Chapter Twenty-Nine
DREW
My bones sang—their song a haunting melody of pain that made the world tremor beneath my feet. The only thing I could see with any clarity was the bright balls of light flashing in the blind spot of my left eye.
The blood, although warm, felt cold against my skin.
Pain sliced through my ribs.
And then she said those two words.
End him.
It was that easy. That’s all I had to do.
My opponent swung again, and I swayed, a bout of good fortune landing in my lap, which forced the dude in front of me to miss and his body to rock forward. I saw Ayda again, her concerned face mouthing something else at me as her arms flailed around in front of her in a hurry.
I wanted to go to her—make love to her one last time.
I wanted to kiss her and taste her breath, feel her warm hands on my bruised skin and beg her to whisper something sweet in my ear before everything turned to black. A smile tried to tug at my mouth as I looked at her, but she was telling me to look elsewhere, and it was a good job she did. When I turned to look on my blind side, a fist was swinging my way,and I ducked under the flying arm in time to spin on my feet, see my enemy, and throw a punch in the guy’s kidney.
He groaned in surprise, and I launched, feeling the fight return.
One.
Two.
Three.
Bam, bam, bam.I made those punches count, my knuckles throbbing; split wide open, and my wrists aching from the force of the blows with no gloves on.
He was out on the ground soon after, but I didn’t have the drive to stamp on his head and crush his teeth into the concrete. All my energy needed to be saved now.
Tilting my head up to the ceiling, I felt my eyes roll back, and a rush of blood flow down my throat as I sniffed up. The need for air was desperate, and I gasped, pulling it in before I shook out the shock of my hits and let my head roll back down.
When I saw Trigger’s face, he looked like a lion that had just devoured an all-you-can-eat Zebra buffet.
“Jedd,” I croaked roughly, never taking my eyes from his.
“Now it’s getting interesting, Drew.” Trigger paced in front of me, but my balance was off. It felt like an ear had exploded, as well as my eye, and all I could feel, taste, hear, and see was blood.
I stumbled again, my footing making my body lean to the right before I corrected myself. “I said Jedd.”
“You’re one hell of a fighter, I’ll give you that,” he said quietly, thoughtfully, like the tactician he was.
“Save your compliments for someone who gives a shit, Trig, and get me my next fighter.”
“Drew!” someone called out to my right.
I recognized that voice, and my body turned on instinct, looking up to see my VP staring at me with pleading eyes. Everything else around him was fuzzy, and I struggled to takehim in as more blood poured out from the cut above my eye, forcing me to swipe the back of my hand across it to clear it away.
“You don’t owe anyone anything,” Jedd said calmly.
I stared at him as best I could, wishing I could tell him all the love I had for him and his unrelenting loyalty. I owed him everything. I owed them all everything.
“We can do this another way,” Jedd told me.
Raising a weak hand, I offered a shit smile and pointed right at him. “Do your job, VP. Get every fucker out of here before these bastards ruin us.”
