Jax by E. M. Moore
24
Ifail at blocking punches but it doesn’t really impact the last round because we circle one another a lot. She wrestles me to the ground, and we squirm to make it look good. She’s either tired herself out, or she’s realized she doesn’t want to put me through the wringer anymore. We’re just making it look good for Psycho.
At least, that’s what it seems like to me in my confused, tired, achy state.
When the bell rings, she’s declared the obvious victor. If she did throw the last round for me, she showed me more compassion than I showed her, and I owe her big time. For now, at least, Psycho doesn’t give her shit for the last round because she won. He holds her hand in the air and kisses her like he needs her to live while I stumble back to the threesome who have done more for me in the last couple of weeks than anyone ever has.
“When he said block, he didn’t mean block with your face.”
“Ha. Ha. Finny,” I manage to get out as Leenie drags over a chair so I can basically fall into the seat. My head pounds as if there are trolls with tiny hammers inside going to town on every square inch. I take in a few deep breaths but the blood dripping from my nose and face gets in the way, and I end up spluttering instead.
“I got her,” Jax says. “Ready Leenie.”
I sit up. Leenie? “Leenie what?”
“She’s next,” Jax says as Finn goes over to his girlfriend and speaks to her. Now that I’m paying attention, she’s wearing an exercise tank top and pants. Her hands are wrapped with hot pink tape. I try to move off the stool, but Jax holds me back. “She wants to. Let her do it.”
“No,” I say, panicking now. I can barely see her through my swollen eyes but this isn’t right. “Her brother—”
“Right,” Jax says sternly. “Her brother will absolutely murder all of us if she gets hurt which is exactly why she isn’t going to get hurt.” His words are firm but the worried expression on his face says otherwise.
I catch Leenie’s eye and shake my head at her. “You don’t have to.”
“Please,” she says with a slight eye roll. “Do you think I’m going to let these guys get all the glory? No way. I’m in it to win it. I’m sure I picked up a few things by working at the shop.”
“Jax,” I say desperately, still trying to fix this. Leenie shouldn’t have to fight for me. Actually, none of them should.
Jax crouches down once more. He’s managed to stop the bleeding from my head and gently guides my jaw to look at him. “Listen, we needed a fourth. It’s the only way he would do it.”
“He won’t let you guys win,” I warn.
Jax cocks a grin. “Don’t you worry, Sadie. We’ve got this.”
“Even if you do win—”
“Open up,” he urges. He pops a few pills into his palm and then readies a water bottle. “Take these. It’ll help for now until we can get you looked at. When my time in the ring comes, don’t worry, I’m going to make him pay for what he did to you.”
“Jax, this isn’t—”
“Shh,” he soothes me. “Trust someone else once in a while. I’m telling you we have this handled, so we have it handled,” he says sternly.
“Are we fighting or what?” a gruff voice complains.
Psycho’s narrowed gaze glares in our direction. It might be the fact that I can’t see clearly out of my one good eye, but it sure looks as if he’s staring at the areas where Jax and I connect. He’s probably internally planning how to take Jax down.
“Ready,” Leenie grins devilishly, and god damn, she’s hot. The girl is on fire. She walks into the center of the room as if she owns the damn place. One of the girls follows her to the center of the room, and I cringe. She’s a big girl. Psycho uses her as a ploy. Sometimes, he has her look as if she’s beating one of our smaller girls up. Gain sympathy. Redirect. If he’d put me in the fight with her, I wouldn’t have felt bad about kicking her ass. She never liked me and always did everything she could to try to extricate me from Psycho. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was jealous of me.
None of that matters right now as Leenie walks up to her like she’s been a fighter her whole life. With her brother as the leader of the Dragons, I imagine she’d have to be tough just to put up with him, but it also makes me wonder about how she grew up. There are two types of families in the Heights: Worse and Worst.
Leenie lands the first punch. She’s super fast and is in and out before the other girl comprehends. Finn yells in celebration like it’s his prized fighter in there. His hands are in his mouth, practically demolishing his fingernails as he watches. He won’t stand still, moving with the two of them who are going at it now, fists flying. Leenie lands more punches than the other girl, using speed to her advantage in offensive and defensive moves.
Jax, still kneeling next to me, watches the fight with worry lines. He’s much more somber than his brother as he examines their movements but that’s always been his way. I can tell he cares for Leenie like a sister, and hell, I’m beginning to too. The fact that any of them are doing this for me is mind boggling.
“How are we getting out of here?” I ask, trying not to move my lips very much in case Psycho is watching. “We have to be able to escape because it doesn’t matter if we win or lose, we’re losing. Psycho won’t let us walk out. He’s not that type of guy.”
“We’re all walking out of here,” Jax assures me. “We’re doing it Psycho’s way. This is how he wanted it. He thinks he can beat us. That night at the Ring gave him false confidence.”
And I’ve already put us behind by not fighting Psycho’s new girl. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do it.”
Jax turns toward me, his face pulling taut. “Don’t apologize. That was the most unselfish thing you’ve ever done, and I’m damn proud of you. It makes me hope…” He trails off, still holding my gaze, and if I wasn’t so bruised up, I’d launch myself at him right now. “It makes me hope,” he says finally.
The bell rings, and Leenie starts to turn. Big Girl gets in a late punch, catching Finn’s girl in the jaw completely on purpose if her smirk has anything to say about it. Leenie stumbles forward but Finn is right there to keep her on her feet. “Hey, what the fuck!” he protests.
