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“Come on, baby girl. You gotta keep up. It’s almost my turn.”
I grab at my side and move quickly, dodging incoming blows. “Dad, I have a bad feeling. Let’s just leave. We don’t need this. Right? We have plenty of money?” I keep my attention on the ring and raise my voice to be heard.
Acid Green keeps pummeling his fists into the other guy’s jaw, ribs and anything else within reach. Another man in a white tank top looking pissed enters the ring and it looks like a tag team scenario is happening.
So much for one on one.
I slow at the edge of the imaginary line. Men jostle me and I stumble forward only to be pushed back when the men in black shirts and pants throw an arm out.
“Hey! Keep out of the ring, lady.” A referee—for the lack of a better description—takes in my simple dress, lack of diamonds and fists of cash. Compared to the loaded women here, I imagine I come off as a broke college kid hanging out in the wrong place. “Hey, what the fuck are you doing in here?”
“She’s with me, Hank.”
Dad clamps a rough hand around my elbow and drags me to his side. He keeps walking the edge of the circle until he finds a patch where we can stand without getting elbowed in the ribs.
I turn my eyes back on the fight. The second man is already out cold on the basement floor. I release a few shuddering breaths. “This isn’t right. Isn’t anyone going to step in and call it done?” My breathing turns heavy and ragged. What the hell is this? I wrap my fingers around his forearm. “He’s going to kill him.” I jerk on my father’s arm. “Dad. You have to stop this.”
Dad takes his leather jacket off and hands it to me like this is just another regular Friday night and not his death. “Don’t worry about Animal. He’s only doing what he’s paid to do. Hold this.”
I force myself to calm down so I don't sound like a shrieking lunatic. “Are you even watching? That man is going to kill the other. He already flattened one guy.” The smaller man hunches over, holding his ribs, looking all but completely broken.
Dad hooks a hand on my chin and makes me look at him. “It’s part of the rules. Don’t act surprised. How did you think I got all the money to send you abroad for your studies?”
“I thought your boss paid you well. I didn’t know you did underground fighting.” Guilt burns through me. “Dad, I didn't know. Honest.”
He stops short of pulling his shirt over his head and cups my face with his hands instead. “Don’t look at me like I’ve made the worst decisions in my life or that you were ever taking anything from me. I promised your mom I would give you the best life I could. And that is what I’ve done. Now stop fussing.”
There’s a finality in his voice that has me wanting to run from this place and drag him with me. But that will not happen. No one makes my father do anything he doesn’t want to do.
There’s a moment of silence between us as the puzzle pieces fall into place in my mind. My voice is strangled when I force my dad to listen to me. “He’ll hurt you. There is something wrong with that man. You fight this Animal—is that his name?—he will not stop until there’s blood.”
Dad hands over his shirt and starts wrapping his hands. I see his lips moving with an answer, but the words fall between us and die under the weight of the booming cheers.
“You want more!” Animal works the crowd like a real showman but there’s nothing fake about his blood thirst.
He holds his bloodied hands out like a gladiator looking to please every single man and woman throwing money in his direction. My stomach churns. I don’t know why I can’t take my eyes off him. Murder lives in his eyes. Sin taints him down to the soul.
My face scrunches with disgust and my throat gets a revisit of the bean burrito I wolfed down for dinner on the way here.
“Kill! Kill! Kill!”
Numbness settles around my thumping heart and I stop feeling the weight of possibly losing the only person I love in this world. I can’t control him. I can’t control anything. I wish I could. But my dad does what he wants.
“Animal is a crazy son-of-a-bitch. He’s only doing what his boss wants. It’s what these fights are all about. I’m doing this for us.”
“You said nothing about these being death matches.” My tone is flat. “You left out the part where you can die tonight and you know it.” I wrap my hands around his bicep. “We can leave right now. Your boss isn’t here and no one will know. We can disappear.” I can be numb, but that doesn’t mean I have to stop trying to make him see reason.
“They aren’t death matches if you don’t die. I’ve done enough of these. I’m not scared of Animal. He’s all show. They pitted him against the smallest, inexperienced fighter. Anyone can beat Manny.”
Hearing any of that makes me feel better.
“You’re up next, Kincaid. Won’t be long.”
Behind an uncaring Hank, I see Animal finishing the fight. It’s too late to save him, but I have to stop my foolish father.
Fire rises in my veins to melt the ice forming over my heart. My vision turns red and I finally feel the heat of a hundred suns burn me from the inside. Adrenaline pours into my system and for several seconds I can't do anything but look at my dad in utter shock.
“This has to stop. What will it take to get you to not do this?”
