by Sam Crescent
EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2020 Sam Crescent and Stacey Espino
ISBN: 978-0-3695-0120-2
Cover Artist: Jay Aheer
Editor: Karyn White
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DRAGO’S WOMAN
Sam Crescent and Stacey Espino
Copyright © 2020
Chapter One
Ten fights.
Nine completed.
One more to go.
Belle gripped the edge of the sink, feeling sick to her stomach. She was covered in more bruises than she could count. Old ones, new ones, they covered her flesh like she was a canvas for torture. Even her father—the asshole that he’d been—had allowed her to rest after each fight.
Even though she knew her body needed the rest, that she had to take time, she didn’t have that luxury. They had her little girl. She covered her face, trying to contain the sob at the thought of her baby daughter. The only thing that was good in her world, and the men who ran the underground fighting ring had taken her baby from her. She was only a year old, but that hadn’t stopped the bastards.
Forcing the tears aside, Belle stared at her face, and she didn’t recognize the woman who stared back at her. She was broken, she saw that now. There had been a time not so long ago when she thought she could finally get away from the constant fighting and death, but that wasn’t ever going to happen.
Even after these ten fights, she knew they’d demand more. Maybe they’d hold her little girl over her head. Whatever was going to happen, she felt sick to her stomach. Grabbing the trash can just in time, she threw up, bringing the small lunch she’d been able to eat.
After being violently sick, she collapsed on the floor, drawing her knees up, trying to remember her father’s fighting talk.
“I don’t want to, Daddy. I hate it.”
“You’ve got to, pumpkin. This is what you were made for.”
She hadn’t been made for fighting. This life wasn’t natural, and it was only when she’d gotten older that she realized the lies she’d been fed by that man. This wasn’t a good life or a healthy one but one that was part of the dark world they lived in.
People loved the underground fighting rings. The sport without rules where lives were constantly at risk for one bet or another. She hated it. There was also an even darker circle than a bunch of adults fighting.
Her father had drawn her into that shitty life. The life where kids were pitted against each other. She started out as being the fat kid that everyone could pummel. She hated being hit as each strike against her flesh had hurt.
Seeing as her mother didn’t give a shit about her and her father wanted the money, she forced herself to train, to get better, to get stronger so that she was no longer a punching bag. She was a force to be reckoned with.
They didn’t send her to school, so no one ever asked questions. In fact, as far as the world was concerned, she’d been home-schooled. She hadn’t.
Her parents moved her from place to place, enjoying the money that was earned from her fighting.
Then when she’d turned twenty-one, she’d finally worked up the courage to walk away. She’d turned her back on fighting completely.
Her name had been up there with the greats. In fact, she’d been considered in the same circle as another fighter, a man much older than she was, and who had a much deadlier reputation. She never knew what happened to Drago, but she’d seen him fight so many times.
They’d even talked a few times. He’d sat next to her and told her to keep on going, to not let anyone know that they were getting to her.
She didn’t even know why she thought about him right in that moment. He had long since left the ring and the fighting behind. She didn’t know what had happened to him. If he was doing okay or not?
Rubbing the heels of her hands against her eyes, she felt the exhaustion in her body.
Since leaving the ring at twenty-one, she’d done a couple of one-off fights to help earn her some quick cash. After that, she worked as a waitress at a diner. It was there that she met the man who had used her for a quick screw. He’d wanted the credit for finally banging the “fighting Belle”. That’s what her father had called her. She hated the name but it had stuck, and so had her reputation.
After he screwed her big time, he’d left her. He’d also left her with a little baby, and this all happened a year and a half ago. Her baby was the only thing that was good in the world.
Then one night she’d been leaving the diner when three men had taken her by surprise. They wanted her to fight, and when she refused, they took her baby and forced this on her. If she wanted to see her little girl again, she’d fight.
Nine fights done.
One to go.
She felt sick to her stomach because she knew they’d want more.
Men that took an innocent child as collateral were not to be trusted, and she didn’t trust them, not one bit.
“You look like fucking shit.”
She looked up to see Ben, one of the men who’d taken her baby from her, standing near the door.
Belle didn’t say a word. She simply waited.
“One fight to go. You’ve been on fire. A little sloppy at times, but I guess after having a baby, that shit all goes south eventually.” He clapped his hands together looking mightily excited. “You hear that crowd. They’re after a good show.”
She stared at her hands. Her knuckles were bruised and cracked. They hurt so much. The fights were bare knuckled, no way of having any protection.
Her stomach was also bruised, and if she moved a little too suddenly, she felt the pain in her ribs. There was probably a crack or two there.
