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“Anything you say.” I responded, assuming that fighting stance.
He mirrored my stance, and the veneer of playfulness was put away as he scowled.
He fainted, lurching forward with a jab that he pulled back. I didn’t counter.
“Lover boy knows how to fight after all,” he chuckled, that cheerful grin coming back to his face. His jovial facade, the one I despised, was back and in full force. “I guess you’re not completely worthless.”
I did a one-two combo, just to test the water, and he dodged it with agility. So his bout with Rose hadn’t tired him out at all. Figures. He was fighting with an opponent with a hand tied behind her back. He had to have known she wouldn’t do anything to hurt him.
That was the kind of person she was. Loyal. Loving. And under all of her ferocity, she was actually tender. It sickened me to know that he was hurting her when she couldn’t do the same. When she wouldn’t. She looked up to him too much to fight dirty, the way he was pushing her to do.
“Please stop.” Rose’s voice was faint and soft, like the final note of a sonata.
Her pleas struck a heartstring, but I shook it off, willing the warmth rising up my spine to go away.
Brett noticed it. He cut a glance at Rose, then back at me. He shook his head.
“Pussy whipped,” he said under his breath.
He was goading me. If he was any kind of father, he should be delighted if the man she was screwing was enamored enough to fight for her. But he was playing a different game. One that Rose couldn’t see, because she was too close to him.
I did a combo-jab, hook, hook to his torso. He blocked one, but I connected my left hand to his ribs. He grunted before he managed to pull away from me.
He smiled, as if me landing a punch made him happy somehow.The sick fuck.
He jabbed at my face. I blocked it and countered with an uppercut to his exposed chest. He grunted, and we clinched, our arms pinching into each other, too close to fight. He brought his mouth close to my ear. I felt the sheer power of his arms as he pulled me in close.
“You’re not good enough for her,” he said, his voice low and menacing. He wanted to draw a response to distract me with doubt. “What kind of man fucks around with a woman twelve years younger than him?”
It wouldn’t work. I pushed him away, and tried for a punch that only grazed his cheek, and made no impact.
He didn’t retaliate, but continued to dance around me.
Jesus, he was holding back. What the hell was his game?
“Brett,” Rose’s voice cut through my thoughts. “Stop. Don’t hurt him.”
I scoffed. Did she really think this old man would take me down so easily? Did she have that little faith in me?Or maybe she was worried about me?
That last thought struck home, though it probably wasn’t the case. For two weeks, this woman had not reached out to me. Her eyes avoided me. She clung only to the man who stood with his fists, ready to break my face.
Tearing my thoughts from Rose was painful, as if I was tearing off my own limb. But I did it. When I got my head out of my ass, Brett was staring at me.
Then he did something completely unexpected. Though I should have known he would pull this shit. I had been playing by boxing rules. He had no such sense of fair play. Brett was a twat of the highest order.
He went for a leg sweep, pulling my legs taking me to the ground. I landed on my shoulder blades with a large thud, bouncing off the mat. He was there, pushing his way into my guard. He tried to punch down, but I had enough movement to sweep side to side to avoid his blows, which struck the mat.Boom! Smack!
He wasn’t holding back now. He was in this to kill me. We weren’t just having a little boxing match. We were here to draw blood.
After a few downward punches, he leaned over me. He broke every rule of MMA, sparring, of boxing, of any kind of regulated fight. He put his hand around my throat and started to choke me, and leaned down to growl in my ear. His eyes were glassy with euphoria. I knew that look. It was the killing look.
“When I walk her down the aisle,” he whispered, his voice was soft, yet menacing. I couldn’t help but lie still, holding my guard tight around his hips so that I had some avenue of escape. “She’ll be beautiful, in a white dress. And the man at the end of that aisle…?” I felt him leaning in, his hand growing tighter on my throat, cutting off my air. “Won’t be a weak son of a bitch like you.”
“Over my dead body,”I said through gritted teeth.
I thrashed. I didn’t know where I found the strength, but I laid my right leg down, and pushed off the mat with my left, keeping him pinned until I had him on a mount.
I wasn’t fighting to subdue or to establish our place in the pack. I wanted to see him bleed and break. I was ready to end this standoff once and for all, and I didn’t care if I had to bury him six feet under to do it. He had kept Rose from me for too long. It was time he knew that she was mine, and that I could take her whenever I wished.
