Page 67 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

Friday

“We have Jacob Miller in black boxers,” O’Reilly shouted. “And his opponent?” He tore off his pants and chucked them into the stands.

A trapeze artist caught them before they reached anyone in the crowd.

“Me in white boxers!” O’Reilly yelled.

Another football player grabbed the megaphone from him.

“The first match of the evening is Jacob Miller versus Billy O’Reilly in the center ring!

” His voice did not sound as perfectly ringleadery as O’Reilly’s.

But I wasn’t really worried about the aesthetic being jeopardized.

I was much more worried about the words coming out of his mouth.

“What is he talking about?” I asked Sophie. But I watched in horror as Jacob pulled on a pair of boxing gloves.

No.

“They fight till knockout,” the new announcer shouted.

“Knockout?!” I turned to Sophie. “What the hell are they thinking?”

“I mean…they’re probably thinking the varsity football team boxing each other is good entertainment. And they’re all going to make a ton of money on the bets.”

“But knockout?” I turned back to the center ring as the bell rang again.

I didn’t want Jacob to get hurt. “This is really dangerous, Soph. Someone could get a concussion. Or worse.” There weren’t even any ropes to prevent them from falling off the side of the ring.

If someone didn’t get seriously injured from being punched in the face, they would if they happened to fall off the side.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. But it’s cute how much you care about Jacob.”

The lights dimmed around the rest of the space as the spotlight grew around Jacob and O’Reilly.

“You both know the rules,” the announcer said. “Tap gloves.”

I watched in horror as they hit gloves. This was really happening. And what were all the rules exactly? Because if they were playing till knockout it kind of seemed like there were no rules and this was a really, really freaking bad idea.

“What if he gets hurt?” I said.

“You seriously think Jacob won’t win this fight? He has at least half a foot on O’Reilly. And look at his six-pack. And biceps.”

I was all for checking out Jacob’s body when he was lounging by the pool. Or something else not dangerous. But this? I was a little more worried about his face. And his brain. I was pretty sure even heading a soccer ball made you lose brain cells. What would getting knocked out do?

“Soph, we need to stop this.”

Jacob ducked as O’Reilly took the first swing.

“See,” Sophie said. “Jacob’s got this.”

I held my breath as the two of them moved around the ring.

Both their reflexes were fast from their time spent catching footballs on the field. They were dodging each other’s blows left and right.

Maybe they’d run out of time and the match would be called?

But the new announcer had said they’d go until knockout…

I’d seen boxing matches before on TV. I pictured the black eyes and blood.

This was a gruesome sport. And these guys were football players, not boxers.

This really seemed like a terrible idea.

But I didn’t know how to stop it. Who the hell would even listen to me if I tried?

Wait. I knew who they would listen to. The captain of the football team. I looked around for Axel, but I still couldn’t find him. So I shot him a text: “Axel, you need to stop this. I don’t know what you guys were thinking, but this is a terrible idea.”

His text came back almost immediately. “I told you to go home.”

Gah. Was he serious right now? “This is dangerous.”

“Then don’t watch.”

“Jacob could get hurt.”

Axel didn’t respond.

“Axel?”

No response.

“Axel, do something!”

No response.

“He’s your best friend! Stop this!”

The crowd cheered.

I looked up just in time to see Jacob make the first contact, his glove hitting O’Reilly’s stomach hard.

O’Reilly bent over gasping for air.

I grabbed Sophie’s leg. I just wanted it to be over.

Jacob said something to O’Reilly, but I couldn’t hear what. Maybe he was asking O’Reilly if he wanted to stop? Jacob took another step toward him. It looked like he wanted to check on him.

But O’Reilly stood up at the last second and landed a hard punch across Jacob’s cheek.

“Cheap shot,” Sophie said. “Boo!” she yelled at the top of her lungs before turning to me. “Scar, you’re cutting off my circulation.”

I looked down at my hand on her thigh. I was holding on to her so tightly that my knuckles were turning white. I moved my hands to cover my mouth when O’Reilly landed another blow.

