Three Hot Wishes (Fantasy Come to Life - Magic in the Real World Novel) (26 page)

Sloane

Halfway through the third round, I didn't think I could watch any more of this.

How on earth Angel was still on his feet I didn't know, but even a novice like me could tell that he was on his last legs.

I saw his manager out of the corner of my eye talking to a couple of guys far too well-dressed for this sort of thing and hurried over to him. I'd heard Angel call him Jessie, so at least I knew his name.

"Jessie," I said, grabbing his arm and turning on the charm. "I'm so sorry to interrupt, gentleman. Do you mind if I borrow this guy for a second?"

Both of the fashionable dudes nodded their permission, and I guessed from the amount of gold they were wearing on their fingers and around their necks that they were rich and powerful enough to be running things here.

Once they'd said okay, I dragged Jessie out of their earshot. They were polite enough to step away completely and leave me with Angel's manager.

"What they hell are you doing talking to these guys?" I practically shouted at him, trying to be heard over the clamor of the crowd. "Your fighter's getting smashed in there, and you're rubbing shoulders with... What?"

Jessie gave me a sly little grin that sent goosebumps up my spine. "Sloane, right?"

I nodded, furious. What difference did it make what my name was?

"Listen, I know how it must look, but you've got to trust me. Have a little faith, you know? Your man will heal up just fine."

The people watching the crowd got even louder, and I looked over to see the big Russian unleash a flurry of blows that rocked Angel, almost knocking him over.

"You've got to end this," I told his manager. "Now!"

"No way," he told me, shaking his head.

"But he's in trouble!" I turned to look at Angel just I time to see his stubborn unwillingness to get out of the way earn him a heavy punch from Nitro that made the crowd suck in its collective breath.

When I turned back to Jessie, at least the guy looked worried. "It's going to be okay," he said, more to himself than to me as he cast a nervous glance back at the guys he'd been talking to when I dragged him off.

Both of them were watching the match with great interest now, and from the looks of it they weren't very happy about the way things were going.

"Who are those guys, anyway?" I asked Jessie, hoping to distract him.

"Leo and Vick Carello," he said absently.

The names didn't mean anything to me, but I hadn't been asking to educate myself. On the other side of the fat man sat a stack of towels, and I figured if there was anything that even this sort of fight would understand, it was someone throwing in the towel.

I dodged past him and snatched one up.

Jessie may have been fat.

He may have been a slime ball.

But one thing he wasn't was stupid. He knew instantly what I was planning, and the look of sheer panic on his eyes gave me pause.

I don't think I'd ever seen anyone so afraid before in my life. He was jumping up and down in front of me, waving his hands like I was a runaway train he was trying to stop from hopping off the tracks.

Screw that.

I spun past him without a problem. He didn't stand a chance against all those years of ballet training.

I watched Angel lunge forward with a vicious jab. All of his strength was behind it, but unfortunately for him it was too little too late. If it had been on target, perhaps it would have made the difference, but he'd been beaten too badly to aim it.

I watched as it glanced off Nitro's face, barely missing the chance to become a knockout blow.

Only...

Only the big Russian went down like he'd been shot by an elephant gun. It happened so fast that I doubted what I'd seen an instant before, especially when the crowd went wild.

I looked at Jessie and saw him flash me a big grin and a wink. Most of the crowd was at a different angle to the action then us, and I realized to them Angel's punch would have looked perfect; a one in a million shot that felled the monster.

But I knew better.

The fight was rigged. I shoved past Jessie and got to the edge of the crowd, trying desperately to reach Angel. He was barely able to stand. Blood poured from another cut, this one on his cheek, and the injured eye had swollen completely shut.

"Sloane?" he mouthed.

He looked defeated, despite the fact that he'd just won what the crowd was treating like the match of his life.

I went to him, the blood and sweat forgotten.

Now that I was closer, I could hear his voice in my ear over the din.

"I told Jessie to get you out of here. I didn't want you to see me get beat."

"You won," I told him.

"How?"

