Page 44 of Battling Aries

“No, but she refused to listen. Said Rory needs her girls around her if she’s going to be able to handle what’s happening,” he grunts, rolling his eyes, and finishes taping my hands.

“Don’t worry. Cyprus, Wolf, and Dutch are with them.”

“Still don’t like it,” Kevlar mutters, stepping away, eyes going to our Prez. “The very fact Izaiah is with them doesn’t sit well with me.”

Viper grins and steps in slightly. “Don’t worry about that. He’s not going to do anything. Cyprus put a call into Mateo who flew in for this fight as well. He also has men throughout the building. Outside hidden where ours are visible. I’m not taking chances of anything going wrong here.” His eyes slice to me. “I mean, nothing had better go wrong. You win this fight. Kill the bastard. Then we can move the fuck on.”

“That’s the plan, Prez. I’m not about to lose this fight. Not when I just got Rory back in my life. For all I know, I’ve knocked her up already. She could be carrying my kid right now. No way am I going to let that fucking weasel dick win against me. He’s fucked up enough of both mine and my woman’s life as it is. It’s time he got what’s been a long time coming.”

Viper nods and moves back. “Then let’s get this the fuck over with.”

“Yeah, let’s get it over with.” Kevlar slaps me on the shoulder. “Mace is at the ready to fix you up once this is done and over with.”

“Good to know.”

I followed both men out of the backroom Izaiah showed us to earlier when we first got here. This fight is supposed to be me taking on three men. I’ll fight the first two at the same time. It’s the main one that my brothers and I have been preparing me for. I don’t know the size of the men I’m up against, but knowing Roger, he’s going to try and cripple me, if not get me dead before the one he has to fight me in.

I take a deep breath and step into the warehouse that was converted into an arena of sorts. There was a ring in the center with stands built up around it. I don’t look at the stands. I don’t look for Rory. If I do, that will be the start of the distractions. I know she’s there, and I’ll see her when this is done. I won’t let her presence get to me. I can’t.

Right now, the only thing I need to worry about is blocking out the noise. My focus needs to be on surviving what’s about to happen.

In the ring, two men are already waiting. One of them is average size in build. Maybe five-eight, five-nine at most. He’ll be an easy target to take out. The other man is more my size and build. He’s going to be more of a challenge in taking out. What I have to watch out for is the smaller one trying to get the jump on me. The two of them together, they’ll work as a team and not wait for one or the other to be taken out first. They’ll come at me together to take me down.

They’ll think I’m not prepared for them and soon find out just how wrong they are.

At the ringside, both Viper and Kevlar stop and look back at me.

“Remember focus. Don’t get distracted,” Viper mutters.

I nod, flex my fingers, and step past them. “Just keep focused on what the fuck else might happen. With this bastard, you never know what could happen. He might have something up his sleeve.”

“We’ve got this, brother,” Kevlar says, slapping a hand on my shoulder.

Without another word, I shrug, grab the rope, and hoist myself in the ring.

Time to get the party started. This battle is just the beginning to end of the war between me and the past once and for all.

CHAPTER 27

RORY

The fight was unlike anything I’d ever seen in my life. The crowd shouts and yells. Women and men alike. The stands are a mixture of upper class and middle class. There was no discrimination. They were all packed together to see a fight that I wish more than anything wasn’t happening in the first place.

“It’s going to be okay,” Rosemary says from my left. Her hand holding my newly un-casted hand.

Mace’s mom had taken the cast off right before we got here, and it feels weird not to have it on. I’d have to do some exercises to strengthen it and maybe wear a brace, but all in all, I was good to go.

“Aries is going to kick ass,” Jade says from my other side, her hand squeezes mine.

“He’s got this,” Noelle states from behind me, giving my shoulder a light squeeze.

The three of them sit surrounding me. On either side of Noelle, I knew Cyprus, and a man introduced to me as Mateo sat. Next to Jade was Dutch. Wolf was situated in front of me. Next to Rosemary, though, sat a man I’d seen a couple times whenhe’d had a meeting with Roger. I never knew his name before, but he introduced himself as Izaiah Cordova. Cyprus made sure to tell me it was Izaiah who mediated this fight between Aries and Roger.

The whole thing has me freaked out. Especially when I spot Roger coming into the area with his goons behind him. I recognized the two of them immediately.

“Those are the two that he sent after me in New York,” I murmur for only Rosemary to hear. With it being so loud, there’s no way I could say it low enough for Jade and Noelle to hear as well without the others hearing. I don’t need the guys to know.

Rosemary shifts, leans, and whispers directly in my ear, “They’re a part of the fight. You don’t have to worry about them after this fight. Aries is going to tear them apart.”

---