The Gang Leader's Girl

Chapter 4

The ride to the ring wasn't as long as I expected and I was mostly thankful that it was honestly just a small walk away from the apartment. Just like he was reading my mind Ryder says,"I know what your thinking, I drive here just in case cops bust us, its just a quick and easy get away." 

I look at the steering wheel and decide to be a smart ass so I point to the big silver mustang symbol in the middle, "With a car like this you'll be spotted easily, you take off on foot and they'll never find you. You don't even have your licence plate covered. We get caught your dead meat." I say. 

He smirks and says, "That's not my licence plate, and even if the cops caught us I would just tell him that we were getting some Chinese but their food was s**t so we didn't get anything. I've done this before and besides they never come here anyway." We get out of the car and walk into the restaurant, we walk over to the counter, this guy walks to me and Ryder. Ryder slips him a piece of paper and the guy looks at me. "She's with me." The guy nods and leads us back to what looks like the janitor closet. They guy takes out a weird looking key and sticks it into the door. Once the door's open the man steps to the side and lets us pass. 

Ryder goes down first while I follow him. "What is this place?" I ask taking a look around. The familiar smell of blood and alcohol fill my senses. There's plenty of seating and a huge ass ring right in the middle of it all. A bunch of older men started looking in our direction. Ryder must have seen the disgust on my face so he put his arm around my shoulders which brought me closer to him. The men turned around as fast as they could, I'm guessing out of fear. I imagine  Ryder has a amazing reputation around here.   

"We call it 'The Pit' if you leave here you'll either leave unconscious or with a bag full of cash ." He said whilst taking me to the back, where I assume the lockers and gym are. Just when I think were going to go through the door we turn into the passageway beside it. We walk through the curtains into a very empty locker/gym room. My eyes widen at the sight, there's not a single soul here and all this equipment looks brand new. "This is my locker room. I kinda own the place." 

"How? This must've cost a fortune." I say running my hand along the fine leather on the bench press. 

Ryder sets his things down in one of the lockers and grabs a water bottle. "My family established it in the 1970's. It's just been passed down generation after generation." He pauses and takes a quick drink of his water. "Go ahead and get ready and I'll get you a fight in line." He walks out leaving me alone.

I begin to wrap my hands preparing for my fight. My thoughts started racing, 'why is Ryder's family involved in illegal street fighting? How have they not been busted yet?' Questions begin to fill my head. Soon my hands are wrapped and I grab my water taking a quick sip as Ryder walks in. "Your fight starts in 10."He tells me. 

"You're not going to fight tonight?" I ask.

"Not really in the mood." 

I nod at him and pull out my phone. I have multiple notifications from some friends back home. All asking where I've been. I text them all back a 'Don't worry 'bout it :)' and start scrolling through i********:. "Scarlet, you're up." Ryder says to me snatching my phone from my hand. 

I glare at him playfully and walk out. I start heading toward the ring catching older men's stares and some bitches glares. I step in and feel eyes on me from every direction. I see some people laughing in the back of the room. Either they get little to no female fighting or they're just drunk and laughing their asses off for no reason. I go with the latter one to keep my confidence. My opponent comes in a few moments later. He's a tall lean man, maybe about 6'2, light blonde hair, maybe about 22 or 23. He's attractive but, as soon as he got in the ring he stares at my t**s for a few moments before looking back up. He smirks at me, I roll my eyes at him as the announcer comes up to me and asks for my name. "Deadly Nightmare." I tell him. He walks over to the other guy and starts whispering to him. 

As they talk I quickly scan the room. I spot Ryder standing close to the ring. He offers me a quick smile then he looks away. I glance at the entrance and spot my brother walking in, we lock eyes and his face changes from concerned to pissed. I shoot him an innocent smile and look back to the middle of the ring. The announcer has already walked to the middle of the ring. "Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to The Pit!" He yells into the microphone. The crowd starts gathering around the ring and starts yelling. "For tonight's fight we have Deadly Nightmare in the left corner!" The announcer points at me. "And in the right corner we have Grave Digger! You know the rules people, place your bets before the fight begins! You have 5 minutes." He steps off the stage and heads into the crowds. 

