by Jen Crane
“Catch you later then,” he said, and trotted toward the Pit.
“So,” Nori asked Kade when she found him in the weight area. “Whatcha got going on today? Need me to spot that bench again?”
Kade smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. His shoulders were slumped and he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. A fight for control was obvious in the tight set of his mouth.
“He was your friend, too, wasn’t he?” Nori took a step closer, but didn’t touch the big man.
“Yes,” he croaked then cleared his throat. “More than just my handler.”
“I’m so sorry.” There was nothing else she could say, really. Nothing could curb the pain of such a fresh, raw loss. When she was down, nothing made her feel better except— “You know what,” she said. “How about some cardio today? Let’s go for a run.”
Kade looked up at her, his eyes narrowing. “Oh, I don’t think Hank would like that. He wouldn’t want you leaving. Not yet.”
“Well, I don’t see Hank around anywhere. Do you?”
A sly grin eased across Kade’s pained face, and he shook his head.
“You know,” Kade said as he ran, “I’ll have to chase you if you take off, right?”
Nori nodded, but didn’t face him. “What makes you stay?” she asked. “You obviously don’t need Hank’s protection. Don’t you want to get out of here?”
“And go where?”
She shrugged because she honestly didn’t know. “Doesn’t it bother you to know someone else considers themselves your owner?”
“I’ve worked off my debt. Hank doesn’t own me anymore.”
“What? Really?”
Kade nodded.
“Then why do you stay?”
“Hank’s honest. I make a good living fighting. Besides,” his voice cracked, “Grant was here.”
Nori nodded, but didn’t say anything else. The two ran together in companionable silence, the sounds of their competing breaths and footfalls their only communication.
Outside the Pit, Nori took in the details of Trogtown she’d been too overwhelmed to notice when she arrived. The man-made columns tucked beside the stalactites, she thought, were some sort of pipelines.
“What are those?” she asked Kade.
“Exhausts, for the air and geothermal systems.”
“No kidding. Geothermal, like, from Earth’s core?”
“It’s a very efficient system,” he said, nodding. “They use geothermal energy to create electricity.” He pointed toward the extensive overhead lighting. “And the leftover superheated steam for heating. It would be freezing down here without it.” Nori recalled her time in the tunnel, where the temperature had steadily dropped as she descended. “The rest of the water we filter and use for greenhouses and such.”
“I had no idea,” Nori said, fascinated by the high-tech way these people lived. “Have you always lived underground?”
“Of course.” He shot her an incredulous look. “Hasn’t everyone?”
Nori nodded and shrugged noncommittally, hating herself a little for the untruth. “Such a shame about the surface.”
“Mmm. I would’ve liked to see the wild west. Uninhabitable now, of course.”
“The surface of Earth,” Nori said in a tone that could’ve been both a question and a confirmation of Kade’s statements.
“Yep.”
Nori shook her head and bit her tongue. She didn’t know enough about this new world yet. She wouldn’t rock the boat until she could navigate her own course.
She had a million questions, and Kade seemed like a pretty smart guy. But as they ran past a ramshackle hardware store filled with men, the question that weighed most heavily on her mind was, “Where are all the women?”
“Hmm?”
“I’m new here, you know, and where I come from there are more women.”
“Really? I don’t know. Everywhere I’ve lived was about like this. Mostly men. Some women.”
“Are there any in Trogtown?”
Kade laughed. “Women? Sure, a few. Not many. Not young, and not often pretty.” He gave her a meaningful glance.
She blushed a bit at the compliment. “Oh. Ah, I haven’t seen any.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Look, there’s one. That’s Peg.”
Nori followed Kade’s gaze toward someone throwing a bag of trash into a dumpster. The person wore dark pants, a shapeless, dirty gray sweatshirt, and military-style boots. When she turned from the dumpster toward them, Nori noticed a bulge across her chest, where breasts would be. Okay, so she’d seen her first Trogtown woman. Made sense. Life was hard in the subterranean world. She supposed neither effort nor expenses could be spared for the trappings of femininity. To survive here, women had to be tough, and there was no way around the filth. Clothes had to be practical, and Nori had already learned the hard way that hair was a nightmare in the damp underground.
Peg saw them running and lifted her head in acknowledgment. They nodded back.
“Have many girls lived at the Pit?” she asked.
“What, our pit?”
Nori nodded.
“No. It’s no place for women.”
At her sardonic look, he said, “Well, besides you. Obviously.”
“Obviously. So, Hank’s never had a girl there before me?”
Kade shook his head.
“Why do you think that is?” she asked.
“Cause it’s no place for a woman.”
As she and Kade jogged breathlessly back into the Pit, Nori caught sight of Hank. Whether his deflating chest was from releasing a furious breath or one of relief she couldn’t be sure. Maybe both.
“Don’t forget your chores,” Hank growled as she passed.
“Oh, like that’s even possible,” she grumbled and headed for the waiting mountain of laundry.
Nori entered the locker room with a stack of clean towels. “Hello,” she called once, twice, three times. No one answered. She called directly into the showers, just to be extra sure. Lesson learned. After depositing the towels on the wooden shelf, Nori turned toward the door. Diesel stood in the doorway.
