The parking lot is almost full when we get there even though we’re still a half an hour early. As we get out and start walking toward the crowd of people waiting for tonight’s melee, a cheer erupts from them. Most of them are happy to see Aiden and I bet that the ones that are shouting her name are the ones that placed a massive amount of money on her winning tonight.

But there are also the ones that are jeering. The ones that don’t know what she’s capable of and only see a small figure of a woman and a mountainous man of an opponent. They’re the ones that think she’s more than likely going to be brutalized tonight, but I know she’ll show them.

Win or lose, Aiden always has a way of making sure people remember her. I can see the barrel fires the closer we get and the unmistakable form of Max Boothe looming in the distance between them.

“I’ll get you registered,” I say to Aiden, placing a hand on her back and handing her the mouthpiece box.

She smiles up at me before she turns her attention back to the crowd of people, then disappears into it.

“Hey, man,” I say to Gordon. He’s the main organizer of these fucking things. A homely old, fat bastard that makes his living off of the blood and tears of others. “Aiden’s here.”

He nods and crosses his arms as best as he can over his swollen belly and watches me carefully as I sign her in. I shudder at the though of having to blow this bastard to get the mouthpiece past him, but I’d do anything for Aiden.

“So, listen. Because of last time I made her something to protect her teeth,” I say, as I finish signing my name on the sheet. “It’s nothing that’ll give her an edge. It’s just something to make sure she doesn’t lose anymore of them.”

“I’ll check them out before the fight starts,” he says evenly with a nod.

“Cool. Thanks.”

I turn my back to him and crane my neck as I walk back toward the crowd. I can’t find Aiden at the moment but that doesn’t mean anything. She usually likes to spend time talking to her adoring fans before shit starts to get too messy.

“What’s up Gray?”

I grit my teeth. I know that voice because it haunted my dreams for as long as Aiden was in the hospital. I turn slowly and have to fight the urge to beat the shit out of Max the closer he gets to me. When he stops in front of me, he looks down at me and smirks.

“Ready to watch your little girlfriend get her ass handed to her again?”

“Actually I am. But you’re not my type, so I wouldn’t exactly call you my girlfriend,” I reply, looking him up and down. “Maybe next time, if you beg me hard enough, I might let you suck my dick.”

His friends laugh, as does anyone in earshot of our conversation, but Max’s face flushes red with anger. He probably wants nothing more than to beat me into the ground and I’d gladly take him on to get Aiden out of this shit.

He takes a step closer to me and my body tenses as I clench my fists at my side. I know I can’t take him down because I’m a realist, but I also know where to hit him to hurt him and I wouldn’t hesitate to take the chance to cripple the big buffoon.

“You just co-signed her next trip to the hospital. Except this time, I’m going to make sure she doesn’t fucking make it out,” he seethes, his eyes boring into mine.

“Yeah, well, we’ll see, won’t we?” I respond with a grin. I’m wearing the visage of confidence when I actually just died a little bit on the inside.

What the fuck did I just do?

* * *

Gordon just finished inspecting Aiden’s mouth-wear and has thankfully approved of it. Since I made it out of dual-laminate, I know that it would protect her when she needs it but not do damage to Max’s fists. Even though that’s not something I would normally give a fuck about. She’s standing in the middle of the cleared space, facing Max and ready to fight for her honor.

I’ve tried in the past twenty minutes to get her to let me step into her place, but she refused to the point of almost reducing me to tears.

Max is standing opposite to Aiden, his hands on his hips, staring down at her dangerously and I feel so fucking alone watching from the edge of the circle.

As Gordon starts going over the rematch and the rules, I notice Aiden is trying to catch my eye. When she finally does, she almost imperceptibly jerks her head to the left and I allow my eyes to follow her direction. My body trembles slightly, but only once, and then I turn my attention back to the center of the circle.

Penn’s here.

I can almost hear Aiden’s excited voice in my head. Just like it was the first night I met him, and she made the introductions and now we’re both here watching, hoping that she’ll be okay.

In the two seconds I looked over at him I was able to see that he’s standing with his friends and when he stole a quick glance in my direction he saw me looking at him, which caused him to almost immediately cut his eyes back toward Max and Aiden.

I shake my head and cross my arms over my chest, praying that this will start soon because the faster it does, the faster it will be over with.

“Alright, shake hands, and let’s get this going,” Gordon finally says loudly.

I run a hand over my face as Aiden extends a fist and Max waves her off. He raises his fist and Aiden does the same, and as Gordon gives the go ahead, I feel faint.

I don’t know if I can watch her fight him again, but I refuse to leave her alone. She may have a shit ton of fans here, but I know I’m her only true friend besides Penn that gives a shit about her right now, so I can’t leave.

