Reese

ChapterSeventeen

“We’ve got the invite for the next round of fights.” Vega tosses the card on the coffee table and sits beside me, pulling me into his lap. He buries his face against my neck, making me shiver when he kisses me softly.

“Where is it?”

“You remember that huge warehouse out by the old racetrack?”

“Yeah, I think so. Wait, didn’t that burn down or something?” Graves asks from the other end of the sofa while sipping his Coke.

“It used to hold illegal raves full of underage kids. I can’t remember how many times I got called there when I was still working the streets. It has a huge basement, which is unusual for a warehouse, but it meant they could cram more bodies in. When a fire broke out there about four years ago, a bunch of kids were trapped in the basement and didn’t make it out alive. The building itself was only partially damaged. A developer bought it with the intention of turning it into apartments, if I remember correctly, but they had some financial difficulties, and investors had no interest in funding a building with such a tragic history. It’s just been sitting there since then,” Law tells us before tossing a handful of nuts into his mouth.

“And now it’s going to be the venue for a fight?” Blink frowns. “Either Titus bought it, or he knows the developer. It’s not much, but perhaps somewhere to dig.”

“I’ll look into it,” Law agrees as the doorbell sounds.

“Pizza’s here. I’ll grab it then you can tell us everything we need to know about this first fight.” Law stands and heads to the door. I wait for him to disappear before I address the others quietly.

“I want to keep him from the dark shit as much as we can. I’m not saying lie to him, I’m just asking that we ease him into it. It’s gotta be hard to have been a cop for so long to find yourself straddling the line between right and wrong as much as we’re going to.”

“What if it’s a death match? He can’t escape it if he’s hoping to get through the elimination period with the rest of us,” Blink points out.

The aim has been to go in as a five-member team, but we’ll only be fighting as a four so Law can snoop around. But to get that far, he has to compete in the elimination stages.

“It’s not. Our fight is a straight-up street fight. And word on the street is they will all be like that, to begin with, because Titus doesn’t want to take anything away from the grand finale. Each match winner will be decided by knockout or tap out,” Vega reassures us as Law walks back in with four pizzas balanced in his arms. He slides them onto the coffee table before opening the top box and passing it to me.

It seems we’re having more cheat days than not lately.

“Pizza isn’t going to send you crazy like donuts, right?” he asks with a grin.

I turn my head slowly and look at Graves and Blink as I feel Vega chuckle beneath me.

“You told him?

“Trust me, he needed to know. Can you imagine what would happen if he unsuspectingly bought you a donut one day, completely unaware of the repercussions?” Graves teases.

I open the pizza box, take out a slice of my veggie deluxe, and toss it at his head.

Of course, the man has ninja reflexes and catches it midair before taking a huge bite of it, grinning at me like a fool.

“You all better sleep with one eye open. That’s all I’ve gotta say.”

“As curious as I am about our girl’s co-dependency on donuts, I need to know more about this fight.” Law sits back with a slice of pizza in his hand, waiting for one of us to start.

“We’re being drip-fed information on a need-to-know basis, so I don’t have all the answers for you. What I do know is this venue, like the last one, will only host this match. The rest will take place somewhere else.”

“Smart. Makes it harder for the police to keep tabs.” Law nods for Vega to continue.

“Exactly. Now, this match is about more than just competing. This will be a place where people can meet up with potential teams.”

“Wait, so not everyone has a team yet? How are they going to fight?”

Vega opens his mouth to speak, but I deflect him by waving him off.

“That’s the point of these qualifying fights. You can see who fits you, pick people’s strong points, and counteract their weaknesses by finding someone who complements them. Not only that, as Vega said before, each team has to have at least one female fighter. Sounds easy in theory, but this is still a largely male-dominated sport. Women competitors will be harder to find. You’ll have all-male teams looking for a woman to join them.”

Law sighs before reaching for another slice. “Okay, what else?”

“These are not sanctioned fights. They don’t follow the same rules as, say, professional boxing does. They all want to win, and they’ll fight dirty to do it. There will be very few rules in place, and the further in the competition we get, the fewer the rules altogether,” I warn him.