I didn't know how to answer that, so I didn't even try...

Angel

The bathroom they'd let me use to clean up wasn't much different to the locker rooms I was used to, after a fight.

It had running water and washcloths though, and that was really all that mattered to me right then.

I shoved my hands under the water and splashed as much of it could on my face and upper body. It wasn't time to look in the mirror yet. Not yet, but soon.

I probably looked like hell. Judging by the way Sloane had been babying me, I must have scared her. The cut man had said the gashes on my face wouldn't need to be stitched, so I just cleaned them out as best I could and plastered a couple of thick band aids across the worst of it.

There. Job done, I let myself look in the mirror. Just like always, it wasn't as bad as it felt. I'd hurt tomorrow, but in a couple days the bruises would reach their peak and in a week or two I'd be as good as new.

None of the pain I felt now mattered compared to the win I'd just had, though!

I closed my eyes, letting myself dwell on the months of training, the hours of video assessment of an opponent that the damn Carellos had ended up switching on me in a last ditch effort to bring me down.

It hadn't worked, though. They'd trotted out a monster to defeat me, and I'd dug in and laid him out cold.

That should show them. If this victory didn't earn me a shot at something much bigger, there wasn't any justice in this world.

And Sloane had come! I hadn't been sure she would, but she hadn't let me down. Seeing her burst out from the crowd of rowdy spectators and run to my side at the end of the fight had felt right.

I could get used to this.

I gave myself the once over in the mirror again. Jai and Jesse would be looking out for Sloane now, but that didn't mean I wanted to leave her out there any longer than I had to.

The people who'd attended the fight would be gone by now, but I found that more and more I was missing her. Not just now, but in my life in general.

I threw my pants on and a new shirt and went out into the parking garage. Sloane and Jai was there, but Jessie had vanished.

I couldn't take my eyes off of Sloane, though. She'd worn a tight-fitting dress that hugged her frame, and just looking at her made some of the hurt the Russian had dished out turn to smoke and blow away.

"Thanks for coming," I said to her, suddenly self-conscious of my banged up face.

"I said I would, didn't I?"

I shrugged and turned to Jai, eager to get rid of him and spend some time with Sloane. "Thanks for staying back. Where'd Jessie wander off to?"

Jai shrugged. "Don't know. 'Business' was all he said.

I nodded and shook his hand. "I owe you. I'll talk to a couple of guys I know and set something up for you, Jai. Call you in a week or so, yeah?"

He had a good grip, and he gave me a thumbs up once he let go before turning around and walking off.

And that left Sloane and I on our own.

It was strange. Part of me wanted to pick her up and have her against the concrete pillar behind her and part of me wanted to fall into her arms.

I split the difference and slid my arm around her waist. She didn't flinch away from me, even though I could tell that my injuries scared her a little.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm good," I told her with a smile. "Cloud nine and all that."

She looked like she wanted to say something but then thought better of it.

It was just the usual first date jitters, though. I tried to make it easier on both of us by jumping in. "Are you hungry?"

"Sure," she said. "Are you?"

"Hell yeah."

"Even after all of that?"

I shrugged. "Especially after all of that. I worked up an appetite, and nothing makes me feel more alive than winning a fight they told me I'd lose."

She got that strange look in her eye again. "Who told you you'd lose?"

"Everyone. The odds were six to one against, maybe even higher by the time the race started."

"Did you bet on yourself?"

I shook my head. "That's not how it works. I get money for fighting, and I get even more for winning. No bookie in the state would take my bet for or against myself, and trying to do it through a third party is dangerous."

Her eyes narrowed. "Dangerous how?"

"I'll tell you about it over some food. Let's get out of here, huh?"

She put her arm around my hips and let me lead her out of the parking garage.

Sloane

"Do you like room service?" he asked, the bruises on his face doing nothing to take away from the sly little grin he flashed me.

It was no secret that he lived at the Ritz, but I wasn't ready to go home with him. For one thing, I still hadn't convinced myself that he wasn't in on fixing the boxing match I'd just watched, and for another...

