**edited 15/01/2021**

Elle's POV

Friday 26th October 2018

       It had been a week since the incident outside of the dorms and ever since then Ace had ordered for me to be walked to and from college by someone trusted, whether it be Kit, Delilah, James or Maya. I had no idea why he refused to himself if he was so damn worried. "Where are you going?" I asked, watching Delilah pull on some clothes.

"No point lying to you anymore I guess," she shrugged, pulling on her cropped jumper "We're going to one of Ace's fights tonight."

I raised my eyebrows, sitting up in my bed with interest. "Who else is going?" I asked.

"Me, Kit, Maya and obviously Ace. And no, you can't come," she scoffed and I rolled my eyes, pushing off the duvet.

"Come on, let me come!" I begged. "You can't leave me here all by myself after what happened last week, if they found me then they could easily find me now."

"I know, that's why Ace has asked James to come and hang with you tonight," she smiled and then grabbed her bag. "Okay I'll see you later, James shouldn't be too long."

"If you don't take me, I'll go alone. I'll wander around in the dark until I find it," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. "I think one option is much, much safer. Dontcha think?"

 She narrowed her eyes at me. "You wouldn't."

 I smirked. "Oh but I would."

She rolled her eyes, dropping her bag onto her bed. "Fine, I'll call Kit to tell him you're coming and stop James from coming over," she said and then went to her wardrobe. "You can't go dressed like a librarian, though, let me get you some clothes."

 I sat on my bed and waited as Delilah found me some clothes, pulling out a cropped black vest and a yellow tartan skirt for me to wear. "This is cute," she said and handed me the clothes. 

 "You're just using this as an excuse to dress me, aren't you?" I asked with a smirk and she rolled her eyes but nodded.

 "You can wear my knee-high boots too," she said. I got myself out of my pyjamas and pulled on the clothes she got me, looking in the mirror with a raised eyebrow, I loved the outfit but I would never pick it out myself.

"Ready?" Delilah asked after I had zipped up her boots.

"Yup," I nodded, following her as she rushed out of the dorm room door. I followed quickly, shutting and locking the door behind us. "Kit's going to drive us, Ace is already there."

"Okay," I said as we reached Kit's banged up truck. She let me get in the front and she climbed in the back herself.

Kit looked me up and down, a smirk playing on his lips. "I am unnervingly turned on right now," he said seriously and my mouth dropped open in shock. "You really fucking suit that."

I tried to hide my bright red cheeks with my hair. "Um, thanks," I smiled.

"Okay calm your hard-on and let's go," Delilah said with a laugh. Kit clenched his jaw and smirked, reversing out of the parking spot he was in. We were then shooting down the road to an unknown place far out of town.

"Where is this place?" I asked.

"Some beaten up abandoned gym. The old place was busted by the cops, we had to relocate," Kit explained as he parked the car outside some old, dingy looking building.

From the outside you couldn't tell anything was happening, but as you walked in all you could hear was noise and the stench of sweat made me crinkle my nose in disgust. The people that were here didn't seem like my type of people - they didn't even seem like Delilah's type of people, they all seemed very much like Ace and Kit. "Fancy making a bet? Bet on Ace and you'll win a small fortune," Kit smirked and I rolled my eyes.

"I do not gamble," I laughed nervously.

"Suit yourself," Kit shrugged and walked to the guy that was taking bets, whereas Delilah stuck to me like glue, scanning the crowd vigilantly. Kit came back a few moments later and rolled his eyes at Delilah. "I would never let anyone hurt you two, don't worry," he reminded her and she tensely nodded.

"Hey look, there's Ace!" I cheered and got onto my tiptoes, I was about to try and get his attention by waving when Delilah and Kit both dragged me down and ducked under people, moving to a place where he couldn't see us.

"Are you crazy? If he knows we brought you here, we'd be dead!" Kit hissed and my mouth made an 'o' shape. "You were already attacked by Theo's men last week, this is a pretty fucking dangerous thing we're doing."