Jacob.

Sophie’s “boo” had made the crowd erupt with chants of Miller and O’Reilly. It seemed pretty even with people yelling who they thought would win. Or maybe just who they favored to win.

Jacob got two swift jabs at O’Reilly’s stomach again.

“Go Miller!” I yelled at the top of my lungs and jumped to my feet.

Jacob turned to look at the stands. For just a second, our eyes locked. Right before O’Reilly slugged him hard across the jaw.

Jacob pushed O’Reilly away from him. But all I could see was the line of blood on Jacob’s jawline. Was that Jacob’s blood? Or O’Reilly’s?

Jacob wiped his face with the back of his glove, smearing the blood down his neck. It was definitely his. There was a gash on his skin.

God, that was all my fault. I’d distracted him when I’d yelled his name. I felt tears pooling in my eyes as I watched the blood from his jaw drop to his chest.

Why wasn’t someone calling the match? Who the hell was in charge here? And why did O’Reilly keep taking such dirty shots?

The bell rang and Jacob and O’Reilly went to opposite sides of the ring. Someone handed Jacob a towel but it didn’t seem to help stop the bleeding. Gigi walked across the ring holding a sign for round two.

The bell rang again and Jacob and O’Reilly stepped back toward center ring. The smiles they were wearing earlier were gone. It looked like they were going to kill each other.

O’Reilly swung again, but this time Jacob was paying attention. He dodged out of the way.

I cringed as O’Reilly threw another punch. But his fist missed again.

Jacob jumped up and down. He hit his gloves together and cracked his neck to the side. It looked like he was only just about to take this seriously.

O’Reilly lunged again but Jacob danced out of the way. And then Jacob landed a hard punch across O’Reilly’s ear. Before O’Reilly could react, Jacob threw an uppercut, his glove colliding with O’Reilly’s chin.

O’Reilly stumbled backward and fell off the side of the ring.

Oh my God.

The bell dinged and Jacob lifted his arms up into the air.

“Miller! Miller! Miller!” Everyone started chanting. I just watched in horror as the blood on his cheek dribbled down his chin, landing on his chest.

Jacob.

Some guys were already helping O’Reilly to his feet. He seemed okay. Not that I really cared. He’d been taking such cheap shots.

Jacob wiped his face off with a towel and hopped off the side of the ring. He shook O’Reilly’s hand.

“See,” Sophie said. “He’s fine.”

“He’s not fine! Do you not see his face?! He’s bleeding.”

“He really seems okay to me,” Sophie said and pointed to him running up the stands toward us. Jacob had a huge smile on his face as he scooted past the few people in his way.

Sophie slid to the side so he could sit between us.

“Awesome match,” Sophie said.

“Thanks.” He ran his fingers through his hair as he turned to me.

I knew he was smiling. But I was still worried. “Jacob, are you okay? You got hit really hard…”

“Did you not see the other guy?” he said with a laugh.

“Jacob, it’s not funny.” I lightly touched beneath this cut. “This gash looks pretty deep. Should we go to the emergency room?”

His eyes searched mine. “I’m okay, Scarlett.”

“Are you sure? What if you need stitches?”

“Stitches?” He laughed. “It’s barely a cut.”

I think he’d believe me if he looked in the mirror. I grabbed the towel that was draped across his shoulders and gently blotted the cut.

He winced.

“See. It’s worse than you realize. I really think we need to at least get this cleaned off…”

“Scarlett, I’m fine. Really.” He grabbed my hand, lowering it and the towel from his face. And he didn’t let go.

“You swear?”

His fingers tightened around mine. “I swear.”

I took a deep breath. Somehow him holding my hand had calmed me down. I looked down at our hands, but I was a little distracted by the fact that he was still wearing just boxers. And no shirt. I stared at his six-pack. Stop staring at his abs!

My gaze quickly darted back to his face. “Okay. But if you’d let me clean the cut I’d feel a lot better.”

He smiled at me. “Trying to get me all alone, Scar?”

