Sunscorched

by Jen Crane

  “Challenging for the title of heavyweight champ: the fighting pride of Trogtown, a giant of a man, the quickest, the deadliest ever made, Kaaaaade.”

  Kade was obviously the hometown boy. Shouts and stomps shook chunks of earth from the rafters, and from the top of the Pit, Nori screamed support for her friend. She was the loudest of them all.

  When she finally lowered her fists, emotions high and throat sore, she found Hank looking pointedly between her and two chairs near Kade’s corner.

  “Me?” she mouthed.

  Hank nodded.

  Nori made her way down the steps to the bottom of the Pit and approached Kade’s corner as if she knew what she was doing. As if she wasn’t a girl who, last week, was desperate for even one friend. Nori strutted to the chair and, head high and back straight, started to take a seat.

  Kade, inside the ring, waved her over. She cleared her throat and rushed to him.

  The man she knew to be a gentle giant looked dangerous as hell. Greased to a high sheen, his massive muscles bulged and glinted in the overhead lights. Her friend wasn’t wearing the face she knew. Kade’s kind and handsome face was replaced with one of focused, evil menace.

  “‘Deadliest ever made,’ huh?” She snickered, despite the three-hundred-pound pit fighter before her.

  Kade’s face maintained its intimating glower. “Hank’s idea.”

  “Need anything?”

  “Not to get killed.”

  “Oh, you got this,” she said, clenching her jaw with the force of her confidence. “Renegade,” she scoffed in an attempt to calm her friend, whose eyes had gone wild again. “Where’d he get those shorts, anyway? Ladies’ lingerie? I’ve seen thongs with more fabric.”

  Kade’s eyes were the only thing on his face that changed, the bulging whites of them lessening as he calmed down.

  “Remember your training,” Hank squawked behind her. “Jabs and leg kicks. Wear him down first.”

  Kade nodded and thumped his gloves together.

  As Hank pulled her away, the bell to signal the first round expected any second, Nori put every ounce of encouragement she had into her face. “Let’s do this,” she said.

  It was no wonder Renegade was the heavyweight champ. He was a monster. A quick, powerful, relentless monster. But Kade was smarter, and more patient.

  The first three rounds were brutal. Kade came away with a nasty eye cut and a swollen knee. Renegade didn’t have any visible signs of injury, though Kade had landed several kicks and punches.

  At the bell signaling the end of the fourth round, Kade’s breathing was coming hard and fast, the rise and fall of his chest more like seizures than breaths.

  Hank was in his face before the fighter could slump onto the stool in the corner. “Good. You’re doing fine, son. That last kick stung him. See how he’s limping?”

  Nori’s gaze followed Kade’s, which slid to Renegade. The fighter was wired and ready for more, like a caged wildcat. No limp in sight.

  Hank grabbed Kade’s chin, reclaiming his attention. “This is it. The last round. Time to pull out the big guns. You’ve been chipping at him with those solid jabs and kicks, but now it’s time to lay down the hammer. No more chipping. Smash him.”

  Nori’s stomach roiled with nausea. Watching her friend being beaten to a bloody pulp, even if Hank assured her it was going well, was torment. She wasn’t cut out for the naked brutality of pit fighting. Nothing in her life had prepared her for it. In fact, the opposite was true. She’d been shielded from anything distasteful by well-intentioned parents overcompensating for the tragic loss of her siblings.

  The brutal punches Kade had taken to his body hurt. Nori could see it in the tightening of his eyes, the pinch of his mouth. And with each kick to his legs, he stumbled and stalled a bit longer. His left eye had swelled shut during the last round, costing him precious visibility. He suffered for it, unable to defend himself against several of Renegade’s punishing blows.

  Still in his corner of the ring between rounds, Hank pressed a cotton swab to the swollen cut above Kade’s eye. Blood and clear liquid gushed from the wound. A sudden undeniable urge to vomit goaded Nori’s already-nervous stomach without warning. She gagged and retched all over Kade’s corner of the ring.

