Chapter 10 #3
She needs to get out of here. She needs a doctor. Looking around, I don’t see anyone coming forward to argue with me for voiding her fight. Did she come with no backup? Fuck.
I waste no more time and pick her up as gently as I can without hurting her further.
People are yelling, complaining about the fight, screaming that the fight’s been rigged and demanding their money back. Stupid people think I have their money instead of the bookie they gave it to. I shove through the crowd, holding Roxie in my arms.
I’m getting her out of here no matter what.
“Get the fuck out of my way!” My voice booms as I yell at the people in front of me. “Fuck off!”
Most people jump out of my way, but there’s always one drunk asshole who thinks he’s more top shit than he actually is.
“You stopped the fight! She wasn’t out yet and so you fucked up my bet! Give me my money back!” he slurs. The stench of sweat and whiskey coming from him is nearly overpowering and he’s a good six inches from me.
“Move,” I snap, but he just sways on his feet and shakes his head.
“Give. Me. My. Money, you fucker!”
I don’t have time for this.
I sigh, shifting Roxie so she’s draped over my shoulder, and punch him square in the face, knocking him to the ground.
He doesn’t move, I doubt he will for a while with all the fucking liquor in his system.
Gasps and outcries of anger sound off around me, but my only goal is to get my girl out of here.
The crowd is turning and I don’t have any reliable back-up.
Mario is standing on the outskirts of the crowd, and he shakes his head when he sees me.
“No, brother, no,” Mario says, holding his hands up. “You said we’d make enough tonight and-”
“I don’t care what I said, Mario! Help me,” I snap, moving past him towards the entrance.
“Why are you doing this, brother? You’re supposed to be helping me, not some random bitch.
” I hear Mario yell in Spanish after me, and hearing him call Roxie a bitch sets off a rage I didn’t quite know I had for my brother.
I have to ignore him now. I could care less about his debts that he’s just using me to clear.
“Shut your mouth before I shut it for you!” I growl at him. My shoulder starts to ache and I know this position can’t be good for her. Roxie’s not heavy by any means, but it’s a little worrisome that she hasn’t come to yet.
“Come on!” Mario says, picking up the pace to get out. I can see why. There’s people walking towards us. Angry, burly, ‘I’m-gonna-kill-you-for-this’, kind of people come stomping towards us.
I start to run, holding Roxie’s legs closer to my body to try and keep the aggressive bobbing to a minimum.
Into the tunnel, the flickering lights guide our way out of there, and behind us are the angry mutterings of people who think they’ve been wronged.
“You better bring her back here and give us our money!” one guy behind us yells, while his buddy chuckles menacingly.
“Or give us the girl and we’ll take what we’re owed.”
I’m going to kill him.
“Don’t listen to them, keep going,” Mario mutters.
“Come on, you white knight wannabe!” The same fucker that threatened them cries out. “You can’t keep her for yourself, you selfish fuck!”
I grit my teeth and hold my breath to keep from responding.
The moment I step fully outside the entrance, I hide Roxie behind the biggest boulder close by.
She’s passed out, but I say it anyway in case she can hear me, “Stay quiet, do not come out, no matter what you hear. I’ll be there as soon as I can to help.” The doors slam open behind us, so loud that the hinges squeak.
I have to keep these fuckers from her.
By whatever means necessary.
Stepping closer to the one broken light by the bunker door, I put my hands into my pockets.
“You dumb-asses looking for me?” I shrug nonchalantly and move to rest my hip against the rock beside me. The one right in front of the one hiding Roxie.
“The fighter you had in your hands owes us. One way or another,” he says with a sickening grin. “I wouldn’t mind having some one-on-one time and having her earn the money back that way.” He laughs and my face scrunches up in disgust.
What a sick fuck. And then, like he’s parting the evil fucking sea of dickbags, a blast from the past comes steps out. Mickey.
“That’s my fighter, Ty. I think you should be giving her back to me. That bitch is mine, if you want her we can work something out, but you fucking ruined my night,” he says like a Bond villain, standing with his hands in his pockets.
“Why don’t you fuck right off,” I growl, popping my knuckles in front of me and pulling my bag from my body. Setting it at my feet, I set up, showing them I’m willing to fight.
“There are three of us out here. The odds aren’t so good for you, boy.” The older one cracks a smile with one of his front teeth black with rot.
