman turned back to me. “Take care of this.” Then she walked away.

  I was left alone in the center of the huge crowd with a sobbing man who had a broken ankle. A part of me didn’t want to do this, but the other part knew it had to be done. I bent down beside him. “How many bones did you break when beating your wife?” I knew the answer because Anora told me all the stories.

  “What?” Ray stopped moving. “Who are you and why are you asking about my wife?”

  “Just answer the question. You must know.”

  “None. I would never do that to my wife.”

  That’s all I needed to set me off. I stood up and kicked my foot forward and slammed it in the center of his chest. Ray’s body lifted and slammed back down on the concrete surface. I bent over him. “Wrong. You managed to break thirty-two bones.” I fisted my hands in his shirt and brought him closer. “How many were repaired properly?”

  “I don’t know what the fuck this is about,” Ray stammered.

  “You’re lying on this concrete floor, sobbing like a fucking baby over a broken ankle and a broken nose. Just imagine what your fucking wife felt like in those moments.”

  “She deserved it,” Ray sneered. The guy had balls, I’d give him that.

  “Yeah, just like you deserve this.” I threw three more heavy punches against the side of his face. Then I kicked him so hard against the side of his head, his body lifted off the ground and fell down with a hard crunch sound. The crunch sound was Ray’s scull hitting the concrete. I stood up and walked out of the center of the crowd.

  “Stop,” the woman said with an authoritative voice. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  I turned to face her. “The guy I just killed invited me here. I figured that act probably just disinvited me.”

  “On the contrary.” She stepped closer and placed her palm on my chest. “That just kept you here, because now I’m asking you to stay.”

  “Why would I want to stay?”

  “You have to fight again.”

  “I don’t have to do anything.” I shook my head and tried to turn away.

  “Now you do.” She wrapped her fingers around my forearm and attempted to hold me in place. “I can make it worth your while.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “Now you have my attention.”

  “Good, boy.” She patted my chest. “Come with me.”

  33

  There was the smell I was growing accustomed to in my day. I looked forward to it. The fresh soap scent with a hint of cedar and lemon. Malik was near me. I slowly forced myself to open my eyes. I needed to know he was okay. As my lids popped open, I noticed Malik actually lying down right beside me. His eyes were closed. Was he sleeping?

  I reached my hand up to touch the side of his face when it was stopped by a cord. There was an IV in the top of my hand. Ignoring the tubing, I found a way to brush my fingers along his jawline. His eyes flew open. “Hey, gorgeous.”

  He sat up and grabbed my hand. “Jenny, you’re awake.”

  “I am. How long was I asleep?” He didn’t answer right away. “Malik, how long was I asleep?”

  “Two weeks.”

  “Wait, why?” I had this gravelly voice, and I noticed my energy already start to wane. “What happened to me?”

  “The doctors recommended you go into an induced coma for a few weeks to help with the swelling on your brain.” He reached over and grabbed the call button. “We need to get a nurse in here.”

  I grabbed
his hand to stop him from hitting the button. “I had swelling on my brain?”

  “Ray must’ve hit your head pretty hard.” He brushed his finger back and forth over my thumb. “You don’t remember?”

  “No. I remember my shoulder dislocating, though.” I rubbed my hands over my eyes. “Otherwise everything felt par for the course when he was ready to get his anger out.”

  Malik bent down in front of me. “I’m sorry, Jenny.”

  “For what?” I genuinely felt confused at the moment.

  “I tried.”

  “Malik, what are you talking about?”

  “I wanted to make sure you were safe.”

  “You did.”

  “No, I failed.”

  I placed my palm on the side of his face and turned him toward me. “Stop talking gibberish and tell me what you’re talking about.”

  “Ray?” He paused and dropped his head. “I had the chance to make this all end and I couldn’t do it.”

  “You found him?” I was starting to catch up.

  “Yes.” He was fidgeting with a string on the blanket. “I should’ve ended it all.”

