Fight of Life (Perception Book 3)

by Shandi Boyes

  Hank’s index finger points to something in the corner of the picture and that is when I realize he has a gun pointed at Lola. Fuck! My heart plummets into my stomach and I instantly feel like I am going to be sick.

  “What do you want?” Hank questions Callum, since I am too panicked to form words.

  “Jacob needs to throw the fight and I don’t mean in the first round. It has to look like he legitimately tried his hardest, but failed” Callum informs.

  “And then?” Hank questions as his eyes flick up to look at mine.

  “Then I walk away and leave her as she is. But if I find out that Jacob didn’t turn up or didn’t fight well enough to impress the crowd, I will blow her brains out” Callum advises without any remorse.

  “I’ll do it” I immediately reply, stricken with fear and panic.

  “Just let her go, I will keep my word I promise, but please just let her go” I plead.

  “Once the fight is over, I will text you her location” Callum advises, before he disconnects the call.

  I roughly run my hands over the top of my head as I start pacing back and forth. All I want to do is kill Callum, or the second best thing would be his brother who is waiting for me out in the cage, but if I do that, Callum will hurt Lola and I can’t let that happen. I am going to have to throw the fight.

  “Time to go” advises the fights promoter who just popped his head into the locker room.

  I take in a long ragged breath before I follow the promoter out of the room. Hank quickly follows behind me and removes my phone from my hand and replaces it with my UFC fighting gloves. I don’t even wait for the promo music to commence playing, before I quickly and purposely stroll towards the cage. Curtis is already waiting for me to arrive and when I enter the cage, he lifts his gaze to look at me with a condescending smirk on his face.

  I don’t bother to tap gloves with Curtis, causing the crowd to boo loudly. As soon as the referee instructs it is time for the fight to commence, I move straight towards Curtis and inflict grueling and punishing left and right combinations against his body. My anger at seeing Lola with a gun pointed at her causing my fury to boil over and as my rage starts to become unleashed, I have a hard time trying to reel it back in.

  When the first round ends, Curtis is looking at me with nothing but fury in his eyes as he makes a throat cutting gesture across his neck. My eyes flicked up to the seat that should have been occupied by Lola, reminding me of the promise I had just made. I need to control my anger and throw the fight to keep her safe. Then when she is safe, I will get my revenge on Curtis and Callum.

  I protect my face as much as I can during the second round, but I allow Curtis unlimited access to my body to inflict as many punches as he can. During the middle of the third round, I became distracted as I watch Hank move away from Noah in the front row. Curtis took this as his opportunity to place a hard and heavy strike against my temple, causing me to hit the mat hard. My vision instantly starts to blur as I try to stumble my way back onto my feet.

  “Do you want to tap out” questions the referee. I shake my head while I slowly stand back onto my feet. I raise my hands up to protect my face again, while moving back towards Curtis. It takes several shakes of my head for my vision to start to clear.

  “Last round” Curtis whispers as the bell signals the end of the third round, instructing for me to throw the fight during the next round. As I move towards the edge of the cage, Hank rushes over towards me.

  “She is at the gym” informs Hank. My confused gaze turns to look into Hank’s dark eyes.

  He quickly lifts my phone up, which has the image of Lola still displayed on the screen. When he taps the screen, it zooms in and that is when I notice the Hank’s Gym logo in the background.

  “Finish him” Hank instructs firmly. “Finish him and then go and get our girl. Noah is going to be waiting for you in his truck at the front” he continues.

  I turn my gaze to look at Curtis, noticing that he has a smirk of victory on his face. The fucker doesn’t even know what is about to hit him.

  “If he wakes up, don’t let him leave this cage” I instruct Hank firmly.

  “I won’t, I promise you” Hank immediately replies.

  As soon as the bell dings advising the start of the fourth round, I charge towards Curtis. When my right fist connects hard against him temple, his face morphs into shock as he slowly plummets down onto the mat. The referee immediately moves between us, while Curtis dizzily stumbles back onto his feet. He looks at me and I can see the fury rapidly building in his eyes. Once the referee clears me to move in, I step back towards him.

  “She’s dead” he whispers venomously just as I swing my right fist at his temple that hard, his eyes roll into the back of his head. He then drops onto the black floor, completely knocked out.

  When the referee announces the end of the fight, I immediately start running out of the cage, down the aisle of screaming spectators and keep running until I reach Noah’s truck that is parked out the front of the arena.

  “Go, go, go” I scream as I dive into the passenger seat of Noah’s truck. I have never seen Noah drive so fast before. He weaves in and out of traffic pushing his truck to its absolute limit that we make it to Hank’s gym in under fifteen minutes. The whole time the adrenaline from the fight is still coursing through my veins, while at the same time I am stricken with fear that Callum has already hurt Lola.

