Chapter Six

With his heart in his throat Neal gripped a hold of the bars that separated him from Peter. He was working hard not to pace and making a distraction out of himself. Standing out in the rectangular pit-like ring Peter was looking up at the crowd gathered beyond the railing above with an unreadable expression. He had warned the spectators that he was a FBI Agent and that just knowing he was here without taking action was a felony. Neal had not been surprised when Peter's statement had only been met with laughter. Having said his peace Peter stood his ground near the center of the ring letting the blood from his abraded wrists freely drip off his hands and splatter the dirty concrete at his feet. As they waited for the fight to begin the crowd noise made an incomprehensible din of chatter and shouting as bets were placed. Neal was glad that Peter seemed calm about the situation as he found himself nearing a full blown panic attack in anticipation of the violence that was likely about to unfold.

Neal glanced over his shoulder at Jake who was standing on the far side of the bar with has his arms laced through them so he could lean casually on the crossbar. He looked disinterested in what was happening, but Neal had already experienced how quickly the powerful man could turn aggressively violent. Jake noticed the Neal was looking at him and winked at him. Grinding his teeth against a flash of rage Neal looked away. Jake chuckled at Neal but didn't say anything.

There was a bared gate on the far side of the ring as well and Peter tensed visibly as it slid open. The crowd noises had died down slightly, but they ramped up again as a man fairly well matched with Peter for height and frame but probably a decade younger stepped into the ring. Peter didn't take his eyes off the new comer but Neal's attention was momentarily drawn to the large digital clock on the top of the wall as it went from all zeros to reading fifteen minutes. The man who had entered the ring looked nervously up at the crowd before slowly walking towards Peter.

"Don't you *dare* come closer!" Peter barked with enough authority to make his opponent to stop and even take a step back. "I am a Federal Agent!"

"Your partner sounds like a broken record with that Agent line." Jake sighed. "…although it kinda working, isn't it? I thought this might happen."

"The FBI comes down hard on anyone who hurts one of their own, everyone knows that." Neal said turning slightly to look at Jake while still keeping the edge of his vision on Peter. "Please, you have to stop this before it's too late."

"It was too late the second York branded him." Jake pointed out. "But don't give up on being rescued, it will keep you fighting. Plus you never know, I've never seen a law enforcement agent of any kind down here before, this just might be the mistake that shuts York down."

"So help us, Peter is good to his word, trust me. He'll protect you from prosecution if you helps us."

"It's Campbell's first fight as well, but we still set 3 to 1 against Burke," Jake said conversationally, ignoring Neal "we're worried that he's too much of a Boy-scout which will hurt his points if no one manages a knock-out. That makes for good returns if he does win, but Campbell is still the safe bet. So who's your dog in this fight, Caffrey? You need to choose quick."

"What?" Neal turned his full attention to Jake in horror. "Wh…why would I agree to even bet?"

"There are rewards if you win. Don't worry, I won't tell Burke if you want to bet against him."

"No." Neal snarled in disgust. "I'm not playing your game."

"You have no choice. Your default is Burke and you're his, unless either of you state otherwise before the clock starts. So are you loyal or are you smart?"

"I'm not…"

"Fights about to start." Jake interrupted as he motioned his head towards the ring to draw Neal's attention back to the action.

Neal jerked violently as a traditional boxing match bell rang out and the digital clock started to count down. A round of boxing was only three minutes long and there was etiquette and rules. Under these conditions fifteen minutes was going to feel like an eternity, plenty of time to get seriously injured or even killed. Campbell still hesitated to approach Peter who was doing an excellent job of silently advertising that he was not to messed with lightly. Back when they were still in their room Jake had been a far greater threat than Campbell having been both armed and confident. In the ring Peter also had the added advantage of only having to defend himself and not worrying about Neal. Sizing up his opponent Campbell didn't seem as optimistic as his 3 to 1 odds suggested. The men watching booed and mocked Campbell for his stage fright.

"This is embarrassing." Jake rolled his eyes before looking over his shoulder to one of the two other guards that were in the room with him. "Go around and tell Campbell that if he doesn't get in there in the next ten seconds I will personally reach down his throat and…"

Jake didn't have to finish the rest of his vivid threat as Campbell finally roared to psych himself up and rushed at Peter blindly. Furrowing his brow at the clumsy attack Peter simply stepped to the side at the last moment letting Campbell's own momentum carrying him past his target. Campbell stopped and turned around quickly but in his rush he took a swing at Peter before making sure he had his balance. Peter jerked to the side again with his feet planted wide, lashing out he caught Campbell's wrist and in one fluid motion twisted him around and followed him down after he tripped him so that Campbell landed on his stomach with his restrained wrist held behind his back.