  “Wait, you mean kill him?” Finally, I felt caught up in the conversation. “No, Malik, listen to me. You’re not a killer.”

  “But I’m supposed to protect you.”

  “You were never supposed to do anything. You chose to and I appreciate you for that.” I tried to sit up straighter, but a sharp pain shot down my spine. “I’ll be fine. We’ll find him and he will go away for a very long time.”

  “I’m sorry, Jenny.”

  I lightly patted my hand on the side of his face. “Hey, what is this? The Malik I know would find a way to take him down. This. All I see is someone who is accepting defeat.”

  I noticed his mouth open to say something, but then it closed. His phone started to ping with an incoming message, causing him to stand and step over to the window. “Seriously?” he said and turned back to me. “Jenny.” He ran over and grabbed my hand. “I’m not sure if you’ll consider this is good news or bad news.”

  “What do you mean?” I tipped his phone toward me so I could read the message currently on the screen. In bold font were the words, Ray’s dead. “Who’s that from?”

  “Lincoln. Journey contacted him on the private channel.”

  “If you didn’t kill him. Then who did?”

  “I just sent that same question. I have no idea.” He grabbed my hand. “Are you okay?”

  Was I okay? I thought about that for a moment. The man I had married was dead. He’d done things to me that were still hard to process in my brain. When I left Ray months ago, I never planned it would come to this. I wanted to find peace. Feel what happy felt like after being surrounded by fear for so long. Staying with Ray meant a constant state of fear.

  The last time Anora took me to the doctor’s office, he was honest and told me one day my husband would win. Just like all the times I thought I was about to die, the doctor’s words made me realize, I wanted to survive.

  “Yeah, I’m okay.” I looked down the length of my body. My right arm was in a sling. My left leg had a special boot wrapped around it. I’m sure if I took a peek in the mirror, my face would show a hint of the bruises that covered my face just two weeks ago. I closed my eyes and repeated the words in my mind. Ray was dead. “Tell me what happened?” I noticed his shoulder’s slump as he looked down at his phone. “Just tell me?” He proceeded to share how he was taken by Ray and the fight between them. “Okay, so when Lincoln helped you escape, Ray was still alive. Has Lincoln responded with who killed him?”

  “Kac,” Lincoln said from the doorway. “He was forced to kill him.”

  Now I was confused. “How did Kac end up at the Nesta Den?”

  “He was helping find you,” Malik said. “I called him.”

  I looked over at Lincoln. “You and Kac went to get Malik?”

  “Yeah.” Lincoln nodded and leaned against the wall. “I’ve been tracking Journey, so I knew where the fights were located. The Nesta Den moves around the city. They find abandoned warehouses or boarded up casinos.”

  “Anora.” I reached for Malik’s hand. “She’s in that hidden room.”

  “Shit.” Malik stood and walked to the door.

  “Malik, are you sure you should go alone?” I glanced toward Lincoln.

  “I’ll go with him.”

  “You okay with being alone?” Malik said.

  “She won’t be alone.” Charlie stepped around Malik at the doorway. “Lily’s grabbing some Jell-O from the nurse’s station.”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “See, not alone. Go get my friend. I’m sure she’s panicked at this moment. Especially since we haven’t talked in over two weeks.” He nodded and left with Lincoln. Right as both men exited, Lily stepped into the room. “Jell-O?”

  “What?” Lily said around a mouthful. “It’s good.”

  “Are you planning to share?” I pointed to the five containers she was holding in her arms.

  Here I was joking with my friends in the hospital and Ray was dead.

  I needed to process that a few more times in my brain before it would fully compute.

  I was sad for the man I married, but the man who died was not the person who walked down the aisle with me. That man was lost a long time ago.

  “There’s my girl,” Anora said as she walked into the small hospital room.

  “Oh, my goodness, it’s so good to see you.”

  “It’s so good to be out of that room.” She sat down on the side of the bed. “Kac’s assistant wouldn’t tell me where he was, and just continued to bring meals every day.”

