Not that I wanted to kick my way out of it, but I really had no choice.
Gary’s eyes were wide and locked to my face. His teeth showed like a hungry animal. But his stance was all wrong. He had power but not all the power he could have. He stood with his feet together. So all I needed to do was get one good shot on one of his knees. Two kicks and I got him. The heel of my foot hit his right knee and that ended the punches long enough for me to make a move. I climbed up to my feet and went in on him. A left, a right, gut and then chin. Gary swung back a little, opening his arms. Another right to his mouth and I had him stumbling.
“Fuck this!” Little Petey yelled. “Shake it off, you hairy fuck!”
Little Petey and Aton were like two kids watching scripted wrestling. They loved it. The raw violence. Death always lingering in the air. Money on the line. It was like a drug for them. They could never fight. They could use their power to control the fights.
It pissed me off.
Gary looked at me and suddenly he didn’t seem so tough. Or strong. He was just some lanky guy with hairy arms and a hairy chest. But I knew if I held back, even for a second, he’d come at me.
I went after the gorilla full force. Now he was the one protecting himself. His long arms were bent, covering his face, but that left his body exposed. Each punch hit his sweaty shirt, splashing dirty sweat, but my strength and knuckles were doing their job as he kept stumbling, groaning, trying to absorb the punches without getting hurt.
I had to hand it to the gorilla. He had guts and balls. He swung his right hand at me, smacking me across the chest. It stung and surprised me. I couldn’t remember getting smacked before during a fight. Gary then threw a left, connecting with my jaw. I spun all the way around and instinctively kept my fists up to protect my face. Gary threw another left and I punched it away. I threw an uppercut with a right, hitting him in the jaw. His head snapped back.
“Not again!” Little Petey yelled. “Fuck!”
I punched Gary in the gut a couple times and then went for his face. Left, right, his jaw cranking side to side. His feet were shaky and not in a good stance. I swung my right foot to his right foot, forcing Gary to trip and fall. He put his large hands out to catch himself. I heard a breaking pop sound when he hit the ground. I came down at him with two punches and then a knee to the face. The gorilla went down to the ground for good, his head on the concrete floor, his eyes dazed and spinning as he stared straight up.
Truthfully, I could have kept going. If this were a real fight, I would have until the fight was called off. Instead, I turned and looked at Little Petey and Aton. Little Petey was red faced, his hair literally standing straight up from tearing at it.
Aton was calm, cool. “I think I just won, cuz.”
“Fuck,” Little Petey said. He stepped toward me and breezed by. He looked down at the gorilla. “What the hell happened?”
I let the conversation fade out and walked to Aton. “Did you kill her?”
“What?”
“Did you kill Rose?”
Aton grinned. “No. Not yet. Still trying to process this situation.”
“Aton, you have to listen to me.”
Aton opened his suit jacket. He put his hands to his waist. He did it to show me his gun. “I’m a man of my word, Wes. You took down the gorilla. You won me some cash. So I’ll give you one minute. You better make it worth my while.”
I stared at Aton. My face throbbed where the gorilla had hit me. My shoulder hurt and burned. What a fucking mess of a day. There was no bullshitting Aton out of this. I had to come up with something legit. Something that would hit home for Aton and make him ease off the situation until I could figure out what to do. Rose needed to be alive. I needed to know about her family. I needed to know why she had people after her. For some damn reason I wanted to keep my word that I’d keep her safe.
“Don’t know what to say?” Aton asked.
Then it hit me.
I grinned. It hurt my jaw to smile.
And in what was left of my one minute I tried to save my life.
9.
(Rose)
I lost track of time. No surprise there. The door was locked. The room smelled old and wet. There was still very little light. The plate was on the floor, cracked, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich still missing a bite. I heard a little scratching sound and swore I caught sight of a mouse or rat, probably smelling the sugar from the sandwich, wanting to feast.
All yours, I’m not touching the sandwich.
I paced the room for a little while. I wondered how it was going to play out.
Was Wes going to be killed first? Or was he dead already?