by K. M. Scott
Every thought disappeared from my brain, except for one. I had to defeat him. I had to win to get the money to take Serena away from the world we were trapped in. To protect her. I couldn’t lose and let her down.
I had to win. No matter what it took.
He struggled to guess where I’d attack next, so his hands never fully protected him. When he thought I’d go for his shoulder, I zeroed in on his face, by now bloody and busted so he was almost unrecognizable. When he believed I’d go for his face again, I focused on his chest, pounding my fists into his body over and over.
I was like a savage animal fighting for its life, and I didn’t care. I didn’t care that at one point I would have eased up at least a little so the guy I was fighting would have at least a tiny chance. I didn’t care when he began begging me to stop.
I didn’t care because I couldn’t. I cared about two souls in this world, Serena and our child, and I couldn’t afford to care about Justin.
The familiar two finger signal finally came after God only knew how long I beat on him, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.
My fists kept slamming into his face, his shoulder, his chest. Even though I saw those two fingers, my brain didn’t get the message, so like the machine I was, I kept fighting.
“He gives up!” a voice behind me shouted as hands pulled at my shoulders to get me off him.
The words came out frantically, like the person saying them saw something that terrified them. I fought against their hold on me, but then another person joined in and finally pulled me off Justin. They threw me backwards, and I fell onto the ground in a confused heap of rage that suddenly had no place to go.
“Let me at him!” I screamed as I scrambled to my feet.
Floyd jumped in front of me and held my shoulders so I couldn’t move. He wore an expression of pure terror, but he didn’t have to worry. I’d won. I’d gotten us the win.
“Ryder, stop! Stop! It’s over!”
I looked around him to see Nate hovering over Justin, who lay in crumpled heap of his own blood and broken bones. My mind raced as it tried to find its way back to normal, even as my body craved more fighting.
Nate yelled something and a few men began pushing the crowd toward the doors. No announcement that I’d won or anything. Just a fight and then nothing.
“Floyd, get over here!” Nate said in a panic, and Floyd rushed over to where he sat crouched over Justin.
I watched as the two of them shook him by the shoulders and then stared at one another like they didn’t know what to do. One of Nate’s guys made a noise that sounded like he was in pain and then looked over at me in horror.
Was Justin knocked out? Had the people in Keyser never seen anyone knocked out before?
Slowly, I staggered over to where Floyd stood and said, “I guess these guys aren’t used to real fights. He’s out cold.”
Nate turned his head and looked up at me with a sickening expression but said nothing. Floyd shook his head wildly and tried to speak but nothing came out.
Finally, I grabbed him by the shoulders. “What the fuck is wrong with you? We won. We won, Floyd.”
His face twisted into a painful grimace and then he looked down at Justin and mumbled, “You beat him unconscious. Look at him. We have to get him to a hospital now!”
I shook my head in disbelief and stared down at Justin as he lay there completely motionless. He’d be fine. This was just a fight like all my fights were. Bare knuckle fighting with some blood and a whole lot of pain, but nothing more. He’d be damn sore for a few days, maybe weeks, but then he’d be okay. They always were.
“No. No way,” I stammered out as the realization that Justin’s chest had barely moved in the entire time I’d stood there.
“What the fuck are we going to do?” Nate mumbled.
Floyd began rambling on about the police and it wouldn’t just be me that got charged because they were all involved with the fight, but all I could do was stare down at Justin’s broken body with its bloody and busted face.
“No fucking way am I going to jail because this animal beat someone into a fucking coma,” one of Nate’s guys said.
“Nobody’s going to jail or anywhere else,” Floyd said as coolly as if he’d just told us to lock up on our way out. “We need to be smart about this, and I know someone who can help.”
Nate slowly nodded. “Do what you have to. We’ll take care of Justin.”
“Ryder, come with me,” Floyd said as he motioned for me to follow him back to the changing room.
Unsure my feet could even move, I nodded and did as he ordered. When I sat down on that same wooden bench from earlier, I looked up and saw he was on the phone talking to someone.
There was only one person in our world who could help now.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ryder
Slowly, the terrible events of that night filtered through my brain until the truth finally sunk in. For the first time in all the years I’d spent in underground fights, I’d become the beast all those people cheered for.
A fucking animal who beat someone mercilessly.
Not someone I’d been ordered to take care of. Not in defense of my life. Not to protect the woman I loved.
Not for any honorable reason at all. I’d done it for a few thousand dollars, and I didn’t even have to. He’d given the sign, but I’d ignored it.
I hung my head and tried to imagine how I could have done such a horrible thing. I’d just wanted to win that money to get Serena away so we could live our happily ever after with our baby in that little house she dreamed of.
How could things have gone so wrong when all my intentions were good?
The sound of voices filtered in from where it happened, and I braced for the police to come in and take me away. Away from Serena and away from our child. Away to jail where I’d spend the next few decades wishing things had been different.
