Gentleman Sinner(102)

I remember how Stan said he missed the bloodshed, and like a fucked-up kind of spiritual summoning, I see Stan in the crowd, grinning up at the cage, his tattooed face looking more menacing than ever. He helped set this up. He gave Trystan the pass to the Playground. He got him here. Theo’s fury when he came down to the club earlier was because his men told him Trystan was here. It makes sense now.

I jolt forward when someone collides with my back, and I turn to find Judy holding on to Andy’s arm, looking up at the cage. ‘Andy, you have to stop him,’ she pleads, turning to him, begging.

‘How, Judy?’ her husband asks. ‘How do you suggest I do that?’

‘I don’t know,’ she shouts. She’s so upset, the cool woman becoming deranged with worry.

My dazed face turns slowly back towards Theo, and then across to Trystan. ‘What’s this?’ Trystan asks warily.

‘We’re gonna fight,’ Theo growls.

‘I don’t think so.’ Trystan laughs nervously. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him looking threatened.

‘I do,’ Theo says, wandering over to him, rolling his big shoulders. ‘I promise I won’t kill you,’ he vows menacingly, yet everything inside me tells me he just made a promise that’s evaporated into thin air. ‘Recognize that woman?’ Theo asks, pointing towards me. Judy takes my hand as everyone turns to face me. ‘That’s my girl,’ Theo says quietly. ‘My fucking girl!’ His roar is deafening, his body suddenly quaking before he gathers himself and breathes in deeply, his huge chest expanding as his fists clench in preparation.

I shrink, looking for somewhere to hide when Trystan looks across to me, realization dawning on his nasty face. He sneers. ‘You set me up?’

Theo shrugs casually. ‘I’ll give you first punch,’ he says, turning away from him. ‘I’m a fair fighter.’

The whole place erupts into chaos, but Theo . . . Theo just smiles – a smile full of evil and intent. Trystan is about to experience pain like nothing else. I know it the moment Theo’s eyes meet mine before he closes them.

‘Oh my God,’ Judy gasps. ‘No, you stupid man!’ She turns to Andy, clenching at the front of his shirt and hiding her face. I look up to her husband, finding him staring with haunted eyes over my shoulder at Theo. His arm wraps around Judy’s back, comforting her. ‘I can skim over unlawful fights, Judy. Keep the police away,’ he murmurs. ‘But I’ll never get away with hiding murder.’ His eyes close, like a million bad memories are attacking him. ‘Not again.’

My blank face stares at the couple, my mind trying to process what’s been said. Murder. Not again. Oh my God. ‘Judy!’ I yell, pulling her from Andy’s hold, forcing her to face me. There are tears streaming down her perfectly made-up face.

‘He . . . he . . .’ she snivels, and I search her eyes, frantic for more than that.

I shake her, my desperation getting the better of me. ‘What, Judy? Tell me, please.’

Checking around us, she moves in close, her voice dropping. ‘His father. He used to punch Theo when he wasn’t looking, said it would build the resilience and awareness. Said it would toughen him up.’ Her words fade, and she looks across to the cage, flinching. ‘It went on for years.’ My fear heightens. ‘Until Theo killed him.’

I jump back like I’ve been electrocuted. ‘No.’ Ice spreads like wildfire through my veins, and I whirl around, just as Trystan launches himself at Theo’s back.

Cheers explode.

Carnage breaks out.

And Theo turns into the killing machine I know now he really is.

His whole body engages, his muscles, his mind, his fists, and he swings around, cracking Trystan on the jaw with a rock-solid punch, sending him sailing through the air with a bloodcurdling yell. I see a broken jaw before I see a few teeth spray into the air. Trystan lands on his back with a thud, the crowd cheering like a bunch of bloodthirsty sickos. It’s ugly. Yet Theo’s animalistic movements are almost artistic in their unfolding. There’s nothing uncontrolled about them. Nothing unplanned or wild. I can see the look of intent on his face. He knows exactly what he’s doing, and that is far more frightening than the frenzied actions of the uncontrolled man that I’ve witnessed before. He has a plan. From the moment I lost my composure in that tattoo studio and refused to feed his need for an explanation, he was on a mission. I should have known he’d get to the bottom of it.

And now he’s going to kill it.

My bottom lip begins to tremble, the outcome of this mess set in stone, history wrote before it’s written. There’s nothing anyone can do to save Trystan. He’s trapped in that cage with a monster who won’t stop until he’s finished. I fear Theo will never be finished. He killed his own father. Turned on him. Punished him for hurting him. Trystan really is a dead man.

I turn at the sound of a quiet sob, Judy’s sob, and find Andy looking full of dread as he tries to comfort his wife. Judy’s eyes turn to mine, filled with tears. ‘There was only so long he would take his father’s torment before he snapped,’ she says, sniffling over her words. ‘I don’t blame my boy. His dad got what was coming to him. He was a cruel, cruel man.’

The irony of it all doesn’t escape me, even in the midst of destruction. Theo’s father longed for his son to be his formidable successor. Went to extreme lengths to ensure it happened. And became a victim of the brutality he forced into Theo. The reason for Theo’s handicap is shining like a bright diamond before me, cut and freshly polished. Theo never wanted to be this way. It’s his father’s doing, and a part of me – an unreasonable part, because it has to be unreasonable – can’t help but feel like his father got what he deserved.