Fighting to be Free by Kirsty Moseley (11 page)

I brushed her hair off of her face, pushing it over her shoulder so I could see the love bite on her neck. I couldn’t help but smile, I bent my head forward and kissed it lightly. I pulled back quickly when she stirred. Damn it, I woke her up! Idiot!

“Hey, what time is it?” she mumbled, pressing her face into my chest, kissing it softly. How the hell can she do that with all of those scars there, does she not care at all?

“It’s about quarter to seven,” I whispered, glancing at my phone again.

She smiled and pulled me closer, kissing me softly, “Good morning,” she whispered against my lips.

“Good morning. Sleep ok?” I asked, hoping she didn’t hear the fight that started outside at about three o’clock this morning.

She nodded and yawned, “Yep, you tired me out stud so I slept like the dead.”

I couldn’t help but laugh as I rolled on top of her, hovering above her so I didn’t put any of my weight on her. “Well I slept like the dead too,” I lied.

In all honestly I barely slept last night, I just kept listening for someone coming in the room, I was worried about her getting hurt all night long. She pulled me closer to her, running her hands up my back, fingering the scars I had there, tracing them with her fingers. She looked like she wanted to ask me about them again so I kissed her before she could. I didn’t want to talk about it, for one thing I’d already told her more than I’d ever told anyone about my childhood, which wasn’t a good thing. I just couldn’t seem to lie to her, which actually scared the life out of me.

An hour and a half later, we were dressed and ready to leave. I put on a shirt and smart jeans, well, as smart as I had anyway. I was planning on job hunting as soon as I dropped her off at school. I watched as she leant over and made my bed, what on earth is she doing that for?

“Ellie, why are you making my bed?” I asked, laughing.

She blushed and looked down at it as if she didn’t realise she was doing it, “Oh sorry, habit I guess. It’s one of my mom’s rules at home, the bed has to be made, room tidy, blah blah blah,” she mocked, waving her hand dismissively.

I laughed and pushed her down on the bed lightly, “Well, I like a messy bed. Want to help me mess it up again?” I smiled at her suggestively, loving the feel of her body under mine. Wow I wasn’t getting used to all of this physical stuff at all! I had never really thought about it all before but now that it had happened, touching her and kissing her seemed to be all I could think about! Maybe I was turning into some sort of addict or something……

She laughed and grabbed my wrist, looking at my watch before she shook her head. “I need to get to school, sorry stud, maybe another time,” she said raising her eyebrow looking sexy as hell. My insides danced with happiness that I would get to see her again. The agreement was: sex no strings.

Which was actually pretty awesome in my book. What man would turn down an offer like that, from an incredible girl like her?

I sighed dramatically, “Come on then little girl, let’s get you to school,” I said pulling her back up.

She laughed and let me drag her from my room to my truck. This place didn’t really wake up until mid-morning so there was no one around.

“You’re sure you don’t want me to come and pick you up from school? I could drive you to get your car….” I trailed off, looking at her hopefully, as I pulled up into the parking lot of her school.

“Honestly, it’s fine. Stacey will,” she assured me, leaning over to kiss me lightly. I put my hand on the back of her head so she couldn’t pull away, deepening the kiss, loving the taste of her on my tongue. Kissing Ellie was out of this world and I would happily kiss her all day if she would let me.

I pulled away when we were both breathless and kissed her nose. “So, do I get your number this morning?” I asked hopefully. She nodded and held out her hand for my phone. I passed it to her, watching her tap it in and I couldn’t keep the smug grin off of my face.

She pushed the phone back into my pocket, patting it lightly, teasing the crap out of me because of how close her hand was to my crotch. “There you go, stud. Now you can give me a booty call whenever you want.” She winked at me as she climbed out of the truck, giggling and skipping off through the parking lot.

I watched as people swarmed around her, begging for her attention, boys and girls, all trying to talk to her. She didn’t look to comfortable with the attention, the easy smile she’d been wearing all morning was replaced by an obvious fake one. She was obviously some sort of queen bee at her school, I could tell that by the way all of the people were swarming around her.

