Chapter 17 Ali
Ali
Evan confirmed my suspicions about Gaviria being connected to the PCC. Why he’d gotten close enough to the assistant coach to know, I didn’t understand or care. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one making stupid life choices.
His confirmation left my stomach in free fall. I did another search on the cartel and their fight clubs. It gave us an address, a possible location to at least start looking for Sixx. A few blocks from our destination, I spotted Sixx’s Porsche.
“No, no, no,” I whispered. Bentley reached for my hand again, squeezing hard.
“I thought he was all talk,” Evan said, sounding defensive, just like he had from the moment we’d picked him up from First Bass.
Since then, my sister and Hayat had been blowing up all three of our phones. After Abi’s first call that I’d answered, I’d turned mine off. My sister would try to track me, and that was the last thing I wanted.
“Honestly, I thought it was just him trying to impress me. During basketball season, he hung out with us after games. He came to a few parties. That kind of stuff.”
Bentley glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “A teacher was at high school parties. Did he hook up with any girls?”
Silence came from the back seat. I clenched my eyes closed. What the actual fuck? Evan was someone I no longer recognized. The boy I used to know wouldn’t have been okay with a teacher having sex with a high school student. He would have stepped in, not turned a blind eye to what was going on.
It also made it clearer why he was ready to accuse me of wanting Gaviria’s attention. Instead of growing up, becoming wiser, Evan and I had only been growing apart. He was the polar opposite of the guy I thought I knew. Disappointment crushed my rib cage.
“And that didn’t trigger any alarms for you?” Bentley snapped. “The fact that an adult was hanging out with high school kids, hooking up girls who are practically babies—none of that was at all weird to you?”
“No, because he’s younger than Mason, and I hang out with Mace all the damn time.”
“Mason is your cousin. Gaviria is your coach. Mason doesn’t fuck little girls.
Apparently, Gaviria likes them illegally young.
Do you see the difference, or do you need to get your eyes checked?
Jesus Christ, Evan. You shouldn’t be buddying up to people who are in positions of power over you, let alone being okay with them dipping their dicks in jailbait.
” Bentley shot him a disgusted glare over his shoulder, tapping his own head as he said, “I swear to God, were you ever tested to make sure your brain was big enough for your giant body? Because it doesn’t appear to be working lately. ”
“Fuck you, Bentley.”
“Can you two not argue right now?” I hissed, glancing around at all the cars parked outside the warehouse. “We have to find Sixx.”
“Sorry,” Evan muttered, his shoulders drooping.
“Sorry, Ali,” Bentley echoed.
Parking and getting into the warehouse was easy enough. The number of vehicles outside didn’t prepare me for the volume of people inside. As soon as we stepped through the doors, Bentley grabbed my hand and didn’t let go as we searched the crowd for Sixx.
Bodies bumped against us in the darkness, with only the strobing lights to guide us.
A DJ mixed techno with a variety of different genres from a platform that hung high above us.
Sweat blended with cheap and designer fragrances, along with the metallic scent of blood and the occasional fumes of drugs being smoked.
It triggered more nausea that I tried to ignore while we searched every face for Sixx.
Each fight we came across, I held my breath, praying we didn’t find my boyfriend facing off with anyone. It took more than an hour before Bentley spotted him. Leaning down, he still had to shout to be heard over the noise all around us. “There!”
My gaze followed where he pointed to a large group circling two fighters. Everything around me suddenly seemed to move in slow motion as I watched Gaviria approach Sixx and punch him in the face so hard his head snapped back.
When he shifted his head back to Gaviria, Sixx had a sinister grin on his face.
It was impossible to hear him from where I was, but I could tell he laughed.
Every nightmare scenario I’d ever pictured was about to play out in real time, with Sixx killing the other man.
Or being killed by any of the PCC members who were inside the warehouse.
I rushed forward, jerking away from Bentley’s hold as I ran toward Sixx.
Maybe I could stop him. Stop the madness.
If I just reached him in time, I could switch him back to the boy, not the void, and we could go home.
Or run away. Mexico. Canada. Antarctica.
Any other country. I didn’t care, as long as he was with me and he was safe.
“Fuck, stop her!” Bentley shouted from close behind.
Hands grabbed me, and I twisted away, desperate to get to the boy who was my entire world.
I needed to save him. From the evil people who surrounded us.
From himself. Bentley caught hold of my arm, and I wrenched myself away, pushing through the group circling the fighters.
I got to the front, almost tripping on the mats that I hadn’t noticed before.
“Stop!” I screamed, hoping the sound of my voice might reach him, penetrate that wall that hid the boy I loved. “Sixx, you don’t have to do this. We’ll figure it out. Please!”
Arms came around me, jerking me backward.
I fought against Evan’s hold, unable to look away as Sixx hit Gaviria so hard blood sprayed from his mouth when he fell to his knees.
Gaviria got up, his movements slower than they had been moments before.
He swung, but Sixx dodged the blow and countered it with two sharp hits to Gaviria’s kidneys.
Everyone in the circle started shouting, booing, heckling, amping up the energy, until the air around me practically crackled.
Suddenly, Hayat was there, shoving people out of her way to get to her brother.
“What the fuck?” she yelled, her gaze zooming from us to the fight that was still going on.
To Sixx, who had Gaviria back on his knees.
Blood splattered across Sixx’s face and shirt.
With the way the red lights kept strobing over him more than any other color, he looked like the main character in a cheap, gory horror movie.
To Gaviria, he probably was the villain. To me, he was the only hero who mattered.
Hayat’s appearance caused Evan to relax his hold enough that I was able to get free. But then Hayat and Bentley grabbed me, trapping me mere feet away from Sixx.
And then the music stopped. Right before the lights went off, I watched as Sixx hit Gaviria one more time, knocking him to the floor as his eyes rolled back in his head.
Sixx stood over him, chest heaving, that manic grin still in place.
Every nerve in my body pulsed with awareness.
Sixx looked like a warrior in the middle of a bloody battle, perfect and breathtaking.
Dangerous.
Amazing.
Untouchable.
Hot as fuck.
There wasn’t a single part of Sixx Sinclair I didn’t love and ache for. Even when he was at his most terrifying, he was brutally beautiful.
And I might have just turned him into a murderer.