  She stood stunned, a hand over her gaping mouth, and the front of her shirt ruined.

  “Goddangit, Nori,” Hank barked, wiping a hand on his jeans. “Clean up this awful mess before the whole crowd spews in their seats.” He muttered a string of curses at her even as he continued to address the damage on Kade’s face.

  Sobered by horror and shame, she ducked under the ring for towels to soak up the watery pile of vomit. Her shoulders caved forward and she ducked her head, becoming the smallest possible version of herself as she mopped. She imagined the entire crowd of raucous fans laughing behind her, thumping mock toasts with their plastic cups and spilling more beer, which she would be forced to mop up, too.

  At last she risked a look at Kade, who eyed her as she manically scrubbed the last remaining spot. His eyes were dancing with repressed laughter, and his lips twitched in an effort not to smile.

  Indignation replaced shame, and she stood up straight, throwing hands to her hips. “You think this is funny?”

  Kade nodded, biting his lips not to laugh. “You’ve got something.” He motioned to her chin. “Just there.”

  Nori swiped at her chin, checking for any remnant of bile. Was he just screwing with her? Her gaze threw daggers, and she briefly considered throwing the filthy towel at his head.

  The bell’s resonant ding, indicating the final round, had Kade back on his feet and in the ring in a flash.

  Nori was amazed by how quickly he shifted gears, by the level of concentration he achieved in the span of a moment. Kade dodged most of Renegade’s jabs with keen efficiency, if a bit more slowly than he had in the first few rounds.

  The two fighters traded punches, a battle of endurance, of will. A battle for the title. Who could withstand the other’s punishment longer?

  Nori’s guts were a twisted mess, the insides of her cheeks shredded as she bit them with each awful blow Kade suffered. The mat on which the fighters performed their violent dance, grungy with old blood, now held smatterings of smeared scarlet.

  The crowd was standing, the level of volume in the Pit overpowering Nori’s senses as shouts and cheers and grunts formed a deafening chorus. Each kick was a crescendo, each landed punch a forte.

  Suddenly, Kade was on the run. He backed away from Renegade, knees near buckling as he endured fist after fist to the head. He held his hands up, but couldn’t deflect every punch, couldn’t see them all, and a few powerful blows made it through. Spitting a mouthful of blood onto the floor of the ring, Kade breathed deeply and re-calibrated.

  Renegade pursued his prey, the bloodthirsty glint in his eyes betraying an intent to kill. He was merciless, focused. He was the champ.

  After three quick jabs to Kade’s head, Renegade pulled back his arm for the final blow. He wasted a fraction of a second to smirk, as if saying, “Take my title? Like hell.”

  It was all the time Kade needed. His foot connected with jaw, a spinning back kick delivered so fast Renegade never saw it coming. The champ’s head snapped back at the impact. In slow motion, Renegade’s shoulders relaxed, his arms fell to his sides, and his body slumped to the bloody mat.

  It was over. A knockout.

  Kade stood, fists at the ready in front of him until Nori rushed the ring, throwing her arms around his slick waist.

  “You did it!” She jumped and shouted over and over, “You did it! You did it!”

  Hank joined them in the ring and slapped Kade on the back. “Great job, son. I knew you’d do it. You’re heavyweight champ.”

  “Heavyweight champ,” Kade repeated dumbly, his gaze focused on the ceiling somewhere beyond Nori and Hank, beyond the deafening crowd.

  23

  Cooper and Grant

  Basking in the glow of vict
ory in his own crotchety way, with a cold beer in one hand and a wad of cash in the other, Hank gave everyone the night off. A license to party—Nori included. She would deal with the disastrous filth of the Pit tomorrow. That was exactly when she would think about it, too: tomorrow. The night was for celebrating.

  Actually, in her case, the night was for playing nursemaid to a bruised and battered Kade.

  “I thought you’d be more excited.” Nori pulled a chair up to the huge silver tub. “About the win, I mean.”

