Page 149 of Spark

They bantered back and forth for a while, Darren blocking and countering strikes efficiently to the point where I was honestly impressed with his speed and technique. Brian was good and held his own for a while, but he was sloppy compared to Darren. Brian was already winded and visibly tired while Darren was light on his feet and clearly had great control of himself and the fight.

“What’s the point of this? So Darren can get his rocks off?”

Clive scoffed.

“Every now and then we all need to be reminded of what happens when you betray the hand that feeds you. Brian stole a shipment from Mr. Davis and sold it to someone else, claiming an adversary had stolen it. He’d also been selling classified information to our rivals. We found out, and now, Brian has to pay.”

“So why not just kill him? Why is there a need to fight him?”

“Mr. Davis allows all his traitors a chance at redemption. If they fight him and win, then they can go free without consequence. He will respect anyone who can best him, and if they can, he would no longer be fit to lead. But no one has ever beaten him.”

“Clearly,” I replied as I watched Darren block a kick from Brian and counter with an elbow to his face.

All hell really broke loose when Darren knocked Brian to the floor with a perfect hit to the nose. Blood poured from Brian’s face as he hit the floor, and Darren did not hesitate to finish him off.

It wasn’t the first time I’d seen a fight like this. I’d witnessed plenty of bar fights, finished a few myself, but something with this type of fight was far different. In a bar fight, you typically weren’t trying to kill the other person. Not really. But here, with Darren, his brutality was a clear indication of his intent to not only kill his opponent but also to destroy him.

The sound of facial bones breaking under his fists was enough to make me cringe. More cheers echoed while over and over, Darren plunged his fists into Brian’s face until it was nothing but mush, blood covering Darren’s hands until not an inch of his skin was clean. The men were eating this up as if they loved it. Apparently, they hated traitors just as much as Darren did. Yet Brian was still alive.

He laid there, motionless and barely breathing, but I could still see small movements from his chest even as Darren stood over him. But Darren was clearly not finished.

“Knife,” he said calmly, holding out his bloody open palm.

I felt my stomach immediately twist in two.

“Why does he need a knife…” I asked quietly.

“Watch,” Owen said.

I felt myself inching backward, but the wall behind me in the form of Clive prevented my retreat.

Scott handed Darren a long hunting knife, the serrated steel glinting off the flood lights of the ceiling, and I felt my hands ball into fists. This was not going to be good.

I didn’t know why I cared, though. This man had worked for Darren, had been a part of the evil of his empire, so why I cared what happened to him didn’t make sense to me. Maybe it was just because I didn’t want to see the bloodshed. Maybe I wasn’t ready for the brutality of Darren’s world. But I obviously didn’t have a choice in that as I felt I was being tossed into the deep end of this darkness.

Before I could even register what happened, Darren had plunged the knife into Brian’s chest. Brian’s screams became a clear indication that he was, in fact, still alive, and it only got worse as I watched Darren drag the knife further down his chest and across his stomach, completely slicing him open.

Blood pooled everywhere, and a sickening dizzy feeling overcame me as I watched Darren carve more and more of Brian away, cutting out his intestines and spilling them onto the cement floor. Brian’s screams were so loud I had to cover my ears as I fought not to retch. What made it even worse was the obvious enjoyment on Darren’s face as Brian’s blood coated him.

When the show was basically over, I felt my back hit the stone wall behind me and slid down, my legs no longer able to hold my weight up. I felt sick, my body shaking with fear as I watched Darren beat the shit out of someone and then gut them alive. I could fucking see Brian’s guts protruding from the gashes Darren had made in him. My heart was racing erratically, and my breathing was becoming short. I’d never witness anything so fucking gruesome in my life.

As the cheers died down, Darren stood over his opposition, blood soaking his clothing and covering his hands and face. I barely recognized the monster that stood before me, and it terrified me further as he took the necessary steps to advance toward me. I inched even further into the wall in a stupid attempt to back away from him, but there was nowhere else to go. My hands moved to cover my mouth, my lips curling in on themselves while I forced myself to hold back the tears that threatened to fall.

I was fucking shaking with terror.

Darren crouched low in front of me, his eyes intense with calming rage as he looked at me. This was the result of betrayal. This blood-soaked demon before me. And I never wanted to fucking see it again.

“Do you understand now what happens to those who betray my trust?” he asked me, his voice calm and low.

I nodded my head, unable to finds the words to answer him.

“Good girl. Now, you’re going to crawl into my arms, and you’re not going to let go until I tell you to, understand?”

I nodded again automatically, even though I wanted to be as far away from him as humanly possible.

Darren stretched his arms out to me, waiting for me to comply with his order. And like the fear-stricken fool I was, I did just that. Biting my lower lip, I crouched forward onto my hands and knees before tentatively wrapping my arms around his neck and pressing myself into his blood-soaked chest. Soft panicked cries left my mouth as I felt the blood seep into my torn dress, coating me in Darren’s cruelty.

He wrapped his arms around my body protectively, pressing me tightly against him while he lifted us from the floor. I couldn’t have clutched him tighter. I didn’t understand it, but the tighter I held onto him, the more he would know I wanted him to shield me from what I just saw. Even though I knew he was the one responsible, the one who caused the anxiety flowing through my limbs, he was also the one who could easily take it all away. In one singular moment, he could effortlessly switch from my tormentor to my savior, and right now, I desperately wanted my savior, and I needed him to know that.

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