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“You need to stay out of the way The crowd goes nuts There’s no ref, no rules, and things get ugly fast If someone bet a lot of hter ants to kick et the fk out of Dodge, or better yet, haul ass outta here now”

She foldedlook The other girl shrugged and looked back atabout that text didn’t seeht”

Her head snapped back in et to tell her “hell yes” it was better for me if she left because Nassir appeared by ave Dovie one last look and stepped around her into the crowd I rubbed my hands briskly over my shaved head and tried to shut down the noise and the smell of sweat and anticipation I brushed off pats on the back and high fives and growled at Nassir, “What’s that guy jacked up on?”

He shrugged “Who knows?”

“Clean fight, my ass”

“Did you really expect anything else?”

Not fro happens to her in your house, I’ you personally responsible”

There were only a few people between me and the raw circle

“You better make sure you make it out the victor if you want to ensure her safety”

I gave him a dirty look and he just offered that perfectly crafted smile at me I wanted to punch hieti The last of the barrier between me and my opponent ducked out of the way and I was hit with the equivalent of a huh to haveabove runted when I felt heavy jabs on either side ofabove the shouts of the crowd and the bellowing breath of ot a hand around his throat and shoved hih away that I could throw ain, only this tiht him across theover He was strong, but the narcotics werehim frantic, not able to predicthim hard across the side of the face while he was hunched over A spray of blood out of his asps and shouts from the crowd echoed off the rafters

I jued upward and raut That hurt The hooshed out of e of h that I didn’t rally enough to block his next punch, which split my cheek clean open I tasted my own blood in the afters and rabbed one of his arms and wrenched it up behind his back I cranked on it just hard enough to hear a loud pop and let it go I didn’t want to break it, but jacking up one of his hands would save me more of those brutal body blows I spit out a asped as his free arot that kind of leverage, but he sure as hell was using it to his advantage He squeezed and squeezed and I clawed at his skin until it was slippery with blood I couldn’t breathe He was straight choking ht before it was all said and done, I threw my head back as hard as I could because I could hear hi out breath in my ear Luckily I had a superhard head, because even over the screa in my ears, I heard the thin bones in his nose snap and the furious howl that followed The second nose in as uy wasn’t Benny He was juiced up and out for my blood I jumped back as he barreled, unwieldy, toward me My head hurt, my ribs had to be bruised, and the rusty taste of blood fro my mouth Someone in the crowd threw a beer bottle in the circle and it shattered at ht first before tossing that glass over the railing

I dodged hiain, and landed a solid blow to his knee with a kick on his last pass I was getting tired, but he had cheh his face looked like raw le at the end of his arether the best way to make that happen, pinpoint his weakness, when he bent down and pulled so out of the side of his boot I swore loudly and took an involuntary step back when the switchblade flicked open The sight of the weapon literally lass and liquid I didn’t want to try and identify rained down on us This wasn’t going to go well for ain and I barely escaped the blade I felt the razor-sharp tip skim across the taut and sweaty skin ofone eye on hiood hand

“Shit” His eyes were all kinds of crazy and out of control He had to be hurting as lassed-over and vacant gaze due to the drugs He parried, I moved He thrust, and I juet this over as to let hiet the knife out of his hand

I took a deep breath, stepped into his next forward h, close to my armpit, and locked my arm down so that he was stuck We were now eye-to-eye His nose was beyond fked up and he was huffing and puffing like a bull He wasn’t going to go doithout a serious effort I twisted, used the leverage I had despiteflayed wide open, and bent, and bent until I heard the bone crack and the knife clatter to the ground at our feet He howled, screao I refused until he toppled to his knees in front ofthe black paint all across his face

I put my knee under his chin so he had to look up at me

“Hurt?”

He screamed a litany of sords at me

“Seriously, dude Are we done?” I squeezed the broken ar a ton of blood

He rab for hed I shoved him back and delivered a swift, nasty, totally dirty kick to the face His eyes rolled back in his head and he fell over like a baby rhino taking a tranquilizer dart