  Kade shrugged, sending ice chips and frigid water sloshing around him. He clenched his teeth, sucking and blowing air through them so rapidly Nori feared he would hyperventilate.

  “Is the ice helping?” she asked.

  “Helping?” His voice rose an octave. “It hurts like hell. But it’s more a blinding, fiery, stabbing pain than the agonizing aches I’ll feel in an hour, so I can’t really say.”

  His hands and head were the only things above the freezing water. He was submerged to his shoulders and rigid with cold. “How much longer?” he asked.

  “Hank said three minutes. You’ve done half that.”

  He groaned and forced out a tortured breath, his focus on the wall in front of him.

  “Almost there,” Nori said, moving a chunk of ice away from his neck. “Tell me the truth,” she said to distract him. “Did you think you’d win?”

  Kade’s gaze left the point on the wall and found her face. “I hoped.” He shifted in the water. “I hoped I would win. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

  He looked away then, an unfathomable sadness replacing the tortured look his face had held. For several dark moments, he stared at nothing, his mind somewhere far away.

  “That’s it. I’m done,” he said, rising abruptly from the ice bath. He stepped over the side of the metal tub, snagged a towel from Nori’s outstretched hands, and limped to the showers.

  Though Cooper had promised to be at the fight, Nori never caught sight of him. She’d scanned the crowd, but after Hank motioned her to the ring, she was too busy, too caught up in Kade’s match to worry about Cooper.

  With the fights over, the Pit cleared out, leaving only her and Hank and a few of his old buddies. The undercard fighters and the rest of the crowd were either buying celebratory rounds or crying in their beers at the one bar in town.

  Nori left Kade to the showers, and heard Hank’s dry cackle floating from his office down the hall. At the old man’s laugh, a smile pulled at her lips, starting slowly then spreading across her entire face. She was happy. For Kade. For Hank. For herself. After all, it was the first time she’d done something on her own. She’d made a place for herself in the Pit, in this grungy new world. She’d done her job well and made friends. She was part of something outside the little world her parents had created.

  Her heart felt full—too full, like it would burst. The sensation was completely foreign to her. Was it pride? Yes, she thought. Despite the dark and terrifying path she’d taken into the subterranean world, she was glad she’d stumbled onto it.

  As she approached it, the door opened, and a head of thick, dark hair emerged from Hank’s office. Her full heart stuttered within her chest. Cooper. His wide smile revealed a row of perfect teeth, and her own grin grew in response.

  Had she seen him smile before? She couldn’t recall. Didn’t recall much of anything at the moment.

  “Hey,” he said, striding toward her. He stood too close, but she didn’t retreat. “I’m headed out. Just stopped to make sure Hank’s getting his money’s worth.”

  At the reminder of her indentured status, Nori’s smile soured.

  “Aw, now, don’t be so serious. I’m just teasing.”

  “Nothing about this is funny to me. It’s my life we’re talking about. My parents risked a lot to get me down here.”

  “Yes, and getting you to Hank probably saved your life.”

  Nori bristled, her lip curling in a smirk. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t grovel at the benevolence you showed in selling me for slave labor.”

  A muscle ticked in Cooper’s jaw. She’d pissed him off. Good.

  “Has Hank been cruel to you?” he asked.

  She wouldn’t meet his gaze, but answered. “No.”

  “Is your life…” He struggled for the right word. “Your…safety…threatened here?”

  She mumbled, “No.”

  “Would you rather be on your own wandering through miles of dark tunnel where women are scarce and slugs like Wallace and Jenks can find you?”

  Nori shook her head, rolling her eyes.

  “Then you’re welcome. Groveling not required.”

  Nori’s gaze shot up to find his smile had resurfaced. In a softer voice, he said, “It’s not so bad, is it? When I was here, Hank treated everyone well.”

  She hadn’t expected that. “You lived here?”

  “Mm. For a minute. Listen, I don’t have long. I’m set to go to the Surface tomorrow. I’ll try to find your parents. Ralston, right? It’s not too far out of my way.”

