Chapter 5

Emery

The next night, the cage room felt even more dangerous.

Tess glanced up from stocking liquor bottles behind the bar when I came in wearing the fitted black Cagers shirt she’d tossed at me earlier.

“Well,” she muttered, dragging her eyes over me once. “That’s gonna be a problem.”

I frowned slightly as I set my bag beneath the counter. “What is?”

She tipped head toward my shirt. “You looking like that back here.”

Heat crawled up my neck immediately. “I look normal.”

Tess barked out a laugh while shoving shot glasses into place. “Honey, nothing about you looks normal in a room full of violent men and alcohol.”

Before I could answer, a roar exploded from the crowd as two fighters slammed against the cage hard enough the chain-link rattled.

I flinched automatically, and Tess noticed. She slid a bottle opener across the counter toward me. “First real fight night?”

I nodded. “Pretty obvious?”

“Little bit.” She smirked before nodding toward the cage. “You get used to it.”

I looked over again despite myself. The fighters moved differently than Cain had: messier and definitely sloppier.

One guy bled heavily from his nose while the other looked half-drunk already, swinging too wide every time he got close. The crowd loved it anyway.

Money waved through the air while men shouted bets over one another and women climbed onto chairs screaming every time blood hit the canvas. The whole room pulsed with adrenaline, violence, and chaos. Somewhere beneath all of it…my stomach tightened waiting to see Cain again.

I hated myself a little for that.

“You gonna stand there daydreaming all night or work?” Tess slid a tray toward me.

I grabbed it quickly. “I’m working.”

“Mhm.” She pointed toward a crowded table near the cage. “Booth six wants beers.”

The second I stepped out from behind the bar, attention hit: not all at once. One glance here, another there, and my shoulders tightened automatically as I moved through the crowd.

Music pounded through overhead speakers while sweat, whiskey, and cigarette smoke curled thick through the air. Bills littered tables beside half-empty bottles while fighters wrapped bruised hands near the back wall preparing for upcoming matches.

A man near the cage whistled low as I passed, and another openly checked me out. I ignored both and kept walking.

By the time I dropped the beers at booth six, my nerves buzzed beneath my skin, and I suddenly understood why Cain kept trying to send me back to the front bar.

“Appreciate it, sweetheart.” One of the bikers at the table grinned up at me while sliding cash onto the tray.

“No problem.” I reached for the empty bottles.

“You new?” he asked.

I nodded once.

The biker leaned back further in the booth, eyes drifting slowly over me in a way that instantly made my skin tighten. “Cain hire you?”

My pulse stumbled slightly hearing his name. “Yeah.”

That answer earned a few glances between the men at the table.

Not subtle ones either, as if they knew something I didn’t.

“You might wanna stay close to the bar tonight,” another guy muttered before taking a drink.

“Why?” I asked carefully.

The first biker smirked faintly. “Because half the idiots in this room already noticed you.”

Heat crawled up my neck immediately, but before I could say anything, movement near the cage pulled the crowd louder.

A chant started somewhere near the betting tables. “Cain! Cain! Cain!” My stomach dropped instantly.

Tess appeared beside me carrying another tray. “Well. Here we go.”

I looked at her confused. “What?”

She shook her head like I should already know the answer. “Main fight.”

The cage-room doors opened near the back hallway and everything in the room shifted the second Cain walked in.

Men moved aside without being asked while conversations lowered slightly around him. The crowd’s energy changed instantly as he headed toward the cage wearing black athletic tape around both hands, dark Henley tight across broad shoulders beneath his cut, calm confidence rolling off him hard enough I felt it from across the room.

Cain’s gaze swept the room once, then found me, and every single thought in my head scattered.

The look in his eyes changed instantly seeing me behind the cage-room bar. He kept walking toward the cage, but he didn’t look away.

The biker beside me noticed immediately and muttered, “Well, shit.”

I swallowed quickly. “What?”

The guy looked between me and Cain once before shaking his head. “Nothing.”

Cain climbed into the cage while the crowd exploded around him.

The other fighter entered a second later. He was bigger than the last guy; heavy muscle. Mean-looking enough the room got louder just seeing him.

“Who’s that?” I asked quietly.

Tess slid beside me again. “Rico Valenz.”

I peered at the fighter. “Is he good?”

She snorted softly. “Good enough to lose slow.”

The bell rang before I could answer.

Rico charged first, but Cain slipped sideways smoothly, one fist driving hard into Rico’s ribs before the bigger man could recover balance.

The crack echoed through the cage room and the crowd went wild.

Everything about Cain looked controlled, focused. Violence sitting naturally on him.

Rico swung hard enough sweat sprayed beneath the lights.

Cain ducked it cleanly before landing another brutal hit into the guy’s side and the sound made me flinch.

The crowd surged closer to the cage screaming bets and insults while money traded hands around me faster than I could follow.

“Jesus Christ,” Tess muttered beside me.

“What?” My voice came out softer than intended.

Tess just shook her head.  “We got a serious problem.” 

Before I could ask what she meant, Rico finally landed a hard shot across Cain’s jaw, and the room exploded.

Cain shook it off, then turning his head slowly, blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth, he smiled…not nicely, and not humanly.

The look on Rico’s face changed immediately. Fear, real fear crossed it, and suddenly I understood something terrifying…Cain didn’t just know how to hurt people…he enjoyed it.