Chapter 20 #3
“Shut up,” I yell. The crowd screams again, and my eyes flick back to the ring.
To my horror Josh has a bleeding nose and is going berserk on this guy.
He punches him, his head snaps back at the contact, and then follows through with another knee.
Blood is on both of their faces and I don’t know whose blood is whose.
The blond guy seems to be losing it and they start to really let loose on each other and the ref steps in and grabs the blond guy to stop the fight, obviously because of the blood.
Blondie pushes the poor ref, and he falls down.
The crowd all stand and go wild. He then turns his attention back to Joshua as he kicks him hard in the stomach.
I stand. “Oh my god, get down there,” I scream at Ben and Cameron.
This isn’t entertainment anymore. They are actually fighting for real.
Ben and Cameron stand and start to run down the stairs toward the ring.
An abundance of people are now down there, trying to break them up.
I see Josh’s trainers in the ring. I can’t see or hear a thing because everyone in the arena is going ballistic, jumping up and down.
Is this place a sick frigging joke? Abbie now has her hands over her eyes and Bridget is trying her best to calm me down before I start to hyperventilate.
Josh runs and tackles the blond guy to the ground and starts to repeatedly punch him in the head.
Suddenly there is a crowd rush in the corner of the audience to the left of the ring and everybody screams again.
Holy shit, there is a fight in the crowd.
“What in the hell is going on?” Bridget screams. My eyes go back to the ring and I see Josh and the blond guy surrounded by about fifteen men trying to break them away from each other.
They manage the task and I look down to see Joshua being held back by his arms, the look on his face murderous as he glares at his opponent.
A cold chill runs down my spine, he looks evil.
Completely evil. He is covered in blood and is still trying to get free to try and continue killing this other man with his bare hands, who I might add looks more than happy to repay the favor.
He spits blood onto the ground. Who is this man?
Definitely not the polished rich boy I know.
Do I even know him at all? This is the part of his personality that I cannot reconcile.
The fight in the crowd continues and I see Ben climb beneath the ropes into the ring.
Joshua looks at him and starts yelling. I see Ben nod; he then turns and sprints back up the stairs toward us.
Joshua and blond idiot are led out of the ring and backstage, both being held tightly with their arms behind their backs to prevent them from attacking each other again.
I sit down and cover my face with my hands.
“Holy shit,” I whisper.
“Fuck. That was intense,” Adrian murmurs.
“You think,” Bridget yells back.
“See why I hate this,” I snap. “Over my dead body is he doing this again.” Adrian, Abbie and Bridget all nod. This is not a sport. This is thuggery at its lowest point. Ben walks along the row of seats and back to us.
“What did Joshua say to you down there?” I ask. He doesn’t answer and looks at Adrian and shrugs his shoulders.
“What did he say?” I repeat.
He looks annoyed at my question. “He went off at me for leaving you alone.” What? This man is un-freaking-believable. He’s covered in blood and fighting a suspected psychopath in front of twenty thousand people but is worried about me sitting in the frigging grandstand without protection.
“Now I’ve heard it all,” I snap.
Adrian raises his eyebrows and shakes his head. “Me too.”
An hour and three cocktails later we are waiting outside the exit door of the fighter’s locker rooms. Cameron never came back from the ring so I suspect that he stayed with Joshua.
Ben is hanging with us but is not drinking at all, obviously on duty.
Adrian and the girls are far beyond tipsy; they are downright drunk.
I, however, have sobered up considerably since witnessing Rocky Balboa on the rampage.
Adrian has a giggling girl on either side of him and he has his arms around both of them.
They are finding everything hilarious as they rock from side to side.
Abbie is raving on about looking for the father of her children, still infatuated with that Italian stallion we saw fighting here last time, and Bridget is talking it up how some guy at the bar asked her for a quickie.
Adrian is laughing out loud at the shenanigans of my crazy friends.
I smile as I realize this would be new for him.
I take my friends’ sense of humor for granted.
They are funny and you don’t have to be friends with them to have fun around them as they make everyone feel comfortable.
The door opens and the blond guy that Josh had the fight with exits with two security guards.
Oh shit, my mouth drops open. I know him, he’s the prison warden from my visits in jail—the hot one.
He smiles at me and walks past to a short and slutty Barbie on my left.
Honestly, doesn’t she own a mirror? My eyes follow him as I try to remember his name.
What is it? Japer? J something. He looks like he has a broken nose with two oncoming black eyes.
He will be a mess tomorrow. His eyes also stay on me and I know he is trying to think where he has seen me before.
Shit. I hope he doesn’t remember me; this looks so unprofessional for me to be here.
The door opens again, and Joshua exits, flanked by two security guards and Cameron.
He walks over to me and bends to give me a peck on the cheek.
I would really like to punch him in the face for putting me through such stress, but I don’t think now is the time or place.
He nods at Ben and takes my hand and turns toward the parking lot.
Abbie and Bridget start shuffling on their feet with their hands in fists up to each other, play-fighting. They start to wrestle Adrian into a headlock as he giggles out loud.
“Hey, Natasha,” a voice calls out from behind us. Oh shit, it’s the prison warden guy. We all turn together, and he winks at me.
“Think of me tonight when you’re having sex. It will get you over the line quicker.”