  “For two weeks?” That seemed fucked up. “He had to know something was wrong?”

  “One would think.” She grabbed my hand. “He did all this to you?”

  “It’s fine. I’m fine.”

  I watched as Anora looked over at Malik. “She always does this.”

  “I’m right here.”

  “Yeah, but you’re not fine. The man did a number on you…again.”

  “Thankfully he’s dead.”

  “He is?” Anora glanced between Malik and me. “Are you sure?”

  “Anora. Ray’s gone.”

  “Who killed him?”

  This part was awkward. “Kac.”

  She stood up and walked over to the window. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah.” I watched her brush a tear that was slowly sliding down her cheek. “I’m sorry.”

  She spun around. “Sorry. I’m not.” She sat back down on the side of the hospital bed and grabbed my hand. “Do you know how many times I thought about killing the man?” I was about to say something but realized she wasn’t finished. “More times than I care to count. That man didn’t deserve to live. He got exactly what was coming to him.”

  “Anora.”

  “You know I’m right, Jenny.”

  Her words touched me. “Yeah, I do. I’m just sorry it was Kac that threw the final blow.”

  “He’s a big boy. He’ll be fine.” She winked. “Where is he now? I would love to tell him leaving me in the room for a full two weeks was fucked up.”

  “That may be tricky.”

  “Why?”

  I glanced over at Malik. “What am I allowed to say?”

  She scowled. “Allowed to say? What’s that shit?”

  “She can’t know anything, Jenny. The less you know the better,” Malik said. “An agent I worked with is watching him and reporting in weekly.”

  “Is he okay?” Anora said. “Can you at least tell me that?”

  “He’s holding his own,” Malik said.

  “So he’s in danger?” She stood up and started to pace around the room. “I mean, I don’t care.” Then she stopped and shook her head. “Well, I care, just not the way you may think.”

  “Hey.” I pulled her away from her own thoughts. “Kac is a fighter. This is what he was trained to do.”

  She dropped down beside me. “You�
��re right.”

  “I know.” I touched my hand to the side of her face. “He’ll be okay.”

  “Kac can get out of any sticky situation,” Malik said and sat down in the chair beside my bed.

  “I hope you’re right.” She rested her head on my shoulder.

  I was hoping the same thing.

  Malik had told me earlier before Anora arrived that Kac was in a bad situation. He indicated it was probably one of the most challenging jobs of his career. If Kac managed to survive, he would look like a damn hero.

  34

  Two months later…

  “How does that feel?” I tightened the head gear under Anora’s chin. “I can’t believe you want to work out with me.”

  “What? You had me curious.” She moved the head gear back and forth. “Plus, I need to know how to kick someone’s ass when they start messing with you.”

  I burst out laughing. “I fear the person who steps over the line.”

  “Me, too.” Charlie winked and sat down on the mat. “Is this your first time throwing a punch, Anora?”

  “There are a lot of firsts happening right now,” she said and glanced around. “I’m in over my head in this gym.”

  “We all have to start somewhere,” Charlie said and crossed her legs in front of her. “Show us what you got, Red.”

  “Red?” I touched Anora’s arm. “Look at you getting a nickname immediately.” I stepped back and tapped my fists to hers. “This is going to be so much fun. Follow everything Charlie tells you. I won’t throw a true punch. We’re just going to get your feet wet.”

  “What have I gotten myself into?” She laughed and stepped her leg back the way I’d taught her. Then she raised her fists cheek level and stood there motionless.

  “Loosen up. You look freaked out.” I was trying not to laugh.

  “I am freaked out,” she said from around her mouthpiece.

  When I was finally released from the hospital, Anora banned me from the house where I lived with Ray. I wasn’t ready to make it official with Malik, so we moved some of my stuff over to Anora’s place. Then I handed the keys over to a woman who would take charge and sell the items along with the house. The less I had to do the better.