“Ah . . .”
“How ees eet a man goes from being top-ranked heavyweight contender to fighting illegal underground fight clubs?”
“Wow . . .” Garm’s eyes widened and he drew slowly back from her. “You know, you’d make a good boxer, Nat. You don’t pull punches.”
Natalya sat back sideways, eyeing him. Her physique and outfit gave her the appearance of a resting panther. “Ees not my way. So . . . why?”
He frowned and faced forward, his hands in his lap. “You went digging. You already know.”
“Because you killed those two men een the ring.”
Garm’s jaw muscles tightened. “I killed one fighter in the ring. Jenkins – didn’t die. He just ended up . . .”
Natalya’s eyebrows went up. “Retarded?”
He chuckled. “I was going to say a vegetable, but I’ll go with that.”
“Ees not, how you say, politically correct term?”
“Nat, there are people who are mentally handicapped, and there are people who are just plain retarded. Jenkins was one of them. He was an asshole. And he was brain-dead long before I tried removing his head from his shoulders.”
“Ah . . . so eet was not accident. You beat heem so badly on purpose.”
Garm turned to face her, his feral eyes gleaming. “Damn straight, I did.”
“Why?”
“Because that cockroach sent his ‘posse’ to terrorize my girlfriend, right before the fight. They caught her in the hallway outside the locker room, said they were going to gang rape her.”
Natalya’s lips curled back from her canines. “Assholes. Why they do that? They think to screw up your head before fight?”
Garm shrugged. “If so, they made a mistake. I saw her in the audience crying, right before the opening bell, and my trainer told me what happened.”
“What did you do?”
“I did something I shouldn’t have. I let the beast out of its cage.” He interlocked his fingers and extended his arms straight out in front of him, his thick knuckles cracking one by one. “Our game plan was forgotten. I went out there with the intention of beating Jenkins to a pulp, and that’s exactly what I did. In fact, if the ref and his trainers hadn’t jumped in and stopped me, I’d have killed him.”
Natalya scoffed. “He deserved it. What about other man? What hap--”
Garm stood up, shrugging his robe back up over his shoulders. “Look, I can see where this is going. So rather than playing ‘Twenty Questions,’ how about if I give you the Cliff’s Notes version of my boxing career, okay?”
“Da . . .”
He blew out some tension. “Three months after Jenkins’ boys lost their meal ticket, I watched my dad die from Cretaceous cancer. It was a nightmare. My mom was destroyed. Dirk and I were walking around in a fog, everything was just chaos. I tried backing out of my next fight, but my manager and the promoters wouldn’t let me. It was a setup for a title shot, so the fight ended up going ahead as scheduled. And I killed the guy.”
“Lopez. I read about dees. Een second round you break hees skull, da?”
“No. I shattered his jaw and the fragments punctured his skull and severed his brain stem.”
“Same theeng. Was that on purpose, too?”
Garm’s muscles tensed. “Per my lawyers, I don’t go into the particulars of that fight. It’s not a ‘topic for discussion.’”
“I already told you, I don’t blab. I--”
“I said I don’t talk about it,” he snapped.
Natalya stared at him. “Okay, fine. Go on.”
Garm got up and started pacing the room. He could feel himself getting worked up and rubbed the hardened knuckle portions of his fists together in an effort to let off steam. “After Jenkins and Lopez, nobody would fight me. I was branded a killer – too dangerous to be in the ring with.”
“No surprise. What about MMA? You could’ve switched to cage fighting,” Natalya offered.
“Not my style. I don’t want some guy crawling all over me; I’m a standup fighter,” Garm said. He moved laterally back and forth as he spoke, as if he was in the ring, stalking someone. “When I die, it’ll be on my feet. You get me?”
She licked her lips and nodded.
“Anyway, I couldn’t get a fight. And I really needed one . . .”
“Why? For money?”
“No, I . . . I don’t know. I needed to--”
“To improve your record? To get title shot?”
