The Lonely Hearts Club

Chapter 26: The Cage (Hades)

I stare at the jagged scar on my arm.

I can't stop looking at it.

I was fucking stabbed and I didn't see it coming.

How the fuck didn't I see it coming?

The old Hades would have never let that happen.

I'm losing my edge.

I can't lose my edge.

"Come in," Joey says as I rap on his office door.

"We need to talk, Joey," I say, voice cold.

"Sit down and make it quick." He says, checking the gold clock on the wall.

"Alright, remember when you first trained me?" I ask, sitting down at the chair across his desk.

"Mmm." He straightens a pile of death notices.

"And when you used to set up those matches for me?"

The matches where my opponents would get a million dollars if they killed me.

The matches where my life was on the line every fucking time.

"Yes." He narrows his eyes.

"I need another match." I sniff.

He glances at my arm.

"I accessed the security footage of you in that parking garage." Joey leans back in his chair.

"What?" I scoff.

"You were up against unfavorable odds." He says. "You took down a lot of men."

"I still got stabbed."

"You still took down a lot of men."

"I've been meaning to ask, what the fuck happened to the footage?" I stare at him.

Winterville Police Department won't take you in for assault unless it's of great magnitude.

Technically, what I did would count as an assault of great magnitude, but I haven't been taken in yet.

Joey definitely got that security camera footage wiped from all servers.

"It's gone," Joey says.

"Alright, now I need another match," I repeat.

He's quiet for a few moments.

"Does this have anything to do with that girl?" He finally asks.

"What girl?" I play stupid.

"Briana Baker, the girl with you at the time of the attack." He opens a desk drawer and pulls out a file.

Presumably a file with all of Bree's private information.

"What the fuck is that?"

"Lana is hanging out with her tonight, I needed to do a background check."

I forgot how paranoid Joey gets when Lana meets new people.

"And?" I ask.

"There's not much on her, she's lived here her whole life and her parents are dead."

I already knew that.

"I ask again, does this request have anything to do with that girl?" He asks.

"No." I say in a hard voice.

How does my wanting to be locked in a fucking cage and fighting to the death have anything to do with Bree?

"Okay." He clasps his hands together. "You want to get back into the cage?"