"Sorry," I smiled sheepishly. I looked at Ace who was stood just outside of the large square boxing ring in the middle of the ring, he was dressed in some slightly baggy black shorts which showed his whole body was absolutely covered in tattoos. He was talking to some guy and looking around the room, probably trying to locate Kit and Delilah.

"I'm going over there to him, I'll tell him you couldn't make it. Then he'll stop looking for us," Kit told Delilah who nodded. "If you need me then I will only be there, I'll keep my eye on her," he nodded at me, speaking about me like I wasn't even there. He then scurried off to Ace, greeting him with a man-hug.

. . .

Around half an hour later all bets had been taken and everyone was surrounding the ring in the middle of the room, waiting for the fight to begin. "Ladies and gentleman," a loud voice boomed through the room and everyone quietened, looking to the ring where a man dressed in similar clothing to everyone else stood in the middle. "Tonight we have one fight only, but it's been a fight we have all been waiting for."

I glanced at Delilah but she didn't seem scared, my heart, however, was pounding. "Our first fighter is Blake Diamond!" A pretty built guy ducked under the ring's ropes to get into the ring, the crowd cheered. "And our second fighter is Ace 'The Killer' Grey!" Ace walked into the ring and the crowd went crazy, mainly girls high pitched screams erupted in the room.

"They aren't wearing gloves," I said in awe to Delilah as I watched Ace popping a mouth guard over his teeth.

"This isn't a pansy-arse boxing match, Elle. There's one round, whoever knocks their opponent out first wins," she explained and my mouth dropped open.

"What? They don't even get breaks? Someone could get seriously hurt, Ace could get seriously hurt!"

She scoffed. "People die in these fights, Elle. That's why the cops want to bust them so bad. What did you think this was?"

"People die? Has Ace ever killed someone?"

"He's not called 'The Killer' for nothing," she said without taking her eyes off of the ring. My mouth went very dry as I turned my attention back to the ring. Before I even knew what was happening, the fight had started and punches were being thrown left, right and centre. Most of the time I was hiding behind my hands, but one of the few times I did look Blake had got Ace in a vulnerable position and raised his arm to punch, I quickly covered my eyes.

When I finally looked through the crack of my fingers, Ace had his opponent on the floor and was driving punches into his face. I gasped, watching his fist fly into that guys face over and over again. "Is no-one gonna stop him? He's gonna kill that guy!"

"He won't kill him, the ref will determine he's won when the crowd have got their moneys worth," she shrugged and I felt like I needed to throw up.

Finally the ref stepped in and Ace let go of his opponent, whereas Blake stayed unconscious on the floor. "Our winner, everyone, Ace 'The Killer' Grey!" He announced and the whole crowd began screaming, the ref raised Ace's hand and Ace looked around the room with a cocky smirk. Soon enough his gaze landed on me and his smile dropped along with his arm. He looked furious.

"Fuck, come on," Delilah said and began dragging me through the crowds of people to the ring. I held on tightly to her hand, apologising to everyone we knocked into on the way to the ring. Once we got there, Ace was climbing out of the ring and taking his mouth guard out, slamming it onto his towel that was sat to the side of the ring.

"What the fuck is she doing here?" He asked, his eyes wild with rage.

"She was curious," Delilah shrugged nonchalantly.

"I don't fucking care, she could have got hurt!" He seethed, before turning to Kit. "You! You shouldn't have let her come!" He grabbed onto Kit's collar and pushed him against the ring.

"Stop, put him down! It's neither of their faults, I wanted to come. I told Delilah if she didn't take me that I'd wander the streets in the dark until I found it," I told him. He finally tore his eyes away from Kit and looked at me. "Put him down, please," I begged and watched his features soften as he slowly let go of Kit.

"You two can go, I'm taking her home," Ace said.

"I live with her-" Delilah started.

"Don't fight this, Lil. I'm mad enough," he seethed. She said nothing more, instead reassuringly squeezed my arm before walking out with Kit. "You, Princess, are hard work," he said to me, his eyes scanning over the outfit I had chosen to wear.