As they begin to circle each other slowly, I damn near jump out of my skin when someone nudges me. I glance over to my left and roll my eyes when I realize it’s Penn. He nods at me but says nothing else since his friends are on either side of us now.

“Aiden’s your girl, right?” one of them leans over and asks over the roar of the crowd.

“What?” I ask, turning my eyes back toward the center of the forum. Aiden and Max are circling each other like predators and I seem to have missed who threw the first swing. I assume it wasn’t Aiden, because had it been, she would be on him still piling on as many hits as she could get.

“Aiden?” he shouts into my ear. I wince and give him a dirty look causing him to back up a bit. “I was asking if she’s your girlfriend.”

“No,” I reply evenly, turning my attention back to the fight. Max steps forward and puts power behind a swing that Aiden manages to dodge again. She moves quickly and lands a number of hits to his torso before she bounces back away from him. I smile when I see her eyes. She’s damn determined to make it out of this in one piece and I know she’s looking forward to the payday too.

I take a deep breath and rub a hand over my face when Max quickly regains his footing and swings at Aiden again, this time clipping her—just barely, in the face. It’s enough to make her stagger slightly but when he moves on her again, she manages to skitter out of the way and land a hook to his ribs.

“He’s gonna fuck her up when she gets tired of running around,” one of Penn’s friends says gleefully.

“Shut your fucking mouth,” he snaps at him before I have a chance to react. I hold Penn’s eyes for a moment and nod in thanks, when the crowd erupts again.

Aiden’s managed to climb onto Max’s back and she’s wailing on his head, blow after blow, until he violently grabs her by the arm and throws her off of him. She lands roughly on the pavement and he moves quickly, leaning over her, and smirking.

“It was fun while it lasted,” he taunts her as he reaches down and grabs her by the throat, lifting her up. Aiden’s dangling a couple of inches off the ground as Max scans the crowd. When his eyes finally land on me, a malicious smile dances across his lips as he begins to beat her violently.

She’s like a sack of meat hanging from a hook in a slaughterhouse getting tenderized and I don’t know if there’s anything I can fucking do about it. If I intercede, she gets disqualified and she’ll hate me forever. If I don’t, he’ll probably kill her, and I’ll lose her regardless.

Aiden coughs up blood onto Max’s face which causes him to drop her to the ground. While she’s down, holding her sides, he angrily wipes away the mess before he does something that seals his fate as the loser in the fight.

His anger takes over him and he ends up kicking her so hard in the fucking ribs that causes the entire crowd to gasp at once. My mouth drops open as Aiden lets out a scream of pain and before he has the chance to land another kick on her, I spring into action.

“Motherfucker!”

I run at him and lower my head, landing my shoulder in his stomach, and taking him down as violently as he dropped her. Max doesn’t have a chance to defend himself or react because I’m so overcome with rage that my body has him pinned to the ground.

Fist after fist. Blow after blow. Each moment of worrying about how Aiden would survive this fight is behind my rage as I keep hitting him in the face. His nose breaks, blood spurts out of his mouth, and that’s still not enough for me.

I want to do more than just harm him. I want to fucking kill him for what he did to her. He had no intention of fighting fairly—he wanted to humiliate her and put her out of commission, but as God is my witness, I’ll fucking kill him first.

“Gray, Gray!”

Penn’s frantic voice is in my ear and I can feel multiple pairs of hands on me attempting to pull me off of Max. I’m losing the will to hang on to him, but not because my rage is subsiding, but because there are more people trying to drag me off of him than there probably are checking on Aiden.

It takes about five men to finally pry me off of the unconscious Max, but he’s still breathing and that’s still too good for me.

“Fuck him. We have to get Aiden help,” Penn says, stepping in front of me and blocking Max. My eyes begin to come into focus again as he fills my view.

“Oh fuck. Aiden,” I say, staggering on my feet.

I turn around and push my way through the people that are crowding over her, scoop her off the pavement, and cradle her in my arms. She cries out from the pain of broken bones, and I turn around frantically. I don’t know how to get her out of the crowd without hurting her more, but Gordon comes over, declares her the winner by disqualification, and tells the crowd to move out of our way.

I nod at him in thanks, tears streaming down my face, as I move as quickly as I can toward the parking lot. The crowd is following me, people are calling out to Aiden. Some are congratulating her, others are taunting her, and the entire time, she’s in my arms shaking violently hoping for the pain to stop.

“I’ve got you now. It’ll be okay,” I say to her softly. Aiden looks up at me and forces a smile through her tears then closes her eyes, her body going limp.

It’s in this moment that I realize my worst fear may be coming true. The one thing that could send me into a downward spiral that I won’t be able to climb my way out of.

I think I just lost my best friend.