Meant for Me (A Second Chance standalone)

by L. P. Dover

  “Oh my God, Mason, are you okay?” I cried. “You don’t sound good at all.”

  Grimacing, he turned so he could face me and clasped his fingers through the fence. They were bloody, but I still put mine over them and held on. “I’ll be okay, baby,” he promised. “I have a broken rib. I felt it crack and the pain’s just making it a little hard to breathe. I don’t know what’s taking Ryan so long.”

  As quietly as I could, I whispered softly, “Listen, Erick’s not going to hand me over to Chase. It was all a ruse to get you and Wade to fight harder for me.”

  Mason leaned his head against the cage and closed his eyes. “Knowing Erick, I’m sure he has another plan for you then if we lose. Wade’s getting tired and if he wasn’t such a dumbass with using all of his energy in the first round trying to take me down we’d both have more energy. He’s a good fighter, but he’s not going to last. If I have to keep hitting when he goes down it’s not going to be good, and if I refuse to follow through, I’m outnumbered here until help comes,” he murmured regretfully.

  Reaching through the openings in the cage, I tried to run my fingers soothingly through his sweat drenched hair. If it came down to him or Wade I’d choose Mason in a heartbeat. “You listen to me, Mason. You’re not in a professional UFC ring right now. I want you to do whatever you have to do to get this over and done with even if it means putting your honor aside. Sometimes you have to break the rules to survive. You’re fighting for your life here, not a title.”

  Erick cleared his throat loudly, looking down at the tablet in his hands, and we both turned. “Okay, so for round two, the voters have chosen Wade as the winner. Round three will begin shortly. Take your places, gentlemen, and make it good.”

  Wade gloated in his corner while Chase hollered triumphantly behind him, flipping Mason off with both hands. “I’m going to stay right here, Mason. I’m not going anywhere. You can do this,” I told him. Putting his mouthpiece back in, he took a deep breath and nodded before getting into place on the mat.

  The bell rang and round three began.

  Claire.

  Fight.

  Win.

  Those were the three words running rampant through my mind. Nothing else mattered except those three things. My body was on fire, burning and ripping away at my flesh, yet I was numb at the same time. In my mind, I made myself believe that every hit that fucker landed on my body just rolled off and didn’t connect. I tasted sweat and blood on my tongue, and I could smell it as it dripped down my face. Unfortunately, a drop of it fell into my eyes, obscuring my vision, and that was all it took for Wade to get an advantage.

  The pain exploded from my face all the way down to my feet and my legs gave out. I couldn’t see from all the blood, but I’d fought blind before. Austin was the one who taught me how to fight blindfolded. Wade pounced as soon as I hit the ground and dug his knee into my side, the same side with the broken rib. Growling, I elbowed him in the cheek, making his head snap back, and it was his turn to fall over.

  “Come on, man, fuck him up like you did that pussy a few weeks ago!” Chase shouted.

  Instantly, I froze, hearing Claire’s gasp behind me …

  I knew someone had been the one to kill Austin, but I never expected the possibility that I could be fighting the same fucker who took him out. Pinning Wade with my weight, I grabbed his neck and squeezed until his face turned as red as the blood dripping down onto the mat from my wounds.

  “Who the hell is he talking about?” I shouted in his ear.

  Wade clawed at my hands and gasped for air when I finally gave him a reprieve so he could answer my question. He choked and coughed, and instead of answering he tried to get out of my hold. Switching positions, I wrapped my forearm around his neck, tucking him into my side so I could squeeze and apply pressure. It was called a neck crank submission hold, and if I applied more pressure I could do some serious damage. Wade kept his lips firmly shut even though his face was turning blue. Stubborn prick.

  “Answer me!” I demanded, applying more pressure to his neck. “If you don’t answer me I’m going to snap your neck and be done with this shit. I knew a fighter who died here a couple of weeks ago and I want to know who killed him. His name was Austin.”

