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Axel motions for Bradshaw to attack and Bradshaw does exactly that.
He lurches at Axel, the blade poised in his grasp. Axel dodges him at the last second and sends Bradshaw falling into the crowd. They shove him back into the center of the ring and scream obscenities and demands at him.
“Come on you fucking pansy!” some guy screams loud enough for me to make out above the rest of the noise.
Bradshaw runs at Axel, tackling him and causing everyone to yell even louder. Bradshaw pins Axel to the concrete and punches him in the face over and over again. He traps Axel's arms under the weight of his body and does not budge when Axel tries to buck him off of him.
“Fuck,” I whisper. If Axel doesn’t do something soon, Bradshaw is going to win this fight and we’re going to lose one hell of a soldier.
“When do they call it?” June doesn’t move her hand from mine but shifts her gaze slightly to glance at me before returning it to the match before us.
I bite at the inside of my lip, unsure of whether or not I’m ready to tell her this part just yet. The real reason why I thought this might satiate that hunger she’s been craving lately.
Bradshaw grips the knife firmly in his grasp and raises it dramatically in the air above Axel. With one hand around Axel’s throat, he readies himself to end this fight once and for all.
“He’s going to fucking kill him.” June digs her fingers further into my skin. What should be pain only floats through me as pleasure.
The crowd screams louder than ever—people angry over their wagers about to be lost, and people begging to win their bets.
But, just like everything else in this world, it’s not over until it’s over.
And when another weapon is tossed into the battle, Axel frantically scrambles to gain an inch and reach the lifeline he was given. He tries to buck Bradshaw in an attempt to advance even slightly toward his target. He drags his legs up, bending them at the knee and throwing his weight into moving the man pining him down.
Bradshaw laughs at Axel’s attempt but doesn’t quite realizewhyhe's doing it. He must assume Axel is just trying to get free, not latch onto the other knife tossed onto the battlefield. And when his cockiness finally gets the best of him, Axel digs deeper, his fingers ultimately wrapping around the handle of the blade.
Another smile forms across Axel’s face, and a split second later, he drives the knife into Bradshaw’s side, yanking it out and slamming it back in. Once, twice, three more times. Blood fucking splatters everywhere and Axel doesn’t let up, not even when Bradshaw falls off of him and stops moving. Axel continues to jab the sharp edge into his chest, making damn sure that Bradshaw can never recover.
It's not until three men from the crowd grab his shoulders and drag him from Bradshaw’s dead body does he finally stop.
“Holy shit,” June mutters. “That was…”
I hang on to that last word, dying a little myself waiting for whatever it is she’s about to say. The one word that will alert me to whether this was a mistake in bringing her here. The word that will tell me if I got this all wrong and I don’t actually know her after all.
But June doesn’t continue that sentence. She doesn’t say the single word that has the power of making or breaking this entire night. Instead, she turns toward me, a sort of glimmer in her eyes that wasn’t there before.
“Is there another fight?” She asks me.
A hopeful glimmer, that’s what it is.
“Two more, yeah.”
June grabs my shoulder, shaking it and then turning toward the crowd, her gaze expectantly waiting for things to start again. “I wish we could be out there.”
“Maybe another time, love.”
“Yeah, maybe.” June cracks open the bottle of water I gave her before the first battle to the death and takes a drink.
I settle onto the couch near the window, throwing my arm over the back of it. “You can sit while they clean up and prepare for the next one.”
June glances back and laughs. “I didn’t even notice the couch.”
“You were a bit preoccupied.”
She joins me but not as close as I’d prefer. Hell, she could have chosen my lap as a seat and it still wouldn’t be close enough.
“So like…” June turns toward me, pulling her leg up onto the couch and putting her arm over the back, too. “Are you dating anyone?”
This time it’s me that lets out a chuckle. “What?”
