Chapter Four
It felt weird being here, seeing all these people going into this disgusting, dilapidated building, but she’d wanted to come, had to see this for herself. When she’d overheard Larson speaking with one of the fighters about doing an underground match, she’d felt like a fool for eavesdropping and deciding to do this.
She still hadn’t really spoken to Larson, not even after they’d seen each other at the park, yet he hadn’t said a word. But she’d seen him watching her, like he was curious as to what the deal with her was. Hell, maybe he thought she was a creep because she watched him all the time? She couldn’t help it though.
Tasha had never felt this kind of connection or draw to someone. Well, she had felt something, or thought she had with her chemistry teacher, but that had been different. That had been along the lines of she hadn’t known any better, fell for his charm and sweetly spoken words, and thought she was in love. She knew better now that she was older, knew that it hadn’t been love at all.
She looked around the cracked, uneven, and uprooted parking lot. The building that the fight was currently at was in the crappy part of town, right at the edge of the city limits, and where the drug deals, prostitution, and even where some murders had gone down. She grabbed her purse, had her pepper spray in her hand and ready to go, and got out of her car.
This part of town was scary, and she was stupid for coming here alone, but she really didn’t have any friends, and although she knew Sunny, the other woman wasn’t close enough that Tasha would have asked her to come, or felt okay with explaining why she wanted to come here.
But as the shadows crept up around her, the sound of the lone car passing by on occasion, and the knowledge that blood and gore would happen within this building, had fear and anxiety creeping up on Tasha.
The only saving grace was the fact other people were going in, too. There were younger guys with tattoos and piercings, but there were also preppy looking guys, probably from the local college. The women were scantily dressed, showing a lot of skin, and she’d heard the guys at the gym talk about certain girls like that, ones that they called Chasers because they wanted to sleep with the fighters.
The door she now stood in front of was tattered and scarred steel, with chipped red paint, a handle that was rusted and looked to be falling off the hinges, and it looked downright nasty. She pulled open the heavy metal and stepped through. There was a long hallway, and the scent of decay, mold, and dirt filled her nose. There were people walking in front of her, some behind her as well, their voices loud, echoing off the high ceiling and walls.
A scary looking man stood in front of another door, this one at the end of the hallway. She saw some of the people in front of her giving the bouncer tickets, and she cursed. Of course she would have had to pay to see the fight. She felt even more foolish that she hadn’t even contemplated that she’d have to have some form of proof to get into the match. She only knew about this place because she’d heard the guys at the gym talking about the location and who was fighting tonight, and how it was in the seedy part of town.
She looked at the guy guarding the door again. There was no way she would be able to get by that bouncer. Hell, he looked like he was itching to beat someone’s ass, and she wasn’t going to be that someone. She also couldn’t try to squeeze her way in on her looks. Tasha knew she was on the overweight side, was a “Plain Jane” compared to a lot of women, and she wasn’t even wearing anything revealing that would have accented her large breasts. Just as she turned around to go back out the door she came through, male voices coming from behind her stopped Tasha.
“Fight. Fight. Fight.” The words came through from a group of three men standing behind her. The one in front, a guy that looked like he should be playing golf instead of seeing bare-knuckle fighting, grinned at her.
“You here for the show?”
“Um.” She didn’t know how to respond. Licking her lips, she nodded. “I was, but forgot my ticket,” she lied, finding it pretty easy. These guys seemed drunk, or maybe they were high, or maybe they were just pumped about the fight? Maybe she could get one of them to take her in? It was a total off the wall thought, but she’d give it a try. It was like she had this wish to see a bunch of guys knocking each other around, beating the shit out of the other for the sole purpose of getting a wad of cash, which was presented to the winner along with the recognition of being victorious.
“It’s your lucky day, sweetheart.” He grabbed her hand before she could agree to go with him or protest. “I happen to have an extra ticket,” he said, flashed two tickets in front of her face, then turned and looked over his shoulder at the other guys he’d come in with. “My date bitched out, so you’re the lucky one I get to watch the fight with.”