"Nice!" Jake crowed sounding genuinely impressed. "The FBI taught your boy some skills, I should have set the odds to 2 to 1. That was beautiful!"

Neal ignored Jake's commentary but he did smile slightly at how easily Peter had taken the man down. Finishing the move Peter dropped down to drive one knee into Campbell's back to keep him down while keeping his other foot on the floor to be able to react quickly if Campbell managed to twist out of his grip. Pinning Campbell to the floor in classic 'resisting arrest' style Peter threatened to dislocate his shoulder every time he moved causing Campbell to squawk in pain.

"Stay down, stay still." Peter ordered. "I'm not fighting you, I'm not fighting anyone."

"Get off me!" Campbell spat.

Peter glanced up at the digital clock that showed that there were thirteen minutes left to the fight. Neal relaxed slightly, he was confident that Peter could hold Campbell down now that he had him restrained. The crowd had gone wild for the self defense move at first but now they were getting angry with the boring turn of events. Neal was about to shout out a warning as he saw someone throw a beer bottle at Peter, but he was too late. Peter winced as the bottle struck between his shoulder blades and bounced off to roll across the floor without breaking.

"Go find out who threw that and get rid of them." Jake grumbled at one of his guards.

Neal was surprised that there were repercussions for the rowdy crowd member but he was grateful. Unphased by the audience participation Peter kept Campbell still as the clock clicked down to twelve.

"Okay, that's enough." Jake said to Neal. "Tell Burke to get off him."

"You said there were no rules."

"I lied. Get him off of there, no one is paying to watch him win by default."

"No." Neal said defiantly. "Fifteen minutes to survive anyway we can, that was the deal.

"The deal?" Jake hissed darkly as he pushed himself away from the bars and went for the door to join Neal in the cell. "You don't get to bargain with me, Caffrey. York may own this show, but down here I'm Alpha Dog."

Neal back up into the bars as Jake's mood shifted as quickly as flicking a light switch. He had been calm and practically civil a moment ago but there was something about hearing the word 'no' that set him off. Neal glanced over his shoulder at Peter who was out in the center of the ring with his back to him. Campbell was getting angrier at the humiliation and becoming harder to control and there was still over ten minutes left to the fight. Neal felt the best he could do for Peter right now was stall Jake as long as possible.

"Jake, wait…"

Neal learned very quickly that he shouldn't have backed himself up against the bars which not only cut back his escape routes but also gave Jake a significant amount of leverage. Demonstrating the same surprising speed and sudden aggression as before Jake pounced on Neal. He reached past him to grip the bars on either side of Neal's shoulders to trap him in place as well as use a handhold to increase his power as he brought his knee up and slammed into Neal's sore stomach.

Jake stepped back and let Neal collapse to the floor with his arms wrapped protectively over his stomach. Having bitten his tongue when struck Neal gagged on the metallic taste of blood. He tried to get to his feet but he couldn't even manage to uncurl himself as the painful blow caused his diaphragm to spasm making it impossible to catch his breath beyond an ineffective shallow gasping. Jake reached down and grabbed a fist full of Neal's hair to force him up to his knees and arched him back which actually opened up his chest and helped him breathe. Neal reached over his shoulder to hold onto Jake's wrist as he used his painful purchase to yanked him up onto his feet.

Jake held Neal in place so that he was facing the ring for a moment to give him a chance to yell out to Peter. Making a show of grinding his teeth together Neal refused to comply. Neal knew the repercussion for his disobedience were going to be severe, but he wasn't going to let Jake use him against Peter without a fight. Only waiting about ten seconds for Neal to come to his senses Jake dragged Neal back to the far set of bars with a terrifying amount of strength. Being Alpha Dog meant being able to hold his own easily against violent men like Sawyer and he hadn't earned York's trust in handling his prisoners without good cause. Neal had never learned to fight, it had always been in his best interest to either talk his way out of a physical altercation or simply run.

Throwing Neal against the steel bars Jake let go of his hair only to snatch his wrists. Neal tried to pull straight back to escape rather than the more effective method of jerking down and it cost him. Jake easily kept his grip and hoisted Neal's hands up over his head. One of his guard was at the ready on the far side and snaked a zip tie through the bars and pulled it tight around both Neal's wrists and the sturdy cross bar. Neal's initial rebellion turned to panic as he found himself restrained in the powerless position.

"If I were you I'd just scream now," Jake advised "save us both some trouble."

With his adrenaline ruining his better judgment and enraged by Jake's condescending tone Neal spat violently at his captor. Unconcerned by the blood tinted saliva that ran down his face Jake grabbed the collar of Neal's undershirt and ripped it open to expose his prey's skin. Desperate to defend himself Neal tried to bring his leg up to kick Jake away but he was already up on his tip toes in an effort to keep the plastic tie from slicing deeper into his already bleeding wrists and trying to balance on one foot gave him very little leverage.

