Red Hot Obsessions (39 page)

Chapter 25
Into the Underground

Someone knocks on our door, and we both shoot up from the bed. Jaret steps in, his face dark and concerned. “Can I talk to you for a sec?” He signals me.

I look at Evie, and she nods.

“Uh … Sure,” I say, and I get up from the bed. I glance at her one last time, feeling a bit anxious because Jaret looks like he has some bad news. Then I step outside with him.

“Hunter’s having some … problems right now. I’m not sure if I should be the one to say this, but I don’t want to lead you on either,” he says.

“What happened to him?”

He comes closer. “Look, I can’t really tell you, because my life is on the line.”

“Okay …” I swallow. My throat suddenly feels raw and hot.

“I’ve been helping Hunter, but only because he asked me to. I didn’t think it’d get this bad.”

“What are you trying to tell me?”

“Look, they forced him to do something, because they found out we’re looking for the boss.”

My eyes widen. Oh no. Oh God, no.

“What’s going on? Where is he?” I say.

“Shhh!” he says, putting his finger on his lips. “Don’t shout so much. Look, I really can’t tell you a lot. I’m sorry. I don’t want to get in trouble. If I’d known it’d get this tough, I would never have agreed,” he sighs, rubbing his hands over his head like he’s in some deep shit, just like Hunter.

Oh God. Where are they keeping him? What did they do to him?

“Is it bad?” I ask.

“No … Yes. No, he’s done this before. It’s what they always ask us newbies to do. It’s just that it’s never been this …” he swallows those last words.

“What am I supposed to do with this information if I don’t know where he is? How can I find him?” I say.

Jaret rummages in his pocket and takes out two paper tickets. “Here. Take this. I got them from one of the distributors. Brody.”

“Brody?” I scream. So Brody is a pawn in this as well?

Jaret puts his hand over my mouth.

“He probably got them from the courier. I had to give these to you, so my best guess is that he got the same order.”

“You want to give these to me? What do I have to do with this?”

“I don’t know, I’m just following orders, trying to get their trust back,” Jaret says with his eyebrows raised.

I frown, while he presses the tickets firmly into my hand. “Don’t look at them until you’re in your room, and I’m gone.”

He gazes at me one more time with a stern look on his face before turning around and walking away as if nothing ever happened.

Baffled, I go back inside and close the door behind me. The scrunched-up tickets in my hand are the only thing I’m aware of right now.

I can’t believe what just happened. Jaret basically told me Hunter’s been doing what he’s doing right now for a long time already, and it’s all because of
them
. The frat club. Only this time … it’s way, way worse. They even want me to see it.

Whatever it is, I need to find out and get him out of there.

Dammit, if only he hadn’t gone after that boss, he’d be out of trouble now. Why in hell’s name is he putting so much at risk?

“What you got?” Evie asks.

I’m startled, pulled out of my thoughts.

Unwrapping the paper, I walk toward her and sit down on the bed. We both stare at the tickets. They’re entry passes into some sort of event tonight. Big fat letters exclaim the words ‘Hunter,’ ‘V.S.,’ and ‘Killer.’

Chills run down my spine reading those last few letters.

It freaks me out to an impossible level.

“What the …”

“He’s in trouble. Big time.”

“Jaret gave these to you?”

“Yeah.” There are two of them. “I guess he wants me to take you?”

“I guess …”

“Please, don’t make me go alone.” I put up my puppy-dog eyes.

She caves, laughing. “Oh, all right. How can I
not
go when you look at me like that?”

Her laugh doesn’t make me feel any better. This whole thing is making me feel sick to my stomach.

I hope Hunter is all right.

*

8 p.m.

We’re walking through the city, our legs shaking from the cold. It’s dark and scary outside. Lampposts barely light the streets, and it’s grown increasingly deserted the last couple of streets. Cars don’t come here. Nobody comes here. This is a place filled with abandoned warehouses.

And I have no idea what the fuck Evie and I are doing here.

I wish I’d never accepted those tickets.

Part of me wants to run back to campus and just wait it out, but my gut is telling me to get over my fear. I need to find Hunter and help him. I know he’s in danger. I can feel it. If I run now, there’s no way I can save him.

