Steel Rush (In the Shadows#5) (39 page)

“S
teeeeeel and Haaaaaammmer…round four!” the announcer calls out, his deep voice echoing over the indoor arena that has been everything from an ice rink to an indoor football stadium. From the skybox in the corner where the executive contributors are watching us fight behind the safety of privacy glass, to the graduated stadium seating, the crowd of well-dressed fans have been wild with excitement, screaming and yelling their bloodlust for the last hour.

Hammer and I have definitely given them a good fight.

When it comes to typical MMA moves, my opponent and I are evenly matched, but I also pull my interactions from other disciplines. Every time I’ve adapted a move, Hammer hasn’t been able to get past me, not without taking several powerful hits to his ribs, chest and a few really good ones to his face.

While the ring girl waltzes around the outside of the chain link cage, I use this short time to mentally access my damage. My jaw aches and my right side hurts like a motherfucker. I’m pretty sure my wound is bleeding into my waistband, but at least my black shorts hide it.

Despite a swelling left eye behind his white full-head cover mask and several bruised ribs, Hammer is pacing on the other side of the arena like a rabid beast. His eyes are wild, as if he’s hyped up on drugs, not just fight adrenaline.

The bell rings and the ref indicates we can commence fighting. I grit my teeth against my mouthpiece, and ignore the salty sweat rolling from inside my mask and down into my eyes. I blink past the stinging, determined that this is the round Hammer will lose the fight.

Hammer runs straight at me and slams me into the cage. As he pounds his fist into my aching side, I grab him around the neck and squeeze with my bicep. He growls around his mouthpiece, “’ake a ive.”

I blink as his mumbling takes form in my head.
Take a dive.

“
Fuck
no,” I reply, but just in case he didn’t understand me, I knee him hard in the chest and take him down to the floor.

We each have the other locked in place on the mat, and while his face is close to mine, he spits out his mouthpiece and grates, “If you want to win, to see up into that glass box…then you have to take a dive, asshole.”

I jerk my gaze to his and give him a “
what the fuck kind of fight is this
?” scowl. Then I flip him over and cinch my thighs around his chest. With cheers swarming all around us, I lean close and spit my own mouthpiece out so he hears my words clearly. “I
will
finish you,” I say through clenched teeth right before I pound three hard punches to his face.

Hammer acts like he’s going to tap out, but at the last second, the bastard forces me over and tries to lock me in an arm bar. The crowd goes wild all over again.

I manage to get my legs free, then curl my whole body toward my head. Flipping right out of his hold, I steam roll over his head in the process. He looks a bit dazed and twists away just as the bell pings.

I glare at Hammer from my side of the mat, wondering if I’m being played.

To win, I have to take a dive? How the fuck does that work?

This time the ring girl waltzing around the cage with the number five card held high is wearing Hammer’s white mask. I skipped the tradition of putting my black carnival-style mask on one of the ring girls on my way into the fight. I wanted to stay focused and didn’t need the added distraction.

When the masked blonde ring girl stops and steps up on the ladder on the platform to hand Hammer a rolled-up towel over the top of the cage, I experience a flash of regret that I didn’t think to ask one of the girls to hold a towel for me. Wiping the sweat out of my eyes would be appreciated right now.

The last thing I expect is for Hammer to unroll a handgun from the towel and immediately fire it at the metal plate on the cage door. The crowd screams their surprise as the gunfire echoes in the huge building and a wave of shocked gasps follow before suddenly everyone goes quiet.

I realize Hammer has purposefully jammed the door closed and while he’s distracted, I zoom across the mat, intending to take him out, but he quickly turns the weapon on me, his gaze slitted in fury. “Back the fuck off,
Steel
!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Sebastian shouldering his way past the frozen crowd toward the arena, while several EUC security men also move forward. A couple of the security guards are already at the cage door, trying to open it. I know none of them are carrying anything stronger than a Taser. It has always been a EUC rule for their security.

“All of you, back off!” Hammer barks, shooting a warning shot toward the ceiling.

A hush settles in the room and the men rushing forward outside the cage suddenly freeze. I stop moving, my hands up. He doesn’t have to know I’m assessing the best way to take him down.

Holding up his other hand, he lifts a remote device. “This is rigged to two explosives, one is underneath this stage and the other up there inside the box with our illustrious guests. If anyone fucking moves toward this cage, I’ll hit this button…and trust me, there’s enough explosives under here to make sure none of you make it out alive.”

“What do you want?” I grit out.

“Isn’t it what you want, Steel?” he taunts, then turns to face the crowd. As they all gasp at the sight of his thumb on the remote device, Hammer’s wrath booms, reverberating off the walls. “You want to see behind that glass?”

Turning, he fires five shots straight into the skybox’s smoky panes and as the glass shatters and the crowd screams, six business men wearing carnival style masks are all revealed at once, ducking for cover from the bullet spray.

When the men’s security guards standing outside the skybox’s door renew their efforts to bust it open, Hammer chuckles, raising his voice above the din of the screaming audience. “If you open that door, the bomb up there will go off, so I suggest you
don’t
.”

