Chapter 7
Royal
Jeremy is pissed. I’m a little intrigued. She’s tried this before, and he didn’t care. He didn’t care this time either, so now I don’t know what the hell we’re going to do with her.
“Send her ass back,” I say, waving my hand through the air.
“Like fuck we will,” Jeremy snaps.
“He doesn’t give a shit. We aren’t getting anything from him,” I remind him.
“We’ll call back. We’ll threaten her.”
“He doesn’t care,” she chimes in again.
“Shut the fuck up,” I tell her.
“We have to try,” Jeremy adds.
“We did. It didn’t work. Send her ass back,” I tell him once more. I have more important things to do than deal with this shit. “I have a fight tonight. She can’t stay here,” I remind him.
“She goes where we go,” Jeremy states.
“To the fight? She’s going to see our faces,” I remind him.
“I won’t say anything,” she says once more.
“I told you to shut the fuck up,” I warn, pointing at her. Having had enough of this and not giving a shit, I rip the mask off my head.
“What the fuck, Royal?” Jeremy yells.
“Fuck this, man. I have to work out, and I’m not doing it with that shit on my face.”
“Now she’s seen you.” I reach into my pocket and pull out my knife, walking toward her. Her eyes widen a little as she watches me. I kneel in front of her and press the tip to her cheek.
“You’re going to keep quiet, right? If what you say is true about your family not caring, then the only thing going for you is your looks. And I’d hate to have to fuck that up too,” I warn her. I watch her swallow hard before she nods her head.
“I won’t say anything.” I nod my head and stand up, turning to Jeremy.
“She’s not going to say shit,” I tell him. He sighs and pulls his mask from his head and tossing it to the side, and runs his hand through his hair.
“We have business tonight. I can’t leave you here in case someone finds you, so you’re going with us. That knife he had?” He speaks to her. “Is nothing compared to what I have. Understand?”
She nods her head as if she gets what he’s saying.
I tug my shirt over my head and walk over to the bag we have hung from the ceiling, and start throwing a few punches.
I warm myself up and get a little workout in.
I can feel her eyes on me the entire time, too.
I don’t know what it is she’s looking at or why, but it doesn’t bother me.
After I’m done, I grab my shirt and pull it back on before telling Jeremy I have a few things to handle. I leave him with her and head to the store.
I glance around before grabbing a box of hair color and a pair of scissors, shoving them into my bag when no one is looking. Then I head back out and make my way back to the warehouse.
When I walk in, I see Jeremy has got her something to eat. She sits against the wall, picking at it, when I pull the hair color from my bag and toss it at her.
“Use that,” I tell her.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want anyone to recognize you,” I tell her. She reaches for the dye and holds it up in her hand.
“Black?”
“What’s wrong, sweetheart? Don’t like dark hair?
” I tease her. She doesn’t say a word as I walk over and grab her wrist, unhooking it.
“Bathroom I,s in there. The water works,” I tell her, nodding toward the bathroom.
She shoves off the floor and walks toward the bathroom while Jeremy and I watch her.
“You think this is a good idea?” he asks.
“You’re right. We can’t leave her here.”
“She’s the Governor’s daughter,” he grumbles.
“Who’s going to notice that when her hair is colored and cut?” I ask him. He shrugs but doesn’t say another word.
I eat the food he went out to get, and after thirty minutes, she comes back out with black hair. She looks between the two of us when I motion for her to come to me. She walks over as I pull the scissors out of the bag and stand.
“You’re going to cut my hair?”
“It’ll make you look different.” She’s hesitant, but I don’t care. I grab her long hair and start cutting anyway. Her hair reached her ass, and I cut it to the middle of her back. It isn’t drastic, but enough.
“Can I look?” she asks softly. I give her a shove back toward the bathroom, and she walks that way. I watch her go in and stare in the mirror for what seems like forever before she wipes a tear from her cheek.
“Tonight is going to be rough,” Jeremy tells me.
“Who am I fighting?”
“Gerald.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah, fuck. That motherfucker is huge,” he says, not making me feel any better.
“The money’s good. That’s all I need to know,” I tell him. He nods his head as I pack up my bag. When River comes back out of the bathroom, she wipes her eyes once more.
“You stay by my side. If I walk, you walk. Get it?” Jeremy snaps at her. She nods her head as the three of us leave the warehouse and head for town.
It doesn’t take us long to get where we need to be. The fight isn’t for a few hours, but I like to see the setup and shit first. Plus, we have some business to discuss with the man who runs the fights, Gary.
Jeremy walks off to talk to Gary while River stays right next to me.
“What is this place?”
“We call it The Pit.”
“What do you do here?” she asks.
“Fight.”
“What do you mean? What kind of fights?”
“You’ve heard of underground fighting, right?” I ask her. She turns her head to look up at me now and nods. “That’s what this is.”
“It’s illegal.”
“It is, but it also makes money. Money I need.”
“Couldn’t you get a job?” she asks. I chuckle.
“And make this kind of money? No.”
“Do you fight a lot?”
“Twice on the weekends,” I tell her as she watches me intently.
“Isn’t that … I don’t know, bad for you? Don’t you get hurt?”
“I’ll live. I’ve made it this far, right?” She looks as if she wants to say more, but she doesn’t. She looks away from me and glances around the room.
“Are those blood stains?” she asks almost hesitantly.
“What else would it be?” Now her head jerks around, and she looks back up at me.
“That’s …”
“What happens here. Don’t make a big deal of it. Others will notice,” I warn her. She nods her head and glances around a little more. I know this must seem crazy to her, but that’s the least of my worries right now.
This fight, however …