Bruises covered her face, her lip was split, and there were also finger marks around her neck from where one of the fighters had gotten her on the floor and started to choke her. She’d been close to passing out when the fighter had moved, and she’d been able to get the upper hand, and win that fight.
“Are you going to give us a good show?” Ben reached out to touch her, but she swatted his hand away.
The last thing she wanted was this bastard’s touch on her.
“Oh, you don’t like that, do you, little girl?”
“You don’t get to touch me, ever.”
Ben smiled. “I wouldn’t be too sure of that. You know I always used to watch you fight. Our fathers shared that passion in that regard. They liked to watch their kids fight. I remember you being this little fat kid. You would whimper and cry as they hit you. Then one day you came into the ring, and you were on fire. No longer the little fat punching bag but something a lot more.”
She gritted her teeth, and found the strength to stand up without showing the pain she was in. She had to be strong and do this for her little girl.
Her baby was the only one that counted to her.
“You ready?”
Belle stared at him, waiting.
“You’re going to love this one. I don’t think they’re going to be as easy as the other fighters I’ve faced. The odds are a lot higher now. Instead of a couple of grand, we’re up to a couple of hundred grand.”
She listened as she followed him toward the noise. Whatever was about to happen, it wasn’t going to help her. This crowd, it sounded like
they wanted to be entertained.
Belle hated fighting. She hated this life and had tried to find a new one far away from all of this.
Her little girl wouldn’t grow up having to train or fight, to take the hits. Belle had done all of that, and once this was done, this last fight, she was gone. No more city living. She was getting far, far away from here. No one would know who she was. There would be no more risks.
She had it all planned out, and all she had to do was win one more fight.
One more fight.
Belle kept repeating the same words over and over in her head, hoping that she could find the courage that she needed.
You can do this.
You’ve done all this before, and keep on going.
Win this for her.
Your little girl.
Entering the ring, she watched as Ben held his hands up and the crowd went wild. She wanted to run, to hide, to get her baby, and leave.
“As you all know, ladies and gentleman, tonight is indeed a special night. A celebration if you will. Belle is our queen. She’s been in this world for a long time, and we know she is a warrior.” Another eruption of applause. “Now, we need to end tonight with a bang, guys. You know this is our last night with Belle, so let’s make it count. Are you ready to meet her opponent?”
Her heart pounded as silence rang out through the crowd.
“He’s undefeated and is known to break his enemy with a single strike. He’s bigger, faster, meaner than any other fighter we have. Let’s hear it for Deadman!”
****
Drago hadn’t been to an underground fighting ring in a long time. He didn’t even know why he was there now, but one look at the woman who stood there, looking beaten down, and his heart raced.
He knew Belle, remembered her well, and he couldn’t believe she was here now. Something had to have gone wrong.
“What do you know?” he asked Carlos, his friend and confidant. They had been in the system together. Both of them had been forced to fight, but Drago had been sure to make Carlos his assistant. People left him alone once he did that.
No one would question him, not once.
“Rumor has it that they have forced Belle here for some reason.”
“What do you mean? I thought she left the fighting life.”
“She did,” Carlos said. “This is the first fight in over a year.” Carlos stopped as they listened to who was going to be her opponent.
Drago kept up to date with everything that was going on in the streets, and tonight was no different. He’d caught wind of the fight, of the bet that was being placed. Belle didn’t have great odds, and as Ben announced her opponent, he knew she was going to get slaughtered.
Belle was fucking good. A damn good fighter, which was saying something considering how much she hated it. There was no heart in her skill. She did everything she could to defend herself, but that was all.
They had both been handed shit lives, and they’d done what they could to make a life within blood, pain, and misery.
“I mean this is her tenth fight,” Carlos said.
“Her tenth?” Drago shouldn’t be surprised. She didn’t look refreshed nor ready to take on the fight of her life.
Deadman came out, and he was easily twice the size of this woman. This wasn’t a fair fight, and he didn’t like it. People were known for being sick fucks, but right now, he watched as Belle looked at Deadman. He approached her, and Drago cursed when he witnessed her flinch.
She wasn’t ready for this fight, and every instinct inside him demanded that he call an end to this. He didn’t know why she was back. When he’d gotten word that she’d left the life for good, he’d been impressed and proud. He’d not liked that her father had so much control, that she’d been forced to do this.
There was always a softness about her, a sweetness that she had to fight in order to get where she was right now.
“Something’s not right.”
“You want me to find out everything?” Carlos asked. “It’s going to cost money.”
Drago pulled out an envelope stuffed with cash. “Find out everything, and I want answers now.”
Carlos scurried away, and he turned his attention back toward the ring. Ben spoke for another couple of minutes, and then he left the ring. Belle and Deadman faced off one against the other. There was some fighting talk coming from Deadman, but Belle had nothing.
