Chapter 23
Olivia
Past
“Oh my God.” I ended the call with my new agent, Michelle, and fell into my sofa. I was amazed and awestruck. I had just found out that I was cast in the lead role of The Burning Game! This was huge! After several long, hard years I'd finally made it.
I couldn't wait to tell...
Why did I still think of him first? After my many failures and too few victories, Bastien’s name was the first in my head.
I had friends too, but they mostly just came to parties with me. None of them really knew me as well as Bastien. I doubt I would've even liked any of them if I'd met them in high school.
Bastien probably would've made some kind of joke about my head being too big to fit through doors now that I was a celebrity. For as angry at him as I still was, I hoped he was ok. I wished I could just get over him, but a big part of me was glad I couldn't.
My phone rang a few minutes later. It was one of my costars, Samantha Woods.
“Hey, Samantha?”
“Hi Olivia! I just heard the news and wanted to congratulate you on joining the cast.” Her voice was bright and sweet. “I was wondering if you wanted to grab a coffee with me? We can talk about the project and everything.”
“Uh, sure!” I said. Maybe this was what I needed. None of the guys Dad had tried to set me up with could distract me from Bastien. Maybe I just needed a different kind of friend? “That sounds great.”
I had met so many famous people, and none held a candle to Bastien. I knew I would never meet anyone like him again. All I could hope for now was that his hold over me would eventually go away.
Or, that someday he might come back to me.
Present
I made my way into what looked like an abandoned warehouse. I had no idea what the dress code was at one of these fights, so I tried to appear as nondescript as possible. Michelle would've given me so much hell if I was recognized here. I wore a large, dark hoodie and the plainest jeans I had.
The look reminded me of the clothes I wore back in high school.
A well-groomed, clean-shaven man stood by a stairwell that led further down. He reminded me of a bouncer, like at a club. His head was down, browsing something on his phone.
I paused, making as little noise as possible. I was all alone in a really, really bad part of town, heading into an illegal fighting club.
Run away before he sees you!
My anxiety threatened to overwhelm me. I'd never done anything like this before.
What do I even say to the man?
Was there some sort of code word I had to give him to get in? I should have asked that bartender more questions!
He snapped his gaze up at me, carefully looking me over. “You looking for something?”
“I—” I swallowed the lump that rose in the back of my throat and forced myself to answer. I needed to say something. 'It's all just acting,' Bastien's voice echoed in my memory.
“Yeah,” I said, feigning confidence like I belonged there. “I'm here for the fight.”
“There's no fight here.” He eyed me skeptically, then went back to his phone. “Please leave.”
What? There had to be!
This was the location Bastien had written down and it was way too sketchy not to have something going on. This had to be the right place.
Part of me was relieved at being turned away.
I tried, didn't I? I could leave knowing that I at least made the effort. Besides, Bastien left me, not the other way around. Maybe he wanted to be left alone. Dozens more excuses crowded into my frightened mind.
Did he really want to be left alone after his father died?
Dammit. No. I came here for a reason.
“Don't fuck with me, asshole.” I swallowed and continued on. I couldn't leave until I saw Bastien.
“Excuse me?” His head shot back up and he eyed me hard.
Well, that got his attention.
“I came for the glass fight.” A steely reserve filled my tone, it sounded like I belonged there. “How much is it going to cost me to get in?”
“Wards,” the bouncer snorted. He shook his head now that he’d recognized me then stepped aside. “Go ‘head.”
Wards? Plural? I brushed past him wondering what he meant.
I heard the cheers echoing up the stairwell when I reached the next landing. This was where people watched men get beaten to death. The thought made me shiver.
This was Bastien's world.
Soon after that, I saw the crowd standing around a filthy, blood-streaked circle. All I could make out from my obscured vantage point was that there were three men fighting, each of them stained red and glistening in the hard-fluorescent light.
I couldn't immediately make out who was fighting right away. It was just a mass of limbs flailing and grunts. My stomach knotted and twisted with the sound of every sickening blow that landed. The cheers that followed made me sick. I pushed closer, praying that I made it in time.
Please let that not be him in there. Please, please, please, let that not be him!
I broke through the throng of smoking and cursing businessmen, and found myself at the edge of the circle.
And there was Bastien.
A kick to the back of his legs dropped Bastien to his knees. He was shirtless and so horribly bloody. I was queasy at the sight of what happened to him, it made my heart ache worse than it ever had before.
“He lost! Let him go!” My scream was lost in the chaotic din of blood lust. No one heard me or no one cared.
“That's not how this works.” A fat, suited man next to me laughed at my naivety, cigar smoke billowed from his nose and mouth.