“Oh! I didn’t hear you come in.” Nori moved to leave, but he blocked the exit.
“You need any help?” he asked.
“Nope. Just finished up.”
“Good. We have a little time to talk. Get to know each other.” Diesel’s gaze was intent on hers, as if he were attempting mind control. “I’ve never seen eyes as blue as yours,” he said. “So pretty.”
Nori’s stomach seized. If this was Diesel’s attempt at seduction, she wasn’t interested.
“Thanks,” she said and tried to slip behind him and through the door.
He grabbed her arm, and she sucked in a frightened breath. Her heart slammed against her chest as Diesel stalked toward her, and she backed up to the wall, raising her arm to loosen it from his grip.
“I’ve really got to go,” she said, trying to seem calm when inside she was anything but. “Kade will come looking if I’m late.”
At the mention of Kade, Diesel’s good eye regained its focus. He looked at her for far too long before backing away to let her pass.
“See you at dinner,” he called after her, but she was already halfway down the hall.
Nori found Kade back on the weight room floor. He was deadlifting this time, chest out and knees bent as he hefted the weighted bar up to his middle.
“Hey,” she said, her voice shaky.
“What’s wrong?” Kade replaced the weight bar and scanned the room before turning his attention back to her.
“Nothing.” She aimed for nonchalance, but failed.
Kade stepped closer. “Something happened. You’re shaking.”
Nori finally looked up at him. “You think…you think you could teach me to fight?” At his questioning look, she quickly added, “Not fight fight. Just some self-defense moves.”
Without another word, Kade looked slowly around the Pit, stretching his massive muscles
as he met the eyes of the other fighters. “Somebody messing with you?”
“No. No. It’s just... Well, I don’t know the first thing about it if I ever needed to defend myself.”
“Yeah,” he said, his scowl proving he didn’t entirely believe her. “I could show you a few things.”
“Good.” Nori closed her eyes and focused on a future in which she wasn’t always a victim. Toughen up, and fast, Cooper and Barker had both said. She was trying.
17
Self Defense & Sparring
“Okay, so.” Kade faced Nori on the weight room floor. “The first thing you need to remember is to inflict as much damage as you can, as fast as you can. You may only have a few seconds, so make ’em count.”
“How?” Nori spread her legs, prepared for her first lesson in self-defense.
“Your best bet is the knee. It’s vulnerable from any angle, whether your attacker is in front of you or behind. And you can kick it without risking him grabbing your foot.”
“Okay.” She nodded, committing the information to memory. “What else?”
“If he’s close in front of you, you could poke his eyes with your fingers or knuckles, you could scratch his face with your nails, or you could hit him in the nose with this part of your hand. Like this.” Kade closed in on her, pushing the heel of his hand upward toward her nose. “Those are just some basic moves. The important thing for someone your size is to throw your weight behind whatever you do.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’re not very strong.” At Nori’s injured look, he amended, “I mean, you don’t have a lot of muscle mass. Or height.”
“Okay, I get it. I’m a tiny weakling.”
Kade gave her a side-eye, but went on. “Look, when you hit someone, when you kick them, use the force of your body to get the most effect. If you just stood and punched a guy, he’d probably laugh at you. But if you step into it, and throw the entire force of your body into a forearm to the throat or whatever, you’ll incapacitate him long enough to run away.”
“Can we practice?” she asked.
“We’ll work on it a little bit every day, until you’re confident. And you know what else?”
“What?”
“I really think you should start weight training with me.”
“Seriously? You know I can barely lift the bar.”
“Okay, so we start light. Everybody starts somewhere.”
He was serious. “All right,” she said. “I’ve got to get tougher fast. Stronger wouldn’t hurt, either.”
“Good girl,” he said, and for once she felt good. “Hey, Nori?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for today.”
He was thanking her for the distraction, but he’d distracted her, too. She shrugged and looked away, but couldn’t help the smile that tugged at her mouth.
“You wanna eat?” Nori asked.
Kade’s mood had taken a turn for the worse once they finished their workout. Exercise produced endorphins, after all, which made you feel good for a while. And like any chemical alteration, what goes up must come down. Kade was coming down hard. He was headed for the locker room, probably so he could let his guard down.
He shook his head. “You go ahead.”
It was late again, but Nori had a sneaking suspicion Diesel would wait for her. “Nah. I’m tired. Think I’ll just grab something and take it to my room.”
Kade’s head hung between his shoulders as he shuffled away, and Nori felt helpless. She hated seeing him so miserable, but sometimes there was nothing to ease loss except the passage of time.
As Nori made her way past Hank’s office toward the Pit the next morning, he hollered from his desk, “Hey. Girl. See if you can round up Kade, will ya?” He mumbled something else about lazy kids and generational decay, but she didn’t catch all of it.
Two fighters she’d seen but not yet met passed her in the narrow hall. “Hey,” she asked them. “You guys seen Kade this morning?”
They shook their heads, but didn’t stop.
He wasn’t in the locker room or the showers. Wasn’t in the Pit.
