Page 4 of King

“I.D.” His voice was gruff, and his eyes dark, sunken into the back of his head. A scowl twisted his features as he waited for me to prove who I was. Tugging my wallet from my back pocket, I took out my driving licence and held it up for them to check. His meaty fingers took it from me as he looked between the card and me. “Go through.” The other guy that stood behind him nodded, too. Thanking them, I carried on around to the room at the back. I grinned as I walked in. Finally, I was doing this. A bench stretched along the back wall, the painted white walls were bare other than a couple of pegs and I sat down. I rested my head back and it gently thudded against the wall. I breathed deeply, trying to ease the nerves that were now settling in the pit of my stomach.

“Jacob King.” Rico, the fight club owner called out cheerily as he popped his head around the door. As he came in, his hands rubbed together with a smile stretched across his face. “Are you ready for this?”

“Always,” I jumped to my feet enthusiastically and dragged my t-shirt off. It hit the bench as he came over.

“Looking good, kid.” He patted my arm firmly. “You feeling okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” I said with a cocky grin.

“I just wanted to pop in and say hello, make sure you hadn’t had second thoughts.” I tutted; I may have been many things, but a coward wasn’t one of them.

“Please…” I smirked. “Always ready, mate.”

“Right, I’ll leave you to it, then. You’ve got about fifteen minutes before we start.”

“Thanks, Rico.” I called out as he spun around and left the room. I slipped through to the small bathroom and turned on the tap to wet my hands. I rubbed some cold water over my short hair and dried my hands on my joggers, I took my wallet and loose cash from my pockets and dropped it all into the front pocket of my bag. As I picked up my phone to add it to my belongings, I noticed a message from Nix.

Nix: Please don’t get hurt Xx

I smiled at my screen, and quickly typed back a message.

Who am I? Xxx

I asked cockily and hit send. The bubbles danced on my screen to indicate that she was already replying.

Nix: Jacob King xxx

Exactly xxx

You don’t have to worry. I’ve got this. I’m a sure thing xxx

Nix replied straight away

Nix: Ok. I love you xxx

Love you more, baby xxx

I quickly hit send and powered off my phone before dropping it inside my bag with the rest of my belongings. Halfway through getting undressed Danny popped his head around the open door. “Hey. You almost ready?” he handed me a bottle of water, and I immediately screwed off the lid and guzzled down a large amount, then put the lid back on and left it on the bench. I toed off my trainers and pushed my joggers down my legs and took those off, then placed them in my bag with the rest of my stuff. Swiftly, I leapt into fighter mode, and started shadow boxing, warming my muscles up, and bouncing on my toes.

“Turn around.” I did so with my fists up in front of me as I took on a fighter stance. Danny held his phone up in front of him and snapped as I pulled a cocky grin. “Promotional purposes.” He grinned, and I shook my head in response.

I began to jog on the spot to loosen up the muscles in my calves, shook out my arms and kicked my legs out to stretch. My fists punched as I shadow boxed in the mirror on the wall, warming up until I was called for my fight.

But this isn’t boxing, this is underground fighting - anything goes. There are no rules.

“Where’s Ethan?”I asked as I looked around me.

“He’s waiting out front, keeping us a spot.”

I lifted my chin and carried on. I didn’t have to wait long before the bouncer appeared in the doorway. “You’re up, King.” I inhaled deeply as I nodded, my lungs filled with air, and I exhaled as I made my way to the door.

Danny followed me. “Wait,” He rubbed something over my shoulders and patted me on the back. “You ready for this?”

I glanced back at him and met his eyes. “Let’s do this fucking shit.”

We high fived each other and walked down the corridor towards the chanting. The raucous crowd were hoping to watch a decent fight. But I’m the new boy here, the underdog. Not that I couldn’t handle that, but I’m sure they were thinking I was going to be a pushover.

Pushing through the second door back to the main room, I watched as money was passed around between punters and bookies. I had no idea what kind of bets I was pulling in, and honestly, I didn’t want to know. I didn’t need the extra pressure. I was sure, being the underdog, the odds were definitely in the other guy’s favour.Rico and I had already shaken hands on a deal if I won tonight, and we’d agreed on what cut he would take.

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