A fighter raised Bastien's head for crowd approval. The other fighter readied a strike and then I suddenly realized what the fat man meant. There was no forfeiting.
Oh my God... Was about to watch the man I love die?
Bastien looked right at me. His eyes looked dull and dazed. He smiled at me, letting the hand drop from over his heart. He was giving up.
His hand wiped away some of the blood on his chest and that's when I saw the tattoo. I thought he was protecting his chest from some blow, but it wasn't that at all. An image of the pendant I gave him was tattooed over his own heart. In the last few moments of his life, he was thinking about me…
How had I missed that until now?
That didn’t make any sense! I’d seen him shirtless dozens of time since he crashed back into my life. That was something I was going to have to ask him, but to do that he had to survive this crazy fight.
I breathed hard, fire of resolve crackling in my veins. He needed my help! I couldn’t possibly give up on him now.
“Bastien!” I screamed with desperation. If they weren’t going to let him give up then there was only one other way he was going to get out of this alive. I tore off my hoodie and brushed the hair back out of my face. “It’s Olivia! I’m here. You need to get up and fight! Fight for me!”
I heard the men around me say my name in disbelief. I should’ve been thinking about how I was a well-known celebrity who was about to become infamous, but I didn’t care what this was going to do to my marketability.
A few pulled out their phones and began taking videos. My career just took its second big hit of the day. There was no hiding my presence now. Tomorrow it would be all over the news. The crowd's previous uproar fell to a near deafening silence. Even the other fighters seemed surprised, but not enough to let Bastien go.
“Get up, Bastien!” I said, nearly in tears. “I’m your good luck charm. You have to win!”
The fire of recognition finally sparked in Bastien's eyes.
Bastien brutally lashed out, striking one of the distracted fighters in the balls. The man who held Bastien's hair collapsed in a quivering heap. The other fighter hopped away and got his guard back up.
This fight wasn't over yet.
Bastien's fatigued muscles went taught. He looked like he was made of solid steel. Bastien moved, blocked and countered each blow with strength and confidence. Where my heart had stopped earlier, now, watching Bastien fight, it raced out of control.
I'd never seen him look so powerful before. Gone was the beaten version of him from moments earlier, now a man with something to fight for stood in his place.
Bastien narrowly avoided an extremely quick uppercut, then countered with a heavy knee that caused his opponent to double over. Bastien delivered a mean right cross that knocked the man out immediately.
Bastien had somehow won!
I rushed up and hugged him. I wiped away the blood and sweat from his face, and I kissed him with the desperation of someone reuniting with a loved one they thought was dead.
Bastien groaned in pain, but refused to let me pull away from him.
I hugged him again, looking out over the dumbfounded crowd. Speculation ran wild all around us, but neither of us paid it any attention. Despite the catastrophic damage I'd done to my career, when Bastien kissed me, I truly felt like everything was going to be alright.
In the back by the door that led to the staircase back up, I saw an eerily familiar silhouette. I did a double take, but I was right. There in the back of the crowd, eyeing me angrily, was my father.
What the hell was he doing here?
I knew he was in L.A. shooting his own film, but him coming to an underground fight didn't make any sense.
He was gambling again!
How desperately did he need money if he was at a venue like this?
For a moment, I thought he might run up and scream at me for destroying his legacy, but then I saw the number of phones aimed at me and knew that he wouldn't dare. He'd never want any evidence of him at a seedy place like this.
I stared back at him defiantly, my back straightening. I wanted him to see me like this. I was done apologizing. I was proud to stand with the man I loved, regardless of the consequences.
“Say it again.” Bastien said, pulling my gaze back to someone worthwhile.
“Say what again?” I helped Bastien out of the hot lights and the slick, blood stained fighting circle.
“Tell me you love me, Olivia.” There was a twinkle in the eye that wasn't too swollen.
“You are such an idiot. What were you thinking? You almost got yourself killed!” All my balled-up emotions flooded out. I could've lost him forever; the thought terrified me. “And if you ever do anything this foolish again, I will never have sex with you ever again!”
“I love you, too.” Bastien just smiled.
“Let's get you to a hospital, 'Bash.'” Despite my anger, he managed to pull a small smile out of me. My anger dissolved into relief that Bastien was alive. I dragged my fingers gently over the tattoo of my heart pendant on his chest. It even had the O in the middle. “I'm yours remember? I'll always love you.”
Our beautiful moment didn’t last long.
Two large men slipped through the crowd and told us to come with them. Bastien glared at them. He raised his fists defensively and refused.
“This isn’t a request you’re allowed to turn down.” One of the men said, pulling back his blazer to reveal the handle of his gun.