My Shades of Gray

Shade 15 ~ Underground

Hunter stood in the middle of the ring with a stone face only in his boxers. I muted my surrounding as I wandered my eyes over his body. Just as I suspected before, his arms and back were covered with tattoos.

His muscles flexed when he moved his forearm to tighten the bandage around his hand and cracked his neck. I gulped when my eyes drifted from his tattoo-free chest down to his six packs.

Holy shit!

I was wrapped around by that body last night?!

I felt my cheeks burning again, and I jolted thought of my daydream of Hunter when a whistle blew. Both the fighters looked of the same size as they stood in front of each other and pumped their fists.

“Hunter is an underground fighter.” I finally uttered, getting back to reality.

“Yup.” Colton, who was on standing on my right side, answered.

“How long?” I asked, leaning towards him because of the rowdy crowd.

“Since we were in high school,” Colton said nonchalantly.

“But why?” My brows knitted in confusion. “Doesn’t he have anything better to do?”

“He earns a lot from these fights.” He shrugged. “A lot more than what a white-collar job could offer him.”

Now everything made sense. Like why he had scars on his face and how he had so much money. He obviously gets a lot of digits winning these fights, but the question was what happens when he loses.

I wanted to ask him but swallowed my words when Mick began the fight. My eyes zoomed on Hunter as he moved in circles with the guy.

After a few seconds, the other guy finally made the first move and punched, but Hunter dodged it without sweat and that’s what happened for a few minutes. The guy kept launching at Hunter and he kept defending himself with no effort to attack him.

“How long does it take?” I asked Colton.

“Depends.” I arched my brow at him to continue. “If there is another fight after this, then Hunter will end it quickly. If there’s no one, he has to drag this.”

“Why?”

“To keep people entertained.” He shrugged and shouted at Rio. “Is there another fight?” Rio shook his head in reply.

Frowning, I darted my eyes around the enthusiastic crowd as they hooted for their beast to go for the kill and stopped at the ring.

Hunter’s back was towards me and the other guy seemed fed up with his lack of interest. He screamed and tackled himself to Hunter, who swung and switched places with him.

Now he was facing me and I saw his poker face and dull eyes. He looked nothing like the flirty dimwit I had spent the past days with.

As if sensing my eyes on him, his gaze flickered from his opponent to me and they broadened in surprise. Xavier took his distraction as an opportunity and jabbed him in the face.

A loud gasp echoed around the room, including mine, as we watched Hunter balancing himself on the ropes of the ring. He rubbed his jaw and spit something out of his mouth. Even a colorblind like me could tell it was blood.

He deliberately turned his face towards the guy, but his eyes were aimed at me and I gulped when I noticed the rage in them. The guy attacked Hunter again, but he swiftly ducked and gave him an uppercut.

A bone-cracking sound rang in the silent arena and I gawked when the guy went to his knees. It took only one blow from Hunter and the guy fell on the ground unconscious. Everyone processed what just happened for a second and the crowd went wild and roared his name.