Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ruby slid her hand into Chase’s as they walked along the deserted street.
“It’s too quiet,” he said. “Maybe I should go ahead first. I don’t feel right about this.”
Ruby grumbled under her breath. “You’re just saying that because I’m here.”
They kept going, and soon other people started to appear, all of them walking quietly in the same direction. Then more voices. Lights.
Around a corner, a line appeared leading to a doorway. Music pulsed from inside. It was like a night club had suddenly appeared in the middle of an otherwise abandoned block of structures.
“See? What did I tell you.” She squeezed Chase’s hand.
Tonight’s fight would be in an abandoned warehouse in a vast maze of buildings near the Port of Los Angeles. Ruby had been to similar venues. She felt a thrill of excitement and anticipation to be back here.
There was so much about her old life that she never cared to experience again. But this element, that thrill before the fight, still got to her.
She pressed her fingertips along the edge of her wig. It was platinum blond. She’d worn false eyelashes and contoured her cheekbones. Even Chase kept looking over at her like he couldn’t believe her transformation.
The only person she was really worried about seeing tonight was Cami, simply because she wanted to avoid another scene like at the gym. But Mickey’s new girlfriend wasn’t going to recognize her. Even Nora would need convincing that she was Ruby and not someone else.
Assuming Nora was there tonight. Ruby was worried for her.
“Just remember what I said,” Chase murmured in her ear. “Don’t go anywhere without me.”
“My heroic protector.” As if she hadn’t been to any number of these fights on her own.
A part of her worried that going to see Nora tonight could somehow make her friend’s position even worse. But what other choice did they have? They needed to know what was really going on.
Ruby was more sure than ever that the fighting ring had some connection to Mickey’s death. And there was no other way to try to prove it. They needed information, and Nora might have it.
But Ruby was glad Chase was here with her. She always felt better with him around. Plus, he looked hot in that tight long-sleeved T-shirt he was wearing, with his baseball cap pulled low over his eyes.
She’d been wrong. He didn’t look that much like a cop after all. Looking at him, she could believe he was a fighter himself.
And from the way other women were glancing at Chase, they assumed the same.
Ruby stuck her hand into the back pocket of his track pants.
The line moved quickly. Everyone was searched on the way in, and they had to walk through a metal detector. A bouncer patted down Ruby’s clothes, though she couldn’t have hidden much in her tank top and mini skirt.
“No phones. No recording equipment.” The bouncer’s hand lingered a bit too along on her ass, but Ruby only smiled at him.
“I know the rules.”
She held her breath until the guy waved them forward.
Noah Vandermeer was supposed to meet them here. He would be posing as a high roller. She’d told him to tip the bouncer a hundred-dollar bill to get access to the VIP area, and she didn’t expect Noah would have trouble bringing the necessary cash.
These fights were technically invite only, but if you knew the time and the venue, you could get in. And if you had copious amounts of money to spend gambling, it was even easier.
The minute they stepped inside, the bass of the music vibrated in her bones, and lights flashed like they were in the middle of the hottest LA dance club.
The crowd was densely packed, the heat already building in the massive open room. The ring was at the center under bright lights. The fight going on right now was just a warm-up bout. Nowhere near a headliner.
They made their way around the edge of the room. Chase leaned in. “Do you see anyone you know?” He had to shout over the noise.
Ruby scanned the sea of faces. Some were familiar, but only in a vague way.
Then she spotted someone she remembered too well. A blond with her hair in a high ponytail.
It was Cami, Mickey’s girlfriend.
Ruby grabbed Chase’s shirt and kissed him. She slid her arms around his strong back. And damned if she didn’t get a little lost in that moment. In his scent and the energy of the room, the clashing of these different worlds in her head.
She broke away from him, chest heaving.
“I enjoyed that,” Chase said, “but I’m not sure what it was for.”
“Saw someone I’d prefer to avoid.”
“Mickey’s girlfriend?”
“That’s her.” Ruby saw Cami’s ponytail bobbing through the crowd.
Cami reached a couple of bouncers, who unclipped a velvet rope to let her past. “She’s going into the VIP area.”
“And there’s Noah.”
Ruby saw him. The Bennett Security bodyguard was already in with the other VIP gamblers, chatting casually like he belonged there.
Ruby didn’t know him well, but Noah seemed like the kind of guy who could fit in almost anywhere.
Or at least do a good job of acting like it.
He’d been a Navy SEAL, and according to Devon, those guys had a certain swagger.
Chase had a cockiness about him too, but it was more subdued. Like he was holding most of his energy in reserve. But Ruby knew firsthand how fiery he could be when he let loose.
“How can we reach him?” Ruby asked. “If we don’t have our phones?”
“He gave me a communication device to signal him if it’s an emergency. Otherwise, it’s the old-fashioned way. But this mission is for recon and intel.”
“English, please?”
“We’re here to talk to Nora. Find out what she knows. Not start trouble.”
