Chapter 64
ZEKE
Wexley University
The craziness of Bella and the girls’ lap dance on Lex’s dad has finally calmed down.
Sort of.
August is still talking shit like nobody’s business when Bella walks out from behind one of the garment racks in a light blue sheer dress.
Josh follows her out, shirtless with black pants that have a matching blue stripe up the side of the leg.
Both of them are barefoot as he leads her up to that square stage Lex and the guys dragged out earlier.
Knox starts muttering something over the speakers but I don’t hear a damn word because movement catches my eye. Luca’s emerald eyes find mine when he steps forward from the corner of the gym, a smug grin curving his face as he leans against the frame of the stage.
My lungs lock tight. Heat floods every inch of my body as my pulse slams against my ribs. I squeeze my eyes shut.
He’s dead.
Breathe.
He’s dead.
I breathe in three slow, deep breaths and force my eyes open.
He’s gone.
A heavy sigh flows from my lips and I sink back into my chair as Knox finishes. “…and she wanted to do this for her brother.”
Marisol’s hand squeezes my leg. “Oooh, babe. That’s so sweet of B!”
I blink at her. “What?”
“Bella dedicated this dance to you,” she says, her smile faltering. “Are you alright?”
Shit. I missed something again.
“Yeah,” I lie, quickly interlocking our fingers as the lights dim to a cool, pale-blue. “I’m good, babe.”
The opening notes of “Unsteady” by X Ambassadors drift through the gym, soft enough that I almost miss them.
Bella never takes her eyes off of me as Josh reaches for her hand. She lets him take it. The two of them move like they’re breathing instead of dancing. Every step is fluid and effortless as they drift across the stage.
A single drop falls from somewhere above them.
Then another.
And another.
By the time the first verse begins, a curtain of rain crashes around them.
Someone whistles behind me. Another claps further down our row. I don’t turn to see who. I can’t look anywhere except at my sister.
Josh catches her as she throws herself backward into the water, her onyx hair whipping through the rain before her body melts into his strength. He steadies her, guiding her upright before she slips from his grasp.
Like she’s trying to fall.
My throat tightens as the hold on section of the chorus swells. Josh reaches for her again. This time, Bella doesn’t take his hand. She pulls away and stumbles in the rain, crashing her knees against the hard, slick stage.
A sharp breath catches somewhere behind me.
Josh kneels down beside her and offers his hand. Waiting patiently for her to take it. When Bella finally does, he helps her slowly stand.
“Healing isn’t something you rush, Zeke,” Dr. Monroe’s voice slinks back into my head from our session the other day.
A tear slips down my cheek.
Beside me, I vaguely register Lex whispering something.
I don’t answer him.
Bella spins beneath the downpour. Her arms reach toward the ceiling once before folding back around herself. For one awful second, my sister looks exactly like she did in Eden.
She looks small, broken, and all alone.
Then Josh is there again, catching her. Reminding her that someone else is here for her. That she’s not alone.
My chest aches so damn hard I have to press a fist against it as the fucking hold on chorus explodes through the speakers once more. Bella spins away from Josh one last time. She refuses to fall this time. She stands strong as her steel-gray eyes find mine across the gym and smiles.
The rain shuts off and the gym exhales in screams and cheers around me. I don’t remember standing. Or running across the gym and up onto that slippery platform to my sister.
“Bells.”
She barely has time to turn before I wrap my arms around her and lift her clean off the soaked stage.
She’s laughing through her tears. Water drips from her hair onto my shoulder.
“I’m ruining your shirt,” she sniffles.
“I don’t give a shit,” I say, my voice shaking as I set her down gently. “Thank you.”
She squeezes me tighter. “I love you, Zeke.”
A heavy hand settles on my shoulder.
I freeze.
“Yes,” his familiar voice murmurs beside my ear.
Cold floods my veins.
I know I shouldn’t look back.
But I do.
I’m greeted with Luca’s emerald eyes, sparkling in the pale-blue lights as he smiles over the both of us.
“Our Izzy did very well.”
???
The Pit - Northvale University
38 days since we’ve been back.
I’ve heard the rumors about the Hollow Kings’ private playground. Hell, I’ve even watched a few fight nights through my hacked feeds when that bastard had me spying for him. But nothing prepares you for the actual thing.
I follow Lex down the steep stone steps deeper into the belly of Northvale’s Redspire Mansion. When he swings the double doors open, I pause at the threshold. My eyes track the vast expanse of this place.
It’s fucking huge. And spectacular as hell.
Even empty with the main fight-night spotlights turned off, the place breathes violence. The walls are a seamless, matte jet-black that look like they absorb light for fun. Running along the upper tiers and deep within the architectural cutouts are neon red accents.
“Looks like veins up there,” I mutter, nodding to the lights.
“Pretty neat, huh?” Lex huffs over his shoulders as we continue our descent.
We get to a concrete floor stained a deep red that looks dangerously close to dried blood. Dead center of The Pit sits the main ring. It’s four-sided, massive, and bordered by thick black and red ropes.
“Jesus, Lex,” I mutter, my voice echoing slightly in the vast, quiet arena. I look up at the intricate maze of lighting rigs and steel framing hanging from the high ceiling. “You guys built a literal underworld down here.”
“Yeah,” Lex says, tossing his keys onto a nearby table. “Dad and Roman did a hell of a job didn’t they?”
He walks over to the corner of the ring, kicks off his shoes, and strips his shirt off. The dim overhead lighting catches the Orthodox domes mixed with what looks sort of like blue-print lines inked all over his arms and the phoenix rising between his collarbones when he turns my way.
