Full Contact (Redemption #3)(60)
“Shhhhh. It’s not his fault. Fuzz challenged him. Renegade tried to set it up at Redemption, and Torment said no for all the reasons you spelled out.”
“Well, at least someone had sense.” I glare at Renegade, and he returns my glare with a pained expression.
“It was me or a stranger,” Renegade says. “And the reason I agreed is because I’m his friend. I knew I could control the fight. I could pull my punches. I could take him down when I saw he was going to get hurt. Any other fighter in this ring would have done him some serious damage. I tried to save him from himself.” He looks at Ray. “We tried to save him. It was Ray’s idea.”
“You knew about it beforehand?” I spin to face Ray.
“The promoters tell the fighters a day before the event, so they have time to prepare.” He strokes his hand down my hair, and I close my eyes and grit my teeth.
“You knew and you didn’t tell me?” I rip myself out of his arms and my hands clench into fists. “How could you not tell me? I could have talked him out of it.”
“We had it under control. I didn’t want you to worry.”
Turning away, I snort. “Yeah. This is having things under control. So much better than me convincing him not to come here in the first place. Thanks for that, guys.”
The ambulance arrives, and I ride with Tag while Jess follows behind in my car. Tag is whisked away once we hit the emergency room doors, and Jess and I sit together in the waiting room. My stomach churns at the familiar scent of antiseptic and I am assailed by memories of the night I sat here with Tag. The night I met Jess. I squeeze her hand when I see her bottom lip tremble. She has bad memories of this waiting room too.
A short while later, we are joined by Rampage, Blade Saw, Torment, and Ray.
“He’ll be okay,” I say to them when they settle themselves on the seats across from us, more to convince myself than anything else. “He’s knocked himself out twice before. Once when he was playing touch football, and then again when he fell out of a tree house when we were little. He has a hard head and no brains inside it to speak of.”
Jess manages a half smile. “Are you going to call your parents?”
“After they tell us he’s okay. I don’t want them to worry.”
A tear slides down her cheek. “It makes my heart hurt to think he wanted to fight so bad he’d take that risk.”
I nod, but my heart doesn’t just hurt; it feels shredded and torn. He’s here because of me. He left fighting because of me. He deserved justice too, but he gave it up because I asked him to do it.
Ray sits with the other fighters, but he doesn’t talk to them. Instead he watches me. Far from making me uncomfortable, his presence is soothing, and the fact he is here makes me confused all over again.
Tag regains consciousness after an hour. The doctor says he’ll be okay but because he has a concussion, he’ll have to stay in the hospital overnight. I call Mom and Dad and they freak, but not as badly as they would have if I’d called before he woke. I let Jess go in to see him first, and then the fighters who are chomping at the bit. Ray stays in the waiting room with me.
Blade Saw offers to take Jess home, and she gives me a farewell hug. She says Tag was happy to see her and asked her to come for the next Sunday dinner to distract Mom from harassing him about the fight.
After everyone leaves, I step into Tag’s room. He’s pale and clearly in pain, but his anger is still there.
“That was f*cking humiliating. How am I going to teach now?” He shifts on the bed and winces.
“There weren’t that many people there. Mostly just the people who know you well.” I pause, wondering if this is really the best time to bring up his crazy behavior, and then I do. “Why did you do it?”
He hesitates, and then shrugs. “I wish we could live that night all over again. I wouldn’t take the easy road. I’d do everything I could to make that bastard rot in jail.”
My breath leaves me in a rush, and I sit on the chair beside Tag’s bed. “We didn’t take the easy road. At least, it wasn’t easy for me. But I don’t regret our decision to keep it quiet. Mom and Dad would never have recovered. They would have lost their house and their jobs, and who knows what would have happened to us? You remember all the threats and the bullying. Luke’s family has too much power.”
He scrubs his hand over his face and sighs. “I just can’t help thinking it’s dragging us down. We changed our lives, moved on, but it’s still there. He’s there. He took something from us that night. Maybe you would have wound up being a famous artist with shows all over the world. Maybe I would have become a pro fighter. We never had a chance to become who we were meant to be. Tonight, I thought I’d try and take it back. But it was too damn late.”
I’ve never heard Tag sound so defeated. He’s my rock. My fighter. My protector. My everything. Chest tight, I squeeze his hand. “Dad just texted. They’re just parking the car. I’m not up for seeing them, so I’m gonna take off. Do you want me to go by your apartment and pick anything up? I can come back later.”
“You can’t go to my apartment.” He cuts me off with a sharp tone. “I told you before.”
“But…”
“No.”
“Should I come back after Mom and Dad leave?”