He was shorter than Kingston, and had a squarish military style buzz cut. He was light haired and had piercing blue eyes, and an arrogant sneer to his lips. He looked around as he moved, as if assessing each and every one of us for weaknesses. When he saw me, his searching stopped and his gaze landed, remaining in place.
Kingston noticed this and stepped in front of him, blocking his view. He didn’t bounce around or anything, he just flexed and stretched his limbs, giving me the perfect show of his incredible body.
I appreciated this and watched until the crowd gathered around the platform, ready for the fight to begin. Then it was show time for me as Tribute, and I planned on giving them a hell of a show tonight.
I turned around and spotted Ryker talking animatedly to Archer and Valen and I smiled at that. It made me happy that he seemed to get along with all of them, even though Kingston would probably always have problems with him, as an outsider.
“Welcome to fight night!” the announcer bellowed into the microphone and walked around the cage with his other hand held high. That was my cue, I started my route around the outside of the platform to encourage cheers and jeers from the crowd.
I looked out as I walked and found the usual high school crowd with a few college age kids thrown into the mix.
There was one obvious fraternity in attendance, they were all wearing matching letterman jackets in green and black with the same Greek symbol across the left breast. I wasn’t up on my frat bro lore, though, so I didn’t know which one. I did know they were the loudest and the drunkest of the bunch, and I wasn’t at all surprised to see Sofia, Cassie and a few other girls from school hanging out with them.
Every time I passed by, Sofia whispered into the ear of the most dominant, outspoken one, the guy all the other frat bros deferred to. He would look me up and down and say something back to her that made her laugh with cruelty, but when she wasn’t looking, I caught him throwing me longing looks filled with fire.
It didn’t matter what kind of shit Sofia talked behind my back, I was a delicious morsel to most men and now that I knew it, I knew how to work it at this point.
I barely heard it when the announcer started the fight and the referee climbed inside. Now that I’d done this a couple times, I understood that the guys on the outside of the cage on the platform with me helped determine the winner if it wasn’t clear. Max and the others like him were keeping track of hits, landed blows, defensive moves, and of course any knock downs. They would tally them up at the end of the night and use them for a points total if needed.
The only other people up here were the announcer to call the fight, and me and the other Tribute. The other Tribute barely looked at me this time, she did her own work to get her side of the audience cheering for their fighter, but it was clear from the get go that Kingston was the strong favorite.
I barely had to do anything to get people screaming for him and chanting his name.
Once the blows started to land, I paid attention. I tried not to distract him, so I didn’t stand as close to the cage as I normally did, but I got enough of an eyeful that I could appreciate what an absolute savage warrior the love of my life had become.
I couldn’t even reconcile the fact that he had once been my gawky, skinny friend. Or that now he was my loving, sentimental boyfriend. Especially not when I saw him attack the other fighter with all his force. When he slammed his face with a hard left fist, I actually winced at the thought of the pain the other guy must have felt.
Kingston was a beast, and I was even more in love than ever as I watched.
He was winning, that much was clear, and even just ten minutes in, the other guy was covered in blood and bruises already.
I relaxed, confident that he’d have this one in the bag with ease, so I strutted around doing my usual flirty walk. I swayed my hips and waved to people in the crowd, got them cheering even louder for Kingston, and generally had a good time.
I came around once again, close to Max and the other Tribute, when Max’s hand snaked out and grabbed me by the wrist.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said with a smirk. “Come stand by me. That’s your job, so do your fucking job.”
“It’s not in the job description, Max,” I replied with ice in my voice. “Let go of me so I can keep doing my actual job, please.”
“No,” he said firmly. “I want you to keep me company.”
“I have to keep moving,” I said. “The Organization expects it.”
At their name, even cocky, self-assured Max flinched in fear. But it passed quickly and his grip tightened. “I’ll tell you what. You stop pretending that your white trash cunt is too good for me, darling. And I’ll pretend to care about your feelings when I fuck it bloody.”
I gritted my teeth and looked at the other Tribute. “You have one of us here keeping you company and she at least seems to like it.”
Max yanked me closer, got his face really close to mine, close enough that I could smell the booze on his breath, and hissed, “Maybe I don’t like it when they like it.”
I shivered in fear and anger. The worst part about carrying around this much vengeance in my heart was that sometimes my physical form couldn’t handle it. I wanted to shove Max off the platform and watch him bleed, but my body couldn’t even muster the strength to get my hand back from his grasp.
“Let me go,” I said through clenched teeth. “Or you’ll fucking regret it.”
“Is something going on here, Evie?” Kingston asked, hanging onto the links of the cage right next to us.
“Nothing I can’t handle myself, babe,” I said, not looking at him, keeping my eyes locked on Max.
“If he’s bothering you, let me know,” Kingston said. “Just say the word, Evie.”