Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 88656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
He glanced at the mark, then looked up at the guy, raised his eyebrows and smiled. I couldn’t believe it. He looked perfectly delighted that the guy had finally landed something.
There was a flash of panic across the other guy’s face, but he masked it quickly and moved back in for another rapid-fire combo. He was fast, but he was no match for Kage’s unorthodox footwork or his ability to anticipate movements. With smooth efficiency, Kage either dodged or blocked everything his opponent threw at him. Then he spun around and took the guy’s back.
Wrapping his arms around him from behind, Kage lifted the man into the air, thrust his hips forward and bent his knees, and slammed the man backward over his shoulder in the smoothest suplex I’d ever seen. Before the man could get his bearings, Kage was on top of him.
He was able to pull a half guard on Kage before being pounded half senseless by Kage’s brutal hammer fists and elbows. Over and over he struck the fighter, until I was afraid he might kill him. Still the ref didn’t stop the fight. Then when the guy was nearly done, had almost stopped fighting back completely, Kage jumped to his feet and let him up.
It almost looked like mercy, but I knew. It was exactly the opposite.
The entire round was a game of cat and mouse, with the cat looking like he was ready to eat the mouse at any second. Kage wasn’t playful exactly, but he was enjoying the chase, getting off on toying with his opponent.
I wondered if the other spectators could see that, or if it was just because I was coming to know him so intimately. Of course, there was always the possibility that I was imagining it.
I didn’t have to wait long for my suspicion to be verified.
In the final seconds of the first round, the challenger, who looked frighteningly banged up in the face, caught Kage with a hard right cross to the temple, splitting the skin next to his eye. My throat tightened and my heart skipped a beat. The thought of him getting hurt— really hurt— and of me having to watch it happen had not really hit home until then. It was the first time I’d ever seen a wound like that on his face, and I hoped it would be the last.
I saw the change in Kage’s demeanor when it happened. A blank mask dropped over his face, and he looked like he was officially not playing anymore. If the bell hadn’t sounded when it did, I imagine he would have unleashed his full fury on the guy. Instead, they separated to their corners, and the challenger got patched up while his coach yammered nonstop at him.
Kage kept his eyes locked on his opponent the entire time, looking strangely like he’d never experienced an emotion in his life. Cold, calculating, the antithesis of the guy who had held me while I cried for my mother, and then let me fall asleep in his arms.
I couldn’t hear what Marco was telling him, but Kage smiled and jumped up ready to go when the bell sounded for Round Two.
Kage came in with a couple of sly jabs, bounced lithely out of the way when his opponent attempted a flailing counter attack. The guy’s face looked like he’d been in a car accident. His left eye was swollen, and blood ran from his eye socket to his throat. He was done already at that point. I don’t think there was a doubt in anyone’s mind. But somehow he summoned a burst of energy— or more accurately desperation— and attempted to take it back to the ground, presumably to try for a last ditch submission. But Kage, with his lightning fast reflexes and talent for anticipating moves, saw it coming. The second the man changed levels and ducked down to shoot his legs for the takedown, Kage caught him with a vicious flying knee to the face.
The guy dropped like a sack of potatoes. Knocked out cold.
I sat there in my chair, my breath coming way too fast. Kage had finished the guy in exactly the way I had requested. How could that be? My mind spun, trying to seize on anything that made sense other than the fact that he had been in control the entire fight. That he had orchestrated it.
Inside the octagon, the referee, a doctor, and several other men were examining the fallen fighter and trying to rouse him. Kage glanced back at him once, saw him move, and then strutted right over to the edge of the cage where I was sitting. As he passed by me, he tapped his fist against his chest once, right over his heart, then looked directly into my eyes just long enough to give me a secret wink that sent shivers down my spine.