But it’s the ink over his heart that steals my focus. Bella’s name is surrounded by swirling lines like smoke.
“What?” he grits out as he clocks my stare.
I shake my head, embarrassment flooding my system. “Nothing.”
“Strip the hoodie, Z. And wrap your hands,” he says, already wrapping his knuckles with the practical and lethal precision of someone who has done this shit a hundred times. “Let’s see if we can beat that fucker out of your head.”
I toss my hoodie onto a ringside chair and quickly wrap my hands with the tape Lex threw. Then climb into the ring.
“Alright,” I say, rolling my shoulders. “What now?”
Before the words can even fully clear my damn lips, Lex steps inside my guard and hauls off, launching a brutal right hook straight into my jaw.
CRACK.
The force sends me stumbling backward. The taste of copper immediately floods my mouth. I shake my head, glaring at his smug ass through the sting.
“The fuck?!” I bark.
“Well, you should probably start by blocking a fucking punch,” Lex says flatly as he drops into a fighting stance.
I spit blood on the canvas and lunge forward.
We trade a few heavy blows. The damp thuds of leather-wrapped knuckles against muscle echoes loudly throughout The Pit.
Lex catches me with a hard jab to the ribs, forcing the air out of my lungs.
But I roll it off and return the favor with a solid left hook to his chest.
We circle each other, breathing heavy.
“You still seeing that fucker?” Lex asks suddenly, his icy-blues boring into mine.
“How’d you—”
“Marisol told me,” he cuts me off, shrugging. “Now answer the damn question.”
I blink through the sweat stinging my eyes and glance over Lex’ shoulders. Up in the elevated ringside seats, Luca is sitting there. He has his ankles crossed on the velvet rope with his normal smug smile plastered across his face.
My chest locks up. I nod toward the dark stands. “Up there.”
We trade a few more blows before he asks me again. “Is he still here?”
“Gonna have to do better than that,” Luca yells from his spot in the stands.
I nod.
Lex doesn’t even bother turning around to look at the empty seats. He just shifts his weight, his jaw setting tight. “Okay. Let’s try this Knox’s way.”
“Knox’s way?” I mutter, raising my guard.
Lex launches forward and drives a brutal combination into my ribs and stomach that forces me back against the ropes.
“What the fuck happened to you in there, Z?”
“You know,” I grit out.
“Not the shit you told the shrink,” Lex says, shaking his head and rearing back. “The shit you’re keeping in here.”
“No,” I growl, ducking beneath a swing to my head and throwing a wild left that catches his brow.
We slam back into the center of the ring, the violence escalating. I’m throwing wild and hard, but I’m holding back. I’m not putting the real weight into my punches because deep down I’m terrified what’ll happen if I actually let go.
“Tell me,” Lex orders, taking a hard punch to his chest without even flinching. He steps right in front of me, his face inches from mine, bleeding from a cut above his eye. “What are you so afraid of?!”
“I can’t.”
“He’s not going to go away until you face it.” Lex spits blood on the mat. “And you know I’m right.”
“Shut the fuck up, Lex!” I roar, rearing back.
“TELL ME!” he yells, planting his feet and taking my vicious shot directly to his jaw.
“He raped me! Okay?!”
The scream rips out of the absolute bottom of my lungs, tearing my throat raw. It echoes off the matte-black walls like a gunshot.
“He forced me to fall for him because that’s all I could do to fucking survive in there! Is that what you want to hear?”
The dam shatters. A terrifying, unhinged tear takes over my body. I stop blocking. I stop thinking. I just launch into a blind, frantic fury, throwing devastating punches over and over into Lex’s face and body.
CRACK.
THUD.
CRACK.
One after another.
Lex never swings back. He never tries to dodge. He stands there like a stone wall, taking the absolute brunt end of my agony. Blood is streaming down his nose, his cheek is swelling rapidly, and his face is badly bruised within seconds.
But he keeps his feet planted.
He takes every single hit.
“Zeke, stop!” A frantic scream slices through the air from the entrance of The Pit.
Through the haze of my own rabid breathing, I see Bella and Cade rushing down the steps. Both of them sprinting hard across the dried-blood concrete toward the ring.
“Cade!” Lex grits out, his voice a bloody and ragged bark as he keeps his eyes locked entirely on me. “Keep her the fuck out of this ring!”
Cade catches Bella by the waist right at the ropes, holding her tight as she cries out. Both of their eyes wide with horror as they stare at the bloody mess inside the ring.
Lex stands tall, ignoring them. He steps right into my swinging arms, absorbing one last weak punch to his shoulder before slamming his hands to the back of my head. He grips me tight, forcing me to look him in the eyes.
“Do you see him?” Lex asks, his voice surprisingly steady, despite the amount of blood dripping from his lip.
Tears are streaming down my face now, mixing with the sweat and blood on my skin. My chest is heaving so hard it fucking burns. I slowly turn my head and look back up toward the dark, elevated seats.
The shadows are just shadows. The velvet ropes are empty.
He’s gone.
Luca is gone.
“No,” I choke out. “No… I don’t see him.”
“Are you sure?” Lex presses, his grip tightening on the back of my neck. “Be fucking sure.”
I glance back up at the empty chairs.
“He’s gone,” I whisper.
The fight drains out my limbs all at once. My knees buckle, but Lex catches my weight before I can hit the canvas. He pulls me into a crushing embrace, locking his arms around my shaking shoulders.
“Please,” I whisper into his shoulder. “Don’t tell Bells.” The tears take over. “I don’t… She can’t—”
“Shh,” Lex hushes, squeezing me tighter. “Your secret is safe with me, brother. Always.”