Garm scoffed. “It had nothing to do with money or titles. I needed to be in the arena. I needed an opponent, one dangerous enough to make it worthwhile.” He felt himself growing agitated, like a covered pot bubbling. “But nobody here would face me and even if someone was game, the ‘powers that be’ publicly stated they wouldn’t sanction my bouts. So I went overseas.”
“Ah . . . dees is when you started putting up purses.”
He nodded. “It was the easiest way to attract challengers. I put up a half-million bucks in cash, and offered anyone who could match it a straight-up bet. The money was put in escrow: winner takes all.”
“As it should be,” Natalya said.
“Yeah, well, it didn’t work out very well,” Garm replied. “Quality opponents were hard to find and after I beat down the first two guys, word got around. We had to start shrinking the purse to keep things going. Pretty soon it was just 50K and open season.”
“Open season?”
“Washed up or wannabe fighters, no drug or steroid testing, basically a big fiasco,” he said. “It got to the point where juice-heads from area gyms – guys with no boxing background whatsoever – were just showing up ringside with bowling ball bags filled with drug money, hoping to make a name for themselves. One night, I sent three of them to the ER.”
Natalya chuckled. “Sounds like boxing in the 19th century.”
“More like prison,” Garm remarked. He realized he was getting worked up and slowed his roll, standing in one place until he got his breathing back under control. “Anyway, after awhile it just wasn’t worth it. So I came back to the states and started hanging out. A few months later, I hooked up with these sleazy promoters and ended up hitting those underground fight clubs you read about. For the next year, I did nothing but bust heads and live on booze and broads, until Dirk and my mom finally tracked me down and dragged my sorry ass back home.”
“They saved you,” she stated. “Healed you and brought you back.”
Garm laughed aloud. “I don’t know about the ‘healing’ part. My mom sure as hell tore me a new one. But Dirk did get me treated me for a really nasty case of the clap!”
He froze as Natalya’s eyes became limpid pools of fire.
“That was, uh . . . ages ago.”
“Whatever. So you joined the CDF so you could fight again?”
“To fight the monsters that destroy people’s lives,” Garm clarified. “And the disease they spread that helped ruin mine.” He gestured at an imaginary horizon. “Out there, I’m in command. I can face my demons on their terms. There are no refs, no rules, and most importantly, no rounds. None of that bullshit. It’s winner takes all and combat is to the death – as it should be.”
“Except when you have to bring them back alive,” Natalya pointed out.
Garm snorted irritably. “Yeah . . . Grayson and his money-grubbing science experiments. It’s never enough for that guy.”
“You don’t like heem,” she observed.
“Dirk does. He thinks the sun rises and falls on his ‘mentor.’”
“I deed not mention Derek,” she said. “I said you don’t like heem.”
“Obviously. Why, do you?”
She shrugged. “He ees nothing to me. Just a means to an end.”
“As are most men, I think,” Garm said. He turned to her, his pale eyes latching onto hers.
Natalya stiffened. “What the hell does that mean?”
“You’ve been doing a lot of research on me,” Garm said. He leaned back on the kitchen count
er, his muscular arms crossed. “Pretty invasive stuff for a ‘fuck buddy.’ So, what’s your story?”
“My story?”
“You heard me,” Garm said. “I’m no stalker, to go prying into someone’s personnel records, but I want to know. Why did you enlist? Not to sound sexist, but you must’ve blown the roof off their aptitude tests to end up a sub commander.”
“I have an ‘innate grasp of three-dimensional combat skills,’” Natalya said. “And, according to them, I have . . . balls?”
He smirked. “You do. At least, metaphorically. But what made you decide to join and claw your way up the food chain? It couldn’t have been easy.”
She hesitated, her eyes considering the door like a trapped animal, searching for a way out. “I had . . . nothing better to do.”
“Oh, no. No running away, Nat,” Garm said, following her gaze. “I really want to know. What makes a woman forego raising a family and spend her days risking life and limb, slugging it out with prehistoric predators?”
A look of weariness suddenly draped itself over Natalya’s shoulders and she sat back. “I owe you apology, Wolfie,” she said with a sigh. “Eef you invaded my privacy, like I deed yours, you would already know the answer to your question.”