“I don’t like this one bit …” Evie mutters.

Her teeth chatter, and she clamps onto her coat for warmth. I’m shivering, but I don’t want to admit I’m scared to death. I don’t want her to be afraid, and if I am, so will she be. I need to be the strong one now.

“Me neither, but we have to,” I say.

“Remind me again why?”

“To find Hunter. For me. He’s in danger.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I just have this feeling in my gut that something is wrong.”

“Oh … well, I hope he’s okay, but I’m more worried about you.”

“I’ve got you with me. I won’t be in danger.” I wink, and she smiles, trying to relax a little.

We cross the street, checking the signs for the way to go. It should be right around where we are now, although I still have no idea what I’m looking for.

“This is it,” I say, as we walk into an alley.

“I don’t see anything,” she whispers, tugging my coat.

“There!” I point at the door, and drag her with me.

It says ‘NO ENTRY,’ but when I pull the door, it opens right away.

“You sure this is the place?” she asks, her voice trembling.

“Yes.”

We both look at each other and gulp away our fears. Not that it helps one bit.

There’s a staircase leading down into a basement. One light is dangling from the ceiling. Spider nests cover the walls. Scary shit.

“Ew … nasty,” Evie says, as we walk through.

We go to the end where there’s another door. I can hear loud noises coming from behind it. I wonder what the heck is going on down there.

“You ready?”

She nods, swallowing again.

When I open the door, I get the urge to close my eyes in case something comes flying my way, but there is only one person standing behind it. There’s a man, at least six foot tall, with tattoos all over his arms and face, and he’s right in front of me. His arms are folded, and he smells like hasn’t bathed in years. On his shirt are the words ‘Alpha Psi.’

“Tickets,” he says gruffly.

Loud cheering and yelling comes from behind him. It sounds like there are at least a couple hundred people in this place. I peek over his shoulder, wondering what’s up there. He blocks my view.

“Tickets,” he snarls.

“Uh, yeah,” I say, fishing them out of my pocket.

He snatches them from my hand, his fingernails scratching my skin. Dang, that hurts. He brings the tickets so close to his face, I swear I think he’s sniffing them.

Inspecting them, his eyes sometimes flick to me, then to Evie, and then back to the papers in his hands. He squints, grumbling.

Shit.

Unexpectedly, he gives them back. “You can pass.”

For a moment I just stand there, baffled, while he moves to the side.

“Well?” he says, his voice growing impatient.

“Thanks!” I grab Evie by the coat and drag her with me.

We enter what looks like a giant warehouse, but there are rows and rows of bleachers forming a circle around the center. In the middle of it all is a cage.

We’re on a lowered part of the warehouse, so I can only see the top of the bars. It echoes with screams and shouts, people who are cheering for something. Or someone.

It gives me the chills just listening to their chants.

Killer, Killer

Make him be the spiller

The floor will flood

With all of his blood

Killer, Killer

I swallow. The horror that fills my heart unsettles me. Everything about this screams danger.

Still, I press on.

Evie and I hold hands as we walk to one of the bleachers. Angry men with tattoos and piercings glare us down. Evie squeezes my hand. We slip past them, up the bleachers. There are a couple of spots left in the middle, so I set my gaze on those and make my way toward them, ignoring everything and everyone around me.

Groans and thuds are coming from the center of the room, the cage, and I recognize the sounds to be human. The audience cries out in enthusiasm. Shivers run down my spine hearing them roar at the sound of someone’s bones cracking.

I close my eyes as we sit down. Sweat drops roll down my shirt. My fingers are tingly, and I’m not sure if it’s because Evie’s squeezing the life out of them, or if it’s because I’m going to faint.

“Can you look?” I ask.

“Why? You have eyes,” she scoffs.

Neither of us are remotely interested in watching, but I want to know what’s going on.

“Please? I’m scared.”

She sighs. “Fine.”

It’s quiet for too long, so I ask, “What do you see?”

“Oh. My. God.”

“What?” I say.

“You have to see this for yourself.” She lets go of my clammy hand.

I feel left in the dark. I know I have to open my eyes eventually, but I’m scared of what I’ll see.

Breathing out slowly, I gather the courage to look.

