During the next week, Jace continued to work at the gym, but during his off time, he rested. His breathing was still causing him pain, although he knew it would be much worse if he had broken his ribs or had internal bleeding (he knew from experience). Having just a couple of bruised ribs was not as bad, but it still hurt. A lot.

The next weekend, while out on another date with his girlfriend, they each began to open up about their past. City spoke to Jace, who was sitting across the table from her at that small Italian restaurant.

"My father left before I was born. He would have been a terrible father anyway if he'd stayed, so it worked out for the better, I think," said City. Her eyes stared off somewhere, her thoughts taking control for a bit. "Mom was with me until I was 17. Even though it's been four years... it still feels like yesterday I got a call that she'd been in a car accident..."

A half-smile formed on City's lips as she shook her head. "I'm sorry I'm getting so deep and depressing," she said, taking a bite of garlic bread to try to take her mind off the heavy thoughts.

"No, don't ever say sorry for that," said Jace. "You have the right to talk about your mother."

City looked up at him, hazel eyes full of emotion. How'd I get so lucky to have this man? was one of her thoughts. "Thanks, Jace. I do have Wesley, though. He's been there for me these past few years more than ever, and I'm grateful."

"He's a great brother. Remember that first time I came over?" said Jace, a playful spark in his eye.

City laughed. "I could never forget! He stared you down like you were a murderer."

"I was rather intimidated by him, to be honest," said Jace, also laughing. He took a drink as City spoke up again.

"What about you? You never talk about your family."

"No, I don't, do I?" replied Jace. He sighed; he never talked about his family. Isaac and Devin knew the main parts, but only bits and pieces. Jace had never been one to open up about his feelings, anyway.

"Where to begin... My mother was a prostitute. She never found out who the father was, so I was the same as you, without a father figure in the house."

"Oh, Jace, I'm sorry," said City. She looked so hurt from hearing about his parents that Jace felt a pang in his heart for her.

"It's okay. It made me into who I am today, which I'm proud." Jace cleared his throat. "Actually, my father figure was Tim. Is Tim. My mom died when I was young, and Tim found me wandering the streets. He took me in, and he was the one who taught me how to fight. And he made me go back to school," said Jace with a grin.

City rolled her eyes, a smile on her face. "I can picture little Jacey now, begging not to go to school even though Tim was too stubborn to let you skip out."

"Yep, that was pretty much it," laughed Jace.

City was quiet for a moment. "Thanks for opening up to me... It means a lot that you'd trust me enough to share your lower points in life."

Jace stared at her. She was beautiful, her face glowing in the dim, candle-lit lighting in the restaurant. Her hair fell in waves around her face and down her shoulders.

"I don't like to hide things from you, Felicity..."

City sighed, looking into his dark eyes that seemed to grow hollow, distant all of a sudden. "Then don't. Tell me when you're ready, just like you did tonight with your family. I'll appreciate it, but on your time."

How is this woman real? Jace thought. She's perfect. And I'm not. "Felicity... you're too good to me, you know that?" He smiled warmly at her, trying to bring life back to the conversation.

City beamed, her smile seeming to light up the whole room. "Maybe we're just a perfect match for each other?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jace laughed. "I believe so!"

Their night ended on a high note, and soon, the weekend ended to pave the way for a new week. Jace visited City at Indigo while she worked evening shifts. They would chat between her work duties of serving and cleaning tables. Jace couldn't help but notice a couple of times when Shane would be glaring darkly in his direction... But after their altercation that one night, when Jace was slammed into the wall and Shane threatened him to stay away from City... nothing else had happened.

City did admit to Jace one night that she had dated Shane a few times before. But when she reassured Jace that she had broken ties with Shane, Jace was comforted.

Jace continued to try to rest as much as he could. His ribs were feeling better after two weeks, and he had decided to go to the Pit again the weekend after that deep family talk at the Italian restaurant with City.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Devin asked Jace for the hundredth time as they took an Uber to the Pit's ladder entrance. "You're still hurt!"

