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His back slides down the boulder as his feet push out the pebbles making a deep groove for him to sit in. The cocksureness that he always seems to present is no longer there. Stolen by death, grief and pain. His tall frame folds in on itself as he draws his legs up and wraps his thick, muscular arms around them.
“Two years ago, my sister met Ford. She fell in love with him. Spent every moment she could with him. Their relationship was intense.Hewas intense. But I never doubted that he cared for her. I honestly thought he loved her as much as I did… I’d believed that, and I trusted him to look out for her. To look out forme.”
Oh, God. Were they friends once? It makes sense, the kind of familiarity they have, the kind of deep-rooted hate that can only be born through a history of betrayal and hurt.
“He took her to meet hisfamily. The cage fighters of Grim Fight Club. He wanted her to understand who he was, and I fucking let her go even though Iknewit was a dangerous place. Ford wanted Sapphire to see how strong he was. How he could protect her from anything and anyone. She’d believed him.I’dbelieved him. But we were all just stupid kids; fifteen-year-olds who thought we knew how to survive in a grown-up world. I should’ve trusted my gut, Asia. Instead I went along for the ride, trusting in my friend. I walked into the lion’s den with my sister, believing that nothing could touch us.” Camden bashes his head back against the rock, his face screwed up in pain and an all-encompassing guilt.
“What happened to her?”
“That night Ford fought against a rival from another club. He lost, but heshould’vewon. Everyone knew Ford was the better fighter even at only fifteen. He wasn’t as built as some of them, or even as strong, but he’d always had this weird fucking ability to see a rival’s weaknesses and exploit them. As unbelievable as it sounds, Asia, if he fought hewon. There’s a streak of unbreakable steel within him. It doesn’t bend, and it never breaks.Never…”
“Go on,” I whisper, needing to hear the rest of the story. Needing to understand.
“His boss, the owner of the club, knew that he’d win the fight. So did every single person attending that night. They all backed him to win, even the owner of the other rival club who was there with his people. Everyone except Grim.”
Grim?
Camden stops and as he draws in a shaky breath, he turns to look at his sister painted on the rock next to him, then hangs his head. “Fuck,” he mutters.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to say anymore…” I placate, suddenly not wanting to know what happened. A feeling of dread creeps up my spine at the thought that Ford is somehow responsible for Sapphire’s death.
“I do. You need to hear this,” Camden insists. “After one particular bloody round where Ford’s opponent was almost on his knees, my sister managed to get to Ford at the ringside. She didn’t like what she saw. She didn’t like the complete void that was Ford when he fought. The lack of emotion, the lack ofanythinghuman. She begged him to stop. She told him that she couldn’t stand to see this side of him. She hated it…” He draws in a shaky breath then blows it out again, staring at me.
“What happened?”
“Ford threw the fight. Helost. Every single person there, including the rival club owner, lost their money. Ford dropped his guard on purpose knowing his opponent would get a punch in that would knock him out cold. The second his opponent was announced the winner, all hell broke loose. People saw that it was a fix, and they wanted their money back. My sister and I were caught up in the chaos. She was stabbed in the gut trying to get out of the way of two men fighting, whilst Ford was oblivious. I couldn’t get to her in time. I wasn’t fast enough to reach her. I saw the knife slide into her in slow fucking motion and have wished every day since that it was me who was stabbed. It should’ve been me… She died in my arms, her fucking blood leaking through my hands. I couldn’t save her.” He chokes on the words, his head hanging.
My hand flies to my mouth, smothering the apology. “I’m so sorry, Camden. I’m so, so sorry,” I mumble.
“So you see, heisresponsible for her death. He may have taught you to fight, Asia, but there is a coldness within him. A core of steel that’s unyielding. He proved it that night. He isn’t what you think,” he says with conviction, his eyes welling with unshed tears.
My head spins with the revelation, but all I can think of is how Ford has been with me. How he’d looked after me, supported me these past few months. He doesn’t do anything without intent. So, if he loved Sapphire as Camden had thought, of course he would throw the fight. She asked him to, so he did. It wasn’t his fault. He couldn’t have known what would’ve happened.
“But if Ford was so callous, so cruel and unbending, he wouldn’t have thrown the fight for your sister, right? He did what she asked, you can’t blame him for what happened afterward. I’m sorry for what happened to your sister, I am. But Ford isn’t this cold-hearted person you speak off.”
Camden barks out a painful laugh that somehow seems to lacerate my heart with the grief I hear in it.
“You’re a fool, Asia. Ford didn’t throw the fight for Sapphire. He threw the fight for Grim.”
“Who’s Grim?”
“Grim is the owner of the Fight Club. She’s Ford’s older sister, his half-sister. Same mum, different dad. Grim’s father took her from their mother when she was a baby. Brought her up himself.”
“Hissister? What the fuck?” He never mentioned he had a sister. Why tell me everything he did and not mention that?
“Grim knew everyone had bet on Ford to win. If he lost, she stood to gain a hell of a lot of money. Ford knew shit would go down if he lost the fight, but he did it anyway. So you see, Asia, he threw the fight forGrim,formoney.He sure as fuck didn’t do it for my sister.”