“Oops,” Big Girl says, an evil smile turning her lips.
Finn hands Leenie off to Jax, who’s now standing, and heads right for Psycho. “Hey, no bullshit. We agreed on the bare minimum rules, and that’s one of them.”
Psycho doesn’t admonish the other girl, just shrugs his shoulders as if to half-heartedly agree that it won’t happen again but I don’t have high hopes.
Finn’s face is a mottled mask of red as he turns and stalks back toward us. “I’m going to kill him,” he growls.
“Get in line, brother,” Jax answers with a menacing voice of his own.
“I’m fine,” Leenie protests. “Really. Bitch just caught me off guard. Don’t go ruining this. We totally have it.”
I’m not worried about them winning the fights. I’m really not. After watching the fights at the Ring and then comparing them to what I’ve seen these guys do here, Jax and Finn are on a whole other playing field. I’m not saying that these other guys won’t fight dirty and prove me wrong but if the fight is fair, we should have no problem taking them out.
Leenie gazes up at Finn with a huge grin. “You know, this is kind of fun. I should do this more often.”
Finn can’t help but smile even though I’m sure that’s the last thing he wants to do. He’s been a nervous wreck since she went out there. Smartly, he doesn’t say a word about it and merely inclines his head at her statement. He gives her last-minute advice, and before it even seems like too much time has passed, the bell rings, and Leenie walks back out there again.
Psycho’s side gains electricity, a hum producing momentum until they’re all cheering for Big Girl. Finn tries to shout over the noise, and it doesn’t take long to realize that’s their tactic. Disrupting the lines of communication between Leenie and Finn might force her to make a mistake but thankfully, it doesn’t impact Leenie at all. She punches her opponent square in the face, catching her off kilter. She stumbles back, and Leenie takes full advantage of the situation by following after her, gaining top position on the ground where she pummels the girl. After a moment, she stops, hand held high in the air. “She’s out,” Leenie says, looking toward Psycho and then finally at Finn. “Out cold.”
“Keep going,” Psycho snarls.
“I said she’s out,” Leenie argues.
Big Girl opens her eyes and throws Leenie onto her back. Leenie has a split-second to cover up before the bell rings, and Finn wastes no time going out into the middle to make sure his girl doesn’t get caught with a cheap shot again. Thankfully, I don’t think her opponent could do it if she tried. She most definitely was out because she staggers toward Psycho who looks at her like he wants to kill her. He pushes her onto the stool and then grabs her hair to get in her face.
Leenie misses the whole thing as Finn leads her back to our side. I’m glad she didn’t witness that because we can’t afford to lose another fight, and if Leenie saw that, she might start to feel bad.
In the chaos, I seek out Psycho’s girl. She’s leaning against the wall, an ice pack on her knuckles. She glowers into space like she’s not really seeing what’s in front of her.
If I could, I’d save all these people. Well, I’d rescue the savable and the salvageable. Psycho is too far gone, but who knows about the rest of them? Tiron might chill the fuck out if he didn’t have Psycho’s influence, as would a lot of these people.
Then again, maybe it’s only me who feels like Psycho has gone too far. Well, me, Lyla, and the new girl. Two of us get to live with his depravity day in and day out. It’s possible the others don’t see it like that, and it’s also a possibility that whatever they’re living with here is better than what they came from. I can never forget that fact because that’s what drew me in from the beginning. It took me leaving and living with Jax to understand what really mattered again.
When Leenie goes back out for the third round, Jax comes back to me, kneeling at my feet. I reach down and tangle my fingers with his like we used to when we were kids. It’s such a simple gesture but the meaning behind it goes so deep. Feeling connected to someone on a whole other level is what life is about.
He squeezes my fingers back, and we both watch the fight until Leenie lands a solid punch square in her opponent’s jaw. Psycho can’t refute what happens next. The girl topples like an ancient monument. She doesn’t stop herself. There are no windmill arms trying to keep her balance or outstretched hands trying to catch her fall. She falls right on the side of her face and stays there.
“Now she’s definitely out,” Leenie barks in Psycho’s direction. “One to one.”
“Get your whore ass away from me,” Psycho grinds out.
I move before the rest of them. Maybe it’s because I know the look in his eye but he means to hurt Leenie, and I’ll be damned if he does it under my watch. “Move the fuck back,” I snarl, lining up with him face-to-face.
He smirks but his attention immediately veers past my swollen face, and I know that Jax and Finn have my back. “She won despite the cheating.”
I reach down and grab Leenie’s hand and thrust it in the air like they did when his new girl won against me. I walk her around the room with her fist in the air, and most of Psycho’s followers glance away. Some of them spit at our feet. His loyal groupies, I guess. But still more look at Leenie and I like we actually are the real winners. Not that they would ever outwardly show it.
When we’re done, I limp back to our side where we find the two brothers grinning at us like lovesick fools. “I think you’re going to get lucky tonight,” I whisper to my new best friend.
“Girl, I better. I also need a massage and my nails done.”
“I owe you,” I tell her.
“Fuck that. We’re family. You don’t owe me shit.”
Leenie barely gets the words out before Finn’s body collides with hers in a massive hug. She winks at me over his shoulder, and it’s enough to deaden the pain for a little while.
