Chapter 36 #2
I sink down onto the bench and start wrapping my hands.
My muscle memory takes over. That’s a confidence boost. I’ve always been agile and strong.
This shouldn’t be a big deal. All I need to do is warm up, get out there, and clean house.
Then, I’ll get the fuck out of dodge so I can get to Byway and pick up Della.
I glance around at the crowd. It’s thick and restless, but Brothers has enough soldiers to escort us out fast.
I’ll have her back by morning.
“Shit,” says Brothers.
I look up. He’s staring at the opposite platform, stone faced. I rise, trying to see through the flickering light and shadows.
“What?”
He beckons, stepping to the side so I can stand in his place.
From this angle, I can see inside the group of men.
There’s his fighter, a blond man maybe a decade younger but of equitable size.
He’s shifting back and forth, shaking out his shoulders.
Then, my gaze moves to the side, and I see Leland talking to a slender, short figure in red.
Fuck.
“He brought Della,” says Brothers.
My stomach goes ice cold. “No… Fuck, this fucks up everything.”
He doesn’t answer. His eyes dart over the clearing like he’s thinking fast.
“Della wouldn’t leave Landis behind without a plan,” he says finally. “I need to leave, stall this, until I can get to the state route and call Kayleigh.”
There’s no service in the pit for a reason.
“You can’t leave,” I say. “We have to get to Della and talk to her before the fight, figure out what’s going on. What if you draw Leland aside and give me a chance to talk to her?”
“That’s a possibility,” he says.
“That’s our best bet.”
I half expect Brothers to argue, but he goes to the bag and takes out a white handkerchief.
He leans off the platform and waves it hard, back and forth, until one of the soldiers on the opposite side points.
The crowd shifts, turning to look. Leland pushes through and leans on the railing.
There’s a second when I think he’s going to shake his head. Then, he lifts a hand and beckons.
“You keep the AK,” I say.
He jerks his head, leaning over to one of his men, Angie, the younger brother of Angus. He’s a tall guy with colorless hair and tattoos up to his jaw. “Angie, you come along with us.”
Angie nods, circling behind me as we alight the platform. The crowd murmurs, parting in a slow wave as we work our way through it.
“I don’t understand why he’d bring her,” says Brothers.
“I’ve got a couple ideas,” I say.
I don’t know Leland well, but from what I do know, he’s a proud man. The humiliation of having his wife leave him publicly must have stung. Taking her back was likely a bitter pill. For him, this is parading a trophy. For her, it’s a walk of shame, a warning.
Do you see what I’m capable of without getting my hands dirty?
It’s no wonder she’s desperate to be rid of him.
We get close to their platform. Here, the crowd gets sparse and becomes a fortification of soldiers. Brothers slips in front, AK over his arm. He’s like a wily cat, head down, eyes up, watching everything as if he’s hunting.
I climb the steps to the platform. Leland steps up, and it takes everything I have not to look past him at Della. I know she’s there, but I can’t meet her eyes. He can’t know I know her, much less how intimately. So, I fix my eyes on Leland, squaring him up like he’s my opponent.
He’s a big, broad man, but it sits on him like he earned it in the gym, bulkier up top, packed on a little too carefully.
Tonight, he’s dressed casual, work pants and a t-shirt.
It's burning hot in the pit with all the barrel fires, and he’s already glittering in sweat.
I am too. It’s dripping into my eyes and making my hair curl.
Leland extends a hand. Brothers shakes it.
“What do you want?” Leland says.
“You got a younger fighter than I do,” says Brothers, gesturing. “What’s his scorecard?”
“Two losses,” Leland says. “Twelve wins.”
His gaze swings to me, and I meet it. Deep inside, I want to walk up to him and shake his hand, introduce myself as the man who has fucked Della in about every position known to man.
That she comes for me when she never did for him.
That I think I still taste his wife’s pussy in my mustache.
But I don’t. I just meet his gaze head on and don’t flinch.
“Who’s this?” he drawls.
I step forward. “Jensen Childress. I’ve fought for Brothers before.”
His jaw works. “I don’t remember you. Where do you hail from?”
“Harlan,” I say.
He snorts. “You Harlan fighters are scrappy.”
It’s pissing me off the way he gets that high and mighty expression at the mention of my county.
“I get the job done,” I say shortly.
Watch it. I’ll fuck up your fighter then fuck your wife when I’m done.
“Oh yeah?” His jaw goes tight, like he can feel my thoughts rolling off me.
“Yeah.”
