Trapped (Caged #2)(54)

Despite the spinning in my head and the sudden taste of blood in the back of my throat, I stayed upright. Keith Harrison was still in front of me with a half-crazed look in his single open eye and a bloodied knife in his hand. Everything around me seemed to slow down, including the gasping and screaming from the crowd. The sound was deep and long—like I was hearing it from across a lake or from the other side of a hill.

I realized the f*cker had just stabbed me.

I should have been shocked and horrified for a dozen reasons. One, how the f*ck did he get the thing into the cage? Yolanda searches everyone who comes in, even me. Two, how f*cking stupid could he be, stabbing me in front of a hundred witnesses?

I wasn’t shocked though. I was just pissed.

“Motherf*cker!” I yelled out as I reached forward, grabbed him by the head, and slammed his face down on my knee. His nose exploded in a shower of blood and screams, but I didn’t stop.

I threw him backwards, and he bounced off the chain links and right back to me. With one hand, I did something I had always refused to do in the past, but now I no longer cared—I grabbed him by the hair, yanked him down until his back was across my bent knee, and just started pounding on his face.

A strange tearing sound came from my side, and another sharp pain reverberated through my skin. I stumbled for a moment, and Keith dropped to his back in front of me. I kicked him solidly right in the middle of his face, and he flew against the edge of the cage. I slipped in blood then, stumbled a bit before regaining my balance, and then started toward him again.

I was going to kill the douchebag just like I wanted to the first day I laid eyes on him.

“Stop, Liam!” Yolanda’s voice commanded. I felt her hands wrap around my bicep and yank me backwards. That’s when her hands were joined by Wade and Gary’s, and the three of them hauled me away from the mess on the floor of the cage.

“Motherf*cker stabbed me!” I told her as I stumbled back. I shoved at their hands to get them off of me. Keith was crawling uselessly on the ground in a circle.

“No shit,” she responded. “Liam—you’re bleeding all over the place.”

“I am?”

My knees gave out, and I fell heavily on the cement ramp.

“Holy shit!” Gary gasped as he grabbed hold of me just before my head hit the ground.

“I can’t deal with this,” Yolanda said. Her voice was perfectly calm in a no-nonsense, professional way that scared me a bit. “Gary—lay him down gently. Tell Dordy to call 911, and bring me all the clean towels in the kitchen. Wade—hold him down.”

I tried to tell them I didn’t need help, but when I opened my mouth, I coughed up blood. My vision blurred, the lights of the bar brightened, and lots and lots of voices filled my ears. The clamor created a strange sound—like having two conch shells held against my ears. Only one voice managed to cut through the rest of the noise and make any sense at all.

“Liam! Liam! Oh my God!” Tria's voice echoed around the ceiling of the bar. I turned my head to try to see her, but that just made me nauseous.

“Stay still!” Yolanda huffed as she placed her hand on my chest. “There's an ambulance on the way.”

I wanted to ask her why she wasn't just driving me herself, but words were a little hard to form. My lips were all sticky and not moving right. My tongue felt weird, and my skin felt as if little bugs were crawling all over it. Gary handed Yolanda a bunch of towels, and she pressed them against my side.

Gasping, I flinched and then sat up partway as I tried to shove Yolanda off of me. Everything went blurry and swimmy again as I felt heavy arms push me back against the floor and soft hands cradle my face.

“Tria.”

“I'm right here,” she said. I turned toward her voice and finally found her dark eyes hovering above me. I wondered what she had been doing at Feet First and if she could have picked a worse night to show up. If she hadn’t already hated the fighting, tonight would pretty much make it a certainty.

Her eyes disappeared, and I heard another voice.

“Don't you see?”

I heard Keith as someone dragged him out of the cage and past where I was on the ground.

“This kind of thing happens all the time! You want a life like this?”

“Are you out of your f*cking mind?” she yelled at him. “What did you do?”

“I’m showing you what he’s like!” Keith screamed back. “He could die on you at any time! He might die tonight! Is that how you want to live your life? Just waiting for someone to hit him hard enough to kill off the rest of his brain cells?”

He tried to reach out for her, but she flinched.

“Get away from me!”

“Motherf*cking douche!” I tried to yell and sit up, but Wade and Gary were still holding me down.

“I'll get him if you stay still,” Wade informed me. I nodded, and the pressure of his hands left my skin. I couldn't see what was happening anymore as my vision blurred, and I blacked out.

When I could focus again, Tria was back in my view. Her face was covered in bright red and blue flashing lights, and she was talking to some guy in a uniform. The air around me was cool, and I wasn’t on the ground any more.

“Fucker stabbed me,” I mumbled as I looked around to try to get my bearings.

“I know, baby,” Tria said. I felt her fingers tighten on my right hand. “Wade got him. They're loading him into the other ambulance.”