And what would Serena do? I pictured her standing in front of her father as he introduced her to the next man he’d give her to. She’d beg him to reconsider, or maybe she wouldn’t. Maybe this mistake would finally break her spirit, and she’d give in to what he wanted for her life. She’d become the wife of whoever he chose and my child would become their child.
All the while I’d rot away in a six by eight cell and know I’d ruined the one chance for all of us to be happy and free.
I heard footsteps and squeezed my eyes closed in one last desperate attempt to push the reality of the night away. The hollow sound stopped just inside the room, but the person said nothing. I felt their stare on me. I imagined it to look as full of judgment and condemnation as it should.
“If I’m not mistaken, the first time we met we were both in basically the same positions as we are now. You sitting in some shithole and me able to give you a life you’d only dreamed of. Does that sound about right, Ryder?”
Robert’s anger resonated off every word so by the time he said my name, it came out from between gritted teeth. In my misery, I hadn’t imagined what I’d say to him when I finally saw him that night. Now that I knew just how furious he was, I still didn’t know what to say.
I looked up at him and nodded. “Yeah, that sounds right.”
“And did I give you everything I promised I would?” he asked, his tone still laced with rage.
Hanging my head, I answered him. “Yeah, you did.”
“When you broke my rules, I showed you what the punishment for that had to be, didn’t I?”
The memory of that night he sent Serena away flashed through my mind, followed by the memory of getting beaten in my match two days later and ending up in the hospital. Robert never made a secret of his unhappiness.
And he wouldn’t this time. Of that, I was sure. Just what he’d do to me before they took me away, I had no idea, but knowing him, it would be cruel and stay with me forever.
“Didn’t I, Ryder?” he repeated, even more sternly than the first time.
I looked up into those dark
eyes of his that showed nothing of the emotion I knew existed in him and nodded again. “You did.”
“And when you betrayed me and followed Serena’s wishes over mine, I once again showed you the consequences of your actions.”
“Yes.”
“Does it seem to you that our entire time together has been one long lesson you don’t seem to want to learn, son?” Robert asked as he moved to stand in front of me.
I tilted my head back to look up at him and blew the air out of my lungs slowly. I’d never thought about it like that, but he wasn’t wrong. Whatever he had tried to teach me after all this time, I still hadn’t learned it.
“I guess it does.”
“So now I find out from our mutual friend Floyd, who will suffer his own consequences to be sure, that you’ve been fighting behind my back and got yourself into a situation out here in wherever the hell this place is.”
I hated the thought of Floyd suffering because of my mistake. Practically pleading with Robert, I said, “This isn’t his fault. Don’t make him pay for what I did. I came to him and asked him to help me. I basically didn’t give him a choice.”
Robert’s eyebrows shot up into his forehead. “I’m intrigued. Have you taken to threatening poor Floyd to get what you want, Ryder?”
Shaking my head, I answered him truthfully. “No, I didn’t threaten him. If anything, I begged him for his help. He just seems to have a soft spot in his heart for me and couldn’t say no.”
“Everyone seems to have a soft spot for you, son. Floyd, my daughter, even me. For example, I know I should have just told Floyd to let the police take you and solve a multitude of problems for me. But instead, here I am talking to you and considering what I might do to get you out of this mess you’ve created.”
“Get me out?” I asked, confused about what he meant. “There’s no getting me out, Robert. I beat that guy into a coma in the fight tonight. I’m going to get charged with at least assault, and they’re going to put me away. There’s no out from that.”
My explanation of the situation seemed to amuse him, if the smile that slowly formed on his lips was any indication. Waving my ideas away like they were nothing to him, he rolled his eyes and said, “All this time you’ve known me and you say something like that. Of course, there’s a way out. There’s always a way out. The question is do I want to help you this time?”
I tried to speak, but nothing came out I was so shocked. It had never occurred to me that he’d want to help me. I’d betrayed him, and I knew what happened when someone betrayed Robert Erickson.
They paid, often with their life. So why would he help me when he could just let the justice system take me away so I’d pay for that betrayal?
“I have to admit, though, I’d be more inclined to help you if you hadn’t lied to me.”
I knew what we wanted. He wanted to know why I’d fight behind his back. He knew I didn’t love fighting enough to do it for kicks. I’d have to tell him if I ever wanted a chance to see Serena again, assuming he didn’t make never being with her from that point on one of the conditions of his help.
It didn’t matter. I had to take the chance, even if it meant he sent me away from her. I couldn’t spend my child’s first years in prison. I couldn’t do that to Serena.
“I asked Floyd to help me find fights for extra money. Serena’s pregnant, and I wanted it to be right this time.”
Robert’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “Pregnant? I had no idea. And when you say this time, am I to understand the last time was your child also?”
I nodded. “Yeah, and that fuck Oliver found out and tried to kill Serena and the baby. He succeeded with the baby.”
With a heavy sigh, he sat down on the bench next to me. “Well, that explains why you wouldn’t have a problem with killing him when she asked you to.”