He steps forward, throwing out a jab with power but no finesse behind it and he’s slow as hell. I feel like I’m in a cartoon where I can sit there for hours, watching his fist fly by my face after I’ve already dodged the blow.
I grab his extended arm, sighing, and twist it easily so his shoulder is hyperextended and he has to bend forward to keep from dislocating it.
“You were saying?” I growl. “Oh, that’s right. You were saying that you were going to hurt my girl.” I twist his shoulder more, the fat-covered muscle straining under my fingers. He was going to hurt her.
No.
I twist his arm more until the joint pops and he screams in pain. Throwing him to the ground like the piece of trash he is, I feel much, much better seeing him wraith in agony. The screams are pathetic, cowardly.
His mouth wrote a check he couldn’t cash.
“And you?” I point to the other fucker, the one who hasn’t said anything, but was more than happy to follow along with asshole number one over there.
He holds his hands up just as the lights from a car flash him in the eyes. He squints before closing them and looking away. Dumbass.
Using his temporary blindness against him, I jab and hit him square in the nose. Blood squirts from his face and he falls back, catching himself on his back foot.
He glares at me with pain, shock, anger. I turn my head to the side and watch movement out of the corner of my eye. Mario’s helping Roxie walk over to the car. She’s wobbly on her feet and that in and of itself is worrisome.
That scrawny fucker must have really got her good.
I’ll kill him.
I need to finish this. I can see her swaying even with help and that’s fucking scary.
“Get the fuck out of my sight,” I growl and watch as the bloody coward helps the cocky asshole up and they limp away. Mickey steps back, eyes cruel and calculating.
How fucking typical of Mickey Frank. Always wants violence and pain, but is never willing to fight for what he wants. Just makes other people do his dirty work.
“You’ll pay for this, Ty. Don’t think you won’t. Even if it’s not you that hurts.”
Mickey might be an asshole, but he’s smart so when he threatens something, he means it. Nodding to me with a sinister smile on his face, he turns on his heel and goes back inside. My eyes narrow and my fists clench. There’s no time for me to focus on what Mickey has planned, Roxie’s right there.
I turn and sprint towards them, scooping her up in my arms. Of course, she starts fighting me, it’s not in her nature to submit, but when she sees that it’s me, she relaxes.
“Ty,” she whispers, relief and shock clear as day in her voice. “Is it really you?”
“Yeah, mi vida. I’m here.”
“You can’t be… I’m just imagining you again.
I must be dying. You only come see me when it’s really bad…
” she mutters, her eyelids already drooping now that her body knows she’s safe.
Mario pulls the back car door open so that I can try to maneuver her in.
But her words shock me into a frozen state and it feels like I’ve been knocked in my chest as the air is forced from my lungs.
What did she say?
“Roxie, I’m here. I’m right here, please,” I murmur, clenching my jaw tightly and doing everything in my power to keep myself together.
“Thank you for wanting me,” she sighs, letting her head flop onto my lap. She falls asleep quickly and I know right then that this is really bad.
“Call Asher. Call him now and tell him we’re coming over.”
Mario opens his phone and starts dialing while I turn my attention to Roxie. This mysterious, magical girl that has fallen into my lap and life again. I shake her because I know that she needs to stay awake.
“What, what?” she asks groggily, but seems to be aware of who we are and where we are. “No,” Roxie whines, but I shush her softly.
“Stay awake, baby,” I say softly, shaking her shoulders, but she falls back to sleep with her eyes not focusing and that’s really fucking scary.
“Come on, come on!” Mario says, hitting the back of the chair. I slam the door shut just in time for Mario to peel out of there.
“Asher’s getting stuff ready,” Mario says and throws the phone into the passenger seat, pressing the accelerator harder. “I’m pretty sure he thinks it’s you that’s hurt because he sounded pissed.”
I push the strands of hair off of Roxie’s face and marvel at her. She’s here. With her head on my lap. Exactly like six years ago.
“Who is she?” Mario asks, looking at us in the mirror and I know he wants answers.
I breathe her name in like it’s the first breath of fresh air I’ve had in years.
“Roxie.”
“Who’s she?”
But I don’t answer him, instead I snap at him to driving fucking faster, because how am I meant to explain to him that she’s…everything I’ve been dying without?