Page 6 of Sacrifice
Will and Adam both look at me immediately, waiting for my reaction. “Easy there, Slick,” Dane warns. “You’re ’bout to step in a pile of shit and you don’t even know it.”
“That’s fact as fuck,” Will laughs.
Black, spiky hair and a diamond stud in one ear, Slick grins like he’s just seen two whales fucking. This goofball is why I normally try to avoid the masses—too many motherfuckers runnin’ around with a Hit-Me face that Ican’ttolerate.
I probably should’ve stayed home tonight, but I had to find something to occupy my mind. I dreamed about Gage last night. We were sitting on the beach, watching the waves come in, and he told me I needed to get my shit together. I laughed because it was something my brother always said to me. He took a handful of sand and let it run slowly through his fingers. I watched the grains drop onto the pile of shells below.
“Get your shit together, little brother. It’s time you man the fuck up. I’m counting on you.”
I’d woken up in a cold sweat. I didn’t dream about Gage much, not at all, really. But there was something about the way he said it, the clarity of his voice, the intensity of his gaze that left me feeling light in my stomach all day. I couldn’t shake it. I couldn’t get the sound of his voice out of my brain.
I look up at Slick. He grins and tosses an arm around Dane’s shoulder. Dane sidesteps him and watches me nervously.
“Davidson? Is he a fighter?” I twirl the cigarette in my hand before flicking it to the table.
Slick snorts. “Is he a fighter?Are you serious? He’s the baddest motherfucker I’ve seen in alongtime. He doesn’t just win fights; he wins bymurder.They’re saying he’s unbeatable and I believe it.”
I tilt my head and look up at him, chuckling.
“You’re probably gonna want to shut your suck.” Will smirks.
“My suck?”
“You know, your suck. Your mouth. Yourcock sucker.” Will laughs. “Don’t let your mouth buy something your ass can’t pay for.”
“Dude, do you even know who this is?” Adam interjects, shaking his head. “This is Crew Gentry, man. The only man to beat your so-called ‘baddest motherfucker.’”
“No shit? You’re Crew Gentry?” He laughs. “I thought you’d be bigger.”
“Now is the time Slick stops running his suck and buys Crew Gentry a beer.” I smile, a warning buried just under the surface.
His face pales. “Hey! Whatever Gentry’s drinking is on me,” he shouts to Jordyn. He turns back and looks me up and down. “Yeah. I can see it now. You’re still solid as a rock. Man, I still can’t believe you didn’t go Pro—”
“Yeah, I know,” I say, cutting him off. I’ve been over it so many times in my head, not even counting the times I’ve spent reliving it through my trainers, or the doctors, or random guys that think they know something about fighting. I don’t need to hear his gibberish about what went wrong or right or what-the-fuck-ever. It’s obvious this punk knows nothing about fighting besides getting a foot up his ass.
“Let’s go grab a drink,” Dane says to Slick, clearly reading me like the street-smart kid I know him to be. He can sense what’s about to happen if Slick doesn’t shut the fuck up. “Come on.”
“I want to talk to Crew.” Slick starts to pull a chair to the table, and I look away.
“Trust me, man,” Dane says. “No, you don’t. Let’s go.”
I know Slick’s watching me, but I don’t look up. I don’t want to chit-chat. Hell, I don’t even wanna humor this guy. This kid’s going to some Ivy League college, Mommy and Daddy payin’ the bill. He’s a silver spoon-fed asshole that thinks he knows something, and I’m not interested in playing nice.
“Nice to meet ya,” Slick says. He follows Adam to the front of the bar.
I hear him whisper something about a legend and I roll my eyes.
“I was thinking you weren’t gonna show,” Will says, drawing my attention back to him. He turns his head from Blondie, but she grabs the sides of his face to turn him towards her.
“You wanna get out of here?” Blondie coos, her tone soft like she’s talking to a baby.
“Where have ya been?” he asks me, ignoring her.
“Hey. Let’s get out of here. Didn’t you hear me? Why aren’t you answering me, baby?”
Will looks at her out of the corner of his eye. “I was just lettin’ you know this conversation was over.”
She gasps. “Are you serious right now?”
