Page 36 of Lawless
"Can you grab my cut for me? I should be wearing it."
"All right." I rose to my feet, turning back to the circle of people getting hyped up for the next fight.
"And, uh, thanks," he called after me shyly. "For checking me over. Real nice of you."
"Just doing my job."
I slithered my way between bodies, already slick with sweat. Keeping my eyes on the ground in search of the patchless cut, I paid no mind to whoever stood in the circle. Not until I was called.
"Hey! New bitch on the block!"
I looked up, dread filling the pit of my stomach.
Heather stood in the middle of the circle, black combat boots on her feet, ripped black tights adorning her legs under a pair of black booty shorts. A white crop top showed off a stomach much leaner and flatter than mine.
Dark, smoky shadow surrounding her glaring eyes, and her bleached hair pulled back in a high ponytail completed her look.
"You looking for this?" She held up the blank leather cut with a cruel smile. "Fight me for it."
Thirteen
MARIPOSA
"I'm not fighting you."
"Oh, yes you are." Heather's smile twisted into a hard grimace. "You came out here so I assume you know the rules. I challenged you, now you can't back out like a pussy."
"I'm not even part of this club!" I yelled back, panic rising within me as I searched the crowd for sympathetic faces. Someone, anyone, who'd be on my side in this.
"Neither is the prospect, not yet anyway." Heather smugly pointed out the flaw in my logic. "Nor am I. I'm just fucking two of them."
Any fleeting hope I had to escape this fight began to disappear. Reaper watched us both with passive curiosity, like this was some spectator sport on TV. Gunner, Jandro, and even Shadow looked on with bright eyes, eager for the action to start. Only Noelle had the decency to look worried, mouthingsorry, when her eyes caught mine.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. There was really no getting out of this for me, was there? I'd never even thrown a punch at someone before. I couldn't go toe-to-toe in a fight with an old man in a nursing home, let alone a scrappy mean bitch like this.
"Heather," Reaper barked, his voice cutting through the air.
All heads turned to him. Sitting on the ground in front of him, Hades' ears were pinned back but the dog was silent.
"Yes, baby?" Heather asked sweetly, twirling the end of her ponytail in her hand as she turned to face him.
"Got steel toes in those boots?"
"Nope." She tapped one toe on the ground and my stomach dropped. Fuck, I didn't even think about that. "Want to check 'em?"
"Nah. Carry on." Reaper returned to his original stance with arms crossed, waiting for the action to begin.
Someone pushed me forward and I went stumbling into the circle, not even six feet away from Heather. All I had on were a pair of Noelle's sandals, my freshly cleaned scrub pants, and another borrowed tank top. A fight was the last thing I was ready for, and Heather knew it.
All I could hope was for someone to stop it before I died. I still had to get the fuck out of this place.
Heather grinned maniacally as we made a slow circle around each other, just as Jandro and Prospect did.You'll survive, I told myself.You'll survive.
She lunged, heading straight for my middle to tackle me to the ground. My panic froze me and I did nothing but scream in pain as my back hit pavement. It spread all the way to my limbs, which I couldn't even bring up to defend myself. Fuck, a back injury could really screw me.
She grabbed a fistful of my hair and started with the punching. One, two, three, times across my face. My head bounced off the ground with each blow.Yeah, a concussion wouldn't be so great, either.
My ears rang and a mixture of blackness and stars dotted my vision. I heard distant yelling but couldn't make any of it out. I was so disassociated from what was happening, I forgot there was a crowd of people watching, probably urging this bitch to kill me.