Well, I just didn't know how to move that fast, even if I wanted to.

"Let's just find an all -night diner and hang out, okay?"

"Sounds good," Angel said.

But did it really? I knew by how aggressive he'd been at the bar that he had the capacity to be a total asshole about trying to get into my pants...

But then again, when we'd chatted last night after he'd found me on the web cam site and saved me from what could well have been a lifetime worth of regret and embarrassment, he'd been so different.

We ordered. I got a coffee and a slice of banana cream pie, and he went with water and pancakes. I couldn't help but smile as he drizzled them in maple syrup.

"What?" he asked. "I'm a growing boy! I burnt a lot of calories in that fight, and I need to get them back."

"Go nuts," I told him with a laugh.

He took a big bite, chewed, and then swallowed before watching me thoughtfully.

I tried to ignore the fact that he was studying me, but when the look in his eyes got almost wistful, I couldn't take it anymore. "You going to just stare at me the whole meal?" I asked.

"Sorry," he said. "I just can't stop looking at you. I want you so bad."

He reached out his hand and caught mine. God, he was strong!

"Enough of that," I warned him, more than half joking. "After the beating you just took, there's no way you and I are doing anything tonight. With my luck, I'd end up with you getting a concussion in the middle, or something."

Angel wasn't about to be so easily dissuaded, though. "So you admit that it'll happen then, just not tonight..."

He had me there. "Heal up and then we'll see."

Angel nodded, surprising me by not trying to force the issue. I'd expected him to be pushy, trying again and again to talk his ways into my pants.

I was happy that he was playing it cool, but the way the fight had ended still bothered me.

"Angel..." I let my voice trail off. How does one go about this sort of thing?

"Yeah?"

"The fight... Tell me what you thought about the end of it."

He shrugged. "I'd like to be able to tell you how awesome it felt, that there was this moment of clarity in the heat of battle where I saw my shot and took it. But I can't."

Was he about to admit that he was in on fixing the fight? "Why not?" I asked.

"Because I was almost gone. Out of it, you know? I just remember the impact of his punches making my vision blur. I lashed out and got lucky. That's all it was Sloane, dumb fucking luck."

I nodded slowly, biting my tongue. I believed that he was sincere, but all that meant was he was as duped as the rest of the crowd.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing."

"Bullshit. I haven't known you for long, but I'm starting to dread that look you've got on your face right now. Whatever you've got to say, just spill it. I'm way too tired to have to drag it out of you."

I hesitated. The truth would hurt, but I had a feeling that the deception would bite him on the ass even harder than knowing what had really happened would.

"Come on," he prompted.

"Okay, here goes," I said. "But just remember, I'm hardly an expert on these things, okay?"

"Okay."

"I mean, I've never even seen a boxing match happen in front of my eyes, like that, so I could be imagining things..."

"God, you're infuriating," he said. "Just tell me whatever it is you've got to say, huh?"

I looked down at my hands. He was still holding on to one of them, and he gave me a reassuring squeeze.

My heart broke for this guy. Maybe he'd been a manwhore in a previous life, before he met me, but all he'd ever treated me with was some degree of kindness and generosity.

And here he was, trying to give me the strength to tell him something as shit as thing I was about to say.

"I saw it happen, Angel. I was over by Jessie, and right before you knocked out the big guy he wasn't even watching the fight. He was talking to some guys in suits he called the Carellos."

"Wait, what?"

I held up my hand, eager to get all of it out before he had questions. "I dragged him away and tried to get him to stop the fight. You were getting killed out there, though obviously you're tougher than I thought. Still, he wouldn't hear of it. He kept saying I had to have faith, that everything would work out."

I took a deep breath. Angel was clearly furious, but I pressed on.

"I was off to the side, away from most of the crowd. I saw your last punch, Angel. You almost missed him completely. I mean, you hit him, but barely. He went down like you'd driven over him with a tank, but the whole thing looked staged to me..."

Angel withdrew his hand from mine and cracked his knuckles. "That," he said, "is going to be an issue."