Page 65 of Run From Me

“Good, I was hoping you felt that way,” I said as I popped in the mouth guard I had the sense to wear just as the announcer stepped away and a bell rang.

“What, no ring girl?” I said.

The guy smirked, but didn’t look around. For me it was just one more red flag that this wasn’t a fight for the crowds.

Circling the ring, I let everything go.

There was no more shady ring. No more missing ring girl. No more questions. Just me and something to kill.

I didn’t throw the first punch. I wanted to play a game. I wanted to drag this shit out.

The fucker was quick, and after several dodged blows, he landed one to my ribs. The pain fueled me. I needed the bite of pain.

Whatever the look on my face, it might have been what caused him to pause a split second before I countered with a right hook, catching him in the throat. He stumbled back as I caught him with a cross punch to the chest.

I sneered as my opponent recovered and shot back, but I moved quickly, only letting him clip my shoulder. Strike after strike was getting him nowhere and me everywhere. There were no real rules here. No rounds. No pay off to leave anyone alive.

And if there were? I didn’t fucking care as I landed a kick to his ribs.

I needed to draw out a rat. Who had hired a fighter? Who had set this up?

Blood dripped from the split in his eyebrow. Red went flying as I landed a kick to his side. We danced around and around. He watched me, and that confidence that had sparkled in those pretty eyes of his before? There was nothing there but indecision now.

He lunged, and I moved, catching his arm in a hold that brought his body under me.

He flailed, trying to get me.

“Tell me, darling. Who hired you? You aren’t from the streets, that’s obvious.”

He grunted as I brought him into a chokehold.

He didn’t say much.

“Did they pay you enough to die?” I asked.

The guy tapped my forearm.

“You calling it quits? I really hate that for you. We don’t have quits.”

I released him though because I wanted to see if he was going to answer anything for me. Might as well continue to wear him down. A flash of rainbow caught my eye, and that split second gave him a chance to strike back. A turn of my head, and he was able to land a punch to my temple at an awkward angle, but it was still hard enough it knocked me off balance and I fell to one knee.

He looked down on me and maybe he felt like he’d won.

“I’m done playing,” was all I said as I shifted forward, launching myself upward, and went straight for his head with a cross and an uppercut. He hit the floor, and this time when I got him in a chokehold, he wasn’t going to get back up.

Three. Two. One. The guy’s weight rested on me until I dropped him. I didn’t even wait for a winner to be announced. I didn’t wait to check and see if I had killed him.

I leaped over the shit rope and got my bearings. Where had I just seen her? It only took seconds to catch that flash of hair around the other side of the ring. The issue was that the second I found her, all hell broke loose.

Sirens sounded and the crowd turned into a mosh pit from hell.

“X, where are you going?”

Zeid was next to me, and I realized he hadn’t seen Calliope.

“Cali is here, and I don’t know why.”

He didn’t ask me anything, or maybe I wasn’t waiting. I took off toward where I had just seen her. My brothers would get out of here. I had to get to her. I was furious. She was told to stay put. What the hell? I wouldn’t even know if anyone had seen her because I didn’t have my damn phone. Fuck. Cas had everything, and I needed to get to her.

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