Paxton's Promise (Gloves Off #3)(54)
His smile grew wider. “That’s what Rage wants and since you turned your back on us, I think it’s only fitting. Besides, he wants your girl and he’s made it abundantly clear that he’s not going to stop until he gets her.”
Darting for his neck, I didn’t get far before Camden’s arm draped around my body and Sniper’s gun pointed straight at my head. Breathing hard, I held out my arms, signaling my surrender. The gun lowered and Camden let me go.
“Rage isn’t going to touch her,” I hissed, pinning a lethal glare his way. “If he does, you both die.” The Reaper was back. And this time, I’d finish the job myself.
Scar chuckled and dismissed me with a wave of his hand. “Striker, take him away. The fight starts in fifteen minutes.”
Camden opened the office door and I stalked out, my pulse thundering out of control. I knew where I was about to go. “Dude, calm down,” he hissed.
I followed him down the hall to another door. Inside, was a chair and nothing else but a small window on the door the bidders could look through. Clenching my teeth, I marched inside. “I’d like to see you stay calm if it was your girl you were fighting to keep safe. But then again, you’ll probably never know what that’s like.”
Camden stood by the door and started to close it, his expression unreadable. “Probably not, but you need to focus. Make sure you put this f*cker down. I’m going to try and find Gabby.”
SOMETHING WASN’T RIGHT. The smell of the air, everything was off. Red firmly held my arm and pulled me along, but instead of cement beneath my feet, it was grass. There wasn’t supposed to be grass. “Where are we?” I asked. My body screamed for me to run, that danger was ahead.
Digging my feet into the ground, I tried to jerk out of his hold and lift the blindfold over my head, but his grip tightened even more. “Relax. We just took a little detour.”
“A detour? What the f*ck are you talking about? I’m supposed to be fighting.”
I walked up a couple of steps and then a door creaked. “Not tonight you’re not, but we do get to watch it.”
He helped me inside and the place smelled musty, like no one had been there in a while. “Watch it? I don’t understand.”
The ominous chuckle that escaped his lips made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up. “You’ll see, sweetheart. It’s going to be f*cking epic.”
He pushed me down in a chair and before I could relax my arms, he pulled them behind me and bound my wrists together. “What the f*ck are you doing?” I tried to jerk free, but it was no use. I couldn’t move and I couldn’t see. However, it didn’t stop there. When he started on one of my ankles, I panicked. Instinctively, I jerked up with my knee and clocked him in the nose.
“Stupid bitch,” he growled, slapping me across the cheek. My head snapped to the side and my eyes watered. It hurt like hell, and unfortunately, it caught me off guard. He used my hesitation to his advantage and finished tying me down. Now, I was completely at his mercy, or anyone else who decided to come along.
“You’re going to pay for that,” I hissed low. “I think it’s pretty pathetic you have to tie me up. Are you afraid I’m going to escape?”
“Hardly,” he scoffed. “Now shut the f*ck up.” Before I could come up with a reply, he left the room. My bag was still in his truck, so hopefully, the trackers would lead Mason and his team here. There had to be someone close by. Red came back in, and it sounded like he was setting something up in front of me.
It wasn’t until he lifted my blindfold that I saw what he was doing. It took a few seconds to adjust to the light and it didn’t help that my face stung. The room we were in was a living room with ratty navy furniture and smoke stained walls. I could even smell the stale stench of cigarettes in the musty, moldy air. There were no windows, but over Red’s shoulder I could see the kitchen . . . and a door. One way or another, I was going to escape out of that door. Red fiddled around with a laptop and once the video came into focus he set it down on the table.
“Are you ready for the show?”
Swallowing hard, I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from speaking. Dread settled in the pit of my stomach and the bile rose to the back of my throat, gagging me. The screen showed the fighting ring I recognized all too well. Two people were battling it out and blood was everywhere. There was no sound to the video and I was almost thankful I couldn’t hear the screams.
Averting my gaze, I turned to Red who watched on in fascination. Disgusting maggot. Why couldn’t he be in the ring getting the shit beat out of him? It didn’t take a genius to figure out what we were about to look at next. After this fight, it was going to be Paxton and Rage. They didn’t want me there so they could mess with Paxton’s head. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes.
“You’re not falling asleep are you? The most exciting part of the evening is coming up,” Red mentioned.
My eyes snapped open and I glared at him. “I don’t get off on watching people hurt and kill each other. Now, if it was you in the ring, I might have a different opinion.”
“Trust me, I’ve done some damage in there, but tonight isn’t about me. It’s about you.”
By the time I looked back at the screen, the fight was already over. I had no clue if anyone was killed, and I didn’t want to know. By the amount of blood on the mat, I’d say someone met their maker. Three men, dressed in hooded robes, sprayed off the mat with water hoses like nothing ever happened. Even through the screen I could smell the blood. Knowing Paxton was about to enter that same ring terrified the shit out of me.