“But I am,” Damian said. “And I ain’t going anywhere until I see a little blood. Come on, we got some referees here.” He mentioned the twins, Nix, and Piper. “Unless they want to fight, too. I’m sure they could teach us all a thing or two.” His voice was almost… aggressive, like he was betting on the fact that he was riling enough of us up, that we’d want to fight.
Come on. Like any of us would fall for—
“It could be fun,” one of the younger would-be heirs said. I forgot what his name was, but I knew he’d been drinking all night. The moment he said that, the ones near him started murmuring their agreement.
Were they really that drunk, that they thought having a fighting rink would be fun?
No, it wouldn’t be fun. In fact, it was asking for trouble.
“What?” Damian spoke to Luca, taking a step towards him. “Afraid you’re not good enough, Luke?”
“It’s Luca,” he growled out, hardly sounding like the sarcastic guy he was when talking to me. “And no, I’m not scared of you, or anyone here. If you want to fight, let’s fight. But there needs to be ground rules—no weapons. Nothing at the face. First one who gets knocked to the ground loses. Sound fair?”
As everyone else murmured their approval at Luca’s makeshift rules for the fight, I rolled my eyes, which Damian must’ve seen, for he said, “What? Don’t tell me you’re too scared to fight? I was looking forward to seeing your form.” The smirk he wore was aggravating beyond all belief.
“If you want to fight like children, go right ahead,” I said. “But I won’t be joining you.”
“We’ll see” was all Damian said after that, which only further angered me. Who the hell was this guy to come here when he wasn’t invited and instigate everyone into fighting? It didn’t sit right with me, and I didn’t know why the others weren’t pushing against him and his stupid idea more.
Everyone moved away from the bonfire. We took it closer to the cars, where we had more room to spread out. A few of the others went to turn their car lights on, shining them on us. We formed a mini circle, everyone having abandoned whatever was left of their drinks near the fire. A few of them cracked their knuckles, almost like they couldn’t wait to put their skills to the test.
Someone put some music on their phone, a hard rock beat that instantly got your blood pressure up. Get the blood pumping, the heart beating, in preparation for the fight. I, however, couldn’t believe the others were doing this. I could not roll my eyes hard enough.Must be their testosterone.
“Who’s first?” Damian asked, looking all around. In the end, he pointed at two of the younger would-be heirs, and they were all too happy to step inside the makeshift ring and put their fists up. They seemed evenly matched, but who could say for sure?
As they started to throw their fists at each other, someone moved beside me, squeezing in between Zander and me. “Boys will be boys,” a smooth, feminine voice spoke, and I turned to meet Piper’s sapphire eyes.
“Yeah, I guess so,” I said.
Piper grinned at me. “You don’t think they should be doing this. You’re probably right, but where’s the fun in that?” Her voice quieted, and she turned to watch the fight.
The others cheered when a hard blow was landed on one or the other. Some of them had chosen a fighter they wanted to win, so they cheered specifically for them. I didn’t care who won and who lost, but I did pay attention to their skills; their skills were a representation of their families, of their parents. I couldn’t be the only one judging them for that. It had to be why Damian suggested this to begin with, to better gauge us all.
One of the boys’ backs landed hard on the ground after a kick to his chest. He couldn’t catch himself in time, and the moment his back hit the flattened grass, he let out a frustrated groan, grumbling about how he would do better next time, like he wanted a round two.
“Who’s next?” Damian questioned. “Any volunteers, or should we put it to a vote?” His eyes landed on me, and I didn’t have to be a mind reader to know he was seconds from suggesting I get in there and fight someone.
It must’ve been obvious, because Zander spoke up, “I’ll go.” He pushed into the ring as the others got out. He lifted a hand, pointing it right at Damian. “But I want to fight you.” At the display of bravado, I couldn’t help but sigh.
He was doing this for me, I knew. It was obvious. That Zander… when would he take the hint that I could take care of myself? I didn’t need his help, didn’t need him to protect me. I bet I was a better hand-to-hand fighter than he was.
“Oh, I don’t know…” Damian acted like he was going to say no, but then he pushed in front of everybody else, joining Zander in the middle of the circle. “Aight. Let’s do this. What’s your name again?” He smirked, and I didn’t know if he constantly got everyone’s name wrong because he wanted to annoy them, if it was some sort of ploy, or if he was really that bad with names.
I didn’t trust him, so clearly I assumed it was the former.
“Zander,” he said, but he muttered it under his breath, most likely due to the fact he sensed Damian didn’t give a shit.
Beside me, Piper said, “You know, I’m totally down for Damian being taken down a peg or two. He seems so full of himself.”
I agreed with her. “I’m with you on that one.”
Damian and Zander circled each other, neither one making the first move right away. They each studied the other, though I could tell Damian wasn’t really taking it seriously. Was he that overconfident? Zander wasn’t exactly a pushover; he might be better with a gun, but he still knew how to fight without one. Just because he wasn’t as good as me didn’t mean he couldn’t hold his own against him. I figured Damian was too cocky for his own good.
But I was wrong.
The moment Zander went for him, it was like everything changed. In a split second, Damian showed that his confidence was not unwarranted. He was like a snake, moving around Zander, his feet gliding in the grass. He spun, dodged the blow from Zander, and landed a punch of his own on Zander’s back, causing him to stumble.
Zander whirled around, both hands curled into fists, and it was clear to me he was too blinded by whatever stupid sense of honor he had in his head, that he had to protect me from this man, to realize his opponent was cocky for a reason.