She wore a pair of shorts and a sports bra, and it showed the bruises, hinting at the pain she must be in. Ten fights, and from the sight of her, not a single reprieve.
“What the fuck happened to you?” he muttered.
The bell dinged, and he gripped the edge of the balustrade. Where they were had many levels, and he was able to look down from his position to watch.
Back when he was fighting, the cops were always paid a tidy sum to look the other way, and it seemed that was still the case now.
Deadman held Belle and brought his head forward, but she moved left then right, and sank to the floor, landing a blow to Deadman’s crotch. Her movements were slow, sluggish, and as the minutes ticked by, she wasn’t able to dodge Deadman’s fists.
One landed against the cheek, and blood sprayed from her mouth. He picked her up, and threw her across the ring. She landed with a thud on the floor.
Every instinct in Drago’s body screamed at him to get to her, to help her. He hadn’t fought in years, not in a competition, but he’d kept his body at the peak of health. No one could best him in a fight, just like they hadn’t been able to back then. The only reason Deadman was number one right now was because Drago wasn’t there.
Deadman kicked her stomach, shoving her across the floor. She screamed out in pain, and it was the first time Drago had ever seen her like that.
She got to her feet, but her hand was poised in front of her ribs. She’d been hurt bad. This wasn’t going to end well.
Deadman picked her up and tossed her across the ring again, stomping on her stomach. She spat out blood and tried to get away.
“She’s not here because she wants to be,” Carlos said, breaking through the crowd.
He didn’t know how his friend could get the information that he did, only that he knew what to say and do to get what Drago needed.
“She has a kid. They’ve got the kid and are forcing her to do ten fights. She wins ten fights, she gets her little girl back.”
Drago removed his jacket. “That’s not how this fucking works. She wins ten, they want ten more. There’s no way they’ll let her go.”
Rushing toward the edge of the ring, he saw that Deadman was just landing blow upon blow on her body.
He didn’t have time to remove his clothing. Charging into the ring, he shoved Deadman off her, crouching over her body. He sensed Carlos near him. Keeping his gaze on Deadman, he saw that the man recognized him.
Staring at his brand-new opponent, Drago got to his feet.
“You will fight me,” he said.
Ben entered the ring, and Drago glared at him.
“My man will take Belle, and then you and I are going to have a talk.”
“That’s not the deal,” Ben said. “She knows what she’s got to do.”
Drago stepped forward. “You want to run that deal by me again, fucker?”
“Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like this fight has just gotten interesting.”
While Ben dealt with the audience and the change in fight he moved toward Carlos. “Get her out of here.”
“I can’t. No. My baby,” Belle said. She was gasping, clutching her stomach.
He cupped her cheek, tilting her head back. One of her eyes was already swollen shut and the other was getting there.
“I’ll get your baby, Belle. Do you remember me?”
She frowned and nodded, then winced.
“Carlos is my friend. He’ll take care of you. That I promise you. I’ll get your little girl back, and this business will be settled.”
He nodded at Carlos and waited for
the man to leave before he turned back to the fight. Deadman and Ben were talking.
Rolling up the sleeves of his shirt, he stared at Deadman. He’d been hitting Belle repeatedly, hurting her, blow by blow, and he was fucking done with monsters like this. He was going to make this fucker pay, and then he was going to deal with Ben.
He listened for the sound of the gong, the urge to kill running through his bones. He had to do this to protect her.
The gong sounded, and he charged. Slamming his fist against the fucker’s face, Drago allowed himself to release the beast within him. All it took was picturing Belle’s broken body for him to hurt Deadman. Within seconds he had his opponent on the floor, and he kept on hitting him until Deadman collapsed, tapping his hand out.
When he was sure the man wouldn’t get back up again, he focused on Ben.
“It was an all or nothing fight,” Ben said. “Kill him or you get nothing.”
Drago took a step toward him. Ben made to step back, but Drago caught him by the collar, pulling him up against him. “I want her kid, and I want her now. You want to take me on, Ben, try me. I know you. You try to hide from me, I will find you. I will kill you, but I’ll make it hurt first. Do you understand me?”
“This is not your fight.”
“It became my fight the moment you entered her in it for the death. You were going to kill her, and what, groom her kid to take her place?”
“That bitch made a fucking mint when she was younger. A lot of people like to see kids beating the shit out of each other among other things.”
Drawing his head back, he slammed it forward, knocking Ben out. He’d get Belle’s kid back, and then he’d make it his personal mission to destroy every last one of these assholes.
Chapter Two
Belle slipped in and out of consciousness—drifting, floating, unable and unwilling to wake. She savored this realm, one void of pain and suffering. Maybe she’d stay here forever.