And what I see shocks me so much, I think my heart temporarily stops beating.

The guy in the cage getting beaten to a pulp is none other than Hunter Bane.

Chapter 26
Brawl or Die

I stare in complete and utter abhorrence at the cage in the center of the warehouse. Hunter is going all out in a fight with a guy twice his size.

They’re punching, jabbing, thrusting their whole bodies at each other as much as possible. Every second a quick jab is thrown out. I can’t even follow their movements, they’re so fast. They’re like two raging bulls storming at each other, continuously beating each other up.

So this is what Hunter has been doing all this time. Each time he came to my room all busted up, he’d been in a fight just like this. In a cage, beating up his opponents until they passed out.

I’m trembling in my seat, trying to make sense of it all.

Evie’s equally as terrified as I am; she hasn’t spoken since we both saw Hunter fighting.

Is this what they make him do? Fight people for money?

And how long has he been doing this? Hours? Days? Has he been locked up in here ever since he left after Scarlet’s death?

I can’t believe he would let them do this to him. That he’d agree to something this horrible.

It’s hard to watch.

Hunter’s nose is bleeding, his jaw is purple, and his eye is swollen. It looks like he’s already taken quite a beating.

He wipes his nose with the back of his hand, which from a distance looks covered in bruises. The look in his eyes is bloodthirsty, murderous. Clenching his jaw, he runs toward his opponent and rams him down with brute force.

The guy flops down on the hard concrete ground, and I think I hear something crack. The audience goes ‘ooh,’ and I wince when the guy places his hands on his ribs, his face contorting with pain.

Hunter prowls toward him with a smug smile on his face. Grabbing the hem of the guy’s shirt, he lifts part of his torso up into the air, and raises his fist. He mouths something, but nobody can hear it. Then he punches the guy straight in the face.

Multiple times.

My eyes widen. I’m shocked.

Hunter beats the guy’s face to a pulp and doesn’t let go until he’s fainted, his body limp in Hunter’s hands.

I’m disgusted.

The crowd bursts out into cheers, while I want to throw up in a bucket. I can barely hold down my dinner.

“It’s a win for the Hunter!” A big tattooed guy dangles a key between his fingers and opens a barred door right behind the fainted guy. Hunter backs away, spitting out some blood, and goes back to his side of the cage. Clinging onto the bars, he gazes at the crowd, peering at each and every one of them.

When his tongue dips out of his mouth, and he licks his lips, I can’t help but feel hot.

And then he roars. The crowd goes mad.

“Who’s the motherfucking Hunter?” he yells.

“You are!” the crowd chants.

Apparently they’ve found a new favorite.

I can’t blame them. He’s my favorite too.

Although I don’t want to admit it, because this is so fucking bad I can’t even describe it, he looks goddamn sexy as hell in that cage. His red sweatpants hang low on his hips, his V-line clearly showing. He’s half-naked. His abs are bulging as he flexes his taut shoulders, and drops of sweat roll down his chest.

A smug smile appears on his face as one of his fans, a girl with a pink blouse and boobs the size of melons, hands him a bottle of water. She squeals when he snatches it from her hand and throws the contents over his head and body.

I could enjoy seeing that, if I were to forget for even one second that he’s actually fighting people for money. Damn.

The big guy whistles, alerting two other guys to come pick up the body and drag him out, while the guy with the keys stares Hunter down. He blocks the exit, his hands hovering over his hips. In his pocket there’s a glinting object. A knife.

I gasp.

And then Hunter looks my way.

I freeze, my breath faltering. His eyes narrow as he looks at my face, and then they widen as he realizes it’s me.

I bite my lip; his jaw drops.

No. I don’t want him to know that I’m here. That I’m watching him do this fucked-up shit.

But now it’s too late.

Another guy enters the cage, this one much bulkier than the previous. He bellows, slapping his own chest like a gorilla. The guy with the keys locks the door again, trapping Hunter inside.

Hunter barely takes his eyes off me.

But I can’t take my eyes off the guy who just came into the cage.

My heart is beating in my throat. I don’t think I’m breathing.

It’s the same guy that once tried to rape me on the street.

Those tattoos, I’d recognize them anywhere. It’s him. It’s really him.

