Run From Me (Barbed Wire Hearts #2)

19. Xander

NINETEEN

xander

I flexed my hands, the tape pulling at my knuckles, tightening, just like the anger writhing inside me. All of my senses were on high alert.

“This isn’t right, and something is really fucking wrong with this event. No one’s got money on it that we can find. And the matches?” Zeid said, leaning closer to me like someone might hear.

I looked at Zeid, his shirtless look matching mine. His knuckles were taped up just like mine too. Fucking twinning.

“You think? Cas not being listed? Strange really. Good for Rylee, sure,” I said scanning over the space. This was strategic, and who, other than the Spectors, had the ability to do that?

“Did anyone dig up who owns this park?” I asked.

The arena was set up in the middle of an abandoned amusement park. A massive tent that screamed a little bit circus and a little bit outdoor funeral. Better than a wedding, I guess. The black tent wouldn’t stand out from a distance, exactly what was required if this were an official illegal event.

“It’s owned by some fucking shell operation. It’s going to take our guys more time to do some digging. Lucky for us, they like to dig,” Zeid said.

“Yeah. Well, if shit goes down, they might be digging a lot more up than just the ownership of some creepy fucking carnival.”

Zeid just nodded as we both scanned the tent. For having been some crazy-secretive fight that seemed to benefit no one, there were more people showing up. It still seemed empty if it were meant to make money. The closer we watched the people though, well shit.

“How many people do you see looking strung out and high?” I asked. “You see what I see?” I asked Zeid.

He nodded. We tracked every move. These people didn’t have money.

“We need to fish out whoever is in charge. This is no longer a suspected shit show. It’s some kind of setup. No bombs though. Nothing quick to kill everyone. Our boys have checked every fucking corner. Under that ring even,” Zeid said.

Cas was around here somewhere, and neither of us liked him being separated from us.

That fucking ache in the pit of my stomach was sitting there like it wore cement shoes and couldn’t come up to the surface. Something was wrong, but I just couldn’t put my finger on what it was.

I jerked my head back to the ring as an announcer yelled into a mic.

“Welcome to the first annual Battle of Tithes.”

I glanced back as Cas’s hand landed on my shoulder.

“I have the crew on standby. None are here as spectators. They’ll be waiting at all exits. Look for the red.”

I nodded and went back to watching the announcer. We had escape plan after escape plan. Just like I had guys watching Cali’s place. I didn’t like leaving her, but I also didn’t like the idea that I didn’t like leaving her.

Fuck. I didn’t like that I wouldn’t have fought the idea of sleeping next to her tonight. Maybe I needed to.

The announcer called my alias. Sure, we knew what we looked like, but it was best that names were kept out of this.

“The Butcher vs. the Hammer.”

I was the Butcher because I was damn good at making sure no one was recognizable. I was good with all weapons, but my fists? I flexed my hands again as I pushed away everything around us.

“Xander, who is that?”

I looked back at Zeid as I saw who I was fighting.

“New blood?”

The guy didn’t have enough tattoos or scars to make this even look legit.

“Someone is setting us up,” I whispered over the cheer of a crowd that had no idea what they’d walked into.

“Nah, someone is setting you up. You’re the first fight of the night,” Zeid pointed out.

I got into the ring and bounced on the balls of my feet as I warmed up. These fights weren’t anything like professional ones, but something about the way guy moved screamed professionally trained. His movements were too clean.

I inched toward the center as the announcer called us forward.

We met in the center, and I smiled like the sweetheart I was.

“Never seen you before.”

He smirked.

“You won’t make it out of this ring alive tonight.”

I cocked my head, watching his every shift and move, clearing my mind of everything in the room. Only here could I let all my demons out to play. The ones that screamed to be let free. It had been too long. Ripple had merely been a snack for my damned soul.

“Good, I was hoping you felt that way,” I said as I popped in the mouth guard I had the sense to wear just as the announcer stepped away and a bell rang.

“What, no ring girl?” I said.

The guy smirked, but didn’t look around. For me it was just one more red flag that this wasn’t a fight for the crowds.

Circling the ring, I let everything go.

There was no more shady ring. No more missing ring girl. No more questions. Just me and something to kill.

I didn’t throw the first punch. I wanted to play a game. I wanted to drag this shit out.

The fucker was quick, and after several dodged blows, he landed one to my ribs. The pain fueled me. I needed the bite of pain.

Whatever the look on my face, it might have been what caused him to pause a split second before I countered with a right hook, catching him in the throat. He stumbled back as I caught him with a cross punch to the chest.

I sneered as my opponent recovered and shot back, but I moved quickly, only letting him clip my shoulder. Strike after strike was getting him nowhere and me everywhere. There were no real rules here. No rounds. No pay off to leave anyone alive.