  Wade opened his mouth and wheezed so I loosened my grip, bending low so I could hear him. If he said he did it, I was going to snap his neck and not think twice about it. In that one selfish moment, I wanted revenge more than justice. I wanted to tell Summer that the man who killed her husband paid for what he did, and that everyone involved were going to rot in hell. I wanted revenge for all they put Claire through. With my heart pounding against my chest and the adrenaline coursing through my veins, my body shook as I waited for him to reply. I was so close to snapping his neck.

  “I … didn’t … fight … Austin,” Wade choked.

  “Don’t you dare fucking lie to me. If you didn’t fight him, who did?” I yelled.

  Never had I been so consumed with hate or rage to where I thought I’d actually enjoy killing someone. There would be no remorse, no sadness … just the knowledge that I made them suffer by my hands. That thought only intensified when I heard Chase’s tauntingly arrogant voice holler out the answer my question, “I did it, shithead! I was the one who fought that pussy ass bitch.”

  Chase’s smiling face was all I could see as he came around the cage to face me. Out of everything Chase had done to Austin, Summer, and Claire, he deserved to die a slow and agonizing death. He only made it worse by deepening the wound and confirming his fate.

  “Yeah, that fight was pretty interesting,” Chase sneered. “When Austin didn’t agree to the terms we had his wife brought in, just like we had to snag Claire before she left, in case you flaked. His wife was a hot little number, too, but the bitch went crazy. She’s probably dead in an alley somewhere right now.”

  “You worthless son of a bitch,” I snarled, my voice thundering through the room. “You’re the one who’s about to be found dead in an alley somewhere.”

  Keeping my eyes on Chase, I got to my feet and let Wade’s limp body fall to the mat with a hard thud. I honestly didn’t know if I killed him or if he passed out from my hold. I didn’t fucking care. The whole room grew dark and all I could see was the color red with Chase’s face right in the middle of it. Either Chase was stupid or the adrenaline in my body had me flying, but one minute I was in the ring and the next I had Chase on the ground, pounding my fists over his bloody face until the sound of Claire’s scream brought me back to reality.

  “Mason!”

  Claire.

  Chase was a beaten and bloody mess beneath me, and now there were two men who lied unmoving and helpless because of what I’d done. My mind was in a fog, but then Claire’s scream echoed throughout the room again, bringing me back, “Mason!”

  Frantically, I searched trying to find her in the room, but no one was there; they were all gone. Fuck! I was too busy in my violent rage to keep my eye on the one person I needed to the most. Claire and Erick were gone as well as his other men who were standing guard around the ring during the fight. Claire’s voice echoed through a hallway on the other side of the room and I immediately took off toward the sound; however, when I got there, someone was blocking my way to her with a Glock 22 pointed straight at my chest. It was Brody, the guy who picked me up from the hotel and brought me there.

  All I heard was the sound of my blood pumping wildly in my ears until the booming resonance of the gun ripped through every part of my soul.

  It was over …

  “Mason!” I shouted his name over and over, hoping he’d look up, but he never did. I had no clue what was going on, at least not until Erick pulled out his phone and barked out a command that would forever change my life.

  “When Mason gets done with Chase, I want you to kill him, got it?”

  “No!” I screamed, fighting against his hold. I screamed his name again until one of the guys came up behind me and grabbed me around the waist, putt
ing his hand over my mouth. My screams were muffled, but it didn’t stop me from kicking and fighting with all the strength I had.

  Satisfied with the response Erick received on the phone, he hung up and grinned smugly at me. “Now, since that’s taken care of, we can keep going. I don’t like being played, Claire, and you’ll come to realize that very shortly.”

