“Oh, my God, I can’t watch!!” Elsie croaks out breathlessly.
She wants to run from the room, but she’s glued to her spot, frozen, unable to tear her eyes from John. Her tunnel vision has her locked and is on the two men in the cage. Every move, every shift, every look, is magnified in her eyes and in her senses. Even though she’s about a hundred feet from John, she can feel the tension in his taut, massive, body, and the barely controlled rage which he’s molding and using as a weapon, taking it in his hands and overpowering his opponent. He is a warrior and this is battleground.
The tree of a man sways on his feet. John spins and kicks his feet out from under him while he’s unbalanced. The man hits the mat with a massive thud, his head bouncing twice as he hits. John kicks him in his ribs and then he’s on him pounding on his head. The referee has to call the fight. John stops, if he doesn’t, his opponent’s going to have permanent brain damage.
“I can’t take this!!!” Elsie moans almost yelling.
Her face is contorted, as if in pain. Both of her hands are gripping onto her friends’ arms digging her nails into them.
“It’s over, he won,” Janie says, trying to pry Elsie’s claws from her arm.
The crowd is screaming. They are on fire with their lust for would-be blood.
Marco leans in to Elsie.
“Come on, I’ll take you to John. You can be with him now that his fight is finished.”
“Thank you, Marco. I knew it was a good idea for Elizabeth to keep you,” Elsie says with a nervous laugh. Still reeling from the fights, her heart feels like it’s going to explode because it’s beating so hard.
“I’ll be right back, Baby, I’m going to take Elsie to John,” Marco tells Elizabeth quickly, and he leans in to place a light kiss on her lips.
Marco takes Elsie’s hand and leads her through the crowd. The people are in a frenzy, like sharks at the scent of blood.
When they get to the makeshift locker room, Rico is coming out and Bambi is there waiting for him. She throws her arms around him and he grabs her ass, lifting her up. She wraps her legs around his waist and they begin dry humping right there in the crowd. He opens his eyes, as she’s sucking the life out of him, and stares at Elsie. There is no mistaking the message in his eyes. He wants to fuck her. And not nicely.
“Come on,” Marco tells her and tugs on her hand.
He moves her to the side and away from their line of vision.
“What is that guy’s problem?” she wonders out loud.
“I don’t know but my gut tells me it’s huge, and the shit’s gonna hit the fan pretty hard very soon,” Marco says almost menacingly.
“There’s something about that bimbo and her friends that’s not right either. They give me the creeps,” Elsie says, rubbing her arms as if she’s getting the chills.
“It will all come out soon enough, Elsie. Just stay as far away from them as you can,” Marco warns, looking at the couple who are almost giving the crowd a sex show.
They stand quietly next to the wall with the other people waiting on fighters to finish up. John finally comes out and sees Elsie standing with Marco. John surprises them and turns his head…as if looking for someone.
It seems as if he found him.
John walks briskly over to Rico.
Rico lets go of Bambi and pushes her behind him.
John takes Rico by the throat and puts him up against the wall.
Suddenly reality dawns, what happened in the cage tonight, wasn’t John’s only fight. This one is about to get real.
“I don’t know what your fucking game is, but this is your final warning, be grateful you’re getting this one,” John is menacingly quiet in his warning to Rico. “Stay. The. Fuck. Away. From. Elsie. Understand?”
“Bro, we’re cool,” Rico laughs, almost cynically.
“I’m serious, one more fucked-up thing, and I’m going to give you the ass-kicking you’ve been begging for.” The promise in John’s words is unmistakable.
John shoves him hard against the wall once more and gives a look that says, ‘Please try me, I want to rip you apart,’ before letting him go. He turns and walks back towards Marco and Elsie, not giving Rico another glance. John’s face is a mask of pure rage.
Elsie’s gaze shifts to Bambi.
The hatred in her eyes sends a shiver of foreboding through Elsie. Something’s coming but she doesn’t know what.
Chapter 15“You’re the light, you’re the night, you’re the color of my blood. You’re the cure, you’re the pain, you’re the only thing I wanna touch. Never knew that it could mean so much… So love me like you do…,” lyrics Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding.
“Come here, Angel.”
John’s voice is a soft possessive caress across Elsie’s bare, pale, flesh.
The ride home from Myrtle Beach was made in silence. Both of them lost in thoughts, and high emotions, after the exhibition. John is still chewing on the wave of jealousy he felt at seeing Rico’s flagrant flirting with Elsie. He wanted to rip his fucking head off, tear his arms from his body, and shove them down his throat.
The enormity of John’s emotions is foreign to him. Never before has just the mere thought of a woman had the power to bring him to his knees. He feels bigger than life itself and as small and humble as if he were in the presence of God, all at the same time. The love that’s bursting from him, for Elsie, is nothing short of transcendent. Love, true love, is not of this world, its purity, its immenseness can only come from a place that’s holy and divine. She is his goddess, her body his temple, and he wants to adore her, worship at her feet, and take her to a place beyond human