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Ruby asked. “I don’t start trouble.”
Chase laughed and shook his head.
The announcer roared into his microphone and the crowd cheered, drowning out Chase’s response. A new fight was starting, and this one had ramped up the audience’s excitement.
Ruby grabbed Chase’s arm. “There’s Nora.”
She was in the ring. Nora’s hair was gelled into a stiff-peaked faux hawk, and she wore heavy eyeliner and blush. Her tiny shorts and sports bra showed off her muscular physique.
She and her opponent didn’t waste much time playing to the crowd. The fight began. The two women immediately dove at one another.
“Come on.” Ruby pulled Chase closer to the ring, working her way through the crowd.
The other fighter gripped Nora around the waist. She knocked Nora down, but Nora flipped her and put the woman in a headlock. Her face was an angry snarl.
Nora’s opponent struggled to regain the upper hand, but Nora didn’t give her an inch.
The other woman tapped out. “Nora Rodgers wins!”
Instead of waving or smiling at the screaming audience, Nora left the ring and headed straight for the exit.
Ruby hurried after her.
Nora’s faux hawk appeared through a break in the crowd. Ruby pushed forward, letting go of Chase’s hand so she could squeeze through the gap. “Nora, wait.” She held up a fifty. “Can I get an autograph?”
Nora barely gave her a glance. “No autographs tonight.”
“But I have a message for you. From a friend. From Ruby Whitestone.”
Nora turned and stared.
Ruby angled her head and pulled back her wig just enough to show her dark hair beneath.
Nora’s eyes widened.
“Can we talk? Please?”
The fighter glanced around. “Over here.”
She took Ruby into a dark corridor. They passed a bouncer, and Nora nodded at him. “Friend of mine. It’s fine.”
“I’m with them.” Chase had caught up. Ruby felt his hand on her lower back.
Nora led them further down the corridor. There were hardly any lights here. Trash and debris littered the floor, as if the organizers hadn’t bothered to clean up this part of the warehouse. A few doors hung off their hinges, leading into abandoned offices.
Nora turned around. “Ruby, what the hell are you doing here?” She narrowed her eyes at Chase. “Who is he?”
“My husband. Long story. Tag’s been looking for you. Where have you been?”
“I’m done with Tag, okay? I’m done with a lot of things.”
“Does this have something to do with Mickey?”
“Trust me, you don’t want to know.”
Chase stepped forward. “We need to know. Ruby could go to prison. She could lose her daughter over this.”
“Please,” Ruby said. “I need to know what was going on with Mickey. Did he want to stop fighting? Is that what happened?”
Nora glanced around again, her indecision written across her face. “Mickey did want to get out, but he couldn’t. That’s not how this works.”
“What about Tag?” Ruby asked. “He got out.”
“Are you kidding? He didn’t leave. Tag was broken after that fight. They only cut him loose because they didn’t want him anymore.”
Ruby had visited him in the hospital. The doctors had called the police after seeing the way Tag had been beaten. Of course, Tag had refused to say anything about the source of his injuries. It had taken months of recovery, physical therapy. He’d barely managed to walk again.
She didn’t want Nora to end up like that. Much less like Mickey.
“If you’re in trouble, maybe we can help each other.” Ruby put a hand on the other woman’s arm, but Nora recoiled.
“There’s nothing you could possibly do that would help me. If I were you, I’d take my shot at trial and hope for the best. Because at least that’s a chance, and that’s more than these people would give you.”
“Do you mean Adrian Peele?” Ruby asked. “He’s powerful, but if enough brave people testify—”
“Don’t,” Nora hissed. “Don’t even think about finishing that sentence. Just get out of LA. Stay away from anyone connected to Mickey. Don’t contact me again. Not just for my sake, but for yours.”
She went past them and vanished down the hall.
Ruby cursed. “What now? Do we go after her?”
“We leave, like she said. We saw Nora, and we passed on Tag’s message. We held up our end of the deal. If she won’t help us, then hopefully he will.”
“That’s not good enough. She could be in serious danger.”
Chase held her by the arms. “We don’t even understand what’s really going on here.”
A large man walked past them, going the opposite direction. He had a shaved head and a determined hardness in his gaze. The man barely glanced at them as he passed.
Every cell in Ruby’s body turned cold.
Chase pulled her against him. “Ruby. That was him. The guy who followed us outside your apartment last week. You need to get out of here now.”
But she was still frozen with shock.
She had seen that man before, and not just last week.
When he’d been driving the blue Kia, he’d been wearing sunglasses. But now, she recognized him.
She knew his name.
She’d seen him in the ring with Tag Bailor. In the very last bout that Tag had ever fought. There was no way she’d ever forget that man’s face.
The memory of him standing over Tag’s bloody, unconscious form was seared into her mind.
“That’s Conrad Decker. He’s the fighter who nearly killed Tag.”