I feel a light tap on my shoulder catching my attention. I turn around to see both Ace and Ryder standing behind me. "What the hell are you doing?" My brother says harshly. 

Ryder hands me my bag that has my money in it and a water bottle. I grab both and take a quick swig of the water before answering him. "I'm fighting, are you blind?" I ask sarcastically.  I hand Ryder back the water bottle and walk to the middle of the ring with the bag. I meet Grave Digger in the middle of the ring and set the bag down in front of me. "I've got $3000 that I'm not willing to lose tonight." I tell him putting on my poker face. 

The announcer takes the bag and hands it to the fight dealers. "I've got $4000." Grave Digger tells him. The announcer does the same thing with his bag. "You're not going to win this fight little girl." He tells me with a smirk. 

I just shrug keeping my composure. I walk back over to my corner. While I'm walking I notice that Ace is gripping the railing with Ryder beside him. "3000's a lot." Ryder says.

"Don't worry, I'm confident I'll be walking home with twice as much." I say as I look back over to my opponent. As he's warming up, I notice that every few seconds he'll roll his left shoulder, and sometime stretch it. I mentally note it as a weak spot and use that to my advantage. I also notice he has a slight limp on his right leg. I scan his body for any kind of scars or any possible dislocations, but come up empty. I stretch both my arms and legs right before the referee calls us to the middle. 

We meet in the middle, and the ref starts explaining the rules to the both of us. "You cannot beat one another to the point of death. The fight will end when one of you can't get up after 10 seconds, when one of you tap out, or if either of you get knocked out."  

I look at Grave Digger and smirk at him, "May the best fighter win." I say as I hold out my hand for him to shake. He shakes my hand and we both walk back over to our corners. 

When the ref tells us we can begin the fight we both circle each other slowly. He starts stomping toward me and balls his hand into a fist. As he draws it back I quickly put up both arms in front of my face in a defensive position and dodge him. I duck behind him, as soon as he turns around I hit him with a left hook. He stumbles back and becomes extremely pissed. He tries throwing another punch at my face, but i drop to the ground and swing my legs to trip him. He loses his balance and falls on his stomach. I straddle his back and take his left arm and twist it around behind his back. He yells out in pain and tries to throw me off him. I grab his hair and slam his head into the floor. He uses his other hand to push himself off the ground. I fall off him and he gets on top of me and throws a punch at my face. I felt a sharp pain on the side of my face, slightly blurring my vision. I bring my knee up from behind in hopes of hitting his groin from the back. I draw it back and knee him either in the ass or the balls. Either way it distracts him long enough for me to throw a punch to his face. I hear the snap of his nose breaking and it gives me some satisfaction. 

I push him on his back and straddle him the same way he did me, but this time i put my knees on both his forearms. I throw another punch to his face, and another, and another until he passes out. I get off him and take a step back. The ref starts counting down from 10. When he finally reaches zero he walks over to me and grabs my hand holding over my head. "We have our winner!" He yells into the mic. Some people start cheering others turn their heads back to the bar. He starts telling me where I can get my money and gives me a congrats. I step under the railing to get off the stage and I go to get my money. 

After I get my money I head to Ryder's private gym/changing room. "Hey, congrats on your win. You kicked that guy's ass." Ryder tells me as I step into the room. 

"Thanks." I say as I take off my wraps. 

"You did good. I have to admit, I'm impressed." He tells me walking over to me. "Your lip's bleeding." Ryder says grabbing my face. As soon as he grabs me my face starts throbbing in pain. 

"Ow, you prick." I hiss swatting his hand away. 

"s**t, sorry. Let's get home and I'll help bandage them up." I just nod not having the energy to argue. Ryder grabs my stuff for me and we leave The Pit.

