Page 31 of The Wild Moon
That did the trick. The talk of money brought him around. All I had to do was appeal to his greed. “How can you be so sure?” Carl asked, still flustered at being so easily yanked around.
“Because this guy has it coming,” I growled, staring at Johnathan, hatred burning in my gut.
I could add one more thing to my list of things Johnathan had destroyed. My new life here in the city. By showing up here tonight, he’d proven he could find me anywhere. I knew he could, but this showed he was willing to. That he would never stop following me. Never giving me any peace.
Oh, yes, I was going to win tonight. He just didn’t know it yet.
“Okay, if you say so,” Carl said, still not believing me. I didn’t care. He was probably going to bet against me. His loss.
“Eight hundred on me,” I snarled. “Remember that, Carl.”
“Uh, yeah,” he said, licking his lips nervously before heading over to the sound system and speaking to the DJ lounging nearby. The DJ looked at me and then at Johnathan. I could see Carl waving his hands, growing insistent.
Finally, the DJ threw up his hands and caved.
I grinned at Johnathan, who hadn’t moved, still staring at me across the bar. He was waiting for me to make the first move.
Okay, I said and headed for the cage. I casually pulled open the door and stepped inside. I was wearing street clothes, a pair of black pants, a white t-shirt, and a normal bra. My hair was unbraided now, falling down my back in wet, wavy curls, courtesy of the lack of hair dryer.
People in the crowd were staring at me now, likely wondering what was going on, when the background music cut out and the DJ began to speak. I didn’t hear his words. I just watched Johnathan’s face, waiting for him to realize what was going on.
The crowd cheered at the prospect of another fight. They cheered harder when I indicated I would be one of the fighters. Johnathan was frowning at this point. I wondered if he had any inkling of what was about to happen.
“Her opponent tonight,” the DJ said. “A newcomer to our crowd. Give it up for the Bloodman!”
Apparently, Carl had come up with a nickname for Johnathan. A spotlight clicked on, and the DJ pointed directly at my ex. I grinned as he blinked in momentary confusion, then waved his hands in a negative.
The crowd booed, egging him on with chants of “Fight!” It wasn’t working, though. Johnathan wanted nothing to do with it. The crowd continued to get worked up. People were on their phones, texting and making phone calls. Probably calling people back for another fight.
“No!” Johnathan said, his voice carrying over the crowd. “I will not fight her.”
I grinned from inside the ring and gave him the finger. “What’s the matter?” I shot back, breaking out my big gun, the one I knew would force him into the ring. “Are you afraid? Are you a coward?”
Gauntlet. Thrown.
The crowd went nuts, and I waited. Both Johnathan and I knew he couldn’t refuse now. Not without accepting that label.
We were going to fight.
Chapter Eighteen
Just as I expected, Johnathan walked to the center of the bar. The crowd was taunting him like mad. They had no idea who or what he was. To them, he was just a human acting too scared to take on a girl.
Not that I would have expected this crowd of degenerates to ever think that maybe a man his size shouldn’t fight a girl like me. If we were both human, this would be suicide.
But we weren’t human. The crowd didn’t know that. They just didn’t care. They wanted a fight and blood.
As he came around, he stripped off his shirt, revealing an impressively muscular torso. I found myself looking at it for a moment. It had never been his looks that I’d had an issue with. Johnathan was as attractive as they came.
Well over six feet tall, he had the thick, powerful build of a bodybuilder, compared to Mr. Unknown’s more lithe, athletic build. Both strong, but in different ways.
Now, why did I go and bring him into this?
“This is a dumb idea,” Johnathan said as he climbed into the cage with me, an enthusiastic fan slapping the gate closed behind him.
“You coming here was a dumb idea,” I shot back. “I told you I never wanted to see you again.”
“We’re Soulbound.” He said it like that explained everything.
