Knox took another swig. “Give me worthy opponents if you want it to last. I’m not here to please the crowd.”
“Not complaining, mate. After the last couple of nights, you’ve made a name for yourself, coming from nowhere and taking down most of the guys here. The first one you turned into meat. It’s the best investment I’ve ever made on a new guy.”
Knox let him ramble. He wasn’t there for the money. “Keep them coming, that’s all I ask.”
The crowd cheered again as fists hit flesh, groans mixed with curses. The scents, sights, and sounds were familiar, whatever the place.
Danger filled the room like a flammable gas, ready to explode with a simple spark. He desperately wanted that to happen. A full brawl, with the thundering sound of firearms reverberating on the walls, glittering blades being unsheathed, bodies dropping hard on the filthy floor.
But the crowd wasn’t drunk enough, the doormen feared too much, or he was simply down his luck.
People moved, meaning the fight was over and the crowd headed to the bar for a refuel.
Knox barely tensed when two feminine arms came around him from behind followed by ample breasts pressing against his neck.
“Hey, Knockout. You shouldn’t be alone like this.”
The woman made sure to trail her tits over him as she moved to sit on his lap. Dressed in a tight leather dress with enough cleavage to reveal all her assets in a breath, she ran her hands all over him.
Before he could even look at her face, her mouth descended on his. She tasted like lipstick and bourbon, her talented tongue teasing him with a promise of what was to come. Since he’d arrived, women had circled around him like vultures, but he was too focused on getting rid of a few layers of aggression to notice. As his thirst for blood receded, Knox decided it was time to fuck himself back into reason.
His hand moved into her hair, angling the woman’s mouth to his liking. He detailed her lithe body with his other hand and hissed when his inventory didn’t fill his palm like Josie did.
Groaning at the thought of her, Knox cupped the woman’s breast as she moaned, pushing it further into his hand. She didn’t wait to straddle him and by the heat against his denim-covered cock, it was obvious she was panty-less.
As she ground herself against his bulge, Knox felt disconnected, his body could fuck, go through the motions, but something else pulled him back, made him cold inside.
Angry with himself, Knox wanted to push himself, to bury his cock inside the anonymous woman, destroy the images of Josie once and for all that were burned inside every cell of his body and haunted his mind.
“Come with me. Let me lick every inch of you until you forget your pains. Let me pleasure you.”
In his past life, her voice would have been a siren’s call he would never have denied. Why wouldn’t his body respond? It should have been so simple, because it was superficial and fake.
The woman started to dry hump him, and instead of becoming aroused, all he felt was annoyed and he pushed her off him. She spat at him and slapped his face, but he hardly felt it on top of the already painful throbbing in his head.
People around them laughed, but he ignored them, finishing his beer.
Not waiting for his body to cool, he stood and rolled his shoulders. When he turned, Knox realized the crowd had grown and were gathered around the center as two new fighters went at it. The place was restless, just as he liked, and he was ready for another fight.
The bookie nodded to him from the side, telling him he’d found another opponent and he was next.
Pacing along the wall, loosening his muscles, Knox worked at blanking his mind again, as he’d done so many times since he’d fled Landston. But again, like before, Josie invaded his thoughts.
Among the sights of the bar, despite the flow of alcohol, he could still taste her, feel her skin under his hand. And then he remembered how he’d left her on that couch, battered and bruised, after fucking her like the animal he was. When he’d first met her, he’d promised to protect her, to avoid touching her, and he’d broken his word. Something he’d done only twice before and had hoped never to do again. However, once he’d become a traitor, there was no going back. Maybe it was his lot from now on. But he couldn’t risk Josie. There was something in her, a goodness and strength he prayed never dimmed, especially not because of him.
Knox advanced, parting the heaving bodies, until he stood under the ring of light. Still naked from the waist up, he waited for his opponent to make himself known.
When he saw his shadow approach, Knox realized he now faced a worthy opponent, one that could pummel the guilt and desire out of him for good.
The man had at least ten years on him, with a gleaming bald and was covered with gang tattoos. It was a small blessing he didn’t recognize him from his past life, and that blessing was possibly the only one he would have tonight from the murderous gleam in his eyes and the size of his hands.
No beginning, no end, no rules. That was the law in these underground fights. A fight to the death, or surrender—if the victor was merciful.
The giant came at him with full force under the clamor of the gathered crowd. Only experience and endless fights under his belt allowed Knox to quickly react and evade the bulldozer.
Turning around, enraged at having missed his mark, the giant charged again, and this time there was no time to evade his fist. Knox caught the brunt of his weight, as well as a well-placed punch to his side.
His breath leaving him from the force of the blow, Knox almost put a knee on the ground, but instead pivoted and elbowed him in the nose.