And if there were? I didn’t fucking care as I landed a kick to his ribs.

I needed to draw out a rat. Who had hired a fighter? Who had set this up?

Blood dripped from the split in his eyebrow. Red went flying as I landed a kick to his side. We danced around and around. He watched me, and that confidence that had sparkled in those pretty eyes of his before? There was nothing there but indecision now.

He lunged, and I moved, catching his arm in a hold that brought his body under me.

He flailed, trying to get me.

“Tell me, darling. Who hired you? You aren’t from the streets, that’s obvious.”

He grunted as I brought him into a chokehold.

He didn’t say much.

“Did they pay you enough to die?” I asked.

The guy tapped my forearm.

“You calling it quits? I really hate that for you. We don’t have quits.”

I released him though because I wanted to see if he was going to answer anything for me. Might as well continue to wear him down. A flash of rainbow caught my eye, and that split second gave him a chance to strike back. A turn of my head, and he was able to land a punch to my temple at an awkward angle, but it was still hard enough it knocked me off balance and I fell to one knee.

He looked down on me and maybe he felt like he’d won.

“I’m done playing,” was all I said as I shifted forward, launching myself upward, and went straight for his head with a cross and an uppercut. He hit the floor, and this time when I got him in a chokehold, he wasn’t going to get back up.

Three. Two. One. The guy’s weight rested on me until I dropped him. I didn’t even wait for a winner to be announced. I didn’t wait to check and see if I had killed him.

I leaped over the shit rope and got my bearings. Where had I just seen her? It only took seconds to catch that flash of hair around the other side of the ring. The issue was that the second I found her, all hell broke loose.

Sirens sounded and the crowd turned into a mosh pit from hell.

“X, where are you going?”

Zeid was next to me, and I realized he hadn’t seen Calliope.

“Cali is here, and I don’t know why.”

He didn’t ask me anything, or maybe I wasn’t waiting. I took off toward where I had just seen her. My brothers would get out of here. I had to get to her. I was furious. She was told to stay put. What the hell? I wouldn’t even know if anyone had seen her because I didn’t have my damn phone. Fuck. Cas had everything, and I needed to get to her.

I shoved through people, one girl grabbing onto me.

“Help me.”

I shoved her away. She wasn’t my problem, and I was no knight.

I pushed through the fabric of the side of the tent and scanned the quieter space. This was the backside and no one was out here. Not yet anyway.

“Xander,” she cried out.

I’d barely heard her over the roar of chaos inside the tent, but it was all I needed. I caught sight of her hair again, and this time I wasn’t far behind. The bite of gravel and what the fuck else scratched at my bare feet with every step.

“Let her go,” I shouted as I grabbed an old, worn out bar on the merry-go-round that had been pieced out long before we got here. The way the bar was rusted enough to come loose from its hinges spoke to how long the elements had taken the last scraps of life here.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the big bad Spector. You’ll excuse me if I don’t give a shit what your name is. If you know this bitch, then do you know where my brother is?”

Calliope squeaked as he put a knife up to her neck.

“I’d suggest you drop that knife. No one hurts her but me.”

The guy laughed. “She denied knowing you. She denied knowing the guy that shot one of ours, and where the fuck is Ripple? I’d say the Spectors just declared war.”

“You think we just declared war? I was already certain that started when I killed Ripple. Took you long enough to catch on that he was dead.”

The commotion behind me wasn’t getting any quieter. Fuck. I needed to get her and get out of here.

“You… You killed my brother? I’m going to carve you up like a fucking turkey and then?—”

He didn’t get to say anything else as a bullet landed between his eyes. I lunged forward and grabbed Cali.

“Sorry about this,” I said as I tossed her over my shoulder and followed Zeid to where three red, pinpoint dots were visible near an abandoned shed of some kind.

We got to the bikes and I glared at one rider.

“Backpack him. She’s mine.”

He didn’t say shit and moved quickly to the other bike. I knew we were on borrowed time but he shifted anyway.

“Hang on,” I said to Cali as I straddled the bike, helping her get on behind me. I couldn’t hear her response, but her arms wrapped tightly around my waist as the two bikes took off and we followed a second later, winding a path I didn’t know existed. The sirens quieted the further we got. We slowed near the back of the park as one of the guys got off. He held long bolt cutters and was making quick work of the chain-link fence.

Sirens blared again, and I looked back in time to see headlights turn our way.

Fuck.

Seconds later though, the first bike went through, then us, and then the third, picking up the last of our crew as we drove away, the cop car stopping where the path ended.

What the fuck had we stumbled into, and who the hell would mess with all the gangs?