Chapter 32
What have I done?
My whole world goes crashing down at the final blow and immediately I regret every single action that’s ever brought me to this point. Nothing, and I mean, nothing, has been worth this.
Worth hurting Roxie. But it was worth saving her life. She might hate me forever, but at least she’ll be alive. That brings me just a sliver of hope.
My eyes dart up toward the idiot in the rafters and back to Mickey.
“It’s done, call him off!” I scream, wanting to rush off and grab Mickey by the shirt, but not willing to walk away from Roxie’s crumpled body. “Do it!” I roar and Mickey nods, signaling for the gunman to get down.
The crowd is all cheering or booing, but I couldn’t give a fuck less.
“What have I done?” I whisper and hold myself back from grabbing her and getting her to safety.
“Hermano,” Mario comes up next to me and speaks softly. “What can I do?”
Get the fuck away from us and never talk to me again. That’s what you can do, but no, your idiocy brought us to this point!! I’m screaming at him in my mind, but shake my head.
“Call Asher and tell him to get here now. That Roxie’s been hurt and he needs to get here as soon as possible.
I won’t be here, but you stay here with her until you physically hand her off to him,” I speak in Spanish so quickly that there’s no way anyone around us can hear with all the commotion going on.
“You’ve fucked up so much, Mario. You owe me this. You owe her this. Keep her safe.”
I lean down and grab my shirt out of Mario’s hands, propping it under her head for any little bit of comfort.
“And where are you going?”
“I’m going to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
“Come on, Hernandez, time to go discuss next steps!” Mickey walks toward me with a briefcase stuffed to the brim with money that should be mine. Should be Roxie’s. But I don’t care about that right now.
An eye for an eye.
I follow him like a diligent little boy and clock it the moment he smiles triumphantly, leading me out of the arena.
It’s all a fucking show. He’s trying to show everyone watching that I’m the champion, his champion, even when I swore publicly I’d never work with him.
He’s having me walk on a humiliation tour.
Showing me off to everyone just how much I’ve fallen.
And trying to prove that he’s the king now.
The king who has collared the dragon and will use him to do his bidding.
Let him think that. For now. It won’t be for long.
I hear the people laughing around me, the whispers and the snickers. But, I keep my head held high and follow him out like a good puppy.
I can’t let this go on.
We start walking through the tunnel and Mickey runs his mouth, like he usually does.
“It felt so fucking good to watch that bitch fall to the ground. I kind of wish I’d taken her pulse just to see if she was still alive.
Feeling her heart stop would’ve made my fucking year!
” Mickey’s words are loud and obnoxious, and he’s talking like he doesn’t think I’ll react, like I’ll be a quiet little pet.
Like he thinks he’s invincible.
The anger I was feeling before is nothing compared to now, and I clench my teeth.
“It’s a good thing she kept her end of the bargain, but now I’ll have to figure something else out to make sure she knows her place. Fuck, you should’ve hit her harder.” Mickey laughs so loud it hurts my ears as it reverberates off the side of the walls overwhelming me even more.
My chest tightens and my breathing quickens as I realize what this all means.
“You… You played me.”
Mickey just laughs and pushes through the doors, the warm night air hitting me in the face.
“Like a goddamn fiddle. It was so easy! All I had to do was threaten you both with each other and you bent over backwards.” Mickey keeps walking, his sinister laughter filling the night sky.
“You’re never going to let Roxie go, are you?” I speak softly, like all the cards just fell into place and I can see the whole play now. “You’re always going to try to hurt her.”
“I wouldn’t be talking as if you haven’t hurt her. You just knocked her the fuck out for Chirst’s sake.”
I grab his arm roughly, my fingers biting into his skin, and Mickey turns.
“Don’t you fucking dare compare what I just did to what you’ve done.”
His teeth shine dully in the low light as he glares at me like he’s about to fuck up my whole world. Again.
“You think what I did was bad? It’s nothing compared to what I’m going to do,” he says softly, menacingly enough that I know… I know I have to put an end to it all right here.
“Not while I’m around.” I pull my fist up to knock his ass out, but he just tsks at me, gesturing down.
“You sure you want to bring your fists to a gun fight?” He smirks, pulling up his shirt enough that I see the gunmetal against this pale skin.
This isn’t your smartest idea, Hernandez, I think, but it doesn’t matter anymore. The only thing that matters is her.
Roxie will probably never forgive me, never look at me the same way, but I can make sure she’s free.
I send a punch packing as much power as I possibly can into his temple, fully aware of the consequences. Mickey’s head snaps to the side and he stumbles, barely catching himself before going towards his gun. His hand slips under his shirt and I twist upward, throwing an uppercut to his jaw.
“I didn’t think you’d be this stupid,” Mickey snarls, and I hear the gun cock, the warmed metal against my torso. “Now, you’re going to die and she’s going to be my bitch once again.”
My heart beats faster, but at this point, I don’t have anything else to lose.
I grab the barrel of a gun and pull it closer to my side before twisting it as far from my body as I can. This fucker is strong, stronger than he looks for sure, but I’m better.
I sweep my legs out and catch him off guard, and Mickey falls to the ground, the briefcase opening. Someone could come up and grab the prize money, and it wouldn’t fucking matter as long as Mickey’s dead.
His head hits the ground with a sickening thud. I grit my teeth and pin his wrists under my knees, putting as much pressure on him as possible. There’s a sick satisfaction that fills my chest as he starts to gasp.
My knee pins the hand holding the gun down and he fires off a shot. The blaring sound ricochets in the darkness and a searing heat burns across my shin and ankle.
But I can’t look right now.
His eyes widen when he realizes that the shot didn’t do anything and I smile just as sinisterly as he did earlier.
“If you do this,” his voice is distorted as he gasps for air under my forearm where I’m crushing his windpipe with my weight. “She’ll never look at you the same way.”
His words hit me right where they’re meant to. Is he right? Will Roxie ever see me as anything more than someone who plays judge, jury and executioner?
Even in the dark, his beady eyes narrow as I stall, but then he laughs. He laughs.
“I’m going to kill you, and then kill her. Then as she’s bleeding out on the dirty, cold floor, I’m going to piss on her to show her that she truly was always nothing.”
I don’t hear anything but the blood pumping in my ears.
I’m not aware of anything but the way his flesh feels so thin under my hands.
Without thinking, I lean down and pick up the gun, prying it from his fingers as he groans and grunts. I press more of my weight onto his neck, cutting him off from saying anything else.
Without warning, without fanfare, without a big final speech, I stuff the barrel in his mouth, angle it upward, and pull the trigger.
The shot is loud, but more muffled than I thought. His blood splatters all over my face like warm rain and I snap my mouth shut before even a drop of this fucker can enter my body.
Immediately the tension and fight underneath my knees leave and I’m just… pinning down a corpse.
Holding my breath and the sounds of the open silence all around me are suddenly overwhelming. I can hear the wind and the crickets, my blood rushing throughout my body, the way the soil settles as I lose all strength in my body and fall to the ground, scrambling from the body.
A stench fills my nose and I look over to see Mickey pissing himself. Or in reality, all the muscles in his body are relaxing because he can’t control them anymore.
Because I killed him.
I have to get out of here.
I pick up the gun and with shaking hands, grab my phone. There’s only one person I can call.
It rings twice, and someone on the other end picks up. There’s a moment of silence before a dark voice answers.
“Si?”