I move without thought. I’m on my opponent in a second flat throwing my clenched fist at his face. I’m a bull in a china shop, one red flag away from losing complete control.
I hit his jaw, watching as his head snaps back. He gives me a bewildered look before my other fist makes contact with his face. My punches are furious, precise and powerful. My intentions are to kill, and I'll be damned if I don't follow through.
He stumbles back and crosses his arms over his head. I punch him in the gut, and he crouches in front of me, his body absorbing the hit. I don’t have fucking time for this. I’m done playing with my food. I’m going to make an example out of this prick.
I step around him before he can straighten up again. I take his head into my hand and grab his jaw from behind, then I twist as hard as I can.
I can’t hear it, but I can feel his neck break underneath my hands. The sounds vibrating through my body. I release my hold on him and his heavy lifeless body falls to the floor in front of me. My entire body is burning with aggression and adrenaline, I could kill a hundred more people right now without a second thought. But I have a more important mission now... I need to find Sophie, to make sure she is okay.
I curse Ivan to hell as I scan the room, looking in the spot where I saw her last. The crowd erupts around me, making it hard to see. People are screaming, shouting, and pushing each other. Fights break out within the crowd all the time and it’s the last thing I need when I have no idea where she is.
As I scan the crowd again, I see Mac and Devin making their way over to me, pushing through the sea of people. My eyes move over every person before me and then I see her…her small body being pushed around by the crowd. Panic and fear consume her features. She is completely helpless and far too weak to fight all these people off or get through on her own.
Knowing this I jump over the ropes and into the crowd. I can feel the blood dripping down my face, the aching and fatigue in my muscles but I push forward. I have to save her...like she saved me.
I punch out two guys before the rest of the crowd parts, moving the fuck out of my way...and then they do, everybody runs away from me…one look at me and they back up.
As soon as enough people have stepped away to make room, she runs to me. Her arms fly around my torso and she buries her face into my sweaty chest.
I wrap my arms around her and hold her as tight as I can without squishing her. Lowering my head, I press my face into her hair and breathe her in. Her sweet floral scent fills my nostrils making me forget everything and everyone around me. Silence surrounds me. I feel nothing but the warmth of her body seeping into mine.
The raging storm I’ve been battling the last two weeks calms and I feel like for once I can breathe again.
“Are you okay?” Her sweet voice reaches my ear.
“I am now.” I loosen my grip on her just enough so she can look up and I can see her face. “What are you doing here? How did you even get here?”
“I heard Ivan talking to you on the phone and then he jumped up and told me he was coming here so I made him take me.” I follow her gaze as she looks around and only then do I notice that Mac, Dev, and Ivan are standing beside us.
I don’t know how long we’ve been standing in the center of the room like this, but I notice that a lot of people have cleared out of the basement already so I’m assuming it’s been a few minutes.
Ivan is staring daggers of ice through me, with his arms folded over his chest and a furious scowl on his face.
“I’m sorry.” Ivan’s eyebrows shoot up at my apology.
“You are?” He asks, obviously dumbfounded. I don’t know what exactly he was expecting...a snotty remark, an inappropriate joke or maybe just a cold shoulder. Any one of those would have been more likely than an apology if I’m being honest.
“Yes, I’m sorry…and not just for tonight.”
Then Ivan does something that shocks me just as much as I’ve must just shocked him. He closes the distance between us and throws his arms around me, engulfing me in a bear hug…well, engulfing us in a bear hug. There is no way I’m letting Sophie out of my arms so I hold her to my body with one arm and hug my brother back with the other.
“Don’t do shit like that again,” he warns me before releasing us.
“Come on, let me check you out in the locker room,” Mac tells me. “I’m pretty sure you’ll need some stitches.”
“I’m fine, I just want to get out of here.” Sophie’s arms tighten around my waist at my words.
“I want to come home with you,” she says in a pleading voice, as if there was a chance in the world I would have any rejection to that. I gaze down at her. Her big blue eyes are just as beautiful as always. Guilt and regret slam into me.
While I’m thrilled to see her and hold her in my arms, I'm reminded of the way I hurt her. In my mind I can still see the fear I struck in her. I can still see myself shaking her tiny body.
“Come on, let's get you stitched up.” Mac ushers us toward the locker room and I release Sophie and instead curve an arm around her, pulling her into my side.
“I’ll hold your hand if you’re scared of the needle,” Sophie murmurs, barely able to contain her giggling. Fuck, I’ve missed that so much.
Her laugh, her smile, the way she looks as she falls apart on my cock...I’ve missed every single little detail about her down to the way she simply fits perfectly into all my broken pieces.
“How about we all go to my place. Mac you can check me out at the house, okay?” I need to get out of here especially with Sophie being here now. I don’t want her to have to be exposed to this kind of violence again.
“Alright then, let’s go,” Mac agrees, and we head toward the main doors. My head hurts like hell, my muscles ache and I’m just overall, exhausted. And yet, this is the happiest I have been in a long time. Not only am I finally free from the pills but I have my Sophie back at my side.
As we walk out of the building, I cling onto her, just as hard as she is clinging on to me and I can’t believe I ever let her walk away. She belongs to me...in my arms, in my life, in my bed. She is mine and I won’t ever do anything to risk losing her again.
I fucked up before. I risked it all for money, for fighting, but I won’t risk anything over Sophie again. From here on out I’m going to make her damn proud...
34
Sophie
I can’t believe how close I came to losing him today. Seeing him on his knees in that ring, bloodied and beaten killed me. It brought tears to my eyes knowing he was so close to giving up. I could see it on his face, he was done, done trying, done crying. A part of me wants to slap him for being so careless while the other part of me wants to hug him until I piece all of his broken parts back together again. As we walk out of the warehouse, the cool night time air hits my face.
I suck in a greedy breath of air...thankful to be out of that smelly, stuffy basement. Roman has his arm around me, keeping me tightly to his side as we walk.
“I’m heading back home, I don’t like Violet being home alone,” Ivan tells us before looking at me. “You’re sure this is what you want to do?”
I know Ivan isn’t asking to be mean to Roman. He just wants to make sure I’m okay...not only physically but emotionally, since he knows just how hard the last two weeks have been for me.