Now I understand what he meant when he said that he’d meet Hunter in the arena. This is the arena. This is his rematch. A fight for revenge.

Fuck.

The guy approaches Hunter from behind, and I watch in horror as he drags a distracted Hunter away from the bars and pounds him right in the back. Hunter arches his back, the blow too much for him to take, and blood shoots from his mouth.

Hunter immediately hits the guy in the balls with a backward kick, and releases himself from his grip. He pants, turning to his opponent, and barely manages to stand up straight. He winces, the pain clearly showing on his face.

“I’m going to kill you!” the guy yells in his face.

Cracking his knuckles, Hunter waits until the guy comes at him, while I bite my nails in frustration and fear. Suddenly I notice the guy has a knife in his back pocket.

I panic.

“Hunter!” I scream. “Knife!”

Hunter turns his head toward me, his eyes filled with primal despair as he responds to my cry. Temporarily distracted, he doesn’t see the jab coming straight for his face. It’s my fault.

His body can’t absorb the blow, and he’s hit so hard that he flies across the cage. I hold my breath as I see him crash into the bars of the cage. His eyes show an expression of pure agony.

Tears well up in my eyes. I can’t watch this. I can’t be here. I’m only hurting him. I can’t watch him do this to himself. To be the victim of someone else’s frenzy.

I stand up and run all the way to the end of the bleachers.

“Hey!” Evie screams, coming after me. “Wait up!”

I run through the crowd toward the door as Evie catches up to me.

“Where are you going?” she says.

“This is horrible, I can’t watch him getting beaten to a pulp.”

She grabs my hand before I walk away. “I’m going with you.”

We pass the guard near the door, who flashes us a look, and then we go out through the door. The noises behind us are still too much to take, so we go all the way up the stairs until we’re outside on the streets again. I can finally breathe again.

“Damn, that was scary,” Evie says. “What the fuck is going on? Why did you get tickets for this? Is Hunter in some kind of underground fight club or something? Those guys all wore the same shirt, something with Alpha Psi on it. What the fuck does it mean?”

I stare at her, panting. She squints.

“You’ve not been telling me the entire story, have you?”

“I didn’t know it was this bad,” I say. “Yes, he’s in a frat club. An illegal one. And they deal drugs and fight with people.”

“What?” she snaps. “Deal drugs? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“I wish I was, but it’s the truth. Hunter’s involved in something way beyond normal.”

“No shit. And you knew about this?”

“Partially …” I say.

She taps her foot on the floor. “Well, I don’t expect you to share everything, but the least you could’ve told me was that your boyfriend is a freaking criminal!”

“He’s not. He’s doing this for his brother, Jessie.”

“His brother? What does that have to do with any of this?”

I sigh. “It’s hard to explain right now. There’s a lot more to it. Can you just trust me? I promise I’ll tell you when this is all over.”

She sighs, frowning. “Fine. As long as we go home right now.”

I bite my lip. There’s nothing more that I want right now than to go home and forget all about this, but something inside me wants to go back to Hunter, too. I want to talk to him. No, I need to. I need to know why he’s doing this, and why he never told me about the arena. This is about more than just the money, it has to be. There’s no way he’d be looking for the boss of Alpha Psi, putting his own life at risk, just for money. There must be something I’m missing.

“I want to talk to him,” I say.

“Oh fuck no, you’re not being serious, are you?” Evie says.

“I am. Look, you just go on ahead.”

“What? I can’t let you go in there by yourself. Nu uh, no way.”

“Please. I need to talk to him. I don’t want to drag you any more into this than I already have.”

“It’s dangerous down there.”

“That’s why I’m saying you have to go. Go to the dorm. Let me handle this.”

“No.”

“Evie! Please,” I beg.

She rubs her face with her hand, groaning. “Are you sure about this?”

“Yes, I need to do this.”

It’s quiet for a few seconds before she says, “Okay. But you have to promise me you’ll come back.”

“I will.”

“No, you’ll be in perfect health, no scratch on you. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“I promise, Evie, I’ll look out for myself,” I smile.

She hesitantly smiles back. “Okay. See you back at campus.”

She turns around, still looking back at me over her shoulder, while I open the door and go back inside. Back down the stairs of hell.