The tension crackles. Brothers puts a hand on his elbow and murmurs something. Leland nods, backing to the side with Brothers. That clears the path right to Della. There’s no way in hell I can conceal what I feel as my eyes fall on her, but I have to. Tonight depends on it.
Warmth blossoms then erupts in my chest, followed by pain.
She’s in a cage. Her body is wrapped in a short, tight dress that comes to mid-thigh. It’s dark red. I don’t know much, but that’s not her color. Or maybe she’s just washed out from nerves.
Our eyes meet.
My God, she’s beautiful.
I’m back in that loft, tangled up in her, lost in my sweet Harlan girl. Everything around us fades. The crowd is a shadow in my periphery. I’m standing in the doorway of Cherry’s trailer, bodies all over the floor. Della is there too. She doesn’t speak, but I hear what she’s saying.
I know what my heart is telling me.
Don’t lose her too.
All at once, I know what I said to Brothers in the barn was a lie. I don’t have it in me to forgive the Caudills. I don’t have it in me to forget either. No, tonight, I’m going to lay it all out. It’s time to wrap this up and move on.
I came to stand and deliver, and by God, I will.
For the kid nobody protected.
For Cherry, for Kyle.
But most of all, for Della and Landis, a boy I’ve never met. An echo of myself years ago.
The crowd on the platform shifts. Brothers glances over his shoulder and blinks slowly, his hand falling on Leland’s shoulder. Now’s your chance, his eyes say. I shift closer but don’t face her. She keeps her back to me, spine stiff.
“Who is with Landis?” I whisper.
She turns briefly, like she’s just looking around. “Kayleigh.”
“What’s her plan?” I say.
“She said she’s got this. I think she means to take him to Byway herself.”
There’s a low whine in the distance of my mind.
From the corner of my vision, I see Leland break away from Brothers and go back to Della.
I back up, jostled by the soldiers behind me.
All I can see is his hand sliding around her waist, the way his mouth almost grazes her temple as he says something in her ear.
She shrinks.
My stomach turns. The Della I know is bright, quick, brave.
Standing beside Leland, she’s a shadow of herself.
Her denial to label what Leland did to her as assault is understandable, but it’s clear she metabolized it as such.
He might not have done it violently, but what he did was still intimately violent. Her body knows.
I want to kill him.
Brothers appears at my side, eyes wide. “Jen, do you trust me?”
“No,” I say.
He takes me by the shoulder, pulling me off the platform and into the crowd. “I need you to trust me just this once. For Della.”
Our eyes meet, and I see everything that went down between us. It’s sad we’re so broken that even with wolves at our heels, I still can’t trust him.
“Della thinks Kayleigh is taking Landis out of the house tonight,” I say.
“I guessed. That girl is so fucking stubborn.” His pupils are blown. Goddamn, he’s afraid for her. “If Kayleigh is caught, if he finds out it was her, he’ll kill her when he gets back tonight. We can’t just fight here tonight, Jen. We have to finish this.”
“For her? Or for you?”
He glances sideways at me, eyes sharp. “I’ve lost a lot of people. I’m not losing her.”
He turns on his heel and starts moving back to our platform. I go after him, taking him by the shoulder and pulling him to face me. He’s sweating, his shirt drenched, but not from heat. I’ve never seen him like this before. I didn’t know Brothers Boyd knew how to be afraid.
“He might not know it was her who took Landis if we can get her back to the house in time,” I say.
“There’s no one else it could be. Kayleigh is the only person in that house with Landis tonight,” he says.
My stomach sinks. “Kayleigh is… She knows how this is going to end.”
“Either we all keep running from the Caudills forever, or we finish this tonight,” he says. Sweat etches down his temple. “I was…I was thinking about marrying her, but now…I just want her to live. That’s all I’m asking.”
I see him, not as the Good God Boyd, but as a man, not unlike myself. It breaks through the bitterness inside.
“You really love her,” I say.
His throat bobs, lids flickering. “Fight Leland instead. I can convince him to get in the pit with you. If you get the chance, kill him.”
“Fine,” I say. “But whatever you do, don’t tell him Della and I were together, not while she’s still in his hands.”
He nods, disappearing back into the crowd. I turn my back. There’s a lot of pain in this clearing tonight, on his shoulders, on mine, sitting in Della’s fragile heart. Brothers is right. It needs to end. There’s a debt that needs to be paid between the Childresses and the Caudills.
Tonight, I’m going to collect on it.
Then, I’ll take my family and go home.