Page 50 of Cruel Betrayal

“But you like that, don’t you, you kinky bitch!” Haven drums her hands on my legs. “You’re going to have to tell me all about the dirty deeds.”

“There haven’t been a lot of them.”

“Okay, you know what?” She gets to her feet. “We’re going to clean off these masks and then we’re going to go to the fight. If you’re as interested in this man as you think you are, then I need to see him.”

“He’s not going to be happy if we show up there.”

She waves a dismissive hand and gets up. “I don’t care what he likes or what he doesn’t. You know where this fight is, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then we’re going.”

The crowd roars,rising to their feet, the scent of weed and cigarettes filling the room. It’s almost enough to cover the metallic tang of blood and the acrid smell of sweat.

Haven grips my arm a little tighter, weaving our way through the crowd and up to the ring. She shoves people out of the way, not caring that most of them are bigger than her. She keeps going, hauling me to the edge of the ring.

And as we stop there, I look up and see the familiar tattoo on Ezra’s back. He shifts to the side, and it’s then that he sees me from the corner of his eye.

I shrink back in my hood, knowing that he’s going to be worried about me staying hidden.

His mouth drops open, and he makes the mistake of turning to say something.

But his moment of distraction costs him more than me being found out by the Rinaldos.

A hard fist lands to the side of his face, snapping his head to the side.

He stumbles into the ropes surrounding the ring.

The man Ezra is fighting is on him in a second, dragging him down to the ground, throwing punch after punch.

Blood splatters and tears burn in the corners of my eyes.

I shouldn’t have come here. If I hadn’t, he wouldn’t be getting hurt right now.

I hold my breath while Haven is screaming and cheering beside me. I can’t make out the words she’s saying. There’s nothing but ringing in my ears.

Ezra wrestles his way on top of the man, fighting back as hard as he can. He throws punches with reckless abandon, and by the time he’s done, it looks like the other man is barely breathing.

Tyson appears at my elbow. I don’t know him well, but he seemed nice enough the couple of days we spent in an apartment together. And he doesn’t hate me after all my family has done to his, which is good.

He lets out a deep breath. “You’re playing with fire coming here. He’s going to finish his fights, and he’s going to be pissed.”

I shuffle a little closer to Tyson. “I know, but I wanted to be here. I didn’t stay to watch him fight last time.”

“Well, you’re going to be watching him fight a lot tonight. He’s been training for this for the last week and a bit, and it’s just the beginning of the stretch of a long run of fights.” Tyson shifts from one foot to the other as another person comes out to fight Ezra. “He’s going to take a beating tonight. Seeing you here has thrown his focus.”

“Fuck.” I glance at Tyson. “I didn’t mean to do that. I didn’t really think about coming down here. Haven wanted to see what it was like, and I didn’t think it was going to be that bad.”

“Because you’re too naïve to think about everything that’s going to happen.” Tyson sighs and shakes his head, holding out a hand. “Just stay here. I’m going to get us all some beer because we’re going to need it to get through the rest of the night.”

Tyson takes off through the crowd, the guilt already eating at me as I lean into Haven.

“I think coming here was a bad idea tonight. We should leave.” I raise my voice a little bit to be heard above the rest of the noise.

Haven looks at me, arching an eyebrow as Ezra takes another punch. “I knew this was going to be hard for you to watch, but I think it’s good for you.”

“I don’t think it is.”