I couldn’t stop thinking about her. She was easy, funny, light-hearted, and sexy in a way I hadn’t seen before. Her long blonde hair in the moonlight as she slowly sucked my cock kept playing over and over in my head. If I was honest with myself, though, it wasn’t just her body. It was the way she seemed to understand me. We came from such different backgrounds, and she was a spoiled ex-rich kid, but she understood loss and pain. Not like I did, but she wasn’t afraid of it either. She seemed more alive than anyone I had ever met. I wanted to get lost in her eyes and her touch. Everything about her made my body feel like it was on fire, and I had never met a girl that made me so insane before. I needed to get away from Michael if I was going to try to have anything with her, and that was my main motivation.
The sound of my sneakers on the concrete echoed in the oddly empty streets. I had been hiding out in a damp basement for the past week and my lungs felt like cannon balls in my chest. My ribs still weren’t fully healed from the last fight, but time was up. I tried not to think much about what was going to happen, about the pain and the violence, because fuck it. I’d either win or he’d win. For me though, it’s no real choice. I either beat that man down or I’d die. Those other guys were fighting for money. I was fighting for my life.
I thought back on all those nights I borrowed from Michael, the constant stream of girls and drugs. Part of me thought it was free shit, but I should have known better. Nothing was free with him, and everything had its price. Eventually, it all caught up with me, just as I was trying to get out. I knew that wasn’t a coincidence, but there was nothing I could do about it.
There were the other jobs I was running for him, too. Like the job that went south. They were meant to go toward my debt, but that last one felt different. It was fucked from the start, the location changed last minute, the goods were nearly worthless. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was royally screwed. And when they started shooting, I had no choice but to shoot back. I barely got out with my life. Of course Michael has the balls to pin it all on me, like I was the one who decided I wanted to kill a bunch of strangers over some shitty boosted cars.
That’s when I knew how serious Michael was about not letting me go. He couldn’t come out and kill me, otherwise he’d lose face with the other bosses. Instead, he probably tried to set me up, and made up some shit about me being in debt. But all I needed to do was win the fight and the next after that, and he couldn’t touch me ever again.
As I passed by the thin city trees, I thought about Darcy some more. That time on the rock on Fisherman’s Wharf was the best night of my life. I told her shit I hadn’t shared with anyone else in years. Dark shit, the cold corners of my past. And she didn’t run away, didn’t call me a freak. She wasn’t afraid of me like so many other people were. It was something about how she looked at me, her big eyes deep and penetrating, unblinking, and fierce. I needed someone like her, steadfast and loyal. Plus, she was absolutely gorgeous, and our bodies clicked together like clockwork. She made me want to keep fighting because of the way she kept moving forward herself. Alone in a city she knew nothing about, she kept trying to improve, trying to find something bigger than herself. I envied her freedom and beauty, and wanted to be as close to her as possible. I wasn’t the type to get like that about some random chick, but Darcy was different. I had been with plenty of girls before her, sluts and nice girls and more, but she was the first I was willing to risk myself for.
I shook my head, trying not to get too lost in remembering her body. It felt like forever since I last saw her, which was crazy. We barely knew each other. Still, there was something undeniable about our attraction.
Ahead, Drake’s looked closed. It was about midnight, and the fight should start as soon as I got there. The front door was unlocked, and I pushed my way inside. I gave Chuck the bartender a nod, which he returned, but I could tell he was surprised to see me. The main room was empty, which meant everyone was probably downstairs. I made my way across the room and toward the bathrooms. I pushed an “Employees Only” door open, and went down the steps.