Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 121(@200wpm)___ 97(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 121(@200wpm)___ 97(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
Who in their right mind would volunteer for that?
“Victoria!” Doug shouts, waving me over. “I saved you a seat!”
“Sit down, motherfucker!” someone shouts as they throw an empty beer pitcher at him. Doug sits and shrinks a little after the plastic pitcher hits his shoulder and bounces on the ground.
I scoot on over to the table and slip into the empty chair. It’s a little too close to the cage for my liking, but I’m not about to ask them all to move.
“Hello,” I politely say to Mason, Doug, and the three other guys I didn’t meet this afternoon. They’re all big muscular mountain men with thick beards of various lengths. I don’t see James though and I get a little tinge of disappointment inside.
“This is Ethan,” Doug says, going around the table. “Lincoln, Colton, and you met Mason earlier.”
Mason nods his head and smiles warmly. He’s sitting right across from me, which I’m happy about. He seems like a nice guy.
“Everyone this is Victoria,” Doug says proudly. “She’s my date.”
“Nope,” I say in a firm tone. “Not a date. We established that earlier.”
Doug looks like he just tasted something sour. “We’ll see what happens.”
I stare at him pointedly. “Nothing is going to happen.”
He opens his big mouth, but Mason interrupts him, putting him out of his misery. “The second fire we had to run to was just a broken microwave,” he says. “Nothing serious.”
“Oh, that’s good,” I say, relieved. I was hoping it wasn’t anything bad.
“And we swung by the library on the way back,” he says, nodding. The two men in the cage fall to the floor, apparently wrestling each other to the death. “We spoke with the gardener and he told us he threw some gasoline-soaked rags into the garbage, so it wasn’t totally your fault.”
I perk up in the chair. “Really?”
Mason nods. “Yeah, and the flag hanging over it was really just bad luck. It never should have gone up like that.”
“Thank you for telling me,” I say, feeling a bit relieved. It’s still a horrible tragedy, but at least some of the crushing guilt alleviates.
“Let’s get you some drinks,” Doug says, waving the waitress over. “How many shots do you want?”
“I want zero shots,” I say as she arrives.
She looks like she could step into that cage and kick both of those guys’ asses while taking drink orders at the same time. She’s very intimidating.
“What do you want?” she grunts. Jeez, I know this place isn’t the most reputable establishment, but customer representatives should at least greet you with a smile. Is that too much to ask?
“I would like a strawberry daiquiri please,” I shout to her over the roaring and grunting all around me. The guys in the cage get back up to their feet and start pummelling each other again.
“Would you like a little umbrella in it?” she asks, staring at me with a stone cold face.
“That’s not necessary.”
“What about a beachfront view?”
Oh. She’s messing with me.
“Do you not have strawberry daiquiris?” I ask. She could have just said that.
“No,” she says, looking more disinterested than I’ve ever seen someone look. “We don’t.”
One of the guys lands a hard punch and blood splatters all over the waitress’ shirt. I recoil with a gasp, but she doesn’t even seem to care.
“White wine?” I ask with a cringe.
“It’s warm and comes out of a box.”
I swallow hard. “Sounds delicious.”
“Great.”
She abruptly turns and leaves. Maybe I should have stayed home after all. Crying into a bottle of wine doesn’t sound so bad now. At least my white wine at home would have been cold.
“Is James coming tonight?” I ask Doug.
“He’s already here,” he says pointing to an area beside the cage. My heart rate picks up a few notches when I see my firefighter crush in jeans and a hoodie. He’s wearing big headphones and punching the air while he warms up. That fluttering feeling I had at the library comes roaring back as I watch him bouncing around. “He’s up next.”
“Oh,” I say as I watch him.
The bloodier of the two bloody men in the cage collapses on the ground and the other fighter raises his arms in triumph. I’m glad that’s over.
The crowd cheers and money exchanges hands all around me. Apparently, there’s illegal gambling going on here as well. I wonder if the local police know about this.
I wince as I watch the unconscious man’s friends drag him out of the cage. He leaves a long red blood streak on the floor.
The waitress returns looking unnecessarily annoyed. “One white wine, extra warm,” she says as she slams it down in front of me.
“That’s on me,” Doug says as he puts his arm on the back of my chair.
“I’ll pay for my own drinks,” I tell him. “Please remove your arm from my personal space.”