"Oh, he'll be fine. It's not like you can't breathe, huh Jace?" spoke up Isaac.

"That's Songbird to you," joked Jace.

"See! He's completely fine," said Isaac, rolling his eyes. Devin didn't look convinced.

The fight went better than Jace had even thought. Of course, he'd trained and been through worse injuries and still had to fight, so this wasn't too bad. His breathing was still sending sharp pains through his chest, especially toward the end of the fight when he was breathing heavily, but that didn't stop him from winning his two fights.

The first lasted six minutes, Songbird not being able to knock out his opponent but winning two of the three rounds easily. The second fight was against a much bigger man than Songbird was used to fighting, but even so, Songbird was able to find a couple of weaknesses and exploit them. He actually used a rare combination move in the second round that knocked out the huge man and sent him falling like a tree (and Jace was pretty sure he heard Isaac yell, "TIMBER!" when the man crashed).

By the end of the night, Jace was rather exhausted. Even with training every day at the gym, all this rest time for his ribs was making him feel weak.

In the locker room, Gabriel, Mark, and a few other fighters were getting bandaged up from their fights, a few sitting in a daze with blood dripping from their faces after losing.

Songbird looked up as a dark, towering figure came up to him.

"Drake wants you to join us tonight," said Gabriel.

"And why is that, exactly?" asked Songbird, frustrated. He had been asked by Drake personally a few weeks ago, and from Gabriel and Mark, too, a to go out for drinks. Every time he had refused, although he knew there come a time that he couldn't keep saying no...

Gabriel shrugged. "Beats me. Except Drake looked pretty upset this time... If you don't want to keep pissing him off, I would suggest you come with us. Just one night," added Gabriel quickly, "then he'll get off your case, I'm sure."

Jace weighed his options. Go out for a night with the Pit's owner, possibly leave on good terms... or keep ignoring and see how upset he could make Drake. The choice seemed, unfortunately, easy.

"One night. That's all I guarantee," said Songbird firmly.

"Trust me, getting on Drake's good side like this will be worth it!" said Gabriel, saying the exact thing Jace needed to hear, affirming that this night out wouldn't be in vain. "I'll go tell him; meet you at the tracks."

As Gabriel left the locker room, Jace hurried up and went out, too. He had to find Isaac and Devin to let them know he was going to be out that night. The more Jace thought about drinking and hanging out with Drake and the other fighters, the more he regretted his decision. I seem to always regret my decisions, actually, thought Jace, half amused.

Devin was looking in a white envelope, obviously counting the cash Jace had earned that night. Isaac was standing beside him and nodded to Jace as he walked up to the two.

"We were thinking we could—"

"I'll be out tonight," said Jace, cutting off whatever Isaac was about to say.

Devin glanced up, pausing his counting. "What? With City?"

"No. Eh, Drake wants me to head out with him and some of the fighters here..." said Jace slowly.

"Drake, as in, this place's owner?" asked Devin.

"Well, yeah."

"Then you should definitely go," said Devin, surprising Jace.

"Why?"

"To get on his good side, of course!" exclaimed Devin as though that answer was obvious. "You don't want to refuse his offer forever."

"Yeah, one night out, then you'll be fine. We understand," said Isaac.

Songbird had half wanted them to persuade him to cancel the plans with Drake, but their comments just made him grumpier. "Fine. See you guys at the apartment," said Jace, slumping off.

"Good luck!" he heard Isaac shout, his voice almost lost in the crowd.

Jace met up with Gabriel, Mark, and two other fighters whose names he didn't remember. One was short with a very high-pitched voice, and the other was very average and plain-looking except for a deep scar that went across his cheek. Jace named them Squeaky and Scarface in his head, for all intents and purposes.

Drake came out last, possibly to be 'fashionably late.' He was a scruffy-looking man, rather short, with shoulder-length, raggedy hair and a short beard. His nice dress blazer and formal pants contrasted his wild hair. Songbird had only met him in passing before, but he'd heard he was a great businessman.

