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“What does this mean? Why does he want me to throw the fight?”
“I don’t know! All I heard him say was that he wanted the songbird. I assumed he wanted her for himself, like me.”
Sakkar pulled me to the side. “Think about it. If he has her, and if he’s able to hurt your nightly exhibitions, he tried to get at the club. We knew there would be angry competition.”
“This angry?” I didn’t want to believe it, but Serena was gone, and the note lingered in my fingers. I had all the proof I needed. “Erznet. Do you think Laxon will make good on his promise? Do you think he’d hurt her unless I threw the fight?”
Erznet didn’t speak at first. He trembled slightly and shook his head. “Laxon is a massive hot-headed Fanaith. He’s ruthless. If I were you, I would do whatever he told me to.”
I paced around Erznet’s cell wanting to go to Laxon’s club and bust the doors down, but what good would that do? I had to assume that if he went to the effort he made to kidnap her, then it was likely he wasn’t bluffing about hurting her.
I had to face the fact that Laxon had me at a disadvantage. I racked my brain for an answer, a way to save her without throwing the competition.
“Fucking Laxon,” I shouted to nothing, swinging at the air. The very idea that he had his hands on my woman made me hotter than hell.
Something had to be done. But Laxon made it clear he had the upper hand. The only thing for it was to throw the championship.
I wandered outside the cell, ready to throw my rage around the room. It was impossible, what he asked. I had enough fury in me to murder ten men, to say nothing of the fuck who took my girl.
How the hell was I supposed to stand in the ring with this guy and not tear his throat out?
Sakkar met me outside and placed a hand on my shoulder to help cool my nerves.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said.
I nodded in agreement.
“There has to be another way. Throwing the match would just add to our problems down the line.”
“Exactly.” It was exactly what I thought, too. Throwing the match would only inform our enemies of the easiest ways to tear us down. It would start with Serena, but mine wasn’t the only human woman in the Vinduthi mafia.
No, we had to serve these fucks with the truth. Fuck with our women, and you’re asking for it.
“There has to be a way to save her without sacrificing the championship fight.”
He was right. There had to be a solution. And I had only hours to find it.
JALIK
Sakkar and I paced the floor until the only option became clear. We had to take what we knew to Draven and see if there was something we missed.
Without Serena, there was something I was missing. But if I didn’t plan this right, Laxon would take it all.
Each step to Draven’s office dug the point deeper in my brain. The utter unfairness of it dug the most. Everything I worked for, and everything I wanted, all twisted in the same fate. The bitter truth of the situation forced me to reckon with a thought I didn’t want to face until then.
They found it. My tell, my weakness.
I knew it was only a matter of time, but the surprise I didn’t see coming was how quickly she came in and changed everything for me. This Fanaith threatened to take away everything that, until then, I didn’t know I wanted.
Thinking about Serena locked in his cell, or the room, or whatever dark desolate place he had her, my thoughts turned homicidal.
Sakkar saw my face, and we pressed the elevator button.
“We’ll get her back,” he said as we stepped inside. He seemed so sure of it. So convinced.
“This Laxon asks a heavy price.” I was less so.
“And one we can’t pay.” I heard the tension in his voice. I knew he wasn’t thinking about me but about his mate, Elara. “I’m not about to let this scum think they can steal our women every time they want to settle some petty score.”
