Thicker Than Blood (Thicker Than Blood #1)(94)
“FINAL ROUND!” Jeffers roared. “Ding, ding, motherf*cking—DING!”
I didn’t know how I did it, how I managed to drag my broken body up off that stool and back into the ring. But somehow I did, found some remaining shred of will left inside me, forcing me onward, pushing me to see this thing to the end, even if it meant the end of me.
Gritting my teeth, my guard raised, I waited as Misty came for me, waiting for her fists to once again begin their relentless assault. And as I was waiting, somewhere beneath the roar of the crowd and the humming in my ears, I heard a scream, a loud and shrill ear-piercing scream that splintered my heart. It was Leisel screaming, and my stomach heaved with fear and worry—not for me, but for her.
You promised!
Spitting out a mouthful of blood, I wiped a hand across my eyes and readied my fists. Expressionless, beautiful, her slender body built to inflict pain, Misty ran past me, her small fists curled like solid rocks, waiting to strike. As she circled me, I turned with her, my eyes following her movements when I noticed a flash of light, a glint of something shiny in her fist as the sun touched down on it. I swallowed hard, tasting the metallic tang of my own blood, and realized that Alex was right. She was going to kill me; not beat me to a pulp, but actually end my life.
You promised!
Leisel’s words took on a life of their own, imbuing me with the knowledge that she did in fact still need me, despite her having Alex. More than anything, she still wanted me, and I was still worth something. That despite it all, everything that had been done to me, everything I’d allowed to be done to me, I was still worth something to someone. And I refused to let her down again.
My only advantage at this point was knowing how battered I already was and probably looked. As Misty stepped closer, I purposefully made a big show of struggling to catch my breath, staggering as I tried to remain standing upright. And then, as she stepped even closer, readying to swing, I attacked, catching her completely unaware as my fist connected with her face. My knuckles hurt from the impact, but God, it felt good to lash out like this. Despite my blurry eyes and ringing ears, the pain in my stomach and ribs, and the taste of blood in my mouth, it felt good to defend myself.
Surprised, her eyes wide, she stumbled backward, but before she could right herself, I sent my right foot straight into her knee and shoved as hard as I could, sending her sprawling backward.
She crashed to the ground, the back of her head slamming against the dirt. The crowd was suddenly silent as I leaped on top of her, going immediately for the small knife still held tight in her grip. Whereas her hands were battered from our fight, mine were not, and only because of this was I able to wrestle it away from her.
As she continued to struggle beneath me, I kept her pinned tightly between my thighs. I raised the blade high in the air and slammed it down straight into her chest. The crowd was silent now, so quiet that I could hear the tearing of her flesh, the crunching of her bones as the small but deadly knife broke through her chest cavity and slid easily into her heart. Blood gushed around the wound as her eyes rolled back in her head, showing white.
Leaving the knife in her chest, I pushed myself off her, panting hard, and stood to my full height, my entire body trembling with fear and fatigue. The crowd was still silent, their expressions ranging from shock to anger as the onlookers began to realize they’d just lost their golden girl, and with her, whatever bets they’d placed.
Liv was furious. Marching out of the ring, she headed straight for Jeffers, her pink hair whipping around her face like a ball of cotton candy caught in the wind. Immediately, she began yelling at him, though I had no idea what she was saying since my ears were still ringing. But he only shrugged in response, looking helpless in the face of her rage, which led me to think that it wasn’t really Jeffers who ran this place, but Liv, the rage behind the muscle.
Their fight ended nearly as soon as it had begun, with Liv slapping Jeffers hard across the face and whirling around to face me. She was glowering, fury and hate pouring from her in thick heavy waves that I could practically feel emanating from across the ring.
Lifting my hand in a halfhearted attempt at a wave, I tried to smile back, but I was far too tired, my features’ response as sluggish as my body’s. My right knee gave out, and just as my left one was following suit, strong arms hooked around my waist and scooped me off the ground entirely, cradling me against a hard chest. Through blurry eyes, I found Alex’s face only inches from my own, his features wrinkled with concern.
“You’re all messed up, Eve,” he said, frowning down at me. “But you did good out there.”
“Lei?” I whispered, my voice hoarse and cracking.
“Right here, Eve,” I heard her say, and felt her hand slip into mine. “Right here. Always.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Leisel
“Please don’t do this,” I pleaded, refusing to release Alex’s arm. “Please, you saw what almost happened to Eve, and you’ll be fighting two men. Two men, Alex! Two!”
Poor Evelyn had half a dozen stitches in her face, courtesy of a man I hoped had been an actual doctor at one point. Although, when I asked him for his credentials, he’d given me a sardonic smile and a loud snort.
Thankfully, legitimate doctor or not, he had an abundance of medication kept under lock and key, along with a dozen armed guards. Two mystery pills and five minutes later, Evelyn was unconscious. Alex had carried her to our room where I’d tried to clean her as best I could using a small bucket of water and a rag, at least managing to get most of the blood off her. After that, I’d simply crawled into bed beside her, and hummed to her while she slept.