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The kind they use for UFC fights. Except it looks old and neglected. There are four steps to get him in that cage and if I don’t make him turn back before then that’s it. He’ll either be dead, or a murderer.
The crowd is rowdy and loud. They’re screaming encouragements or insults at Jake. Some guy tries to make it past the barrier of people to grab Jake, but he’s stopped straight away by someone else, starting their own fight.
“Jake!” I scream but my voice gets lost in the intensity of the crowd.
Someone unlocks the door of the cage, and he climbs the steps. I break into a sprint, I’m about to grab him. He’s going to come back home with me whether he wants it or not.
“Ow!” I wince as someone slams into me hard enough to make me fall to the ground just before the steps.
Two arms wrap around my waist before lifting me up. Just like that, my feet aren’t touching the floor anymore and I’m watching helplessly as the guy locks the cage shut behind Jake. I writhe and kick my legs but I’m just too weak. I don’t compare.
The screams and roars from the crowd are piercing holes in my heart.
I can’t believe it.
I didn’t do it, I didn’t save him.
I didn’t save us.
“I’m sorry,” Dickie’s broken voice rings behind me. I’ve gone limp against him in defeat, but his arms are still keeping me well above the ground. “This is bigger than the two of you kids. There was nothing you could have done.”
But the last thing I expected happens. Jake suddenly turns around in the cage, his wide eyes meeting mine. He’s panicking, something’s wrong.
I understand what when I look past him, at his opponent. My breath hitches.
My heart doesn’t stop.
It doesn’t break.
It completely shatters.
This can’t be real.
CHAPTER 23
I Found – Amber Run
Jake
This can’t be real.
I look behind me at Jamie, and after locking her eyes with mine, she looks behind me. The pain on her face breaks my heart. I need to be with her. I need to hold her in my arms right this second.
But I don’t get that option. The man in the middle of the cage calls me over. I’m stuck, I’m fucking stuck in here and I have to fight.
The death cage.
That’s what they call this place. Gangs organize fights between their soldiers to prove their power. Bets are made, big business decisions are completed, and unimportant people like me die. Pawns in bigger games.
All my life I thought Bianco was too obsessed with me and my siblings to kill us. That was until I got in the way too much. Tonight, he’s throwing me into shark infested waters to prove a point; don’t ever rise against him, you won’t live to tell the tale.
Tonight, I’m just a fucking lesson for Ozy and Nate. For all his other soldiers.
I never fucking asked for this. I never asked to be born to parents that didn’t want me.
I never asked to be put in foster care.
I never asked to be taken in by Mateo Bianco.