  I swing open the trucks door and start frantically running towards the entrance of Hank’s gym, when suddenly the sound of gun fires echo’s throughout the silence of the night, causing my heart to plunge into my stomach. No, god no, please, I beg as I throw open the entrance door of the gym with enough force it nearly comes off the hinges. My panicked eyes roam around the gym, frantically searching for Lola. My heart is beating that fast that it feels like it is about to break out of my chest cavity. My vision zooms in on a body lying down on the ground. Adjusting my eyes, I notice that it is Callum, lying lifeless near the entrance of the locker rooms. Standing just across from Callum is Ryan, who is braced with his gun drawn, pointing at the lifeless body of Callum.

  “Lola” I scream panicked when I don’t see her anywhere. Ryan hesitantly lowers his gun and his shocked face slowly turns towards me. I start to pant, panicked by the expression on his face.

  “Please let Lola be safe” I silently beg as a rush of moisture forms in my eyes.

  When Ryan turns to face me, I collapse down onto my knees.

  Chapter 59

  Lola

  I slowly start blinking my eyes, attempting to lessen the blurred visions in front of me. It doesn’t take me long to realize that I am in Hank’s gym. I may not be able to see much through my blurred vision, but the smell of Hank’s gym is easily recognizable. I suddenly notice something moving at my right. I continue to blink and my vision slowly starts to clear, allowing me to see Callum talking into my cellphone. That is when the events of today start filtering back into my memories. I am still sitting on the wooden bench but now my hands are tied behind my back. My head is throbbing and I feel extremely woozy. When I peer outside, I am surprised to see that the sky has blackened. I must have been knocked out for a while.

  I attempt to speak through the gag that is in my mouth. When Callum hears my mumbles, he walks over towards me and tells me to be quiet by holding the gun against his lips.

  “Shhhh” he whispers arrogantly, while he smirks at me.

  “I won’t touch her, if you do as instructed” he states into the phone.

  I silently watch Callum as he paces back and forth in front of me. I become startled when he suddenly starts laughing, before he lowers my phone down from his ear. He points the gun directly at my head, causing my eyes to open wide in fear, before I hear the clicking of my phones camera. He then taps on my phone screen a few times, before he lifts my phone back to his ear.

  “Jacob needs to throw the fight and I don’t mean in the first round. It has to look like he legitimately tried his h
ardest, but failed” Callum informs into the phone.

  I instantly start shaking my head, while murmuring through the gag. Jacob cannot believe anything Callum is telling him.

  “Then I walk away and leave her as she is. But if I find out that Jacob didn’t turn up or didn’t fight well enough to impress the crowd, I will blow her brains out” Callum advises as his gaze turns back towards me. The smirk on his face clearly indicating that he has every intention of following through on his threat.

  “Once the fight is over, I will text you her location” Callum advises.

  I scream as loud as I can through the gag, trying to advise Jacob that I am at Hank’s gym, but Callum disconnects the call before he angrily storms towards me and places the barrel of the gun directly in the middle of my eyes. My fearful eyes plead with his to lower the gun. I start to become panicked, making it feel like I am not getting enough air into my lungs. Callum’s furious gaze starts to lessen when he notices the tears streaming down my face.

  As his eyes roam over my face, he slowly lowers his gun. His eyebrows pull together tightly as he watches me struggle for air. I attempt to take in several large breaths through my nose, while my panic continues to surge. When Callum notices my nostrils flaring, he quickly removes the gag from my mouth.

  The instant the gag is removed; I inhale several large intakes of air. It takes several moments for the erratic beating of my heart to settle down, once my lungs are filled with fresh air.

  “Please let me go” I plead quietly. Callum’s blue eyes stare directly into mine, while he appears to be considering my request, allowing me to see sparks of the old Callum starting to resurface.

  “Please” I beg, while my eyes plead with his. Callum’s eyes roam over my body, before they narrow down onto the diamond solitaire ring on my finger. I then see his calm and cool composure start to crack.

  “I thought you said you never wanted to get married” he questions angrily as he moves in that close to my face, I can feel his warm breath against my cheek.

  “I didn’t” I reply whispering. I never thought I would want to get married, I just hadn’t met Jacob yet. He makes me want things, I never even knew I wanted.

  When he strikes me again with the butt of the gun, all I see is blackness.

  I don’t know how much time had passed, before I am suddenly thrusted awake by being grabbed from behind and dragged to a standing position. Callum is plastered to my back and has his gun positioned next to my right temple. When I look forward, I notice Ryan slowly entering the gym door that I had early left unlocked when I had attempted to flee.

  “Drop your weapon” Ryan instructs as he moves in closer to Callum with his gun drawn.

  “Put your gun down or I will fucking shoot her” Callum responds as he continues to drag me back further into the gym.

  My fearful eyes stare directly at Ryan’s as both he and Callum refuse to lower their guns. I notice that Ryan keeps flicking his gaze down, like he is trying to signal something to me. My eyes look at him panicked, trying to relay that I don’t understand what he is telling me. Ryan then takes a step forward, stomping down hard with his foot.

