Page 52 of More Tricks

Right here, right now, I was in control of my fate. How this fight turned out was all on me and my abilities. My body had betrayed me before, and since then, I’d made a point to ensure it could never do it again. Getting shot started this spiral, and I’d managed to hold it back. Now I knew it was time. After everything I had gone through since that fateful day Kimber, my ex-sister-in-law, came to pay me a visit, shit had gone south.

Hearing someone step onto the mats, I opened my eyes and found a man standing there at the entrance. His eyes were dead, holding no hope in them. It wasn’t the same as him deciding to give up, knowing his death was inevitable. No, this was the look of a man who’d killed so many people his soul had become blackened from the hit. He would kill anyone he was told to, no longer caring about the repercussions of it.

“Knives or no knives?” I asked him.

He shrugged. “You can have a knife. It might mean you last a little longer in the ring.”

I cocked a brow at this. “Did they tell you who you were fighting?”

“Doesn’t matter, you’ll end up dead, or I will in the end. What good is knowing who you are or who I am?” he answered as he started to approach me.

Well, isn’t this guy a bundle of joy and roses. Guess this explains why they don’t care if I take him out.

Setting my blade on the edge of the ring, wanting to use Cam’s for this, I faced my opponent, feeling it was better just to use one. There hadn’t been any established rules, but I didn’t really want any either. Crouching into a low fighting stance, I took a deep breath and yanked open the door on my banked rage. It exploded out, but instead of causing it to make me once more fall into that haze of furry, I used it to hone in on my target. This man in front of me was where I placed all the pain, anger, and emotions I hadn’t dealt with over the years.

This man was the person who killed my twin, betrayed me one too many times, the faceless Marco who was hunting me down, and the first man I killed who tried to rob me and caused me to lose my baby four months along.

With that last addition, I felt the switch flip, and the darkness reared its head. That night was the first time I’d met the part of myself that created Two Tricks. It was then I knew I could do whatever it took to survive, and I wouldn’t ever be assaulted like that again. Charging forward, I dropped to the ground and slid past the guy using my knife to slice up the back of his jean-clad leg. My knife was sharp as hell, but it didn’t get as deep as I wanted it to with the fabric in the way.

Rolling away, I popped up to my feet, knife at the ready, as he turned to face me. “You’re good. I might actually die today.”

“No question about it. You won’t be getting out of this ring alive,” I stated. “They sent you in here to die.”

“It will be a good death then, one I will have to work for,” he commented before making his first move.

The bastard was damn fast and didn’t give a shit about the fact I’d sliced up his calf. Blood made the mats slick, but that made things equal footing for us. The guy had to be an expert in taekwondo or muay Thai with how much he used his legs and tried to grab me in close. I was more of a kung fu, karate gal who used speed and quick movements to keep out of my enemies’ arms. With how big he was compared to me, I knew if he got me on the mats, then I was in more trouble than I wanted to be.

Flashes of that night I was attacked bubbled up in my mind. I’d had a craving for ice cream, and I knew this 7- Eleven had it down the street. Cam wasn’t around that night. He had a final coming up he needed to study for. Harper was in and out, going to this or that party, always trying to get me to go with her. I’d never told her I was pregnant, and thankfully, I’d always turned her down for those things, not being much of a party girl. Her fashion friends were too superficial, and I didn’t know how to play nice.

I hadn’t told anyone but Cam that I’d gotten pregnant, still unsure if I was even willing to have the baby. It was my last year of college, and I didn’t have a stable job, and neither did he. Hell, I was only twenty-one, almost twenty-two, but I wasn’t planning on getting married and having a family. Neither Cam nor I were remotely ready for that kind of thing to happen to us. I’d had the world's shittiest upbringing. Who was I to parent a child?

The thoughts went round and round in my head until I reached four months and past the chance to get it taken care of. During that time, I’d started to get attached to the little alien in my belly that made me have to pee all the time and crave weird things like dipping beef jerky in chocolate ice cream.

Our college town was safe enough, and I’d never once felt like I couldn’t handle my own. So when a dude jumped out of an alley with a knife in his hand that was shaking more than my vibrator—I ran. The problem was, I ran back toward the school, not to the shop which was closer. The tweaker pounced on me, screaming for me to give him all my money. I fought, kicking, screaming, clawing, anything I could do to get this bastard off and stop him from beating on me.

“Just give me the damn money, you bitch,” he screeched, spit flying in my face.

He landed a blow on my head, stunning me, allowing him to get to his feet and start kicking the ever-loving fuck out of me. I curled up, trying to do everything I could to protect myself and the little alien inside me. It was then I noticed he had dropped the knife, so I reached out and grabbed it, slicing out at his ankle. I must have cut just the right way to sever tendons or something since his leg gave out and he fell to one knee.

With a roar, I shoved myself up and launched at him, knife tip first. It impaled his chest, slicing through right between the lower ribs. He froze, stunned at the pain, but I was lost to the need to survive and protect what’s mine. Yanking the knife out, I slammed it in again. Missing, I’d ended up hitting his sternum, but it was a hard enough blow it knocked him to the ground. Crawling on top of him, I stabbed until he stopped moving under me. Tears streamed out of my eyes, and I could taste blood on my tongue, making me retch all over him.

Stumbling my way off his body, I leaned against the brick wall of a building and tried to pull myself together. Then a horrible shooting pain started in my stomach, and I noticed my sweatpants were soaked in blood. I have no idea who called the ambulance or what they even said to me as they got me on a gurney and took me to the hospital. By the end of it, I’d lost the baby, and the internal damage was so bad they needed to ensure I couldn’t have kids anymore, so they removed what they needed to.

A week later, I found out that Devin had been killed and two weeks after that, I left Cam to start my journey to become Two Tricks. I would become something this world feared and respected, allowing me to protect my loved ones. It’s probably why I always put myself at risk over others. If I could save them, then it would make up for not being able to save those I had already lost.

That’s why Valter and his goons digging up that fact about me hit so hard. Once more, everyone I loved and cherished in my life was in danger. Too bad for them, they dared to hit on the moment in my life I failed the one most important thing I had to keep safe, reminding me of the promise I made in that hospital while I was all alone.

I would never be a victim, and the world would fear the day they touched those who belonged to me.

“Enough,” Cameron snapped, grabbing me by the throat, and forcing me to look at him. “That’s enough, Dax.”

“Why weren’t you there? I needed you to be there that night, Cam,” I choked out, fighting back tears. “They made me deliver her because my body was already too far along in the process. I had to do it alone.”

Cam reached up and took my hand, removing from the knife that was protruding out of his bicep. “There isn’t an answer I can give you that will fix what you went through. Nor can I make up for not having my phone on at least vibrate while I was studying. I failed you, the woman I love more than anything in this whole world who was carrying my child. You’re one hundred percent right. I left you to go through that all on your own. I had no idea how to even start to atone for that sin. Truthfully, I still don’t. Is there even a way to do that?”

Tears ran down my cheeks, and I looked down to find the man under me, just like that night. Blood seeped out from under him and Cam kneeled right in the worst of it to get to me. This time he was here, right by my side, not letting the demons take me.

“You can make it up to me every day of your life. You’ll never leave my side in life or death. You will be right here,” I ordered, my voice cracking with the emotions I was struggling through.