His dripping lips curled up in a snarl, dark eyes narrowed, and scarred eyebrows furrowing as he studied me, had me anticipating his next move.
I dropped my arms to my sides, sticky with sweat, keeping my fists clenched. I turned my body, my head remaining in his direction as we started to walk around in the circle.
“You’re going down, Dexter,” Aiden snarled, though his sharp tone was anything but threatening to me.
Well, I guess it wouldn’t when it wasn’t being spoken directly into my ear while stale alcohol fumes covered me. Holding my breath hadn’t worked; the smell had stuck to my skin, to my hair, my dirty clothes…
“Sorry, Shaw, I don’t swing that way, but thanks all the same.” I smirked when his jaw clenched.
We both turned, walking the other way, our eye not leaving the other.
“Asshole,” he sneered.
I snorted a laugh. “Nope. Sorry, I’m just not into you.”
Aiden’s eyes widened, and it was game time. He bared his teeth, raised his hands, and bolted, charging me.
The short distance between us gave him the advantage of taking me by surprise, but the fucker had no idea how much I was used to that.
He saw my reaction a split-second too late, his weight thundering too fast for him to stop.
I side-stepped, allowing his huge frame to flank me while I raised my right arm, holding my left in tight for defense, and bending my knees a little. Pushing off the balls of my bare feet, I sprung up and toward him at the same time I snapped my arm out, my fist flying downward. I landed a solid punch to the side of his jaw and cheekbone.
Shockwaves ran through my hand with the impact, his bone detaching from the force—a feeling I’d grown accustomed to way too young.
Aiden dropped to the ground, dirt kicking up around him as he bounced a couple of times until he stilled. There was no movement from his limbs, and his eyes were shut.
“Somebody needs to tuck him in,” Josh said, his hand cupping his mouth while the other pointed. “Don’t want him catching a cold while he goes night-night!”
The crowd cheered, faint boo’s scattered from Aiden’s followers, but I didn’t give a shit. We were here for one thing—to get paid, and I wanted my cash.
“Damn, son, you made a nice buck tonight,” Layton said as he handed me a tight wad of bills. “You could take a long fucking vacation.”
I shrugged, handed the money to Josh, and pulled on my black sweats. He gave me my T-shirt, but I didn’t put it on right away.
Josh looked out of the small window in the tiny RV Layton always brought here. “I’d say you’ve got about five seconds to get the fuck out of here,” he said, then turned to me. “You might want to cover up, though. These girls look like they could get pretty handsy.”
I rolled my neck, trying to release some of the tension there that always remained after a fight. “You know I hate the fabric sticking to the sweat,” I replied, and he did. I’d had that happen to me more times than I’d like to remember, the feeling of wearing dirty clothes, putting them on dirty skin… It made my stomach churn just thinking about it.
“Yeah, well, you might want to get over that just this once, because unless you want your adoring fans swarming you, you have to go. Now.”
The noise of female chatter, excited from the fight, grew closer as I stared at the black T-shirt in my hand.
“Oh, I see him all the time,” one voice said, gloating to whoever was there. “I know him—he’ll stick around for a while for me, I’m sure of it.”
I hooked a finger to the side of the roller blind and pulled it away a fraction, just enough to see out. “Fuck,” I whispered, dropping my head. There had to be at least eight of them almost to the door, and more hanging around further back, still close to where Aiden had been carried away. One I recognized from school, but the others were definitely from out of town and shouldn’t even know about this place. But, they had the money and bought their way in like everybody else.
Why the fuck do they do this?
“I know this pisses you off,” Josh said, his hands up, “but why don’t you just talk to them? I don’t know, maybe let them know it’s not a good time and to give you some space?” I raised a brow. He shook his head once and closed his eyes for a second. “Yeah, I see how ridiculous that sounds.”
I ground my jaw, gripped the handle of the door, and pushed it open. The girls’ heads snapped to me, their surprised expression changing to excited grins immediately. “What do you want?” I snapped, making sure I made eye contact with each one of them, not giving a shit what they had on or how they’d done their hair.
“Oh, hey, Quinn,” the girl at the front said. She was in one of my classes, but I’d never spoken to her before. “I’m Nicole, from your English class.” She looked between her friends. “We wanted to stop by and say congratulations on your win. It was a great fight and—”
“Are you done?” I raised a brow.
“Oh, uh, well, we thought you might want to, maybe, go to a party afterward. There’s a group of us going to the town center. Macy’s got a house there with a couple of other girls, and—”
“No.”
“What?” She blinked quickly at the same time her followers glanced at each other, their whispers carrying over to me.
“I said no.” I jerked my chin behind them. “Fight’s over, which means you all need to get the fuck out of here.”
“But—”
I blew out a hard breath, cutting her off. “Listen, what do I have to say to make you take no for an answer?” I waited for her answer, but her mouth opened and closed like a fish.
“I just thought it’d be fun to hang out.”
“And I said no, but you’re still here.” I folded my arms across my bare chest, not missing how all pairs of eyes jumped to that area. They could look all they fucking wanted. I leaned forward a little. “Why are you still here?” I asked, raising my voice.
“God, we’re going,” she snipped. “No need to be a fucking douche about it.”
A dry laugh escaped my mouth. “Sure, whatever you say, princess.” I watched as they turned and walked away, looking back over their shoulders a couple of times. When Nicole shot me a fiery glare, I lifted my hand and waved, shooting her a wide smile. It fell from my mouth the second I turned to go back inside.
The guys were both staring at me, Josh with an amused grin spreading across his face. “Nice job, Casanova.”
“Gee, it must be hard being so in demand,” Layton said, his sarcasm not lost on me at all. He crossed his arms. “How ever can you cope?”
“I never asked for this,” I replied, thumbing behind me. “It’s not like I encourage this shit.”
“Well, you, young Quinn, are their fucking star, shining bright in the fucking sky.” He waved his hand in the air.
My head tilted to the side, my eyes hard. “What the fuck crawled up your ass?”
Layton blew out a long breath while Josh looked between us, his confusion clear. “You can tell them to fuck off, but it’s not so easy for us when they come looking for you, then turning nasty when Elvis has already left the building, or you won’t give them the time of fucking day.”