Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64366 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64366 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Finally the interviewers started getting around to the Welterweights, and eventually someone asked Kage a question. I perked up when they called his name. Unfortunately, the question did not have anything to do with fighting, and it pissed me right the fuck off.
“So Kage, is it true that you’re engaged to Vanessa Hale? Have you two set a date?”
Really? That was the first question he got? I’d already suffered through a Q & A about the girl myself, courtesy of Farrah. Maybe we should have let Vanessa attend the event instead, and then Kage and I could be in a bed somewhere making up for lost time.
I thought I saw Kage’s eyes flick briefly to me before he answered, looking perturbed and guilty all at once. “I’d prefer not to discuss my private life. If you have a question about fighting, I’d be glad to answer that.”
“Sure.” The reporter changed direction smoothly, firing off an alternate question without even acknowledging that his first had been shot down. “How do you feel about the buzz surrounding you and your quick rise through the ranks? Some people think you’re not having to pay your dues like everyone else.”
Wow, this reporter just had a knack for asking uncomfortable questions.
Kage smiled at him, an undercurrent of hostility wavering just beneath his expression. “By paying dues, I’m assuming you mean fighting? It may not have been televised with pretty lights and a concession stand, but I assure you I have paid my dues and then some. In fact, there are a couple of guys sitting up here with me right now who know that firsthand, but they’re not going to raise their hands and admit they got their asses handed to them by a guy who hasn’t paid his dues. So you’re just going to have to take my word for it.”
“Who do you want to fight next?” another reporter yelled.
Without a second’s hesitation, Kage said, “Nick Riker.”
Riker’s head spun around like he was auditioning for the Exorcist. “Yeah, I bet you would, you arrogant fucker.”
And just like that, the tone of the entire event changed. I tensed up, waiting for a fight to break out.
Kage stared calmly at the other fighter, looking every bit the arrogant fucker he’d just been called. “You seem scared, Riker. I heard you were the one screaming the loudest about me not paying my dues. You said I’m not good enough for the contract I got or for the promo the organization’s been giving me. I figured you’d want to prove your point. Put me in my place.”
Riker’s face was red with fury at being called out right in the middle of a huge media event. I couldn’t blame him, though I totally wanted Kage to kick his ass.
The reporter yelled, “What’s the matter, Riker? You don’t want to fight the Machine?” I hadn’t expected members of the press to get in on the taunting, but this guy was clearly encouraging an altercation, egging them on like a kid on the playground.
“No, he doesn’t.” Kage answered before Riker could. “He’s not gonna fight me if he can help it, because he’s scared. His manager has already been begging the UFC not to make the fight.”
“Where did you hear that bullshit?” Riker demanded.
“I have my sources. Doesn’t matter. The fight is going to happen, and you’re going to lose.” Kage gave Riker a wicked grin, and I could have sworn he mouthed the word, “again.”
Adrenaline was surging through my veins just watching the exchange, so I couldn’t imagine how the two of those guys felt actually taking part in it. This was real. I had no idea Kage could be so ruthless. It turned me on that he could dominate another man so thoroughly without even laying a hand on him.
Kage was damn good at intimidation. Scary good, in fact. If I didn’t know him so intimately, it would be easy to believe that he was a narcissist, or even a psychopath. He just had that certain look in his eyes.
And then it hit me. The look in his eyes that everybody kept harping about, the one I could never see… I had just witnessed first hand, and it was chilling.
I’d seen him angry before. When we had our showdown in my parents’ backyard, he’d been livid, and it had been directed straight at me. Hell, I’d even seen him murderous before. When he found me in the club that night, on the verge of being double stuffed by those two big guys, I thought he was going to kill someone.
I’d watched him pick apart opponents in the octagon, toying with them like a true predator before defeating them. And I’d seen his beautiful features contort with aggression as he fucked me into oblivion.
What I was watching on the stage of the press conference was something entirely different. There was no emotion there at all, and that’s what scared me.