in the background. I was a good fighter, but I could feel something was different in me, giving me more strength and stamina.
What in the hell did Maria give me?
“Kill her! Kill her!” Chants traveled through the crowd around me.
My arm primed for another hit, when I felt eyes on me. There were hundreds watching us, but this was different, like fingers grazing my skin. My knuckles paused midair, and I looked up. The sea of undistinguishable faces blurred into a hazy outline. The only thing I saw clearly was a pair of glowing white eyes under a dark hood staring back at me. It was a gunshot to my soul, my emotions swirling. I gasped for air and fell off the girl.
Ryker.
A soft cry splintered out of my mouth. Relief flushed through me and snapped the last bit of strength and fire from my muscles. My head fell back onto the pavement; my lids blinked the tears and blood from my eyes.
“Stand up!” I heard Marcello scream at me. “Finish her off!”
I ignored him. A tear squeezed from under my lashes. Ryker is alive. He came back for me. My joy was diminished by the budding disgust in myself and the hatred I felt for Marcello for what he had done to me. Loathing sprouted in me like weeds, wrapping their way around my heart and squeezing. I was about to take a life. The only reason I didn’t was because of Ryker. Losing him was the reason I wanted to destroy everything in my path. Seeing him made me stop. Having him alive changed everything.
I had worked hard to keep this part of me concealed. I almost believed she had disappeared, but in one day she came barreling forth as if no time had passed. She had been waiting quietly and patiently but always there.
“Get up, bitch! End her!” Marcello screamed again, his arms flying about in a fevered motion. He came close and kneeled next to me, pointing to the girl. She was almost unconscious, choking on her own blood. “Now.” He seethed through his teeth, his eyes bright with anger. This fight was to the death. If I didn’t kill her, then Marcello would lose face. Even though his men had taken back the north area, he didn’t want to be defeated in any way. Crazy Kat had killed one of his girls. Eye for an eye. Losing on the streets was a billboard sign displaying a weakness others could exploit. It was also an ego thing. I had fallen trap to both so many times, but my fights in the past had never been to the death.
Mortality was different to gangs and street kids. You lived every day with the thought it might be your last, which made you cold and cut off, treating others’ lives with the same flippancy. I probably would have followed the same road if it hadn’t been for Lexie. She came into my world when I needed to learn how to respect and cherish life. That was why it scared me I wanted to kill this girl. The feeling melted away the moment I saw Ryker. But what if he had never arrived? What would have happened?
I lifted my head, blood slipped off my chin, falling on my shirt, which was already soaked with a mixture of our blood. My spine cracked as I stood.
“Come on.” Marcello eagerly tugged on my arm to help me. He had the illusion I was following his demands. My shaky legs pushed me onto my feet. I wobbled a bit, my eyes finding Ryker’s again. His attention was directed on me, unrelenting and unemotional. Still, his eyes seemed to give me strength and comfort. Marcello wiped the blood from my eyes. “That’s my girl. Let’s finish this. You and I together. Show them who rules this town.”
When I was young, I would have fallen for his false encouragement. He was putting us together as if we were a team. I knew now it was bullshit. Later he would show me he was the only one in power, and I was merely a piece in his game. I no longer wanted to be controlled and told what to do by anyone: not the government, foster parents, poverty, and certainly not by this asshole. I was sick of being defined by someone or something else.
I ripped my arm from his hold. “No.”
His head did a double take. “What?”
“I said no. If you want this girl dead,