I shrugged and closed my eyes. I had a headache coming on and needed to eat, and goddamn it I needed to keep my dick in my pants for a long while after this.
“Stay away from her. Under normal circumstances I’d have no choice but to tell Hammer, but where this bitch is concerned it’s best he don’t know. Not ever. You hear me?”
I nodded. “I hear you.”
“Good. Now keep it in your pants and don’t speak of this to anyone. Don’t fucking like doing this to Hammer, but he loves her, no matter what she does, and until he sees past her shit there ain’t nothing I can do about it.”
“Prez?”
“What?” he snapped, looking at me with a shake of his head.
“I’m sorry.”
He looked at me for a long minute, and I had no idea what he was thinking, but when he spoke again he didn’t look angry anymore.
“I know you are. Now go get some sleep. The fight is tomorrow, and you better win me some money.”
I nodded and stood up, heading towards the door. I turned back as I reached it. “Prez?”
“What now? you gonna tell me you fucked Hammer’s momma too?”
I smirked and shook my head. “No.”
“Good, cus that bitch is twice as crazy as Maria.”
“Thanks,” I said before turning to leave.
~ 13 ~
The room was dimly-lit and crowded as hell; people were shoulder to shoulder around the ring. I watched from the back of the room, seeing clubs of all colors talking and laughing, money being exchanged back and forth. It was the same thing I’d seen hundreds of times previously, only this time it was on a larger scale. Wasn’t too worried though. Fighting was fighting, and it was the one thing I did well, with no mistakes.
Bull was standing with half a dozen of my brothers, and he moved to shake Hardy’s hand as he threaded through the crowd. They exchanged some words and then Hardy shook Bull’s hand as they both looked my way.
Wasn’t entirely sure who I was fighting yet, but I’d been told it was a biker that was with a man called the Reverend. Not quite a biker club, but as good as. Dangerous, from what I could tell.
Their men stood on the opposite side of the room, their hard stares watching the Highwaymen like they were something they wanted to trample on. Didn’t like that one bit, and it made me more determined to teach this sorry motherfucker that got in the ring today a lesson.
After an hour or so, another man climbed into the ring with a microphone and announced my fight. I’d been waiting too long and my muscles were tense and sore from twitching, ready to draw some blood.
“We’ve got something special for you tonight, boys. A fighter all the way from Rapid City, fighting for the Highwaymen Las Vegas chapter…”
The rest of his words died off as I found Bull in the crowd and stared at him. I hadn’t told anyone where I was from, yet they had known. Bull nodded at me, his face expressionless. I wasn’t sure what that meant for me. Did he know what I’d done? And if so, did he care? He said family was everything to him—well if he knew where I had come from, then he must have known what I had done to mine.
The crowd of men were cheering and yelling as I made my way to the ring, pushed along by Wolf and Stone.
“You got this, brother,” Wolf yelled behind me.
I couldn’t tear my gaze away from Bull as I entered the ring and Wolf started to grease up my face and chest.
The ringmaster was introducing the other fighter, a man named Bench, and the crowd went crazy. Bench was a reigning champion and people had bet a lot of money on him by the sounds of it.
A shadow fell over me as we stood toe to toe and I finally tore my gaze from Bull to look at Bench. Almost wished I hadn’t. He was a big fucker. Arms as big as tree trunks, and muscles bigger than my head.
His stare was cold and empty, like I was nothing important and he didn’t have time for me or the fight. He briefly looked back over his shoulder at the Reverend seconds before the bell went.
I didn’t have time to react as he swung round with a heavy fist, smashing it into the side of my face and drawing blood immediately. I swayed on my feet, staggering a couple of steps as Hope’s face meshed with my mother’s in front of my eyes. Fuck, what was happening to me?
Another fist hit me on the other side of the face, and I felt a tooth come loose behind my tooth guard, blood filling my mouth. I was seeing two of everything and everyone, the roar of the crowd muffled in my ears. Only one sound prevailed amongst them all: my mother’s screams.