As we get into Ryder's car I ask him, "Where's Ace?" 

He looks at me as he puts the keys in the ignition "He had some stuff he had to handle after your match. He told me he'd meet us at home." I nod as he brings the mustang to life. The ride back to the apartment was silent, with only the radio playing and the cars around us honking. Even at 1 in the morning the streets of New York were still crowded. When we finally arrive at the apartment building I scan the lot for Ace's car. I know he's a little bit mad at me but I can't handle the silent treatment. As if reading my mind Ryder says, "He's not mad at you. He's just worried about you. Don't stress over it." I nod and get out of his car. Once again Ryder grabs my things for me and gets out of his car as well. We reach the door and Ryan takes out his keys to open it. When we walk in Ryder takes my stuff and sets it on the couch. "Go to the bathroom I'll be there in a second." He says slightly demanding. 

"And if I don't?" I tease.

He takes a step closer, a little too close. I take a step back but he follows my movements until I'm pressed against the wall. All playfulness gone he says, "If you don't then I'll just have to throw that pretty ass of yours over my shoulder and put you in that bathroom myself. We don't want to have to do that now do we?" My breaths getting heavier I shake my head. "Good." He says as he takes a step back. "I've got to grab some stuff, just go in there sit on the sink and just wait on me." Embarrassed I nod quickly. I do as he says and walk into the bathroom. I look in the mirror and see the big bruise that asshole left on the side of my face and my split lip. I run my fingers across it, slightly flinching at the contact. The door opens and Ryder steps in with a ice pack and a medical kit. "Sit."

I jump lightly to get my ass on the counter top. "I could've done this myself." I tell him. 

"I know, but I wanted to do it instead." He says handing me the ice pack. I place it on the side of my face as he washes his hands. He grabs a rag and runs it under the water. He rings it out and gently places it on my lip. Ryder holds it there for a few minutes before taking it off. His face inches closer to mine, until our lips are just centimetres away. I know we can't do this, we've already agreed not to be anymore than his fake girlfriend. That's it. But my body worked against my brain, I put down the ice pack and wrapped my arms around his neck, bringing his lips down on mine. A fire ignited within me. I felt sparks, the cliche, only found in books kind of sparks. He kissed me back and just like that I felt butterflies in my stomach. This went on for a couple of seconds when the sound of the front door opening drew us both out of the euphoric state. As quickly as I could I hopped off the counter and walked out of the bathroom. I went into the living room and seen my brother and Brooklyn sitting at the island. 

"Hey, Scarlet, there's someone I want you to-" 

"Hey Brooklyn." I smiled at her.   

"Hi Scarlet. Did you get that stain out of your shirt from this morning?" She asked me.

"Wait, what?" He looked between the two of us. "You two already know each other? How? I want answers." 

I hit him on the side of his head. "You didn't have the decency to tell me you had a lovely girlfriend before now?" 

Ace rubbed the spot where I hit him. "I was going to let you get settled in before I told you." 

"You took too long, I told her this morning at the coffee shop." She laughed.

We talked for a little while longer, I looked over at the clock seeing that it was already 2 a.m and I needed to get up in the morning. "Alright you lovebirds I'm going to bed. Night." I say as I walked back to my room. As I walked toward the hall I grabbed my stuff that Ryder left on the couch. I looked over to Ryder's door to see that it was shut and the door to the bathroom was wide open with the light off. When I get into my room I put my things on the floor in front of my bed. I started to take off my clothes. I looked into the mirror that's hanging off my door to see the scar of the snake imprinted in my skin. I quickly take off my bra and throw on an over sized t-shirt. I lay down in my bed and begin to think about kissing Ryder. It's so wrong yet it feels so right. That's my brother's best friend. I can't be with him. Yet the only thing that I can think about is what it would feel like for him to kiss me like that everywhere on my body. Maybe it's only an attraction thing. That's all it can ever be. We made an agreement. That kiss can never happen again and I have to make sure that it never happens again.