Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 118459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 474(@250wpm)___ 395(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 474(@250wpm)___ 395(@300wpm)
I gotta blow or go.
This motherfucker wants a street fight, I can do that.
I relax just enough so Davidson smells blood. Being the impulsive prick I know him to be, he takes full mount.
I summon every last bit of strength I have. I only have a few seconds left and I’m going to finish this fight, one way or another, the way I know. The way that’s not won me medals or accolades, but the way that’s saved my life in the past.
Sal said to remember where I came from—I came from the streets. I’m going to finish this like a street fighter.
Davidson straddles me and I explode. I rare up and blast my head into Davidson’s face, stunning him. I wrap my legs around him. I reach my arm over his neck and put my forearm under his chin, locking my hands together. As I rock back, basically trying to pull his head off his body in a Guillotine choke, I feel my own head spin. I yell out, the pain in my neck so intense I almost can’t hold on.
I can feel the panic take over Davidson. He knows he’s caught now and has a few moments to escape or this is over. His hands free, he rocks my body with punches from both sides, each blast only intensifying my pain. My neck is pressed between the mat and the corner of the cage, Hunter’s 190-pound body pressing down onto one spot in my neck.
The pain is white-hot. Blinding. I can’t see anything clearly.
Each impact feels like a bomb is going off inside me. He hits me again, a bunny shot that shouldn’t even register, but it does. I flex my arms, squeezing harder to keep him still, and something cracks in my back. I can actually hear it over the blood pounding in my ears, over the crowd, over Sal, over Hunter’s groans.
The pain is ridiculous. My body relaxes for a split second, my head feeling light, and Hunter starts to break free. Quickly, I crank it down again as hard as I can. As I do, flashes of black sweep through my vision.
JULIA
My knees buckle. My airway clenches as I watch the image on the screen. The announcers are shouting, bantering back and forth so quickly that I couldn’t make sense of it if I wanted to. But I don’t. I can’t. I can’t do anything but watch the man I love fight a battle not just for my daughter’s life, but maybe for his own.
I fall to my knees, the image on the television blurry through the tears. He’s struggling, I can see it. I can feel the panic through the screen. He’s working to hold Hunter in place. The sweat on his body catches the light from above the cage and I can see his muscles flexing, pulling, grasping to end the fight. Hunter is trying to roll, pulling at Crew’s arms to release but he manages to hold on.
“Hold on, baby! Hold on,” I cry out, my voice splintering through the tears. “Please. Hold on . . .”
CREW
I pull the move in tight as everything starts to blur. The darkness is even heavier this time, the noises coming at me like I’m in a tunnel. I try to find Will’s voice, or Sal’s, but I can’t make it out. I can’t find anything to hold on to.
My entire body feels like it’s on fire. I want to let go. I need a reprieve from the pain.
Hunter’s starting to panic and I know that this is going to be the end for one of us. I’m either going to cinch this down and cut off his airway or he’s going to get away and pound me into the mat. If I let him up, I know I won’t be able to fight back.
My head starts to spin, my neck feeling I’ve been shot with a cannon. I, too, start to panic, my need to just sleep starting to overtake any other thoughts.
“Man up, little brother.”
“It’s going to take both of us to protect her.”
The crowd becomes clear. I feel Hunter’s body heavy on me. I feel his sweat drip off onto me, the smoothness of his gloves as they glance off my body.
I hear Will shouting at me to fight. I hear Sal telling me to remember what I need to do.
I grit my teeth and pull down on his neck as hard as I can, pulling his legs down and away from his body. He gurgles and I feel him swiping at me. I cinch down one final time with everything I have.
Pain sears every nerve in my body, causing me to yell out. I hear the crack that resonates through every fiber of my being rattle through my ears. The agony is unrelenting, but the black that follows it is welcome.