Neal's panicked mind was still trying to figure out how to best to fight back when Jake jammed something with a metal contact against his ribs. Before Neal could figure out what it was there was a sharp cracking sound that was accompanied by a searing pain that clawed its way through his chest and forced his heart to falter its galloping rhythm. Jake's intent with the electric shock had been to cause Neal to cry out, but his breath had gotten caught in his throat as he arched back with a nearly silent pantomime of a scream as he choked on his own voice.

Growling in frustration Jake gave Neal a second to recover and waited for him to take a deep breath before setting the modified taser off again. The voltage had been specifically changed to cause pain not to incapacitate. Neal stayed mostly silent again but this time through sheer force of will in fear of distracting Peter from his own fight. Jake didn't give in easily and dug the metal contacts lower down on Neal's abdomen and tried again. This time Neal couldn't stop the agonized cry that tore through the general din of the displeased crowd above. By the time Jake pulled away sweat was rolling down Neal's exposed skin as he fought to regain his breath. Terrified that Jake was going to electrocute him again Neal yanked at the zip tie in an senseless attempt to escape as blood rolled down his arms.

"Neal?!" Peter cried in concern. "Nea…"

Peter was cut off as Campbell took full advantage of the distraction. Having looked back over his shoulder Peter had shifted his weight and it was all Campbell needed to roll over and buck Peter off. Fueled by rage Campbell threw his whole body at Peter, catching him around the midriff he knocked him down to the cheering roar of the audience. Campbell landed several good blows before Peter could even begin to fight back. Rolling around on the concrete floor the struggle between the two men lacked any of the grace of a choreographed and practiced action scene found in scripted movies as Campbell resorted to any means necessary to inflict pain and Peter worked desperately to defend himself.

"Now it's a fight." Jake chuckled.

Jake put his taser back in his pocket, but he didn't make any moves to cut Neal down. Giving up on trying to free himself Neal found himself struggling just to keep his head up after the brutal attack. Unable to do anything about his own position Neal tried to focus on what was happening in the ring with Peter. Campbell had turned the tide and was sitting on Peter's stomach to pin him down. Campbell struck him hard splitting Peter's lip causing an alarming amount of blood to pour down his face, quickly covering his chin and throat. When Campbell reared back to draw his fist back again Peter used the chance to hit Campbell's exposed ribs. Laying on his back Peter's didn't have a good position to hit from but it was still enough to double Campbell over with a breathless cry.

Peter brought his arm up to shield his face as Campbell pitched forward and Campbell didn't hesitate to sink his teeth into Peter's flesh. Peter roared in pain but rather than try to pull away he pushed into Campbell to drive him back. Managing to sit up Peter went for Campbell's eyes to get him off. Releasing Peter from the painful bite Campbell fell back as he jerked away to save his eyes. Peter scrambled to get the upper hand and straddled Campbell, sitting heavily on his chest and pinning his arms to his sides.

Satisfied to have his opponent restrained again Peter instantly looked toward Jake and Neal but he clearly couldn't see into the shadows of the cell from the bright lights of the ring as his eyes searched the darkness beyond the bars. The fickle crowd began complain again at the way Peter was running down the clock as Campbell battled once again to get free. Panting for breath Peter poured his waning physical strength into keeping Campbell down. Neal managed to get a glimpse at the clock finding that here were still four minutes left to the fight

"Neal?!" Peter called out desperately.

Neal wanted to try an assure him that Peter that he was alive but his voice wouldn't cooperate.

"I had my doubts about you two putting on a good show in the ring," Jake purred "but this is perfect…"

To worn to stop himself Neal screamed again as Jake snaked his hand into his hair again and to forced his head back as he used his free hand to press down on the already abused brand in Neal's chest. Neal's tortured voice was quickly drowned out by the excited crowd as Peter finally gave them what the wanted and knocked Campbell senseless by slamming his fist square between his eyes, ending the fight in a gruesome spray of blood so that he could turn his full attention to Neal. Peter instantly realized that he had used far more force than had been necessary leaving Campbell in danger of drowning in his own blood from his broken face.

Despite the urgency Peter took the time to roll Campbell over onto his side to help him breathe. Once he had done what he could for the unconscious man Peter stood up but found himself having trouble getting to back towards the bars as he stumbling to the side as if drunk from what was likely a mild concussion. Jake released his grip Neal dropping his chin back to chest so that he could applaud Peter's performance with a rueful laugh. Jake reached out and tussled Neal's sweat soaked hair patronizingly. Neal jerked his head away and spat an barely coherent obscenity at his tormentor before bowing his head again in exhausted defeat.

"Damn, Caffrey, remind me to be more careful with you around him. Fighting for you makes Burke absolutely savage!"