Nori checked his room, knocking gently at first then harder when there was no answer.
“Go away,” Kade said from inside.
Her voice softened. “Are you okay?” She hadn’t known him long, but it didn’t seem like him to hide out in his room.
A pause, then, “No.”
“Are you ill?”
“No.”
“Are you—are you training today?”
“No,” he said more forcefully. “Go away.”
“Kade. You can’t hole up in there all day.”
“I sure as hell can. I’m taking the day off.”
“But, Hank says we’ve got a fight this Saturday and you need to be ready.”
“I’ll be ready,” he said through the door. “I’m always ready.”
“But…” Nori’s argument sputtered and lost its steam. “Okay,” she finally said.
The rest of the day passed without incident. There were people milling about the Pit, readying for the upcoming fights. She thought to practice with weights while Kade wasn’t there to stand over her. Completely inexperienced with all of it, she inspected and lifted the free weights, working her way to the various machines and discovering how to adjust them to fit her. It gave her confidence, and she was actually looking forward to training.
Later, Nori found herself outside the fighting ring watching two men spar. She’d never seen such a disgusting display of violence in her life. She couldn’t take her eyes off it.
The two men she’d met in the hall earlier circled each other, shuffling their feet to stay balanced and agile. When the redhead—Bron, she thought his name was—swung, the other guy, Peyton, pivoted just in time to dodge the blow. They traded a few more misses, and a few punches, before someone called the match, and they headed toward the water station together.
“Think you’ll ever get in there?” The voice was too close behind her, and she jumped.
“Please stop sneaking up on me like that.”
Diesel waved away her concerns. She was really beginning to dislike him. “Would you?”
“Would I what?” she repeated irritably.
“Get in the ring? Spar.”
She secretly did want to, but no way was she sharing that with Diesel. Instead, she shook her head and peered around the room for an excuse to escape him.
“I missed you at dinner.” Diesel’s penetrating gaze locked on her face, sending icy tendrils down her back.
Nori shivered, then cleared her throat while she thought of something to say. “Ah. I’d, ah, better get back to the laundry before Hank catches me.” She’d already turned to bolt before finishing the sentence.
“Next time, I’ll make you dinner,” he called after her, but she pretended not to hear.
It was close to meal time, so Nori took food to Kade, knocking on the door to let him know it was there.
“Leave it outside,” he said from behind the door.
She left it right beside the lunch she’d brought earlier. The one that sat untouched.
“Goodnight.” She put her hand on the door, sending little mental waves of support toward him. “Hope it’s better in the morning.”
“Inhale, release,” Kade told her as she hefted the weight. “Exhale, flex. Right. That’s it.”
When Nori thought about it, the ironic change in their roles was hilarious. She’d been brought on partly to help Kade with his weight training, yet here he was, teaching her the intricacies of lifting dumbbells. They’d searched the store room for weights light enough for her, and as if that wasn’t humiliating enough, her muscles tired pitifully fast and she couldn’t get through a single set.
Kade had shown up for training as if the day before never happened. He made no mention of spending the day locked in his room like a 300-pound Rapunzel, and neither did she.
“Hank says you’re sparring Diesel today.�
�� When Kade didn’t respond, she said, “Careful not to give him a shiner like the last guy. Still needs one operational eye.”
“Who do you think gave him the last one?” Kade asked.
“No.” Nori’s mouth twitched with the effort of not smiling.
“Oh, yeah. He runs his smart mouth the whole time he fights. I admit I lost my cool.”
“So you popped him in the eye?”
“He was too busy talking smack to defend himself.”
She couldn’t help the grin that took over her face. “Wish I’d seen that.”
“He talks trash today, I’ll give you a replay.”
Nori snorted a laugh, and Kade followed suit. Their laughter drew looks from the few fighters still using the weights, which made it that much harder to stop.
“Come on, Kade, shut his smart mouth!” Nori pounded the floor of the ring with the palm of her hand.
Diesel was putting up a better fight than she’d thought he would. He wasn’t as tall as Kade, which meant his reach was shorter, too. They wouldn’t fight in the same weight classes on Saturday, but sparring was a different story. They were both good fighters. What Diesel lacked in stature, he made up for in speed and agility. He didn’t land many hits on Kade, but he dodged two or three punches that would’ve sent him to the floor.
Nori couldn’t hear everything Diesel said as he danced around her friend, but his snide mouth was moving. Kade said it was par for the course that some fighters goaded their opponents to throw them off their game. Diesel seemed particularly skilled in the tactic.
Backing into the ropes not far from the corner she occupied, Diesel spouted insults even as he took a punch to the gut. Kade’s face, though, showed no reaction, as if he heard nothing Diesel said. Nori suspected he was playing with the smaller man, that he could end the fight any time he wanted to. He was probably getting at least some pleasure from popping Diesel in the mouth every time he got a chance. Or, maybe he was just holding out until he could dot Diesel’s other eye.
After that last gut punch, though, Diesel’s features changed. His eyes shone with a determined glint, and the malicious sneer Nori had seen before resurfaced. The fighters came close to her corner again, and she could catch bits and pieces of Diesel’s vicious monologue.