Garm felt like the Spider approaching Miss Muffet as he sat down beside her. “I’d rather you tell me.”
She looked him in the eye. “Okay. When I came to dees country to find surviving member of my family, I was only fifteen. I was not as you see me now,” she said, indicating herself. “I was tall, but not so athletic or . . .”
“Magnificent?” Garm offered.
She smiled warmly as she reached over to touch his face. “You are good man, Garm Braddock.”
“That’s what my urologist tells me when I strip down.” He smiled back at her. “So, you were saying?”
She sighed. “When I was twenty, I met nice American man: a plastic surgeon. He was not so beeg and strong, but he was smart and successful, and he worshipped me. So, I end up marrying heem.”
“So far so good.”
“Da. But story does not have happy ending.”
“Most don’t.”
“A few years later, we were vacationing een Keys. Duck Key, ees not far from here.”
Garm nodded. “Nice place. We went there a few times, back when Dirk and I were kids.”
“I like the bond between you two,” Natalya said.
“What do you mean?”
“Most people would say, ‘When I was a child.’ But you don’t. You mention Derek, too. I like dees.”
Garm grinned. “Funny, I never noticed that. So, go on.”
Natalya took a deep breath, let it out slow. “We had a rental boat weeth some friends, a beeg sailboat we would snorkel on.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“Eet was. Then one day we were een the water and a--”
“Kronosaurus took your husband . . .”
“Eet was much worse than that.” She breathed through her nostrils. “I lost much that day.”
Garm cocked his head to one side. “I don’t understand.”
“I lost my faith een men and . . .”
As she quieted and her eyes fell to the floor, Garm was shocked. In the six months since they met, he’d never known Natalya Dragunova as anything other than an oversexed, untamable tigress that brooked no nonsense from anyone. Seeing her small and vulnerable was jarring and he hesitated, not sure how to proceed.
He cleared his throat. “Hey . . . if it’s tough to talk about, it’s okay. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
Natalya looked sideways at him, gauging his sincerity. Garm swallowed, despite himself. In the ring, he’d stared-down some of the scariest human beings on the planet and never batted an eye. But with her, he felt totally out of depth.
“Ees okay, Wolfie,” she said. “Eet was a long time ago.”
“Would you like some more water?”
“Nyet, spasiba.” She hugged herself as she spoke. “Paul and I were een the water when the creature came. We saw eet surface fifty meters away and knew right away what eet was. Eet was small one, maybe seven meters, but very fast. The boat was close, so we swam like crazy peoples. I got there first and started to climb the ladder. That’s when I found out I married a . . .”
“A what?”
“A coward.”
Garm was confused. “Wait, what happened?”
“Paul was so terrified, he grab me by the heeps and pull me off the ladder so he could climb out instead.”
“What? Are you fucking serious?”
“Da.”
Garm shook his head in disbelief. “You’re telling me the chickenshit yanked you off the ladder? He tried to sacrifice you, his wife, to one of those monsters to save his own skin?”
She nodded.
“W-wait, I-I’m having a hard time with this,” Garm stammered. “Did he at least try to help you out of the water?”
“He never got the chance,” Natalya said. “Hees plan, how you say . . . backfired?”
“How so?”
“When he yanked me off and threw me back, the pliosaur was right behind us. I fell over eets jaws and landed on eets neck as eet struck.”
Garm’s mouth slackened with the realization. “So it ended up grabbing--”
“Paul,” she affirmed. “I saw the jaws close and heard heem scream like little girl as he was torn from the ladder. Blood everywhere.”
“So, trying to sacrifice you cost him his ass,” Garm remarked. “Good. That’s justice, the goddamn coward.” He noticed she’d grown quiet again. “What happened then?”
“While eet was eating Paul alive, I struggled to climb back up. I was screaming for help. Our friends were below deck and came running up to pull me out of the water. I was bleeding badly.”
