Fight For Me ✔

Chapter 37

The hell?

"What are you doing here, Icky?"

"Well," he says, for once ignoring the nickname, "I might feel a smidge guilty about your girl so we," he gestures to himself and Noah behind him, "have come to offer our assistance. It's your lucky day, Beast."

I glance briefly to Noah before looking back at Ike. "He put you up to it, didn't he?" I nod my head in Noah's direction.

"The fact of the matter is we're here and ready to help. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

"Gift horse, my ass! Get out of here, you and yours have already caused enough trouble!"

"Now look here, Beasty b-"

I let all my rage and frustration free, lunging for him before he finishes. I'll take it all out on him to open myself to the calm I know I'm gonna need to make it through this nightmare.

I get in a few good punches, making Ike's lip bleed, before he regains his equilibrium and begins fighting me in earnest. We're both good fighters, have almost always been equals, but today I'm thirsting for blood in a way I never have before, not even in my darkest pre-Bambi moments. I barely feel the hits Ike manages to land on me, I don't care if I walk right into them, it only thing that matters is to hit, to hurt Ike as much as I can. Today Ike can't match my ferociousness, and for every hit I receive he gets two more.

An arm wraps around my throat from behind and applies pressure. I jab my elbow back out of reflex, and the grunt lets me know I hit my mark but the arm doesn't loosen.

Next thing I know, my cheek is pressed firmly to the cold cement of the walk way, my arm is twisted painfully behind me and somewhere around two hundred pounds is holding me in place. "What the hell did I just say about being calm?"

"This is me becoming calm!" I retort. Brian sounds pissed but so am I. "Rather him than some random cop, right?"

Brian just grunt and continue to hold me down with his weight. I trash about for a several seconds, but it becomes clear pretty damn quickly that he isn't averse to hurting me if he must. When I finally force myself to relax under him, he waits a few heartbeats before letting me up.

Ike and Noah are standing well out of reach, both with wary expressions as they wait for me to attack again. Instead I turn to Brian and repeat my earlier question, "What now?"

With a single narrow eyed glance at the two intruders, he turns and walk away. "Now we go have a chat with Jeffrey Miller. Come on."

With a hesitant look at my Ferrari I run to catch up.

Brian's car is a sleek black number, just like the ones you see on the cop shows and I can't stop the rolling of my eyes. Brian spots it, grins and points to me.

"Don't knock it till you try it, Richie Rich. Runs like a dream and looks cool in a car chase."

"Been in many car chases have you?" I ask as I get in.

"Stick to me boy and I'll take you places." He glance at the rearview mirror. "Your pals don't give up easily, do they?"

Looking behind me I spot the two annoyances in their car, waiting for us to drive. Ike's behind the wheel and Noah's talking calmly to someone on the phone.

I turn back with a frustrated grunt. "How do you lose a trail again?"

He snorts but don't answer as he pulls into traffic.

*****

The room we had been shown into was bland, cement walls and floor, a single table and four chairs and a water dispenser in the corner. The only lighting is two rectangular LED lamps in the ceiling and one small, high placed window. My ma have always said that people spoke best in cozy surroundings, so how they got anyone to talk in the bleak visitation room was anyone's guess.