Page 14 of Unlucky You

At least I got what I came for.

I pushed through the front door, allowing my eyes to sweep the dark, overcrowded parking lot. A feeling of ease traveled through my body when I spotted my car near the front. Once I was safely inside, I finally exhaled the tension from the past ten minutes and smiled at the memory of the tattooed man in faded jeans and running shoes who likely prevented a bad situation from turning disastrous.

Flexing my throbbing hand a few times, I rolled my eyes before shaking my head, not believing I’d punched a guy in the face. After unlocking my phone and sending a text to Joe to let him know I might have an in, I tossed the device onto the passenger seat. There were photos to edit waiting at home, so my mind was no longer on the club or the mystery man who came to my rescue.

THREE

Grand.

I sat alone in the corner of the packed warehouse where I would enter the ring in less than an hour. The building was half-full but would reach its full capacity by the time I entered the ring. My fight was scheduled last since it was the most lucrative to the executives betting this evening. Rix wanted to test me. He put me against his toughest competitor.

In the past few years, underground boxing had taken on a life of its own. What had once been grimy and unorganized was now sophisticated with generous funding in place. The matches were still gruesome and the fighters were collecting more of a payoff for the damage done to their bodies but the promotersand financial backers were the ones who saw the biggest profit margin.

“The first two should be over quick. A waste of time in my opinion.” I didn’t bother acknowledging Tali. Instead, I kept my sights trained on the crowd which was growing thicker by the minute. Tali kept talking, used to my silence.

“You gonna make this quick or let him tag your ass up before it’s lights out?”

The statement let me know that he had heard about my fights on the inside. I accepted their lethal blows until I felt enough pain to remind me that my life would never be the same. The fights typically ended with a solid punch from me that landed them on their ass, usually unconscious.

When I looked up at Tali who wore a slick grin, I kept my thoughts to myself and searched the crowd once more.

“Bro, you don’t have to do this shit to yourself. I mean, I get it…”

“No, you don’t; so leave it alone.” My tenor was sharp and gravelly.

“Yes, the fuck I do. You feel like you have to punish yourself for something that wasn’t your fault. I may not know all the details but I get it. All I’m saying is, when is enough gonna be enough? None of this shit changes anything. Think about that, fam.” Tali kept his tone even. Family or not, he knew better than to push me too far. He’d seen what I was capable of and never wanted to find himself in the eye of the storm. We would have to kill each other in order for one of us to remain standing and that was a fight neither was willing to take on. Neither of us wanted to lose the only person we trusted.

“I’m gonna head to the back.”

There was no shock or surprise attached to me ignoring Tali’s words. The subject of my past was and would always beoff limits. We agreed to disagree. Tali offered a nod and leaned against the closest wall. The argument fell on deaf ears.

I blocked out the conversation and began to mentally prepare for the upcoming fight instead of my reason for needing the escape. Everyone had personal shit that kept them unbalanced. Some relied on vices—drugs, alcohol, even sex to keep the demons at bay—while others spent thousands of hours and money on therapy. I chose to fight. The physical pain would not only be my escape but also a reminder. Tali had it wrong. I wasn’t punishing myself. I was remembering. Instead of arguing the point, I lifted my duffel and started toward the back of the building.

Fight nights, just like any other organized sport, produced fans. They all had their favorites. I was new but my goal was to be significant enough to be considered a crowd favorite. Taking that spot meant a higher payout and less time spent in the ring.

Stalking through the crowd that had more than doubled in the last half hour, my eyes danced around the nameless faces. Just before I reached the entrance that led to the spaces set up as locker rooms for the fighters, one face in particular stood out.

I paused, watching as she stood just beyond the entrance, scanning the building as if she was lost about what to do next. She didn’t belong. That was my first thought, quickly followed by a sense of familiarity. It took a minute before I placed her.

The Pit.

A few days had passed since the incident at the bar, but the woman I was looking at was one in the same. I had been drawn to her that night just as I was now. There was something about her, which caused me to mind someone else’s business. That deviation was the reason I’d dropped a man who had gotten handsy with her.

Like the first time I crossed paths with this woman, she was wearing a T-shirt and jeans. Both looser fitting than the firsttime I saw her, but neither hiding her lush curves. The poor lighting of The Pit also did her no justice. Tonight I was able to see a clean-scrubbed face, stunning, honey-colored eyes, and small, lightly glossed, round lips.

Lips that had my mind drifting to thoughts of how they would taste. Realizing I had been staring longer than what was considered polite, I managed to pull my inquisitive stare from her briefly. I did, however, allow myself one last hit of her beauty. A woman was the last thing I needed to be worried about.

FOUR

Saniya.

I glanced around the room, and as if I could feel someone staring, my head whipped to an angle where my eyes locked with a pair of deep browns that felt eerily familiar. He glared until my eyes dropped before he pushed through a metal door and was no longer visible.

Well shit.

After the strange encounter where I found myself drawn to a man that I didn’t know but would attest to being connected to, I managed to regroup and focus on the reason I was in an abandoned warehouse thirty miles outside the city limits. The location had been sent only hours ago.

After texting the number I obtained from the bartender at The Pit, I thought for sure I wouldn’t get a response because an entire day passed prior to receiving confirmation by way of a cryptic text which only provided longitude and latitude directions. I was confused until plugging the latitude and longitude provided into a location finder I searched online.

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