Jeez, I’m surprised she would want me to drive her to school in my crappy truck, she probably has some sort of image to keep up. I’m surprised she wanted to be seen with a piece of crap like me at all, but this was her suggestion. As I pulled out, she waved, I couldn’t help but smile because she’d acknowledged me in front of her friends. She really was incredible.

I spent the whole day walking around trying to find a job, I went in to every single store, bar, restaurant and office, trying to find something but there was literally nothing, not even cleaning toilets. As the day dragged on I got more and more worried, I couldn’t think of anything. I was starving hungry but I didn’t want to spend any of the $25 I had, because then I would be even more short.

I thought about going to see Connor and asking if I could get some sort of advance on the sale of the car, but I didn’t want to do that and blow my chances of this working out. I couldn’t go in there and ask for money when I was the one trying to convince them to go for this idea, that would just make me look like a prick.

I sat in the park and thought about it, there was no other way I could think of, I couldn’t lose the place I was living. Sure it was a crap hole, but it was better than sleeping in my truck, at least I had a toilet, a shower and a bed. I never appreciated it until I thought about not having it. I pulled open my phone and called Ray.

“Hey kid!” he chirped happily.

I put my head in my hands, this needed to be done. “Hey Ray, I need some help man,” I stated, squeezing my eyes shut.

“What’s up, kid?”

“I need money.” I sighed.

“Sure kid, how much you need?” he asked sounding concerned.

“I don’t want to borrow money, Ray. I have no idea when I’d be able to pay it back, but I need to get my hands on some money, quick.”

“I’ll lend you some money, you don’t have to worry about paying me back, just spot me when you can,” he said sternly. I shook my head, I couldn’t owe anyone, that wasn’t going straight, even owing Ray I would feel a debt and I needed to do this on my own.

“Ray, I don’t want to borrow money. I was actually wondering if you could call Jensen and set me up for tonight?” I asked hopefully.

He gasped, “No fucking way kid, I’m not doing that! Those things have moved on a lot since you last saw one, no way, nope!” he almost shouted.

I knew he’d react like this. Ray’s cousin Jensen ran an illegal fight club every night, people bet on the fights and the fighters got paid to enter. Just entering would be enough to pay my rent, I didn’t even need to win, just get the snot kicked out of me for a few minutes. I just prayed it was still in operation.

“Ray, I need this. Does he still run it or not?”

“Kid seriously, you know I’ve always hated those things. The fights now are brutal, it’s not just a couple of guys wanting a bit of spare cash now. These guys that enter, they really want it, they want to win. I’ll lend you what you need,” he said pleadingly.

“Ray, thanks for the offer, but please can you call Jensen for me? I need this to happen tonight if he still does it, if you wont do it then I’ll have to find him on my own. Please Ray, do this for me, please.” I ran my hand over my almost non-existent hair, nervously. I had no idea how to find Jensen myself, so I prayed Ray would set this up for me.

“Kid, you know you’re gonna get fucked up, right?” he asked quietly. Heck yeah I knew that, I just needed to enter and lose.

“Yeah I know. How much they pay now? It still $30?” I asked hopefully.

“It’s fifty now I think. The rules have changed now though kid, there are no rules,” he said quietly.

Wow, that didn’t sound good, there used to be a no hitting in the balls rule, I winced slightly, trying not to think about it.

“Ok, will you call him for me and get me in?” Please say yes, please say yes.

He sighed and it was quiet for a while before he answered, “Yeah, ok. I’ll call you back.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, if I couldn’t get in for tonight then I’d have to borrow money from Ray, I hated to even think about it but I couldn’t lose my place. It was now almost four in the afternoon, so I decided to text Ellie and make sure she got home safely.

‘Hey, get your car ok?’
I sent. A minute later she replied.

‘Yep stud, all fine, you can stop stressing now x’

I couldn’t help but laugh at myself, wow I’m so whipped! I headed back to my place and flopped on the bed, waiting for the phone to ring and Ray to tell me good news.

A little while later he called and said it was all set up for tonight, he was going to come and pick me up and come with me. He used the excuse of wanting to see his cousin, but it was probably so he could drive me home in case I was too messed up to drive myself.