The men immediately back off, their hands raised. Theo stands there with the guards, adopting the same backing off stance, but I see him nod to Bash, letting him know he’s going to take care of that area.

My heart pounds with a different kind of adrenaline; survival. And my gaze becomes laser focused.

“You have to have a plan beyond this,” I say in an even tone, trying to distract his attention back to me. Bash has managed to inch his way closer and that’s when I catch a glimpse of Talia’s red hair shielded behind him.
Fuck, how did she get here? That better not mean Cass is anywhere near this place, or I’m going to go ape-shit on this crazy prick.

If Hammer had just brought a gun to the fight, I would’ve jumped him already and taken my chances that I’d be faster, but a fucking bomb? I can’t stop that from going off too, especially not with his finger resting on the detonator.

He turns cold eyes to me. “My plan is very clear and you’re all going to play your part…total annihilation.”

The second he says that, the frozen fans closest to us scream and surge toward the exit, creating mass hysteria.

“Don’t do this, Jake!” a woman calls as she steps toward the cage out of the rushing crowd.

Hammer is Jake Hemming?

Both Hammer and I jerk surprised gazes to the dark-haired beauty making her way up the stairs, her curled hair bouncing in soft waves against her bare shoulders and strappy black dress.

“Celeste?” Jake says, his voice softening. “Is that really you?”

“I’m here,” she says softly, her gaze staying locked on Jake.

I blink to clear the sweat from my vision, needing her to look at me so I can tell who I’m seeing. It can’t possibly be Celeste, but then they never did find the body. What about the blood? My brain flashes through the facts I know to be true, yet can’t deny the evidence of the woman standing before us.

She hooks her fingers on the cage fencing, pulling herself close. “Please, Jake. Please don’t do this. It was a mistake to leave. I’m not dead. I’m here for you.”

I edge closer to Jake as he steps toward the fencing, sadness in his tone. “Why did you try to leave? You know you always belonged to me, not Ben. If you had stayed, I would never hurt you.”

Tears shimmer in her eyes as she looks at him. “I was wrong, Jake. So very wrong.”

Jake shakes his head as if clearing it. “No,” he barks. His shoulders straightening, he takes a step back. Glancing my way, he tightens his hold on the gun and jabs it toward me. “Get back, asshole.”

“You’re dead, Celeste.” Jake glares at me, refusing to look back at her. “You’re an illusion. I mourned you.”

Beth calls out from the ground floor, her voice steady and sure. “It’s Celeste, Jake. She came home.”

Celeste nods, her fingers tightening on the cage. A trembling smile curves her lips. “I came back for you, Scrappy.”

The nickname pulls Jake’s and my attention back to her and at that moment, my gaze locks on the familiar bruising on her neck. The moment I see Jake’s finger leave the button on the remote, I spin and slam my foot into his chest with a powerful kick.

The crashing impact jolts the remote and the gun from Jake’s hands. I quickly kick the gun out of his reach and smash my fist into his chest, knocking the wind out of him.

“Get the remote, Cass,” I yell, glancing at her.

Cass is already hunched down, her arm stretched through the fencing, fingers straining for the remote, but the device landed an inch beyond her reach. “I can’t reach it!”

“
Cass
?” Roaring his rage, Jake pounds a fist into my chest and flips me onto the mat.

Jamming a knee into my chest, he pins me with all his weight as I try to regain my breath. “Did you know that I had Cass first?” He snarls out a laugh. “Actually, I’ve had your little bitch twice. That second time around was hot enough to almost make me forget about Celeste.” He bends close, drilling his knee into me. “How does it feel to have my sloppy seconds, Calder
fucking
Blake?”

Red flashes across my vision and I grab his shoulders, throwing him across the cage and into the fencing.

As I rush after him in a blind rage, Bash yells my name. I glance up to see him holding the wired trigger from the bomb and I vaguely register him saying, “Theo got the other one.”

Before Jake can recover, I let loose on him, pummeling the jeering shit’s face into a bloody mess.

For stealing Cass’s innocence and trying to destroy our firsts.

For being a disgusting, molesting fucker.

For threatening to kill hundreds of innocent people.

I don’t stop moving until a couple of police officers pull me off the demented bastard.

“G
reat news!” Talia says as I answer my phone and slip into my car.

“That was fast.” I snort. “I just dropped my proposal off.”

She laughs. “Not that. You’re right. It’ll take my editor a couple weeks to evaluate it and run it past the marketing committee. I’m calling to let you know the verdict came in. Phillip Hemming is going away for a very long time on multiple counts, with Celeste’s death giving him the most jail time. Brent and Jake will be sentenced tomorrow.”

After two weeks of endless police interviews, the high profile nature of multiple murders, attempted murder, and other crimes, pushed the trials against Phillip, Jake, and Brent up quickly. I’m just glad to be done testifying. I’m so ready to put that whole part of my life behind me.