Page 15 of Jax

Knuckles laughs. He’s goaded him right in. “I bet you’d like a little cock, wouldn’t you, pussy?”

I’ve seen enough fights in the real world to know when one is about to erupt. The guys on Finn and Jax’s team are heated now. Psycho’s guys are always nuts and ready to show people how big their dicks are for no apparent reason. It’s like lighting a match on a bunch of bone-dry kindling.

Finn puts a hand on his guy’s chest. “It’s all good.” He turns back to Psycho and Knuckles who’ve taken front. “If you don’t like it, you don’t have to come. I’ll refund your tickets. Follow me to the bar.”

Man, I’ve never been so proud of Finny as I am right now. Not rising to the bait. Being cool and level-headed when I’m sure he wants to beat the shit out of these punks himself. I just want to ruffle his hair like I used to and watch him blush.

“What we don’t like is people like you acting like you’re so fucking tough when you’re nothing but coddled shits,” Psycho says, drawing snickers from his guys.

Jax moves to the front, and that’s when I know things are going south quick. He has a temper for the ages. “Get the fuck out of here. You’ve already been offered a refund.”

Psycho stands up to him. They’re nose-to-nose, neither one of them backing down. I can’t believe I ever looked up to Psycho like I did Jax. He’s nothing to him. Sure, he’s big and has some skill, but the differences between them are obvious and plenty.

Psycho turns to Knuckles with a smirk and then back to Jax. There’s quite a crowd observing now, everyone salivating over what’s about to happen. “Actually, I have a better idea. I think Knuckles here should teach you guys how to fight.” He roams his stare over Jax’s and Finn’s fighters. “You should see that if you were ever in a real fight, you’d get your ass handed to you.”

The angry guy next to Finn steps forward and pushes Psycho. Psycho stumbles back a few steps, a growl ripping up his throat, but Knuckles stands in the way, grabbing the gym guy by the collar to smirk down at him. “Ready to learn a lesson?”

8

The next few moments last forever. The Elite Boxing fighter throws the first punch, catching Knuckles square in the jaw. He smiles in return, showing off his missing teeth. While the two fighters go at it, Jax and Finn keep their group away, spending a solid minute containing them while Psycho’s guys sit back and watch because they knew exactly what was about to go down. The crowd grows uneasy when the fight expands, and a semi-circle forms around them. Jax’s jaw could cut glass. They’re running a professional establishment here, not some underground street fighting ring.

It’s a couple of minutes before they can get security over to break up the fight, and in that time, Knuckles has clearly won. He has the “trained” fighter’s back on the cement floor, blood spurting everywhere. Eventually, the security team breaks it up while Psycho stands back, loving every moment of it. The gleam in his eye sends a shiver down my spine.

Nasty insults are flung on both sides, and Jax and Finn look somewhere between stunned and furious as the scene unfolds. While Psycho’s guys are being escorted out, Jax’s gaze meets mine briefly. He does a thorough once over from the top of my head to my shoes as if he’s checking to make sure I’m okay, even though I know it’s ludicrous to think he’s doing that. He probably just reverted to old habits. He couldn’t care fucking less.

Right before Psycho leaves, he whistles and calls out, “Sadie!”

Jax’s gaze snaps upward, meeting my eyes. I walk casually toward the man who owns me, my hackles rising, my skin growing flushed and hot. When I get to him, he grips my chin and gives me a bruising, possessive kiss. He bites my lip as he pulls away, tearing through my skin. Pain pulses underneath my lip as he smirks over my shoulder before leading me outside with his fingers sunk into my ass, pinching to the point of discomfort.

When we’re outside, Psycho’s guys celebrate in the street, high fiving each other. Knuckles wipes blood from his lips and licks it from his fingers, his eyes so wide the whites stick out, making him appear as if he’s been possessed by the devil. The rest of Psycho’s worshippers love it, egging him on, talking about how big of a pussy the other fighters are.

This was all part of the plan, but the guys are laying into it like they believe their own bullshit. Their sense of victory is palpable, even more so when they start banging on cars as we move down the street.

Psycho grins at it all until everyone is in front of us. When we’re separated from the rest of the pack, he turns to me with the same look in his eyes that haunts my nightmares. “What the fuck was that, Sade?”

I school my face. “What?” I ask, trying to make my voice even. I smile at the hooligans in front of us to throw him off because that’s what Psycho’s good little bitch would do. Pretend that everything went exactly as we’d planned.

“Don’t fuck with me.” He grabs my forearms, his nails biting into my skin, squeezing. When I don’t respond, he throws me against the brick building that makes up the Ring. We were led out a back door to an alleyway, and the rest of Psycho’s guys are exiting the mouth right now. “You had one fucking job.”

He grabs me by the throat, squeezing. My pulse throbs underneath his callous palm as he blocks more and more of my air. I stand there, not fighting back because I know it will only get worse for me if I do. “I didn’t have time,” I struggle to say. “The last fight ended and then you guys challenged them. It was good, Psycho,” I plead, trying to make him see reason. We did what we came here to do.

He laughs in my face, putting more pressure on my neck. When he growls his words in my face, spittle dots my lips. “The plan is for you to get close. We had our fun. We made them look bad, but you did nothing but sit back and drool over him.”

I close my eyes, trying to breathe as shallow as possible. I was hoping he wouldn’t get jealous of Jax but it was a slim hope at best. “Maybe you should’ve left me in there then,” I choke out.

His hold tightens. He blocks all air, and my fight or flight kicks in. I grip his wrists and struggle to break free. I use my foot to kick out, hitting him in the groin. It breaks his hold enough to draw in air but it doesn’t last long. He throws me to the ground. My hands and knees hit the dirty pavement, shooting pain drives up my arms until he’s on me again, taking a fistful of my hair and making me look back at him as he spits in my face. “Don’t you ever second guess me. I made you desirable. I made you front and center because you refused to do anything on your own.” He gets in my face, my scalp stinging with his fierce grip. “It can get bad again, Sade. Is that what you want? You can live in that little room again, naked, shivering. You won’t see the sun for months. Do you remember that?”

I whimper, and he takes pleasure in it. His malicious smile grows as he tugs on my hair again. “You’re fucking mine which means you do what I say when I say.”

I nod. My eye level lines up with his hips, and I can see him growing hard under his pants. I cringe, shifting away. The last time he had angry sex with me, I bled from my asshole for days. I couldn’t even sit.

He sees my wariness and cracks me across the face. “You sicken me.”

The pain echoes out from my cheek until a ringing blares in my ears. His mouth moves but I don’t hear it, I only feel another explosion of pain on the side of my head. I spit out blood and look up at him. A warm, sticky substance oozes between my lips and runs down my chin. My eyelids flutter. “Why?” I croak.

The malicious grin I receive in return only reaffirms everything I know about Psycho. He makes his own rules. He’s unhinged. He doesn’t care about anything or anyone but what he feels in the exact moment—and that makes him truly scary.

“Hey!” a voice roars.

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