  I flick my eyes back up towards Ryan and sneakily nod my head, hoping that Callum doesn’t notice my movements. When he yells “Now”, I stomp down on Callum’s foot with all of my might, before barging him harshly. I then sprint towards Ryan, my heart racing a million miles an hour as I move my legs as quickly as possible. I nearly stumble when the sound of gunfire starts ringing through the gym. By the time I crash into Ryan’s hard and solid chest, my ears are ringing and tears are streaming down my face.

  “Lola” Jacob yells tormented in the distance. When Ryan slowly turns around, I see the panicked face of Jacob staring directly at me, before he falls to his knees. I rush over towards him and crash into him that hard we both topple to the floor.

  “I love you Jacob. I love you, I love you, I love you” I tell him over and over again. Today has made me realize I don’t tell him how much I love him enough and from now on, every time I think it my head, I am going to say it out loud.

  Epilogue

  Jacob

  Six months later……

  “I told you we wouldn’t miss it” Noah informs as he and Emily come briskly strolling down the aisle towards me.

  “Although, it might be nice next time if you give us a little more notice” Noah instructs, before he wraps his arms around me and gives me a quick man hug.

  “I had to get her down the aisle before she changes her mind” I reply while laughing. Lola may now tell me several times a day that she loves me, but that doesn’t mean she was rushing down the aisle anytime soon.

  “You look very dashing Jacob” Emily informs kindly as she replaces Noah’s arms with her own. “Even if you are going to be sporting a black eye in your wedding photos” she continues while giggling.

  I didn’t want to waste any time in making Lola stand by her deal she had made with me six months ago. Last night, I became the UFC heavy weight champion of the world and today I am going to become Lola’s husband. Can you guess which title I like the most? When I found out the fight was going to be held in Vegas, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to get Lola down the aisle. No one knew about the deal between Lola and I, except for Noah and Hank. Because of their conflicting tour schedule Noah was unfortunately unable to watch my fight last night. He was scheduled to perform on stage in San Francisco at the exact same time as my fight was being broadcast around the world. When I had informed him that I planned on getting married at the little white chapel straight after the fight, he begged me to hold off for just one more day, so that he and Emily would be able to attend our nuptials.

  “I want to stand by your side like you have for me my whole life” Noah informed. I couldn’t have denied his request when he had asked like that.

  The past six months has been some of the toughest months of my life. Ryan had to be investigated since he had discharged his weapon and it resulted in a death. I was extremely happy that he ended up being given the all clear two months later and was able to return to his position immediately after the hearing. Curtis ended up being arrested with conspiracy to commit false imprisonment, kidnapping and attempted murder. He was refused bail and last month was found guilty on all charges. We won’t know his sentence until later this week. To say I am incredibly proud of how well Lola has handled the past six months would be an understatement. She has been fucking incredible. She even testified for the district attorney against Curtis while he sat across from her, and never once did she falter during her statement. There is no one stronger in the world than the woman I am about to marry.

  “Are you ready?” Noah questions while waggling his eyebrows.

  “As ready as I will ever be” I reply as I notice Slater, Marcus, Nick and their partners all walking down the aisle, before taking a seat at the second row of pews.

  “You didn’t think I would let you get married without being surrounded by your family and friends did you?” Noah questions cheekily as I notice my dad and a lady walking down the aisle. My dad rushes over towards me and gives me a big hug, before he takes his seat next to a pretty blonde lady, with dazzling ocean blue eyes.

  Following closely behind my dad and his date, is Maggie, Hank and Lola’s mum Patrice. They all smile at me, before taking their seats on Lola’s side of the chapel.

  When the Elvis impersonator starts serenading us with ‘Love me tender’ I catch my first glimpse of Lola as she rounds the corner on the arm of her dad. When her gaze catches Hank sitting in the front row, she motions for him to join her. Hanks looks towards me shocked, causing me to shrug my shoulders. He then hesitantly walks back down the aisle to join Lola at the end. She spins Hank around to face the front of the chapel and wraps her spare arm around his elbow, indicating to Hank that she wants him to walk her down the aisle alongside her dad. The smile of Hank’s face was priceless and although he will never admit it, I can see tears forming in his eyes.
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br />   Turning my attention back to my stunning soon to be wife, I notice she is wearing a smoking hot lace white fitted mini dress, showing off her killer legs. Her hair is done in a tousled design looking like we have just had a romp in the bedroom, well it was technically in the back seat of the limo, but close enough. Her eye makeup is done in a dark smoky coloring, framing her beautiful light brown eyes perfectly and her lips are bright red in color. She looks fucking hot and she instantly makes my dick start twitching. When I adjust myself, I notice her smile gets bigger as she winks at me. Always such a cock tease.

  Once they reach the end of the aisle, Hank slaps my shoulder while he places Lola’s hand within mine and her dad offers me his hand to shake.