Cage Debt

Cain stepped toward the cage door, toward me, and every instinct I had screamed to leave before he reached me. To turn around, to walk back through the hallway, and pretend I’d never opened the door in the first place, because whatever this place was, I didn’t belong in it. No where even close to it.The violence felt too real. The fight didn’t possess the polished, professionally controlled look that television fights had.Maybe I was being a little too guliable, but this place was raw noise, sweat and blood under brutal white lights while grown men screamed loud enough to shake the walls. Money traded hands openly around me as people shoved for better views of the cage, arguing over bets while someone near the front laughed at the man still unconscious on the mat.The music pounded hard enough that I felt it beneath my ribs, bass vibrating through concrete while heat pressed heavily against my skin from too many bodies packed into one room. Cigarette smoke curled through the air, th

CainI watched her leave. That was the first problem. The second was that I didn’t look away when I should have.Emery crossed the cage room with her shoulders pulled back like she hadn’t just stood in a room full of blood, bets, and men who would eat softness for entertainment.Reaper stepped up beside me with a beer in hand, his gaze following mine toward the hallway. “That the new girl?”I took a slow drink from the bottle someone had shoved at me before answering. “Yeah.”He hummed low in his throat, scratching at his beard. “I’d fuck the hell outta that bitch.”My hand tightened around the bottle.Reaper noticed, and his eyes slid toward me, the lust written on his face fading as he caught something in my expression I hadn’t meant to show.“Cain?” he questioned carefully.I looked at him flatly, and he lifted both hands slightly. “Didn’t say nothing.”“Didn’t think so.” I tossed the towel over my shoulder and turned back toward the cage.His mouth twitched, but he was smart enoug

Cain smiling after taking a hard hook to the jaw should have been my cue. A sign to reassess every choice that brought me behind this bar. Instead, I stood there, a sweating beer bottle in one hand, and a damp towel in the other as my brain completely short-circuited.Rico Valenz staggered back into the chain-link, a thick smear of blood painting his mouth. At the sight of the blood, the crowd surged forward against the barriers. They began screaming like Cain had just handed them a prize as hundreds of crumpled bills waved through the air.Tess, leaning closer so I could hear her over the ruckus, asked, “You okay over there, or did your soul just leave your body?”I forced my fingers to move, and set the beer bottle down in the ice before I dropped it. “I’m fine,” I told her, twisting the wet towel between my palms.Tess gave me a slow look, her eyebrows climbing toward her hairline. “Honey, you just stared at that man like he invented bad decisions.”“He’s fighting,” I said, and nod

Cain stepped in with terrifying patience. He let Rico swing once. Twice. Each miss fueled the bigger man’s frustration. Then Cain dug a left hook into Rico’s ribs. Rico folded. Two more shots followed. They were compact; clinical and Brutal and drove Rico back until his back was against the chain-link.The room lost its mind.I should have looked away. Instead, my fingers white-knuckled the edge of the bar as I watched a man I had no business wanting dismantle an opponent. Absolute precision.A glass shattered to my right and I jumped, then turned just as a drunk customer leaned over the counter. He was reaching for a bottle of bourbon in the speed rail.“Hey,” I snapped, slamming my hand over the neck of the bottle and yanked it back.The guy blinked, clearly not expecting pushback.A slow, greasy sneer spread across his face as he crowded into my space. “Relax, sweetheart.”Tess moved instantly, but I held up a hand in her direction to stop her.“I’m incredibly relaxed,” I told him,

Still wearing a slight smile from Knox’s words, I broke the plastic seal with a quick twist. “Congratulations.”Knox leaned back in his stool while I poured the whiskey, his eyes tracking the liquid as it hit the glass. “You settling in okay?”“I think so,” I told him, setting the bottle down on the rubber matting.He took a slow sip, rolling the liquor over his tongue before setting his glass back down. “That means no.”“It means I’m still adjusting to the whole...” I gestured vaguely toward the center of the room. Two men were currently trying to concuss each other for sport. “...violent circus atmosphere.”“Fair,” he conceded with a quiet chuckle, tapping his fingers against the glass before taking another short drink. Afterward, he gestured with his chin toward the center ring. “Cain usually scares people off faster.”I grabbed a clean glass and a fresh rag from the well, mostly to keep my hands busy. “Does everybody in this place talk about him constantly?”Knox shrugged, a wry s