“You were bitten?” Garm was confused. He knew her body well and she had no bite marks he’d ever seen. In fact, other than that tiny scar on her throat and the callosities on her knuckles, she had no marks of any kind.
Natalya shook her head. “No, I was having . . . miscarriage.”
“Oh, God.”
“God not help me,” she stated. “I was five months pregnant when dees happen. The impact on the creature’s head, plus stress . . . eet was too much.”
“I’m so sorry, Nat. There was nothing anyone could do?”
“No. I lay on the deck, losing my baby, while my pussy of a husband meets the fate he deserve.”
“Wow.” Garm shook his head. “It’s ironic. If it wasn’t for his cowardice, it might have gotten you instead. In a way, he kinda saved your life.”
“I lost my baby,” she emphasized. “I rather be dead, too.”
He hesitated. “I understand. If it’s any consolation, I’m glad you’re not.”
Natalya studied his face, her gray eyes doing the X-ray thing before she hoisted herself up off the sofa. She walked around the room, rolling her shoulders out one by one, the taut muscles of her upper back and arms rippling. “So, Wolfie. Now you know why I am how I am. And why I choose man like you as my playmate.”
Garm stood up, a confused look on his face. “A man like me?”
She planted her feet shoulder width apart, her arms folded as she looked him up and down approvingly. “Da, you are not like Paul,” she said, scoffing at the recollection of her dead husband. “You are, how you say, ‘real man’?”
Garm chuckled. “Why, because I’m an athlete?”
“You are, and then some. You like beeg grizzly bear. Nothing scares you.”
“And that’s what you like?”
“What every female likes,” she said. “Not just humans. Ees nature’s way, attraction to strongest of species, da?”
“I suppose so.” He grinned teasingly. “So that’s what you’re into, the natural order of things?”
Natalya’s eyes softened then hardened. “Oh, believe me; I will never be with weakling again. But ees more than that. I like that you are strong on in
side, too. You take care of people you care about. Like your brother, da?”
“Dirk?” Garm shrugged. “I guess so. I mean, I’ve always kinda looked after him, ever since we were kids.”
Natalya nodded. “He ees nice man, your brother. But een thees place, with these people, he ees small feesh in beeg feesh pond. He ees lucky to have you.”
Nice man. Garm mulled over her words before giving her a curious look. “Some think so. So tell me, Nat. Do you like my brother?”
“Do I . . . like heem? As a person?”
“As a man,” he pressed, irritated that she was stalling. “Come on, I’ve seen the way Dirk looks at you. It’s like he’s a mountaineer and you’re Everest. You know he’s dying to climb you.”
Natalya moved close to him, her lips bunching as she tried to read him. It was a wasted effort. Garm was wearing his lizard face, the one he used in-between rounds to conceal injuries or fatigue. She wasn’t getting anything from him.
After a moment, she turned away, laughing. “I can’t tell eef you’re jealous or not, Wolfie,” she said with a chuckle. “But, I’ll be honest weeth you.”
“That’s considerate.”
“I do like your brother,” she said. “He ees funny man, da?”
“He has a wry sense of humor,” Garm acknowledged. He felt a sudden pang of jealousy and wondered whether it was just his maleness coming under fire, or if he’d actually grown attached to this tawny-haired lioness as a side effect of their biweekly sexathons.
“Deed you know he asked me out on date, my first day here?”
Garm’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious? You never told me that.”
Natalya grinned and nodded. “Da, ees true. And I have to say, I was very eempressed.”
“How so?”
“Because I was a mean, nasty beetch,” she said with a snicker. “And I gave heem hard time.”
“So, what happened?” Garm asked, annoyed that he cared to know. “Did you blow him off?”
“What?” Natalya’s cool eyes turned to fire. “Did I . . . blow him? Nyet! What ees wrong weeth you? I--”
“Whoa!” Garm exclaimed, trying not to laugh and failing miserably. “Blow him off, not blow him. That means to give him the brush off, to tell him to get lost, to--”
Kronos Rising: Kraken (vol.1): The battle for Earth's oceans has just begun. Page 34