…………………

Ray picked me up at quarter to ten, trying the whole way there to convince me not to do this, but I just ignored him, trying desperately to change the subject. When we pulled up at the venue for tonight I laughed, an underground parking lot, nice. I followed behind Ray, I’d only met Jensen a couple of times, he wouldn’t remember me, I’d grown up a lot since I saw him.

Ray gave him a man hug while they exchanged pleasantries on how they were keeping.

“This your boy?” Jensen asked, nodding at me with a smile as he looked me over.

“Yeah this is the kid, Jamie Cole.” Ray waved at me, still looking like he was in pain for letting me do this.

Jensen smirked at me. “I remember you. I think you were the only thirteen year old I ever let enter one of these. You made me a fortune that night, every single person bet against you, so I raked it in when you kicked ass.” He held out a hand for me to shake. I smiled, yeah I needed money then too, different reasons but still no other option, just like now.

“Yeah, thanks for letting me in tonight, I appreciate it,” I said honestly. This was short notice, fighters usually had to put their names down and wait to be chosen, so I knew Ray had called in a favour for me.

“No probs. So, you know there’s no rules now, right? Anything goes, fight ends when you tap out or are unconscious. Eight guys, four fights, the winners from each fight then enter a semifinal. You get $100 if you get to the semi, the two winners from that go onto the final, if you lose the final it’s $200, if you win then $500. Feel free to bet on yourself too,” he explained, shrugging and smiling happily.

“So just for entering I get $50, but if I win the three fights, I get $500?” I asked. Shit if I won that would be awesome! I wouldn’t have to worry about rent again for a while, even if the scrap yard thing didn’t work.

“Yep. So, you interested?” he asked hopefully. Hell yeah I was interested! My plan was to enter and lose, take the fifty, but $500 sounded like a lifesaver right about now.

I nodded eagerly, “Yeah definitely. So, who am I up against?” I asked, looking around at the guys all standing around waiting for the fights to start. Most people were here to watch, you could tell the ones who were competing, they were standing off to the side quietly, trying to focus. They were wearing sweats or jeans instead of the shirts and trouser dress code of Jensen’s ’club’

Jensen pointed out a fairly well built guy with blonde hair. He was sitting on a chair, his eyes totally focused and hard, he wanted to win. Shit this was going to hurt! “That’s Kurt, he’s a regular, pretty tough. Think you can beat him?” he asked, he looked genuinely interested, maybe he was going to bet on me.

I looked at the guy again, from the way he was sitting I could tell he was arrogant, cocky and overconfident. He thought he would win no problems, he was probably well trained in some sort of martial arts by the look of the dragon tattoo on his upper arm. I assessed him quickly, weighing my options.

I could take him.

“Yeah,” I said confidently, watching a small smile spread across Jensen’s face.

~ Ellie ~

I climbed out of his truck and couldn’t help but laugh at the lustful expression on his face. Jeez, he was so damn hot! I could still taste him in my mouth and I could barely walk away without snogging his face off again.

I slammed the car door and made my way across the parking lot to the building. People immediately swarmed around me, worse than usual, today would be hard. It was the first school day since I broke up with Mark and I wasn’t looking forward to seeing him at all. Girls and guys immediately started talking to me at once, wanting to know if it was true, had we broken up, were we getting back together, did I want to go out tonight, it was never ending. I plastered on a fake smile and wished I was back in the truck with Jamie, he was so damn easy to be around. I heard his truck roar to life so I turned to wave bye and watched him drive up the road.

“Who was that?” Kerry asked, wrapping her arm through mine, directing me through the crowd of people who were still after the gossip about Mark and I.

I smiled at her gratefully as we made our way to my locker, “That was a friend of mine,” I said shrugging. Hey we were friends I guess, friends of some sort anyway I thought smiling to myself happily.

Stacey came bounding up, hugging me excitedly. “Have fun young lady?” she teased, waggling her eyebrows as she handed me my books and stuff that I’d left at hers.

Hell yeah I had fun. “Lots of fun actually,” I replied, winking at her.

“I need to go see David before class,” Kerry said, hugging us both and skipping off to see her boyfriend.

“So….. you seeing him again?” Stacey asked once we were alone. I laughed and nodded making her squeal with excitement.