Page 11 of From Best To Bested

“I want you to offer yourself to me entirely.” Ezra looked past Roman and at Levi. “I want you to be my friend, completely complicit and compliant to my will.”

Roman had suspected this potential turn in the wager. That was the purpose, to spark intrigue and offer Roman an opening to get back his title, his authority, and his friend. Ezra had all but forced Levi to take the same deal. Levi refused because who wanted to offer themselves up as a full-time bitch to serve a man arrogant enough to put the revised terms of the wager on full display for all.

“You’ll be an absolutely submissive and permanent fixture in my life.” Ezra smiled wide. “Obedient, too.”

Roman swallowed hard at the menacing stare but kept his face as neutral as he could muster.

“I’ll even do you one better,” Ezra added, gesturing for the crowd to quiet. “When you lose again—because you will lose again—I’ll still make sure your buddy stays safe. That means no worrying about who he ends up rooming with, what cellblock he lands on, or what he is or isn’t willing to do.”

Roman studied Ezra’s calm, calculated expression and the corner of a smile that grew on his face.

“Champion’s word.” Ezra placed a hand on his chest and raised the other in a pledge. “No one will touch Levi so long as you uphold your end of the deal.”

“Boo,” Jake the Snake shouted. “I was looking forward to getting to know that big dumb pretty boy.”

Levi recoiled a bit, eyes wide and wary as he searched the crowd, likely searching for where Jake slithered. At least Roman suspected as much.

“Well?” Ezra asked. “Can you be a man of your honor?”

“Just take his ass now,” someone shouted.

The cheer of the crowd infuriated Roman. He wanted to lunge out, silence them, turn and face Ezra, and wipe that smug smirk away.

“Now, now, now.” Ezra quieted the crowd again. “That’s tempting, and I did already beat him, so by rights, I should get to plow him.”

Roman nearly spat when Ezra winked, fueling the crowd with his lewd bravado.

“I suppose asking him to submit wouldn’t be outside the realm of what I’m due.”

Roman bit back a snarl. Beat him? He got a lucky sucker punch and chokehold. That was it. Roman would be ready next time.

“But beating a man only puts him in his place. Besting a man, though.” Ezra walked the length of the crowd, slowly circling Roman. “Besting a man shows him his place.”

Ezra’s hot breath hit Roman’s ear, and he spun around, locking his eyes on the man he wanted to defeat more than anything.

“When I’ve bested you, you will drop to your knees and serve me.” Ezra encouraged the roar of the crowd, the humorous laughter they had for Roman’s plight, and when they settled, he continued. “I will be your every waking thought. My desires will be your desires. My needs will be your needs. My pleasure will be your pleasure. Your sole responsibility in life moving forward will be to serve me and bring me satisfaction. Nothing more. When you lose this next match, when I have defeated you yet again, you will give yourself to me entirely. No one-time stint. Bet it all, or don’t bother challenging me ever again.”

“Done,” Roman said with unflinching certainty.

He wouldn’t yield, couldn’t yield. Not if he wanted to show everyone he had nothing to fear. Not if he wanted to believe it himself.

The crowd roared, and Ezra asked for someone in the Challenger’s Chance to offer him an opportunity to really spar, someone who hadn’t already been defeated by him.

“I know some guys are eager to offer up their asses to me, but are there any real men here who just want to talk with their fists?” Ezra shouted, his hateful green eyes locked on Roman as the crowd laughed at their former champion’s expense.

The bet had been struck, and Roman slinked back into the crowd and away from the arena. It was a reckless gamble consuming his thoughts throughout the evening. Roman knew he could win in the rematch. He’d underestimated Ezra last time. He’d been exhausted after three matches already. He’d been cocky. With Levi on the line, Roman wouldn’t make any of those mistakes again.

Roman tossed and turned in bed, fixated on the wager, the raised stakes, on the win he’d need to survive a mess already at his feet. Too many inmates had grown bold against him; too many guards had turned a blind eye to taunting jabs, literal threats, vicious attacks. Roman couldn’t risk the hell he’d face if he lost the match. If Roman didn’t reestablish his standing at Marlow Penitentiary soon, he’d end up with more than a few barbs and the occasional sucker punch.

Now the fear of losing had crept into his thoughts while he slept alone in his cell. If he lost, could he follow through with the barter? It would make him a target to everyone and anyone. Would Ezra force him to follow through? Would others see the weakness if he backed out? Vipers like Jake the Snake would certainly strike if Roman reneged. Jake always looked for weakness in the men he broke. That was why Roman never allowed even a fraction of fear or vulnerability to cross his face when around Jake or his crew. They were the biggest predators in Marlow.

The real worry of backing out came with how Levi would be punished. Ezra would keep him and take him and make him submit, despite pretending Levi had a choice. A lie and an illusion for certain. Or Levi would refuse the offer, Ezra wouldtire of the teasing, and Levi would be tossed to Jake as a present, forced to fend for himself.

Roman’s worries haunted him for the next several days, making sleep and his days alone with no one to talk to incredibly exhausting.

In the days that followed, inmates continued pressing Roman, picking fights or making threats. Some said they didn’t need to wait until he lost another match to see what a noisy bitch he could be.

It turned out that defending himself against three men in the cafeteria hadn’t reestablished his hold over his fellow inmates. It took taking down two more before the guards interfered. Thankfully, or much to his dismay, they decided not to throw him in solitary for starting another fight.

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