I’m guessing she wasn’t inviting him on a very friendly outing to catch a Boston Bruins game.
“Hey!” I jerk my head in her direction, jealousy getting me right in the gut. “Beat it. ”
The women stares at me blankly before muttering how crazy I am and walking away.
Calm down, Sienna. I try to convince myself. You can’tget jealous. He’s not yours.
Kayden’s gaze scans the crowd, his eyes searching the sea of people for mine. When he finally sees me, he casts me a crooked smile, and my heart leaps out of my throat and into the clouds.
Kayden redirects his focus back to the cage. He circles East, his face is as fierce and predatory as that of a mountain lion hunting his prey. East wastes no time in diving in first, going straight for a kick to Kayden’s ribs. Kayden sidesteps him only to catch a spinning kick from East on the rebound.
Kayden recoils, shrugging off the blow and countering with a classic jab-cross-hook combo. East blocks the first two punches, and ducks under the third, slightly shifting his left foot forward.
There’s that tell, I think to myself.
Kayden notices it, too, because he’s ready for East’s right roundhouse. In an expertly choreographed counter, Kayden catches the fighter’s kick, gives it a hard tug to unbalance him, and pulls him in closer into Kayden’s real attack—a reverse back elbow crunching into East’s face.
Now on the offensive, Kayden surges forward, body ringing with smooth confidence.
From the corner of my eye, I spot Jax on the top deck of the building. He’s right at the front and has some wriggle room to pace around as he watches the fight. Then, slowly, as if he can sense exactly where I am in the crowd, those dark, cunning eyes zero in on me.
A deadly smile coils around Jax’s mouth.
I force a tight smile back, along with two middle fingers shoved in his direction before turning my attention back to Kayden.
He’s looking straight at me, his momentary lapse in concentration giving East an opening as he sweeps Kayden’s legs out from under him. They both collide on the ground.
“Focus, Kayden!” I yell, snapping his full attention back to East.
Right on cue, Kayden manages to get East straight into his closed guard and locks him into an armbar from the bottom position, then pulls hard.
East taps out meekly.
The audience is bleeding with cheers and chants as Kayden is declared the winner.
When he’s quickly whisked away, I crane my neck to see where he’s going and if I should go and find him.
“Kayden?” I shout as I watch him get swallowed up by the crowd. “Kayden!”
It’s difficult to hear anything in here but somehow, he does. His head whips back to me, desperate eyes seeking me out as he pushes through the other way to get to me. But before he’s able to reach my corner, the host cuts in with his microphone to announce the next fight.
“The moment you’ve been waiting for: your reigning champion, the savage of beasts, Jax ‘Deadbeat’ Deneris!”
Jax barrels through the crowd like an animal as he pumps his fists in the air. The crowd goes berserk at his entrance, hands reaching out to touch him like he’s some kind of God who just ended world hunger.
“DEAD-BEAT! DEAD-BEAT! DEAD-BEAT! ” They chant like zombies.
When he finally climbs into the cage, his opponent is looking impatient. Fists ready in front of them, stances formed and the second the bell rings—
BAM! Jax lands a forceful punch straight on his opponent’s face and he col apses.
There is a loud, collective gasp from the crowd.
“Oh shit!” The announcer yells. “Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a TKO!”
Murmurs and whispers emit from the crowd, with people in the back pushing us closer to the cage to see what has happened.
Meanwhile, the man in the cage doesn’t move. He just lies limply on the floor while Jax beats his fists, basking in the victory of his knockout.