The air was thick with tension, but all I was focused on was the man in front of me. Whether this was for me or for Ayda, I wasn’t sure, but as I stood there completely still and watched him bounce to life in front of me, it was clear he’d been waiting longer for this than I ever realized.
Time seemed to stand still. I was unmoving and unblinking as I glared at him, both hands down by my sides, waiting for him to make his move. It didn’t take much longer, and when Kenny launched himself forward, pushing up on the balls of his feet as he swung his right fist across my jaw, it was on.
The pain erupted in my face, and before I could even think about what he was doing next, Kenny’s left arm swung until his knuckles connected on the other side, sending my neck snapping back in the direction it had just come from.
The kid was a real firecracker off the bat, smashing his jabs into my chest as he waited for me to attack. But I stood firm, tensing the abs in my stomach and accepting his blows one after the other, after the other. Every finger curled back and forth into the palms of my hands as I took his aggression, twitching, grunting, ready to take more and more.
After a good combination of hits to the center of my stomach, I stumbled back three steps, coughing out the aftershocks of the hits he’d driven into my flesh. Under different circumstances, I’d have been impressed.
My smirk took over one side of my face as I looked up at him and raised a brow. “Nicely done.”
“Screw you.”
“You finished?”
“No,” he choked out. The look I was wearing was causing the exact effect I wanted it to. Within seconds, I had my arms up, my head bobbing from side to side as I fended off his next outburst. He hit right, then left, then right again, relentlessly trying to knock me on my ass as he worked harder than he ever had before. His face turned purple as he forgot to breathe, and as much as I wanted to remind him that I’d taken bigger beatings before breakfast while in prison, I knew he needed to think he was winning.
He needed to think he was better than me and more deserving of her.
I could grant him that for just a minute.
Pulling back, he danced on his toes, rolling his head fromside to side as his nostrils flared and he struggled to pull in enough air through his gritted teeth.
My chest heaved as I struggled to catch enough oxygen of my own, and as he took a second to collect himself, I bent over and pushed my fists into my knees, glancing up at the men all around me that were looking at me as though I’d lost my goddamn mind.
Slater was the only one who closed his eyes and let his chin drop to his chest.
Straightening my back to stand taller, I puffed out my chest and let my head fall to the side. Kenny had gotten more hits to my face and body than any man on the outside had in years. He could count himself a hero already, but something about the look in his eyes told me he wasn’t quite there yet.
“Not bad,” I breathed out.
His face set to murderous. “I don’t need your motherfucking approval.”
“You need to work on your sly kidney punches though, brother. Bit sloppy.”
“Do not patronize me.”
“I’m not here to patronize you. I’m here to let you get a few things off your chest.”
“Fuck you, Drew,” he wheezed.
My lips curled at both edges as I stepped closer. The throbbing in my face, my ear, my stomach and my chest was pretty intense, but it was my drug. Despite how much I tried to convince myself that this wasn’t who I was, I couldn’t deny it. I was all about the macho bullshit, as Ayda called it. Nothing was ever going to change that. Not even domestic life.
“Admit you hate me,” I said quietly, dipping my head down to his level as the two of us struggled to speak throughour heavy breaths.
“I hate you.”
“Because I’ve got what you want, right?”
He didn’t answer. Kenny’s eyes searched mine frantically. I would have felt sorry for him had the anger not been drowning all that shit out.
Standing up taller, I waited him out. It took all of three seconds for his own frustrations to boil over and for him to snap. He swung for me, my left arm rising in the air to block him one final time before I threw all my power and weight into my right fist and hit him square across the jaw.
Kenny stumbled back instantly, his face creasing up as he tried to find his feet and his fight, but I didn’t give him chance. Taking two steps forward, steps that felt like they shook the earth, I rolled my shoulders forward and hit him again. Right. Left. Right.
Then he was down. Falling to the side, his eyes rolled backwards as his head bounced off the floor and his body crumpled in on itself.
I stood over him, my fists down by my sides as I watched his arms come up to defend the yet to be broken bones of his face. Whatever he’d just suffered, he knew there was more to come. Someone beside me took a step into the circle, but quickly thought better of it before stepping back.
