The richest of the rich are here to watch the ultimate blood sport.
Fight-to-the-death boxing.
“Stay at my side.” My uncle’s voice exposes he too has noticed an absence of regular folks. “If you so much as move half an inch from me, the first cut I make will be to remove your clit.”
“Like you’d know where that is.”
It dawns on me I said my comment out loud when he grips my face and thrusts me backward until my back is one with the SUV we just exited. “You’re just like your fucking mother. Give you a little bit of dick, and you think you rule the world.”
He digs his fingernails into my cheeks so firmly I’m certain he will leave a mark when defiance darts through my eyes. Nothing about Maddox was ‘little,’ and I was seconds from announcing that.
“Don’t make me show you what it took to bring her into line. It drove your father so crazy, he walked straight off a fucking cliff.”
I’d spit in his face if he weren’t holding mine so firmly I can’t get my lips apart. His rough handling is nothing new, but he’s never taken it this far in public before. You can’t emulate a man in control if you don’t have your subjects scared enough to follow your every whim without prompting.
“Stay. At. My. Side,” he reiterates, speaking slow.
He doesn’t wait for me to nod. He simply walks away, leaving the heavy lifting to his men.
“Move it.”
“I’m going,” I assure Mario when an inch gap between my uncle and me sees the muzzle of a gun being shoved under my ribs. He’s pissed I didn’t give him an excuse to hack me up with the boxcutter. He’s a sick fuck like that. He’d rather my uncle’s seconds than an untouched woman because he knows they’re already half-broken.
Several eyes shift our way when we enter the warehouse. It’s set up similar to the underground fight circuit my uncle runs with the only surviving member of his family, Dimitri, but the clientele is sleazier-looking, and the smell of corruption almost outranks the scent of death lingering in the air.
I’m shocked by the number of revered stares my uncle is being given. It’s rare for him to be admired. He makes these fools money, but more times than not, it costs them just as much in respect. You can’t side with him and expect to come out with your dignity intact. If you want to deal with the devil, you better be willing to face the consequences of your actions.
My heart plummets into my stomach when it dawns on me why we’ve secured the eyes of many. They’re not peering at my uncle in awe. They’re struggling to work out why his inflamed knuckles are the same size and width as the bruises on my cheek. They’re evidence my uncle is an abusive tyrant and the very reason he is being gawked at from all sides.
It’s rare for my uncle to leave evidence of a crime. His slip-up this weekend shows how unhinged he is becoming. Hopefully, when he kills me tonight as punishment for Maddox’s no-show, the evidence Maddox captured before I fled will see him convicted of murder. The Petrettis never leave a body—corpses talk, even the mutilated ones—but you can convict a man without a body. I overheard my uncle mention that only last month.
My eyes float up from the floor when my uncle’s deep Italian timbre fills my ears. From what I learned from my father, the Petrettis haven’t lived in Italy since the thirties. However, their accents are as thick as foreigners. They’d hate to be mistaken as the American now running their sanction. Henry Gottle, Sr., the boss of all bosses, is of mixed race. He has inky black hair like mine, eyes just as blue, yet, my uncle treats him as if he’s a fraud.
“How much?” my uncle repeats when my eyes land on his face. “I don’t usually bet on the underdog, but tonight, I can’t lose.” The crowd mingling around us hovers in close when he digs his finger into the cut in my cheek. He wants the world to know he hurt me, and he refuses for a little bit of foundation to steal his victory. “If he dies, I lose money but gain so… much… more.” His last three words are expressed in a way that makes my stomach recoil. “If he wins, which I highly doubt, I pocket a nice bit of coin that will have no issues finding me a young cunt to keep me warm for the night.”
He speaks so poorly of women, I have to force my reply out of my mouth. “And if he doesn’t show up, what happens then?”
The dress I wore to look ‘pretty’ for him is ruined when he yanks me forward with a brutal clutch on the dainty material. The top two buttons pop open, exposing the cleavage he swears I inherited from my mother.
“You don’t want me to answer that.” He waits for me to absorb the threat in his tone before he drags his eyes over the men loitering even closer. “Or perhaps I should tell you. The men are so eager, they might spoil the surprise.”
“I’m your niece,” I remind him like he may suddenly grow a conscience. “Your flesh and blood.”
“I know.” He taps my nose before he brings out the smile that shows blood will never come before his bank balance. “Why do you think they’re so keen? It’s not every day a civilian gets to bed a princess.”
I scoff. There’s nothing regal about me.
It appears as if my uncle heard my inner monologue when his grin turns blinding. “Right now, your blood is nobler than mine.” He steps so close, our noses almost touch. “Because I’ve granted them permission to spill yours. They can’t touch mine.”
He chuckles at the paling of my face before he places a five-thousand-dollar bet on Maddox on my behalf. When he takes a seat ringside, wordlessly announcing that the event is about to commence, bids come in hard and fast. The money tossed into the bookie’s hat exposes why my uncle was so desperate to sign Maddox as his fighter. Just his surname scribbled at the top of a portable blackboard fills the front row of seats that usually sit half-empty during the regular Friday night fights. They don’t come cheap in a standard exhibition, so I’d hate to think how much these suit-clad men have forked out for an up-close visual of a murder.
I shouldn’t smile at the fact they’re wasting both their money and time, but I do. Even if Maddox has a photographic memory, he’ll be a no-show tonight. I ensured the card my uncle scribbled on was out of Maddox’s sight at all times, even going as far as asking if I could store it in his wallet for ‘safekeeping.’ I felt horrible when he granted me his trust without so much as a second blink, but the moment he entered me the first time, I knew I had made the right decision.
The Walsh brothers protect those they love, and the consummation of my relationship with Maddox placed me high on their list. Since that wasn’t a part of my plan, I was forced to make another. Was it stupid of me to do? Most likely, but when you’ve got more to lose than you ever thought possible, you must think outside the box.
“You should watch,” my uncle suggests when two women in gold spray-on bikini’s announce the first fight is about to commence by prancing around the ring like their knees aren’t knocking. “Then perhaps you can give Maddox some tips when he arrives.” He bounces his evil eyes between mine. “You’ve watched him enough times the past year to know his strengths, so you can either help him benefit from that or let him die. The choice is yours.”