Page 52 of Wanting the Fight

Several minutes later, footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs. My pulse raced and I turned my attention to the door. Caden stood next to my chair, too close. It was as if he wanted to goad Ethan.

When the door opened, a guy in black came in, and then right behind him was Ethan. The second they removed his blindfold and he saw me, I jumped to my feet and he pushed past the guy in black, only to be stopped by Caden stepping in front of me.

“Calm the fuck down,” Caden warned. “She’s okay.”

Ethan’s jaw tensed and I knew he would fight through them all to get to me. I didn’t want him risking anything, not when I had no clue what their plans were for him.

Ethan faced off with Caden, his teeth clenched hard. “Get. Out. Of. My. Way.”

I’d never seen him look so lethal, so dangerous. It brought shivers to my entire body.

“Ethan, don’t,” I warned.

“No, it’s okay,” Martin said. “Caden, back off. There’s no harm in letting them be together. I mean, it’s not as if he can do anything about the situation.”

Caden glared back at Martin and then moved out of the way. I wasted no time running into Ethan’s arms. He held me tight, and I didn’t want to let go.

“Are you okay?” I whispered.

“I’m fine. I’m more worried about you. Did anything happen?”

I knew what he was referring to. “No, I’m good.”

“Shall we get down to business?” Martin asked. “You do want to know why you’re here, right?” Ethan let me go, but I stayed right next to him. Martin flourished a hand toward the window. “Come take a look.” His evil grin widened. “Peyton, you might recognize some things.”

I held onto Ethan’s arm as we walked toward the window. When I peered down, I felt a spine-tingling chill run down my back. “Oh, my God.”

“What is it?” Ethan questioned. It wasn’t all the same, but I nodded toward the fighting cage surrounded by a barbed wire fence. The room looked almost like the one in the Dark Side video, except this one was a much larger space.

“It’s a replica of the Dark Side,” I said.

Ethan growled low. “They’re going to want me to fight.”

Martin came up next to me, beaming as he watched all the young men working out on the equipment in the corner. “Ding, ding, ding. You are correct, Mr. Jameson.”

I wasn’t stupid to think otherwise. The second I saw the fighting ring, I knew that had to be the plan. Martin faced us, leaning against the window as he stared at Ethan.

“Peyton’s already had the privilege of watching parts of the original Dark Side movie,” Martin explained. “Peyton, dear, do you want to tell him about it?”

I tried not to think about the gory parts, but it was hard to erase them from my mind. I looked up at Ethan and then down to the fighting ring. “The star of the show was my mother. I saw her fights with the men she faced off with and all the incidences with Rage.”

“What else did you see?” Martin pressed.

Tearing my eyes away from the ring, I focused back on Ethan. He knew what my dad had done in the past, so I wasn’t worried about his reaction. “I saw my dad fight and all the people he killed.” Ethan nodded in understanding and didn’t say a word. He draped his arm over my shoulders, pulling me into him.

Martin moved away from the window and crossed his arms over his chest. “And this brings me to my proposal,” Martin announced. “I want to remake the movie, change it up a bit.”

“I never saw the ending,” I challenged.

He shrugged. “Neither did I, but I’ve heard of it. Things had gotten a little crazy when Rage had your mother kidnapped. In the end, your father and the cops found them at an abandoned house. When Rage tried to leave with Gabriella, he was stopped and Paxton jerked him out of the car, smashing his brains all over the road. I would’ve loved to have gotten it on film, but I wasn’t about to risk getting caught.”

I knew my dad had killed Rage, but it was sickening hearing the way Martin told the story. I could see the blood thirst in his eyes.

Martin’s gaze narrowed curiously at me. “Surely, Gabriella told you what truly happened?” The disappointment was evident on his face when I shook my head.

“No. I think my parents wanted to protect me from the truth.”

He huffed. “That’s unfortunate. Looks like we’ll have to come up with our own version. I was hoping to get some better insight from you.”

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