"Who's ready to partayyy?" said Drake, waving the shaka sign around on his hands.

Jace was repulsed. How long was this 'guys night out' going to be?

Drake had apparently set up an extra-large Uber to pick the six of them up. When they crossed the tracks and went up the ladder, they saw it waiting for them on the street. Piling in, turning the music to something horribly pop-sounding to Jace, and they were off.

Songbird stayed quiet, pulling up the hood of his hoodie slightly. He did not feel like joining in on the conversation that centered solely around girls, sex, booze, and fighting. It sounded like Isaac when he was drunk, but a hundred times worse.

As Jace was looking out the window, their travel path caught his attention. If his thoughts were correct...

Oh no.

"Here we are, boys! Best place in town: Indigo!"

They had actually arrived at Indigo. It was a Friday late night and the place was packed, not unusually. Jace was beginning to panic. Here he was, out with five other men who he didn't trust, about to head into the club where his girlfriend worked... He wished he had a phone right now so that he could tell Isaac and Devin to come and stall Felicity for a while or something.

The six of them got out of the car (five out of the six acting quite rowdy already...) and headed inside.

I'm so screwed, thought Jace as they entered the nightclub section in the back. He already picked out Felicity from the crowd, her hair up in a ponytail again. Why did she have to look so gorgeous?

They sat at a circle of flat couches that surrounded a coffee table. The dim lights and the blaring music distorted Jace's senses more than usual. Or was that just the sheer panic he was feeling?

As luck would have it, City started coming to their table to get their drink orders. Jace kept his head down and pulled up his hood again.

"And hello, who is this?" said the man with the scar, Scarface clearly talking about City as she approached.

"I'm City and I'll be your waitress this—"

"Yeah I know exactly what you can get me, love," spoke Mark smoothly. Jace could feel the rage burning inside him.

City handled the situation very well. "Do you guys want drinks or not, because I have other tables and—"

"Yeah, yeah. Vodka for me, what about you boys?" said Drake.

Jace made the mistake of glancing up. His eyes met City's. For some reason, she paused instead of speaking to him. Could she see the look in his face as he silently pleaded with her to stay quiet...?

"And for you?" she asked Jace. She had a cold tone to her voice that Jace didn't like one bit.

"Whiskey, neat."

She wrote it down and took the others' orders, leaving without a second glance at Jace.

"Wow, look at that... They have the prettiest girls here, don't they?" said Drake, watching City leave. The thought of Drake's eyes on her infuriated Jace.

When City returned with the drinks, putting up with more flirtatious comments from the others, Jace felt more and more ashamed that he didn't speak up for her. But he knew if he were to give any indication that he knew and cared for City, these men could use that to their advantage. One could never be too careful dealing with the men that Jace dealt with... After all, he didn't know what side Scarface and Squeaky were on. They could be working for the evil man Craton, after all, and could use City against Jace.

The evening was quite painful for Jace. When it was finally over, after many talks jumping around the same raunchy topics and drinks that didn't seem to dull Jace's anger, he was more than ready to leave.

Jace let the others walk to the doors to exit as he hung behind. Then, he quickly walked around the bar area, searching for City.

"Felicity."

Only one person called her by her real name, so City knew who it was before turning. She didn't turn. "What, Jace?"

"Those men... trust me when I say, they are dangerous," said Jace. City faced him, frowning, as Jace continued, "And I only ignored you because I don't want them to get any kind of leverage on me, and you would be that leverage. I'm so sorry."

"No, it's okay," said City, still with a confused look on her face. "I just wish you'd tell me why you're hanging out with those men."

"I will tell you... but later, I have to go now," said Jace, glancing toward the door anxiously.

"Before you do, Wesley invited you to dinner with us tomorrow night," said City. "If you wanted to join? At six o'clock?"

"Sure, sure," said Jace rather distractedly. "I would love to. See you then." He kissed her cheek quickly and left.

City watched her boyfriend join back up with the apparently dangerous men on their way out. What was Jace involved in that he was hanging out with people like that?