SYLVIE
I’d watched plenty of fights from the balcony. And I’d been down in the side room, where Aedan now was, when Alec fought. So I thought I knew what to expect.
I was wrong.
The crowd above became a hooting, screaming hurricane, their voices surrounding me and leaving my ears ringing.
The harsh overhead lights blinded me whenever I looked up, turning the people above into faceless silhouettes.
I could just see the white of their teeth and the gleam of their spit as they yelled.
The pit itself was a merciless prison. Smooth concrete walls much higher than my head. A bare concrete floor. The doors into the side rooms looked pathetically small.
There was nowhere to run.
Jacki was already standing directly across from me, glaring at me. Rick slapped me enthusiastically on the shoulder and ran back to the side room to wait with Aedan.
And the fight began.
Jacki started to circle around to the side and I did the same, walking like a crab, hands raised to guard myself in case she suddenly came at me.
I’m not ready! My heart was thumping in my chest and I could actually see my hands shaking as I held them in front of me.
This wasn’t like the ring I’d trained in—at all!
There was no bounce in the floor, no give.
If I even slipped and went down, it was going to hurt.
If I was knocked down and hit my head... it didn’t bear thinking about.
Jacki suddenly came at me in a zig-zagging, erratic run. Her hands weren’t up in fists. They were more like hooked claws, ready to grab and pull and tear.
I backed up, trying to keep my distance. Immediately, she moved faster. It was obvious which of us had the upper hand, right from the start. I was scared of her but she wasn’t scared of me.
She suddenly snaked her hand out and I blocked instinctively. But she wasn’t trying to hit me. She grabbed my hand and pulled, using the full weight of her body to swing me around. My feet skittered under me and my stomach lurched. The wall came up to meet me, too fast—
I crashed into the concrete, feeling the gritty surface chew at my exposed arm and shoulder. My hip banged hard against it and my leg went numb.
The crowd cheered.
I tried to get away from her, but I was staggering, now, and didn’t have the speed to get any distance. All I could do was retreat, backing up along the curving wall, praying I didn’t trip over my own feet. If I went down, it was all over.
I didn’t dare take my eyes off Jacki’s cruelly grinning face. But then I saw the door to the side room behind her and, in it, Aedan. He was screaming at me.
Screaming hit her.
Before I could take it in, she grabbed me again. This time, she pulled me towards her and—
Pain exploded in my face. I tasted and smelled blood. And suddenly it was fountaining out of me, splotching onto my top. I lifted my hands to my face and they instantly turned red. Jesus, what had she done to me?
The pain dulled a little, centering on my nose. I realized she’d head-butted me, and my nose was bleeding.
For the first time, I started to pick out voices in the crowd.
“Get her on the ground!”
“Shove your foot up the bitch!”
“Fucking finish her!”
She was coming at me again, hands raised, leg drawn back.
Hit her.
She was going to grab me and kick me.
Hit her.
She was going to get me down on the ground and smash my face into the floor, just like she promised.
Hit her. Behind Jacki, I saw Aedan screaming it.
I can’t! And then Jacki shouted and came at me hard, hands grabbing for my waist—
I lashed out and two solid weeks of muscle memory snapped into place. There was a sickening crack as my fist hit Jacki’s jaw. Her head snapped to the side and she staggered. The crowd cheered even louder. Apparently, it didn’t matter who got hit, as long as someone did.
Jacki put her hand to her face and winced, then looked at me, her eyes narrowed. I was looking at my own fist in wonder. My knuckles were throbbing, my wrist aching. Did I really just hit her? I realized I’d dropped my guard and started to lift my hands again.
Too late.
Jacki shoulder-charged me and bore us both down to the floor. I landed under her, gasping as the air was knocked out of me. Jacki’s expression was vicious, now, her lips drawn back from her teeth in an animal snarl.
I lifted my head, only to have her punch me.
It wasn’t as strong as one of my punches—it seemed like she was used to grabbing and throwing, not hitting.
But it sent my head towards the concrete and I only just managed to hold it away, my neck muscles screaming.
She hit me again, on the other side, and this time it hurt more.
“Tear her clothes off!” screamed someone in the crowd. There was a sudden roar of approval from all around the room.
Sickened, I looked up at Jacki. She looked equally appalled, her nose wrinkling in distaste. But then she glanced off to the side.
Towards Rick.
I couldn’t see him, but he must have nodded. Jacki punched me a third time and then grabbed my tank top at the base of one strap and jerked. The strap tore free and suddenly my bra and breasts were revealed to the crowd. The hoots and wails were deafening. Jacki’s hands reached for me again—
A shining aluminum cane shot between us, then pushed her back. She got off me, sullen-faced, holding her jaw. Already, the skin there was starting to discolor. The crowd howled their disapproval as they realized the fight was over.
“That’s all, folks!” yelled Rick. “That was just a taster. If you want to see Sylvie get hers, be here! Same place! Same time! Two weeks!” And he grabbed Jacki’s hand and raised it in the air in victory.
She grinned at the crowd and then scowled down at me.
I clutched the rags of my tank top to my chest, humiliated and shaking.
In those final few seconds, all of the crowd’s male rage had bubbled up to the surface and shown itself for what it really was.
And it looked like Jacki and Rick were only too happy to go along with it, if it kept them happy.
Aedan ran over. For a second, he stood there glaring at Rick, his massive fists bunched, clearly ready to kill him. Al and Carl sidled up to protect their boss but, for a second, it looked as though Aedan was going to wade in regardless.
I reached up and grabbed Aedan’s hand. “Just get me out of here?” I pleaded.
With a last snarl at Rick, Aedan pulled me to my feet and helped me to the side room. My legs had turned to jelly and I had to lean on him the whole way. I felt slightly better once we were out of sight of all those male eyes.
“Let me look at you,” he said. He took my head between his hands, his eyes wide with fear.
He probed gently at my nose and I squealed and thumped him on the arm.
“Sorry,” he said. “But good news—it’s not broken.
Just bleeding. Put pressure on it and it’ll stop.
” He examined my cheeks and then my hip.
“Nothing too bad here, either—just bruises.”
Just bruises? I wanted to burst into tears. The adrenaline was receding and the pain was hitting me full force, now. My whole body throbbed and I wanted to crawl under a rock and die. “I’m sorry,” I blurted.
He stared at me. “Sorry? What have you got to be sorry about?”
I was breathing in big gulps now. It felt like I was about to start crying, but the hot explosion of tears didn’t arrive. I was stuck in the prickly-faced heaving stage that normally precedes it. “I—I couldn’t hit her. I didn’t know what to do. I messed up.”
“Messed up?!” He hugged me close. “You did great. Neither of us was ready for that. But now we can be. We know what she’s got.
I can teach you how to deal with that, how to fight dirty.
She can’t learn to fight like you—not in a couple of weeks.
” He squeezed me tighter and stroked the back of my hair. “It’s okay. It’s all going to be okay.”
Now I did start to cry. I cuddled in tight against his chest, my face leaving blood on his t-shirt.
“And you did hit her. Christ, you nearly broke her jaw!”
I gave a nervous little laugh, but I didn’t feel like laughing. It had all been way too frightening: the brutal aggression; the speed at which it had all gone wrong, when she’d charged me; the cruel, male evil of the crowd at the end.
I pushed back from Aedan. “Take me home,” I begged.
He nodded and passed me the hooded top I’d brought with me. I pulled it on over my ruined tank top and we headed for the stairs.