I laughed. “You wish.”

“I mean...” He lightly nudged me with his shoulder. “Yeah…I do.”

He wanted to be alone with me? It felt like my heart was beating in my throat.

I smiled up at him. This felt like the perfect time to lean in and kiss him.

No, it wasn’t how I really expected my first kiss to go.

With his face bloody and him wearing barely any clothes.

But now I couldn’t picture it any other way.

I almost leaned forward, but then I remembered one tiny issue.

Operation Too Hot to Handle. I couldn’t kiss him yet.

Not until I came clean. I never wanted him to think I only kissed him to make Axel jealous.

“Do you think maybe we could go somewhere to talk in private? I need to tell you something.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just…” my voice trailed off when I saw Liam hop up into the ring.

No.

The bell dinged and some boy I didn’t know climbed up on the ring next to Liam. He looked like a freaking linebacker. Who was setting up these matches? This didn’t look like a fair fight at all.

They both pulled on their gloves.

“Liam can’t do this,” I said.

“He’ll be fine,” Jacob said. “If you haven’t noticed, he’s grown a foot over the summer.”

“But that guy looks like a Russian power lifter.”

Sophie leaned forward. “He really does. Is he a freshman? I haven’t seen him around. He looks too old to be a teenager.”

Jacob laughed. “Yeah, he’s new.”

“Huh.”

I could tell that she was trying to weigh whether or not hooking up with the huge new kid would make Mr. Halifax jealous. But this wasn’t the time for that! And I really doubted that her hooking up with a younger guy would make our teacher jealous.

“You guys!” I said. “He’s going to slaughter Liam.”

O’Reilly jumped back up onto the ring like he hadn’t just been knocked out a minute ago. “Next up in the ring we have Liam Hunter versus Pavel Semenov.”

“Oh,” Sophie said, her eyes lighting up. “He literally has semen in his last name. I bet boy explodes.”

“What are you talking about?!” I yelled. “This is literally insane! We can’t let Liam fight Pavel the exploder.”

Jacob laughed. “Pavel’s big,” he said. “But he’s also really slow. There’s a reason he’s not a wide receiver or a running back. Liam’s got this.”

I didn’t care if Liam was faster than that student that looked like he was 30. I knew Liam had grown over the summer. But I’d never forget when he was born. Months too early. I’d visited him in the hospital every day. He’d been so small. I knew he was healthy now. I knew that…and yet…

No. He could not fight that huge kid. This was absolutely ridiculous.

It was true, my brother and I bickered. Hell, sometimes I hated the twerp. But mostly I just loved him and I always had his back. And I couldn’t let him do this. If he got hurt, my parents would never forgive me. I’d never forgive myself.

“Jacob, you have to stop the fight.”

“What?”

Gigi walked across the stage signaling round one and then the bell dinged.

“Jacob, please! My parents will kill me!” It didn’t matter if they thought I wasn’t here. If Liam got hurt… I shook my head. I didn’t want to think about that.

“Scarlett, I promise he’ll be fine.”

“You can’t promise that!” I cringed as Liam took the first swing. His glove landed perfectly against Pavel’s stomach. But it didn’t matter. The next punch could make contact with Liam’s face. I wasn’t going to sit here and let him get irreparable brain damage. Stupid little twerp. I stood up.

“Wait, I kind of want to see what Pavel’s got going on,” Sophie said.

“Soph!” She didn’t seem at all concerned about the fact that her cousin’s face might not be recognizable tomorrow. I tried to walk past Jacob to go down to the ring, but he caught my hand.

“Okay,” Jacob said and stood up too. “I’ll stop it, but Liam’s going to be really pissed.”

“I don’t care if he’s pissed! He could get hurt like you!” I stared up at the blood on Jacob’s face.

“I’ll take care of it. I’ll be right back.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and gave him a quick hug. “Thank you, Jacob.”

He nodded and I let my arms drop from around him. I watched him push past the other spectators in our row.

Sophie gasped as she stared down at the ring.

I cringed. I didn’t want to look.