I knew the moment had come to finally tell him the truth about how I felt about Serena. Turning to face him, I said, “I love her. I’ve tried to protect her from everything your world forces on her because she’s not made for that. She’s sweet and gentle, and you married her off to a man who thought nothing of pushing a pregnant woman down a flight of stairs to kill her and her baby.”
Robert said nothing and the look on his face said he wasn’t so much surprised by my admission that I loved her as much as resigned to the fact. But I knew if I wanted his help I had to say what he wanted to hear or there’d never be a chance for Serena and me to escape this life after tonight.
“I’ll do whatever you want. You name it. I’ll do it. Just let her be, Robert. Don’t make her marry another man. We love each other, and that’s not going to change. We’ve been through too much already to let anything come between us.”
“Other than you being in prison,” he said casually, like he was taunting me.
“Please don’t do that to us. I’m begging you, Robert. I’ll do whatever you want. I just want to be allowed to be with her and our child. Make me your errand boy or the gardener who shapes the hedges into those funny bird shapes. It won’t matter as long as I’m with her. Make me work off the cost of helping that guy once he wakes up. Assuming he wakes up.”
He stared at me for a long moment without saying a word, and then abruptly stood up from the bench. “Fine. You and Serena can be together, and I won’t marry her off to anyone else. You’ll come back and work for me, not as a fighter since there’s no way anyone’s going to want to fight you now. Even if I can clean this mess up, and that’s going to take some money, I’m sure, the rumors will get out and there won’t be a goddamned man around who will fight you anymore.”
I wanted to jump for joy at hearing his words. Whatever he made me do, it couldn’t be worse than being away from Serena and the baby. As long as I had them, I’d be okay.
He stuck his hand out and I shook it as I asked, “What will you have me do?”
That crocodile smile of his slowly lifted the corners of his mouth. “Nothing you can’t handle, Ryder.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Serena
A knock at the front door startled me from a nap, and I answered it to see Jesse, one of my father’s men standing there. Large and dopey-faced, he looked uncomfortable, like he didn’t want to do whatever he’d been sent to do.
“Yes?”
“Uh, your father…I mean, Mr. Erickson called and said he wanted you in his office when he came back.”
As he spoke, he fiddled with the zipper on his windbreaker like a child forced to give a speech would. His hands shook too, and I wondered if he was always this fidgety or just tonight.
“Did he say for what?” I asked, knowing as soon as the words left my mouth that I’d wasted my time in even saying them. Jesse didn’t look like someone my father would keep as a confidant. His job was simple.
He was merely muscle, or as he was forced to be now, messenger boy.
Jesse looked away and shook his head. “He just said he wanted you there, miss…I mean ma’am.”
“Do you know when he’ll be back?”
He had to know that answer.
Directing his attention to the top of the doorframe, he said, “Uh, he said he’d be here in the next ten minutes.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
I closed the door to put both of us out of our misery and threw on a big white sweater that covered me to the middle of my thighs. As I headed out the door, I wondered what my father could possibly want to see me about. Even more, why did he want to see me alone? He didn’t ask to see Ryder, which was good since he was training with Floyd tonight.
My stomach twisted into knots at the mere thought of dealing with my father. I’d successfully avoided him for the past few weeks, thankful to not have to hide my rapidly growing belly since the last thing I wanted was him knowing about my pregnancy.
Tugging at the bottom of my sweater, I slowly walked down the stairs toward the door to the main house, all the while thinking of the reason why he would have sent one of his lackeys to get me. Had something happe
ned to Janelle?
Then it dawned on me. I stopped as I turned into the main hallway, and my heart sank. He’d found out I’d gone to see my mother. Only that reason made sense. There was no other reason that explained why he’d want to see me alone.
My palms instantly grew sweaty as fear raced through me. Would he hurt her now because I’d dared to disobey him and find her on my own? A painful feeling of sadness wound its way into my chest, and I had to stop myself from crying. I’d been so sure that no one else had known what I was up to, but somehow he’d figured it out. I felt sick at the thought of her paying for my arrogance.
He’d probably found out from the private detective. I’d asked that man if he knew my father, and he’d claimed he didn’t. Did he lie? Was he actually someone my father hired himself, so he’d known all the while what I was planning? Was that why the private detective took so long to find her when there she was living less than an hour away from here?
As these thoughts raced through my mind, I made my way to my father’s office and stopped outside the door to steady myself. Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm my fears. If I called my mother immediately after talking to him, maybe it would give her enough time to get away to somewhere safe before he could send his thugs to do something horrible to her.
Silently, I prayed to God that he hadn’t already set his men on her and this meeting wasn’t to merely announce what he’d done.
“Serena, I’d know those footsteps anywhere. Come in here.”
The stern sound of his voice rattled me, but I closed my eyes and took another deep breath. “I’m coming.”
I stepped into the room and stopped dead at the sight of Ryder sitting in one of the red leather chairs in front of my father’s desk. Why had that oaf Jesse made it seem like only I had been summoned?
Stress and fear ebbed out of my body as the thought that this meeting was about my mother faded from my mind, and I smiled. “What’s going on? Why the formal request to see me, Dad?”