SYLVIE
With every mile we traveled, my confidence drained. What the hell was going on? What change of plan? Had he found some other woman for me to fight—someone I couldn’t beat? But Rick remained tight-lipped the whole journey, only telling me to wait and see. By the time we arrived, I wanted to be sick.
This time, The Pit was deserted. I didn’t get it, at first. The whole point of me meeting Jacki had been so that the crowd could see us together and get fired up about the forthcoming fight. If there was no audience to see me and this new woman, what was the point?
As Rick led me out into the pit, he saw me looking up at the empty balcony. “I didn’t want a whole crowd here,” he told me. “I’ve decided to make your fight invitation-only. We’ll move it to a different venue, too. Somewhere more private.”
I wanted to run—sprint back up the stairs and out onto the street and not stop until I saw a cop car. But, even if I got away from Rick and his guards, Alec was alone and vulnerable in the hospital. They’d take it out on him. “Why?” I asked, my voice shaking. “Why more private?”
Rick planted the end of his cane on the floor and leaned on it, glancing around at his guards. “I had a think about your little catfight with Jacki. The crowd really liked it when she ripped your top. So I thought: how do we maximize that? How do we turn that up all the way?”
He nodded over my shoulder and I turned.
It seemed to happen in slow motion. My opponent walked out from one of the side rooms. Taller than me. Wider than me.
And male.