Chapter 11 #2
This was it. Maybe I wouldn’t see his face, but I would see the back of his head, and that just may be enough to solve the puzzle.
Honestly, I was a little disappointed that he was making such a rookie mistake after taking such great pains to maintain his anonymity.
He wasn’t infallible, after all. He was flawed. He was caught. He was….
A dead man. V was a dead man.
“You inconceivable bastard.” Gritting my teeth together, I watched the figure of V turn around to face the camera, giving an exaggerated wave. “Maybe next time,” he said before he bounded down the stairs.
I let out a shriek, tossing the phone to the bed, as I, too, slumped down on the mattress.
A sensible person would throw their hands up at this point, toss out an ultimatum, and tell V that if he didn’t reveal himself, this would all be over.
Fortunately, I, Everleigh Moore, formerly Eliza Everleigh Thomas, would never be accused of being a sensible person.
If V wanted to play this game, we would play it.
And if he wanted to play dirty, so would I.
Next to me, my phone rang, signaling a call from Katy, no doubt wanting to discuss her latest conquest from the night before or to ask to borrow a pair of my underwear to leave in her cheating ex’s car to cause shit between him and his new girlfriend again. Both had equal odds.
“I’m running out of panties,” I answered my phone.
“That’s quite the personal problem you should fix. Good news for you, I’m not asking you for a pair of your underwear this time.”
Katy’s voice always became high-pitched whenever she was excited about something, and it only grew exponentially higher in conjunction with her level of excitement.
My eardrums winced along with the rest of me at her level of enthusiasm, meaning whatever it was she was about to tell me must be huge.
“We think we found him!”
In the background, I heard Jem’s voice correct her. “I think I found him.”
“Jem and I found him.” Katy lowered her voice at the ‘and I’ part of her sentence.
“Found him as in him-him?” I asked. My pulse quickened inside my chest at such a vigorous pace that it felt as though I’d just run a dead sprint through the woods while being chased by the same masked man who couldn’t stick the landing when climbing through my window.
“Do you know who he is? What does he look like?”
“Well, we don’t know all of that,” Katy said. “But we do know where he’s going to be tonight.”
“How? Do you know his name?”
“If we knew his name, I would have led with that. Well, his real name, anyway.”
“His real name? What does that mean?”
“Jem was on FightTok, watching hot guys in spandex duking it out as one does, when a certain masked man entered the picture. Ever, the mask, it’s spot on with the way you described it. And the best part, you’ll never guess what the man’s stage name or whatever they call it is.”
I opened my mouth to utter a slew of V words that came to mind—Victory Fists, Viscount VonGoodinbed, Vagina Slayer, but I was beaten to it by Katy.
“Vengeance! Hot masked man’s name is Vengeance. V!”
“Thank you, Sesame Street. I was completely stuck there for a minute.”
“As it turns out, he’s really good, and he has quite the fanbase.”
“Can you see his tattoos?”
“Hey, Jem, did you see tattoos on Ever’s new sex toy?”
“He had something. Trees or something.”
Trees. Fuck. It had to be him.
“Tag me in a comment. I need to see him for myself.”
“Jem’s on it. Word on the street is there’s a fight tonight.”
“Why is it word on the street? Aren’t things like these usually televised?”
Katy laughed. “You’re so cute and innocent. Sure, professional, regulated sporting events are usually heavily advertised and sometimes televised, but what V is involved in is a tad, shall we say, off the books.”
“Illegal? These fights are illegal?”
“Bingo. Hence, why you won’t see a billboard erected advertising them. Kind of makes him hotter, knowing he may be committing a felony, doesn’t it?”
“God help me, it kind of does.”
So, that’s where he ran off to. His big plans for the day. Maybe also why he was so afraid to show me his face. It seemed to be his schtick.
“Let’s go tonight.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Tonight. Jem has to work, but how about you and I go? We’ll get as close to the ring as possible, making sure he sees you. Maybe we’ll get lucky and his mask will come off, or someone there will know him by his real name.”
A part of me wanted V to be the one to tell me who he really was. To rip off the mask and let me see his face because he cared enough to show me. But maybe his knowing the jig was up would be enough to escalate that “soon” to a now.
“Let me check the video. If it’s him, then let’s go.”
“That’s the answer I was looking for.” I could almost see Katy jumping up and down in their living room. “I’m going to let you go then, so I can hop in the shower to shave, well, damn near everything with the hope this night is productive for the both of us.”
“See you soon. Tell Jem thanks.”
I ended the call, scrolling through my apps until I landed on the clock app and opened it, finding Jem’s tag in my notifications.
Well, it’s now or never.
A tap of the finger on the video, and I was watching in awe while a fighter, probably even larger than Cole, entered the ring.
He wore a simple mask, not as elaborate as V’s, and it appeared as though he’d forgotten the assignment and had grabbed what he could find at the nearest gas station to turn into a mask.
Not that anyone was really paying attention to that because the rest of him full-on aced the rest of the assignment.
That was it. I’d stumbled on FightTok, and there was no turning back. Rest in peace to the version of Ever that had existed five minutes ago. New Ever has leveled up.
I’d become so fixated on the man in the ring that at first, I didn’t notice the other masked man step inside.
His back was to the person taking the video, but even from behind, I knew it was him.
My body knew it was him, and the ache between my thighs was responding accordingly.
V turned around, revealing the mask I’d come to recognize as the face of the stranger who’d brought about feelings from deep within me that were far more complicated than they should be.
Commencing at his chest and curving down across his body was the forest of evergreens I’d found myself getting lost inside, never to emerge again.
V stood at the opposite side of the ring from his opponent, who must have been the long-lost lovechild of The Incredible Hulk and a sequoia tree. No slouch himself, V’s tall, muscular body was foreboding, but I still failed to see how this was going to be a fair fight.
A man dressed in a tight black t-shirt and camo pants stood in the middle of the ring, serving as an unofficial referee.
Around the warehouse hosting the event, the noise level had become so loud that I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but with a raised hand, he’d apparently signaled the fight to begin because V and the titan began sparring with each other.
I closed my eyes when V’s opponent took the first swing, afraid to watch him get torn to shreds by the Jolly Green Giant, hiding my face every time the two of them began trading punches.
After V landed a decent punch to the man’s face, I willed myself to watch the two of them continue their dance around the ring.
The Goliath to V’s David was large, no doubt, but his coordination was nowhere near what V’s was, and V was able to make him stumble a couple of times around the ring.
He may be at a disadvantage as far as size compared to his opponent, but when it came to skill, V was wiping the floor with this guy.
And then, it happened.
One wrong move from V’s opponent left his arms flailing and his head particularly vulnerable, giving V just enough time to deliver the uppercut heard around the world.
When his fist met Tall Dark and Clumsy’s jaw, the man fell to the mat like a tree in the wind to thunderous applause from the audience and an explosion in my ovaries.
Okay, Rocky Balboa, I see you. You thought you could hide from me, but you didn’t count on me being able to match your freak. Watch out, V. The stalker is about to become the stalkee.