I stand up straight again and prepare myself for another hit. Before long, Asher will realize that he isn’t getting what he wants. He’ll either stop the fight or have me killed. Either way, whether I fight or don’t fight . . . someone dies tonight.

I take another swing to the face and then another, before I hear a soft voice in the crowd calling my name.

As the voice gets closer I realize that it’s Lyric.

My blood runs cold, and for the first time in a long time I feel helpless.

Rio is still taking swings to my face when I spot Lyric’s caramel hair from the corner of my eye. She’s running toward the ring, screaming and crying. All I can think about is how Alex allowed her to come here. That means that they’re both here. I’m going to get us all killed.

“Memphis! Please fight. Please fight back. They’ll kill you. Please!” Right as she gets close to the ring Asher scoops her up and starts pulling her through the crowd. I see her swing out and punch Asher over and over. It doesn’t seem to bother him though. He looks . . . proud.

I feel an adrenaline I’ve never felt before surge through my body and before I know it I’m plowing my knee repeatedly into Rio’s face, screaming out. When I release his hair, he falls to the cement and I am jumping through the ropes to get to Lyric, my body so sore that I almost scream with each movement.

I feel hands and arms trying to restrain me, but I break free somehow and keep on running. From a distance I see Alex in the crowd, fighting to make his way towards Lyric too. He’s swinging punches left and right, keeping his eyes on Lyric the entire time.

The crowd is going crazy now, some of them even giving me a push to help me through. I’m jumping over people, through people, and on top of people. My protective instinct is spiking so much I can’t think. I need to get to her and Alex.

Just when I think I have a chance, I feel something hard hit me in the side of my head, before I get tackled by a few guys wearing suits.

I start fighting them off, but with there being three of them it’s starting to seem useless, draining all of my energy.

“Don’t you fucking hurt them you piece of shit!” I struggle a bit more, but I feel a huge arm wrap around my neck. “I’ll fucking kill you! Get the fuck off of me!”

It seems like an eternity that I’m stuck there, unable to fight my way through these assholes. I’m pretty sure that I’m going to lose them both. Asher is powerful. Everyone fears him. If there’s a way out of this mess, I have no idea what it is. I’m clueless, so I stop struggling against them and prepare for them to take me to the back. At least then I can get close enough to them before I make my next move.

They start dragging me through the hall when suddenly I hear gunfire and everyone starts rushing and fighting to get out of the warehouse.

My heart stops and my breath rushes from my lungs. I start fighting again until I’m lost in the crowd, fighting my way through the scattering herd.

Everyone is jumping over each other to get out when gunfire sounds again, causing me to move faster. I don’t even notice the warehouse filling up with cops until I get to the back hallway and see Lyric and Alex squeezed into a room between cops. Asher is down on the ground with a knee to his neck as a police officer cuffs him.

His eyes meet mine for a split second before they find their way to Lyric. Something flashes in his eyes that I never thought I’d see: pain.

Lyric is crying, her body stiff as she stares back at Asher while he screams out over and over again, repeating the same things. “How could you? My own fucking daughter! You betrayed me!”

Fuck!

I try making my way to Lyric, but I get held back by a few cops that read me my rights and start cuffing me.

There’s no way I’m getting out of this. I’m bloodied, bruised, and covered in blood. The only thing keeping me happy is that Lyric and Alex are safe. They’re the only two that matter to me now.

Lyric looks over at me right as a police officer starts dragging me away. “No! He’s with us. Don’t arrest him. Please!”

An officer close by explains something to her, but she doesn’t seem to care. She’s still trying to get to me. “I’m so sorry, Memphis. I had to call the police. I couldn’t let you die in there. It will be okay. I promise. I’ll explain everything to the cops.” She pushes an officer as I try to break through to her.

Once she gets by I come at her, but get stopped by a cop grabbing me from behind.

I swing my head back, busting it against his nose before pushing Lyric against the wall with my body and pressing my lips against hers. Her hands wrap around my waist, holding me as close as she can.

I kiss her long and hard before pulling away. “Stay with Alex. Can you promise me that?”

She nods her head and Alex rushes out into the hall and grips my shoulder.

“I’ll take care of her. Don’t worry, man. We’ll get it all sorted out. I’m sorry, bro. I only let her come here because I knew Asher wouldn’t hurt his only daughter.”

I press my forehead to his, looking him in the eyes, before I get dragged away and thrown against the wall alongside everyone else that’s in cuffs. They take us out one by one, leading us to the pile of cars that take up almost the whole back parking lot.

Once I get outside, I look up to see Asher shooting daggers my way as he roughly gets thrown into the back of one of the cars. He’s evidently pissed off and hurt that his only daughter betrayed him to help me.

Once I’m thrown into a car, myself, I close my eyes and smile to myself, knowing that Alex and Lyric are safe. It’s now that it fully sinks in what Lyric did tonight and how much it had to hurt. My heart aches knowing that she had to make that decision. That’s a tough choice to make. Family is supposed to be everything and he was the only one that she had.

She told me once before that her father was a bad man and that she should have turned him in a long time ago. Now I know why there are so many police cars outside.

She made this decision for me. Now it’s time for me to make a decision for her . . .

Two weeks later . . .

AFTER THINGS CALMED DOWN AND I explained everything at the station, they dropped the charges against Memphis, realizing that he was forced into fighting for my father. The only thing he got charged with was breaking a police officer’s nose, so they agreed on giving him three weeks jail time.

After everything that went down, we couldn’t have gotten any luckier than that. When I watched them drag him away, I felt a pain in my gut that I’ve never felt before. I didn’t even feel that way as they dragged my father away.