“It’s not about winning,” she screams like our freeway confrontation isn’t being live-streamed on Facebook by the dickheads causing the bumper-to-bumper traffic creeping past us to back up further than needed. “The underground fight circuit he runs isalwaysheld on a Friday. Tomorrow is Saturday.”
Oh fuck.
“Exactly,” Demi says on a sob. “He doesn’t want you to fight in the normal circuit, Maddox. He wants you in the… the…”
She can’t finalize her sentence, and neither the fuck can I.
The brutality that comes with boxing has never bothered me. You show up, fight, and the stronger competitor leaves victorious. From what Agent Moses told me, that doesn’t happen in Col’s new monthly circuit. If you don’t win, you don’t leave the ring breathing.
Although I’m cocky about my winning streak, nobody wants to be undefeated in a syndicate that ranks victories by how many men you kill. I’m not a killer. I’m just a man who wants to do a bit of good for his community.
“That’s why you need to go home, Maddox,” Demi says when she reads the horrified expression on my face. “You don’t want to do this anymore than I don’t want you to do it.”
I want to tell her she doesn’t know me well enough to know what I’m thinking, but since that would be a lie, I go a different route. “How bad will your punishment be if I don’t show up?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she replies while shooing away my concern as if it’s inconsequential.
“It doesmatter.Youfuckin’ matter, Demi.”
Who knew four little words could break someone’s heart? She’s as brave as a soldier on the front line and ten times prettier, but it takes everything she has not to let the tears in her eyes spill from my comment, even more so when she asks, “Do I matter more than your family, Maddox? Am I more important than them?”
I don’t know how to answer her question, so I don’t.
My lack of reply doesn’t harness Demi’s campaign. If anything, it doubles her determination. “That’s why you need to walk away. This isn’t just about you and me. He will drag your entire family into this mess.” When her voice cracks during the last half of her statement, she grits her teeth before heading toward the stream of traffic to hail a taxi.
“You can’t take a taxi home, Demi, and act as if what just happened didn’t.”
“Why not, Maddox?” she screams after whipping back around. “Why can’t I look out for myself for a change? Why can’t I put myself first?”
“Because that isn’t who you are! You’re not him, Demi.” I point in the direction her uncle’s car just traveled. “You’re not a selfish prick.” I’m a fucking asshole for using her fears against her, but if it’s the only way I can get her to see sense through the madness, so fucking be it. I’ll accept the label and wear it with pride. “What do you think Sloane will do when you turn up looking like that? She saw you get into your uncle’s car. She and Saint were standing outside the restaurant. The only reason she stopped ordering for Saint to follow you was because I promised I would.”
That isn’t a total lie. Sloane and Saint did witness her getting into her uncle’s Audi, they just assumed it was an Uber I hired for her. I followed her because the knot in my gut wouldn’t stop twisting until I caught up with Col’s Audi. Now I’m so fucking glad I trusted my intuition.
I might have found her in a ditch if I hadn’t gone off-script.
Agent Moses wanted me to step back and see how things played out. I told him to shove the badge he keeps promising me up his ass before I hot-footed it to my bike.
“Sloane is probably blowing up your cell now. Who knows what else she’ll blow up when she sees what he did to your face?”
I want to start a war. Sloane’s family has the capital to fund one.
Demi curses under her breath. “He has my cell.” She twists to face the traffic. “My uncle has my cell phone.” When she fails to locate his Audi, she rejoins me in the emergency lane. “Where’s your phone? I need to borrow your phone.”
She snatches my phone out of my hand when I dig it out of my pocket. Although she immediately logs into my phone app, it takes her a few seconds to dial a number she must know by heart. She could blame a technology-dependent world for her slow response time. I’m placing the burden on the frantic throb of the vein in her neck. She’s aching all over, and the knowledge has me struggling not to track down Col Petretti to wring his fucking neck.
“Sloane… hey.” Demi stops, peers up at me, then nods. “Yeah, he found me.” She licks her lips before lowering her eyes to my midsection. “Things got a little heated on the side of the freeway.”
Don’t misconstrue her words. She isn’t confessing to neither her physical altercation with her uncle nor our verbal one. She’s making it seem as if we’re about to get down and dirty.
“I was thinking about taking things back to our apartment. You were right, this has been years in the making, so why not scratch it off my list?” In between the screeches bellowing down the line, Sloane must alter Demi’s plan of attack. “Oh… you’re heading back there now? C-can you not go to Saint’s house tonight?” Her eyes snap to my lips when they curve into a grin from her verifying, “He still lives with his parents? Oh, okay… umm…”
Some of the fear in her eyes shifts to pleading when I remove my phone from her ear and squash it to mine. Sloane stops rambling about how it’s fine Saint hasn’t cut the apron strings yet when I say, “It’s okay, you guys continue on course. I’ll take Demi back to my place.”
“You don’t live with your parents?” Sloane doesn’t wait for me to answer her. She directs her focus to my brother, who I can’t see but can imagine him wringing the steering wheel when she asks, “Maddox is younger than you, so why are you the only sibling still living at home?”
I miss Saint’s reply since I pull my phone down from my ear before hitting the disconnect button. “Then, I guess it’s sorted. You’re staying at mine for the night.”
While acting as if the pulsating of my veins is adrenaline instead of the desire to kill, I head for my bike, punching out a quick message on my way. I technically live out of home, but it isn’texactlyhow I implied when I told Sloane Demi can stay with me.
