Finally, I feel like I can breathe again.
Dad lifts his other hand in the air as the crowd screams its approval or its disappointment, and discount Hulk just lies there in a heap.
There’s definitely going to need to be some clean up when Dad finally makes it back to the locker room, but he looks proud of himself, and I can feel that same pride swelling in my own chest.
This is the man who taught me basically everything I know, and he’s still got it. Not even towering muscle bags can knock him out. I cheer at the top of my lungs, clapping and hooting, stomping my feet along with the rest of the crowd.
People at these fights are always looking for a good show, but they seem particularly bloodthirsty tonight, reveling in the brutality of the fight. If they wanted bloodshed, then they got it, and when the refs come to haul Hulk dude up and out of the ring, his face looks kind of like ground beef. That seems to set the crowd off more, people screaming in joy and fury, but I’m just glad my dad won.
I glance over to the spot where I last saw Levi and his cronies, mostly to see if they look happy or disappointed with the outcome and if they’re as hungry for violence as the rest of the crowd seems to be, but they’re gone, other people already surging in to take their spots.
With the show over, the rest of the crowd starts to trickle out, heading out into the comparative coolness of the night air, still giving each other blow-by-blows and discussing other things they could get into with the rest of their night.
Scarlett and I follow, letting the stream of people carry us out.
A breeze ruffles my hair as we step into the cool night air. It never gets all that cold in Fairview Heights, not even during the dead of winter. We’ve had a mild January so far, and the crisp breeze feels good. It cools the sweat on my neck as I push my dark hair out of my face.
“You heading out?” I ask Scarlett. She’s fanning herself again, but from the temperature this time and not some hot guys.
“Yeah.” She shoots me a look. “You’ll be good here?”
I nod. I’m always good. “Of course. I’ll wait for Dad and then head out.”
She hugs me like she always does, even though we see each other or talk on the phone almost every day, and I watch her head off to where she parked.
Usually, it only takes Dad a few minutes to clean up and patch up any injuries and head out, but as the flood of people leaving the warehouse slows to a trickle, I get antsy. He took some pretty bad hits before his comeback at the end. Maybe he needs help taking care of whatever injuries he sustained. None of them looked like anything worse than he’s had before, but it was hard to tell from where I was standing in the crowd.
I could hang out here and wait, or I could go in and see what’s up—and I’ve never been the waiting around type. So I head back inside the now-empty building and make my way back to the locker room. I expect to find him with ice on his eye or something, going over the fight in his head, dissecting what he could’ve done differently.
When I walk into the locker room, he’s there, all right.
But he’s not alone.
He’s in the center of a group of guys, getting the absolute shit beat out of him.
2
My heart lurches.
Without even thinking, I run into the room. I don’t care about my own safety or the fact that even with my help, we’ll both be outnumbered. All I know is I have to stop these fuckers from hurting my dad.
I lunge in, grabbing one of them by the shoulder and spinning him around to face me. He looks surprised, and I take advantage of that, punching him right in the no
se and then aiming my knee for his crotch. He manages to deflect that last hit somehow, even still reeling from the solid hit to his face, but I don’t let up.
Taking advantage of an opponent’s distraction is a great way to deal with someone like this, so much taller and thicker than me. I’ve been fighting guys bigger than me since I was a kid, and I know how to hold my own.
He lashes out, aiming to grab at my hair, and I duck down under his arm and elbow him hard in the gut, relishing the grunt of pain and the way he wheezes when he hunches over.
There’s still too many of them though, and taking out one guy isn’t enough. They’re all piling in on Dad, hitting him like they want to kill him, and I can feel that fear biting at me, urging me to do something.
So I abandon my fight with the first guy and shove my way through the men gathered around my dad. I throw myself in front of him, putting my body between him and his attackers.
“Stop! Leave him the fuck alone!” My voice is harsh, and I shift into a stance that makes it perfectly clear I’m ready to keep fighting to protect him.
But before I can do anything else, strong hands latch onto my arms, dragging me out of the cluster and away from my dad. Someone forces my arms behind my back, and I recognize Levi and one of the guys he was with before during the fight. They’re standing in front of me, and I’m guessing Levi’s other friend is the one who’s got ahold of me.
“What the fuck? Let me go!” I yell, kicking and thrashing, trying to get away from them and back to protecting my father. But I don’t have the element of surprise anymore, and Levi’s friend hauls me up and into his grip, locking his arms around me tight enough that I can’t get free.