  The guy, who had me in his arms, handed me back off to Erick who gripped my arm with punishing force and continued his rapid pace down the hallway. It was hard to believe that within a span of five minutes I was watching Mason pummel Wade into the mat, and the next, Erick grabbed me by the arm while jamming a gun into my back. From the frantic conversation Erick had with his guys, it all started when the video cameras all lost their signals; they came up blank. Erick and his people were blind to what was going on outside his underground compound, but someone from the outside had informed him of the heavy armed police storming through the outside gates.

  Erick fled with me in tow, and the one thing I couldn’t get out of my head was the murderous way Mason looked when he flew over the ring and went after Chase. It was the scariest look I’d ever seen on his face, and one I hoped to never see again. However, the fear of never seeing him again became real when the sound of the gunshot echoing off the tunnel walls rang loud and clear.

  “No!” I screamed over and over, tears streaming angrily down my face. “Mason!”

  He can’t be dead! This can’t be happening! Jerking my arm away from Erick’s grasp, I rushed past his guys and ran as fast as I could up the tunnel. I had to get to Mason.

  “Get her!” Erick commanded.

  Through my tears I couldn’t see where I was going, but I kept running until a large hand clamped down on my shoulder and tackled me to the hard concrete floor. Pain exploded in my wrist when I landed and I could feel the skin scrape away from my knees and elbows as I slid across the cement. However, no amount of pain to my body could outweigh the pain in my heart. Lifting me over his shoulders, the guy who tackled me trudged back to Erick, who glared at me as if I was a petulant child.

  “What do you want with me?” I cried breathlessly. Erick rolled his eyes, not acknowledging the question, and turned on his heel, leading us farther and farther away from Mason. I didn’t know if he was dead or alive, or if he was writhing in pain waiting on someone to help him. For the first time since all of this started, I was empty, alone, and honestly and truly terrified.

  The hallway felt like it went on for miles, and after a while it ended up turning into a tunnel that separated into three different ones. It was then that Erick came to a stop and addressed the others.

  “All right, you all know what to do. We’ll meet in our usual spot and figure out what’s going on. If we have to we’ll leave Vegas immediately. We’ve done this before so you all know the drill.”

  The guy who held me set me down, and disappeared off into one of the tunnels along with the others. My knees were so weak that I collapsed onto the wet, cement floor and sobbed, “If you leave, you’re not taking me with you. They’ll find me,” I warned.

  Erick chuckled and squatted down in front of me. “On the contrary, Miss O’Briene. I’ve been on the run now for almost five years and haven’t been caught yet, and I don’t plan on being caught now. What gets me, though, is that someone led the police here. I was completely oblivious until now. I should’ve known there was something wrong when I couldn’t get all of Mason’s information. It was like his life completely went nowhere after he left the UFC.”

  “What are you talking about?” I cried.

  Grabbing my chin with his firm hand, he jerked my face up and hissed, “That’s right, Claire, play dumb. I bet Mason’s a cop, isn’t he? Well, at least I don’t have to worry about him anymore. You know, this whole time you’ve been stubborn and completely fearless. Under normal circumstances that’s unheard of, not unless you knew help would be on the way or you’re seriously a person who isn’t afraid of anything. No one is going to find you, sweetheart. Your hope of getting out of this diminishes with each passing second.”

  Closing my eyes, I shivered and shook my head. “There is still hope,” I whispered.

  “Not for you, my dear. Everything you knew of life before is now over. Now get your ass up and let’s go. Brody will be waiting for us at the meeting point to pick us up.”

  “Why don’t you just kill me now if that’s your plan? Why prolong it by making me go with you?”

  Jerking me up by the arm, he glared at me and thundered impatiently, “Because that’s not my plan, Claire. I have another use for you and you can’t do that being dead. Now come on!”

  My legs moved, but my body was still back with Mason wherever he was. If he was gone, I’d rather be dead than live my life with Erick doing God knows what on what borrowed time I had. That wasn’t life; it was an empty existence that I wanted no part of. Up ahead, the tunnel came to a dead end, but there was a ladder that led up to what looked to be a metal pothole you would see in the roads.

