“Daddy,” I whisper even lower, but I can hear the way my voice cracks when he doesn’t respond to me. Like darts, those beautiful dark brown eyes meet mine.
I’m able to understand Ty. I’m able to know what he’s thinking just from how he looks at me. But now I realize that he’s alwaysletme in. That whole ‘closed-off’ thing he does to everyone… Now I know he waschoosingto let me see him.
Because right now, it’s like looking at a blank slate.
Like he doesn’t even know who I am.
“Don’t call me that.” His words are sharp and clipped as he steps closer, so close that we’re almost touching. His blank expression shifts into something a little more…aggressive and I involuntarily take a step back. “You’re nothing, Roxanne. Nothing. A fun little play thing to tide me over until I could fight again. Should’ve never borrowed you from Mickey. He was right, you’re a shit lay and a liar on top of that.” Ty scoffs and twists the dagger in my heart a little more. “You thought you belonged? It was just a play to fuck the girl who left me behind in high school. What a waste of time.”
My nostrils flare in rage and disappointment, in betrayal and despair, as I swing at him quickly. My fist connects with his jaw and I take some sick pleasure in watching him stumble back.
“Oh wow, look at the little girl trying to fight,” Ty says, spitting at the ground and squaring up. “Come on, is that all you got? I thought you were better than that.”
“Who the fuck are you?” I snarl, swinging at him again, but he ducks out of the way this time.
“The same person I’ve always been.”
“We both know that’s a lie,” I say through clenched teeth and duck as he throws out a jab.
The crowd fades into a dull roar, a wall of sound that’s familiar and eerie in this moment.
All I see is him.
The man I love…the man I’ll do anything for, showing me his true colors.
Have I really been this wrong all along? Is all that we’ve been through really just been a ploy?That thought is almost enough to bring me to my knees in agony.That motherfucker. That absolute piece of dog shit motherfucker. I’m going to…My sadness turns to anger as I glare at him.
Ty steps toward me; slowly, deliberately. And I watch him just as closely. I’m not losing this fight. Not now that I know he’s been using and lying to me this whole time.
His weight shifts onto his back leg, hands lifting into a loose guard. And that pisses me off.
A loose guard, as if I’m not an actual threat to him.
Ty gives the faintest twitch on his left shoulder–a fucking feint. I bite on it and bring my guard up just as he snaps a right straight hook toward my jaw. I jerk back quickly, eyes wide as I stare at him in disbelief. His knuckles just barely skim my cheek, heat blooming where they graze.
This asshole! He could have broken my cheekbone!
But…Why didn’t he?
I throw out my fist on instinct, bending slightly with a quick jab to his ribs. Ty doesn’t make a sound, but I can feel his torso tighten beneath my knuckles. He steps back with a grunt that feels too loud, too…performative. But he lifts his hands, ready to go again.
Ty closes the space in a rush. With a low kick toward my thigh—sharp, fast, but with much less intensity than I was expecting.
“What the hell are you doing?!” I snap over the roaring crowd. Looking over quickly, I see Mickey smirking sinisterly, his arms crossed over his dirty shirt like a fucking goon.
Fucker tries much too hard to be intimidating. So much so that he just looks stupid.
“I’m winning this fucking fight because I’m so sick of you!” Ty snaps back at me, sending out a hook arc toward my temple.This is going to hurt,I think and jerk back to brace myself for the blow.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see his wrist slow just before it collides with my cheek.
Oof, fuck.That’s going to leave a fucking mark, but I know… I know that a hit from him at this distance should’ve resulted in a cracked cheekbone. The pain blooms and warms my cheek as a bruise is already darkening. I feel a drop of something warm on my skin, but I can’t focus on it right now. I can’t…because his dark eyes are closed off and he’s dancing around me.
I pivot and swing a cross jab square to his jaw as hard as I fucking can.
He wants to play, we can play.
It connects, harder than I thought, but with enough intensity to send a jolt up my arm. Ty’s head snaps sideways, but he rolls with it, shaking it off.
