“Yes, ma’am.”
Ugh.
Victor pulled into the parking lot of a warehouse, moving his chin towards it. “That’s the location.”
Cool. She ushered him out of the car for a few seconds, and quickly undid her bra. Usually, she wouldn’t leave her boobs free, since they needed the support, but she needed to push him over the edge. Undoing her hair, she fluffed it up with her fingers to give them a just-rolled-out-of-bed look, adjusted her bangs, and made sure her blue top showed a little cleavage. Climbing out of the car, she tucked it into her jean shorts, glad she’d chosen the fishnets for the day, and hitched her cute white backpack on.
“Let’s go.”
Victor led her to the largest warehouse on the block, and the closer they got, the louder the cheering came from the inside, much louder than that first fight she’d seen.
She was kind of excited to see him in his element. He’d never let her come to a fight a decade ago, told her it wasn’t a place for a girl like her. They’d met in the dark parking lots, much like the one she was walking through, and they’d—
“Seems like a big fight tonight,” Victor murmured, breaking her train of thought.
Zephyr shook herself to clear her head, and focused on the present.
They entered, and right off the bat, she knew it was a much, much bigger fight. For one, the warehouse interior was converted into some kind of fighting ring, the middle being one of those elevated squares with the ropes that she didn’t know the names of. For another, there was a much, much bigger and more elite crowd this time. Mostly men, and a few women, sat around the ring in chairs on one side, roped off from the other crowd that was cheering. There were more bouncers positioned in the corners, this time with weapons, and a guy taking bets on the players.
Victor led her to an empty chair up front and sat her down. From her place, she wasn’t even ten feet from the ring.
An announcer jumped in the ring, raising both arms to silence the crowd.
“Ladies and gentleman!” his voice boomed through the large space. “Welcome to the preliminary fight of the season! Our first match, between the man famous for slicing his opponents down one cut at a time, the man who trains the best fighters on his continent, all the way from Russia, ladies and gentleman, the Ravager!”
Zephyr watched as a surprisingly good-looking, tall, shirtless man with ice-blond hair calmly jumped in the ring, his muscles well-defined, a platinum wedding band shining on his left hand. He looked at the spectators, still, almost as if he was bored, his light eyes taking in everything. “And from the Riviera, slaughtering his opponents, Hellhound!”
Jeez, who even came up with these names?
A lean, spry boy who looked in his early twenties jumped up, smiling and waving to the crowd.
The announcer rang the bell and stepped back.
The Hellhound guy put some kind of connected punching thing on his knuckles, and came at the Ravager, who ducked, got the boy’s neck in a chokehold, and broke it, all within five seconds flat.
Zephyr gasped as the boy dropped to the ring dead, her hands going to her mouth. The crowd went wild, money exchanged hands. Two bouncers picked the boy up and took him away.
Just like that.
Dead.
The boy was dead.
She tugged at Victor’s sleeve. “What just happened? What kind of a fight is this? This didn’t happen last time!”
Victor shook his head. “That was a local fight. They can go whichever way. This is international. Death makes the most money.”
“And Alpha’s been… fighting these death matches? Killing his opponents?”
Victor laughed. “Why do you think he’s still breathing? They don’t call him The Finisher for nothing.”
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
Knowing he fought was one thing, but seeing it. God, she was going to throw up.
Zephyr put her head between her knees and breathed deeply, her hands shaking, questions that had been swirling in her mind for weeks crashing through her head. Was she truly out of her depth with him? Had pulling him into the marriage to love him again been a mistake? Would he ever even be able to love now after so many years of walking these dark streets?