  “You go first, Claire,” Erick ordered, pushing me toward the ladder.

  Looking up, I took a deep breath and slowly started to climb, one step at a time. When I got to the top, Erick climbed up beside me and pushed the metal cover open with ease. It was dark and quiet outside from what I could see, and I had no clue where we were at until I stepped out of the hole. We were just around the corner from Tyler and Stephen’s gym. If I could get away, I could run to them, I thought desperately to myself. I didn’t know if they would be there, but I had to try.

  I had one quick second to make a move, except before I could get my legs running, Erick grabbed my ankle, making me fall face first onto the road. The road was deserted, but I screamed as loud as I could anyway. Struggling against Erick’s hold, he tried to keep a firm grip on my leg while pulling himself up the rest of the way.

  “Goddammit, Claire, you must seriously have a death wish. Stay still or I’m going to break both of your fucking legs,” he growled.

  My survival instincts were in full force and the one thing that came to mind were my training sessions with Mason and Tyler. They taught me some defense moves and I never thought I would need them … until now.

  Since Erick’s face was unprotected, I twisted my body as fast as I could and thrust my palm up toward his nose as hard as possible. I heard and felt something crack when I made the hit and almost instantly his nose gushed with blood. Shouting, his eyes watered and he immediately grabbed his nose, letting go of one of my legs.

  When his other hand disappeared behind his back, I knew he was reaching for the gun. He was going to kill me. With my legs finally being free, I wasn’t going to give him that chance so I kicked him in the face, not only once, but as many times as I could, screaming desperately out of fear. When I stopped kicking, Erick’s head hit the edge of the road, rendering him unconscious, before he fell what had to be twenty-five feet to the cement bottom. The sickening sound of the thud his body made as he hit the ground made me completely and utterly sick. Clutching my stomach, I crawled to the edge of the road, dry heaving and choking on my tears. There was no way he could survive that kind of fall and if he did it would be a miracle.

  Oh, my God. I just killed someone.

  I had to get help, but all I wanted to do was wrap myself in a ball and cry. I might have lost Mason and possibly killed someone all in the same day. How am I going to recover from that?

  Even though I was exhausted and scared, I wiped away my tears and pushed my legs as fast as they could go to Tyler and his father. Their gym was only about a half mile from where the pothole was and I knew I could get there within three minutes. It felt like I was going in slow motion, especially when the gym came into view and the lights were still on inside. They were there! I could even see Tyler in there lifting weights.

  In three seconds I would be at the door … one … two … three!

  Smashing the door open, I shut it and locked it behind me, clutching my chest and hoping my heart wou
ld stop hurting. It was broken. Sagging to the floor, I curled into a ball and finally gave in to the overwhelming grief and fear I didn’t allow myself to feel before. I didn’t have to be strong now.

  “Claire!” Tyler shouted. I could hear his steps, fast and hard on the floor as he ran up to me. I knew he was touching me, but I couldn’t feel him even when he lifted me in his arms and carried me to the back.

  “Dad, call the police, now!” he yelled.

  Tyler rocked me in his arms and held my face to his chest. I was spattered in blood and my legs and arms were skinned up from the falls I took before sending Erick down his twenty-five foot fall.

  “He’s dead,” I cried, burying my face in his shirt. “I think they killed him, Tyler. They killed Mason.”

  “Oh my God, Claire,” he breathed sadly. “What are you talking about? Were you robbed? I thought you went back to California this morning.”

  “No, I never made it back,” I whispered. “They took me and now it’s over. It’s all over and he’s gone.”

  Everything after that happened in a blur and I couldn’t remember if I spoke to the police or not. The ambulance came and took me away, and Tyler stayed with me the whole time. Every time I opened my eyes he was there, holding my hand. I kept imagining it was Mason with me the whole time, and in my dreams it was him so I tried to stay in my dream world for as long as I could. It was better there.