Page 36 of The Fighter

The room slowed down. The sound dimmed. I turned my head, not wanting to look but knowing I had to, knowing I needed to confirm what had to be my worst nightmare.

Husk—my Tav—strode across the warehouse floor on the way to the ring. He wasn’t bouncing on his feet like the other guy or pounding his fists. His head wasn’t bowed. He stared straight ahead, his expression perfectly blank. But I knew that face, I’d touched it with my fingers. I knew how his eyes sparkled when he was happy, how his jaw worked when he chewed food he’d made with his own hands, how his dimples showed when he laughed. I’d felt that ass shift under my palms. I’d beeninsideof him.

And now he was about to enter the ring with some fucking huge man namedShock. And then, the world hit unmute, andsuddenly everything came back into sharp focus like a slap. I registered the eager face of the woman at my side and the bloodlust of the crowd. I was going to be sick.

“I’ve only seen Husk fight once.” The woman was still chatting, and I wanted to throttle her. “Maybe two years ago. He’s out of it. Just fights with that dead-eyed look on his face, drops his opponents like flies, and then leaves.”

Tav wasn’t dead eyed around me. Well, maybe he’d been when I first met him, but this was the man who ate grapes from my fingers, who cooked me omelets in my kitchen. And I was supposed to watch himfight?

I had to get away from this woman. I gripped Ben’s arm and steered him closer to the ring. He frowned at me. “What’re you doing?”

Ben didn’t know. He hadn’t heard the woman, and we were two far away to see Tav’s eyes. I licked my dry lips. “It’s him.”

“What?” He glanced around us. “Who?”

I turned and gritted out through a throat that felt shredded. “Husk. He’sHusk.”

It was hard to shock Ben, but I’d succeeded. His eyes went impossibly wide as we came to a stop a few rows back from the ring, and his chest heaved as he stared at Tav. His hand gripped my arm, tight, so tight that I felt the bones grind. And for the first time in a very long time, I saw real worry in his eyes as they met mine. “This is bad, Conrad. This isreally fucking bad.”

I didn’t need him to tell me that. Tav wasn’t some shmuck indebted to Devlin. He wasn’t a low-level grunt. He was one of his prized fighters, undefeated, so popular that he had a whole nickname and an entire crowd behind him.

He was in the center of the ring now, a ref standing between him and Shock. He looked relaxed, but I knew what Tav really felt like at rest, and this wasn’t it. That energy was right below the surface, ready to strike, just like when he’d been in mykitchen with that knife ready to throw down against Nik. But that was all a costume, something he donned to survive. I believed that to the depths of my soul. The real Tav just wanted to cook good food and take my cock. The real Tav liked peace. He deserved more than just survival.

He wore a pair of black compression shorts, black tape on his hands, and something red was tied around his left bicep. More jostling brought us even closer to the ring, until I had nearly a front row seat to watch the man I craved get pummeled in the face. Ben kept a tight grip on my elbow, and that was the only thing that anchored me in place, that kept me from running into the ring and snatching Tav away from this nightmare.

Tav didn’t look at the crowd. He didn’t seem to acknowledge much around him as the crowd surged and shouted in waves. He faced his opponent with dead eyes and a tightly coiled body.

The ref made some sort of guttural sound and then stepped away swiftly as the two fighters went into a boxing stance, taped hands in front of their faces in loose fists. I didn’t want to watch this, and yet I couldn’t look away. That felt like I was leaving Tav alone to fight for himself. No, I’d stay here, and I’d watch as if my presence alone could get Tav through this.

Shock got the first hit, a kick with his left leg to Tav’s right thigh. Tav moved away quickly and immediately went in for a punch, catching Shock on the cheekbone, then another punch in the gut. Shock wiped his face, and the light-colored tape showed blood. The crowd roared, loving the sight of it, the blood-thirsty motherfuckers.

Tav didn’t take his eyes off Shock, like he didn’t even realize the crowd existed. He was focused solely on the fight. They traded punches and kicks. At one point Tav got Shock on the floor, and then the ref blew a whistle to end a round.

I leaned toward Ben. “Do you know how many rounds?”

Ben’s jaw was tight. “I’m going to assume however many it takes.”

However many it takes until what?

By the fifth round, both men were showing signs of fatigue. Sweat dripped from Tav’s soaked hair into his face. I didn’t know much about fighting, but I knew Tav’s body. I knew the way he walked. He was favoring his right leg a little, which Shock seemed to love kicking the shit out of. I wanted to rip off Shock’s left leg and beat him with it.

Tav’s body seemed carved from stone, every muscle standing out. He was bleeding from a cut above his eye, and his lip was split. Tav got in a hit to Shock’s temple and the man returned the pain with a sharp punch to Tav’s mid-section. I couldn’t tell who went down first, whether Tav’s legs gave out or Shock stumbled, but they both crashed to the ground with a thud I could feel in my spine. Shock on top, straddling Tav—those hipsI’dheld—his elbows swinging as he beat either side of Tav’s head. Tav protected his face as best as he could, but the punches just kept raining down on that face I saw every night in my dreams. The ref stood by, arms crossed over his chest while the crowd roared.

My blood boiled, and all my nerves itched under my skin like ants. My brain fired off signals to my muscles that this was an emergency. Fight or flight. But I couldn’t do anything despite every instinct hounding at me to jump into the ring and claw out the eyes of this fucking guy.

Shock’s arms were still swinging, Tav’s body rocked with the blows. Blood splattered the dirty floor of the ring.

I fisted my hands at my sides and screamed, “Get. Up!”

He couldn’t have heard me, there was no way. The crowd was raucous, and Tav was covering his ears, but in the next instant, Tav reversed their positions. Somehow, someway,hewas now straddling Shock. Tav’s skin was red and mottled, and I couldn’t imagine the bruises he had, but he held Shock’s face in thoseblack-taped hands, and he slammed it onto the ring floor, his teeth bared like an animal. There was a sound, somewhere, and it took me awhile to register it was Tav. He was screaming.

The ref jumped between the men and all hell broke loose. Some guys in Shock’s corner rushed at Tav, yelling in his face. He stumbled to his feet, body swaying until he nearly crashed back down. He ignored them as toppled from the ring and began to push through the crowd to get back to where he’d come from. Suddenly an older man appeared in front of him and although he barely came up to Tav’s chest, he stood in front of him protectively and hollered at the crowd to get back, to make way.

But no one was listening or moving. They were shouting at Tav. Someone pushed him, which nearly took him off his feet after the beating he’d taken. And then a man spit in his face.

I was moving before I registered what I was doing. Ben called my name and then let out a curse, but I ignored him. I didn’t know what my face looked like, but it must have been something, because no one stopped me as I sliced through the crowd like a knife. They parted the way until I made it to Tav’s side. I picked up his left arm and slung it around my shoulders. His head hung down, hair dripping with sweat and blood, and he didn’t even look up as he stumbled at my side. He was so vulnerable now that he didn’t even care to see who was touching him. I pushed through, snarling at everyone, telling them to get back, to make way for the fighter who’d been their entertainment for one night in their sorry, miserable lives.

I wore an expensive suit. My knuckles were decorated with heavy rings, and a Rolex flashed on my wrist. I had money and looked it, and it was amazing what a difference that made to this crowd who parted the sea to let us through. The older man led us through a set of doors into a small supply room. There was a duffel bag in the corner and a roll of black tape on a table. Thiswas likely where Tav had gotten ready for the fight. The sound of the crowd dimmed as the doors shut behind us.