SYLVIE
It was a smaller crowd, but meaner. The hangers-on didn’t get told about events like this. Only the hardcore, the ones who bet serious money, got the discreet text message telling them there was fresh meat to view.
I took a deep breath and walked towards the door, trying to look nonchalant.
But The Pit had never been a welcoming place for women and what happened to me last time I was there made it even harder.
Stepping out of the twilight and into the dark, warm interior was like stepping into hell.
..especially since I’d soon be heading down to the lower level.
Nothing like that’s going to happen this time, I told myself.
Except that, in some ways, this would be worse.
My near-rape was something I could be saved from.
This fight—that Aedan reassured me wouldn’t involve me actually getting hurt—was something that had to happen.
I was hoping I could pass unnoticed in the crowd, hoping that everyone would presume I was just the girlfriend of some spectator until the actual fight.
Everything, I realized, would depend on whether Rick had hinted to the audience what would be different about these fighters.
If they knew they were coming to see women… .
It was obvious as soon as we neared the balcony around the pit. Heads turned, as if they could smell my feminine scent. A sort of rumble went through the crowd, expanding outward from where Aedan and I stood.
He put an arm around my waist and pulled me closer.
I could see their eyes eating me up. Wondering if I would be the victim or the victor...and, from their sneers, the answer seemed obvious. Had they already seen the other woman? Or did I just look so weak that I’d crumble before any opponent?
There was another look, too. The one I’d been aware of before, but that held new fear for me after last time.
That hungry, male look, so different to the looks Aedan gave me, even when he was fucking me.
It was a look with no warmth at all, no interest in my happiness or my pleasure.
It was a look that stripped off my clothes and spread me open.
Legs shaking, I let Aedan lead me downstairs.
Rick was there with Al and Carl, his two bodyguards. He looked to be in a good mood, his cane shining extra-bright as if he’d polished it specially.
And behind him, leaning against a wall, was a woman.
I don’t know what I’d expected. A six foot Amazonian, maybe, like some barbarian queen minus the broadsword and armor. Or maybe an Asian kung fu expert all dressed in black. But she was nothing like either of those.
She was about the same height as me. In places, she looked thinner.
In others, she was carrying more muscle.
She had long brown hair in dreadlocks and skin as pale as mine.
I frowned, trying to figure it out. Rick would have wanted to find someone to destroy me.
Had he gone to the semi-pro circuit? She looked ripped, but not in an athletic, glowing-with-health way.
Or was she the girlfriend or even sister of someone else who owed him a debt—my counterpart?
What if she had some powerful reason to win, too?
What if one of her loved ones’ lives depended on it?
“Sylvie,” said Rick with a cat-like grin. “Meet Jacki.”
I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do. Shake her hand? I gave her a tentative smile. She scowled at me.
I looked down at what I was wearing—sweatpants, sneakers and a tank top. I looked as if I was ready to get in the ring. Jacki wore jeans and a t-shirt. She didn’t look like a trained fighter. What was going on?
“I had some trouble, finding someone for you to fight,” said Rick, as if he’d done us a huge favor.
“Had to really dig around. But then someone suggested Jacki and all my problems were solved. Jacki was happy to come down here and hand your ass to you for cash, and a shot at the winner’s bonus. Weren’t you, Jacki?”
Jacki spat on the floor. “Bitch, you better not start crying the first time that pretty face hits the floor. We gotta give people a show.”
And then I saw the gang tattoos on her neck and I understood.
Aedan stepped forward out of the shadows. “This is supposed to be boxing,” he growled. “Bare knuckle boxing. Not feckin’ street fighting.”
Rick turned. “Aedan?” His face went through a complex series of emotions.
Fear. Anger. Suspicion. It was the first time I’d ever seen him really shaken.
His bodyguards stepped forward protectively.
What the hell’s going on? I knew that Aedan used to be a fighter and I’d figured out that Rick used to manage him, just like he managed Alec.
But this was something else—the relationship between them was a lot more complex.
And then Aedan said something that made me forget everything else.
“I’ll fight,” he said. “I’ll fight instead of Sylvie.”