  She nodded, stepping into him and clasping the sleeve of his jacket. “Please.” She searched his gaze. “Please find them. Tell them I’m okay. They’ll be sick with worry.”

  “I’ll do my best. What’s the address?”

  “Twelve Skyler Court.”

  “All right. I’ll come back when I can.”

  “Why?” The word left her lips before she even knew she’d thought it.

  Cooper’s head fell to the side. “Why what? Why will I come back?”

  “Why help me?” She still held his arm, the leather worn and warm beneath her fingers. She didn’t let go.

  Cooper shrugged and looked away. “Because I’ve been there. I’ve been in trouble, and alone, and clueless, and scared. And someone helped me.” He smiled then, his mood lightening considerably. “Anyway, I owe you three. This is two.”

  Nori smiled back and released him, letting her hand fall to her side. “Thank you.”

  It wasn’t enough, but it was all she had.

  Too late, she thought to ask who’d helped him.

  Kade groaned and closed his good eye. “Even my teeth hurt.”

  “If it makes you feel any better, you probably look as bad as you feel.”

  Kade laughed and loosed a moan from his soul. “Don’t make me laugh. Don’t make me talk. Don’t make me breathe.”

  His room was bigger than Nori’s. And, she noted, he had a chair. A nicer rug, too. The new champ sat slumped in it, his head draped listlessly over the back.

  “I’ve got a surprise for you,” Nori said sweetly.

  “Leave me alone. I’m contemplating death.”

  “Oh, don’t be such a diva.” She crept to his side and stood over him so the only thing he had to lift to see her was an eyelid. “Don’t you even want to know what it is?”

  He groaned again then, “What?” He didn’t open his eye.

  “Someone sent booze. A fan. But you’re too sore and tired to deal with a gift, right? I’ll just take it to Hank. I know he can make use of it.”

  A single, very severe-looking brown eye pinned her. “You better give me that bottle.”

  “You sure?” Nori blinked in mock innocence. “You can barely lift your arms. I don’t know if you’re in any condition to handle alcohol.”

  “At this point, you could just pour it down my throat and I’d be happy.”

  “All right.” She laughed. “A little or a lot?”

  “Mmph,” was the only answer. A lot, then.

  “You sure you don’t want to go out with the other guys?” Nori put the drink in his waiting hand.

  Hank’s stable of fighters hadn’t all won, but they went out just the same, whether to celebrate wins or lament losses.

  Kade took a swig from the clear glass and sighed his pleasure. “Nope.”

  “You don’t want to celebrate your big win? People will expect the new champ to go out.”

  “I really don’t care what people expect
. And there’s no way I’m giving high-fives and taking shots all night. I’m just not up for it.”

  “Okay.” Nori shrugged. “We’ll have our own party, then.”

  “Oh!” Kade moved too quickly and winced. “I didn’t think. Go and have fun. You don’t have to stay with me. I’ll be fine here alone.”

  Nori scrunched her nose. “No thanks.”

  “If you’re worried about Bron or Diesel, or anyone else…”

  “No, no, no. I don’t want to go, either. Pointless, really, to go to a bar since I don’t drink.”

  Kade’s eye narrowed. “How old are you? I never asked.”

  Nori straightened. “Seventeen.”

  “You ever had a drink?”

  She looked away and shook her head.

  “You want one?”

  She shook her head again, but her refusal lacked the certainty it held before.

  “You sure?”

  A thought struck. “Tell ya what,” she said. “I’ll take a shot of…whatever that is…if you tell me what you meant when you said, ‘otherwise, what’s the point’ when you were in the ice bath.”

  Kade said nothing, but took another swig from the glass. He set it onto the table hard, making Nori jump. “All right. Deal.”

  The clear liquid rippled within Nori’s glass. It was denser than water, smoother. And, she thought, sort of lovely.

  Tipping the glass to her nose, she gently inhaled—then her head whipped toward Kade.

  “God,” her face wrinkled in disgust, “has this stuff gone bad?”

  He laughed and shook his head, eyes gleaming with anticipation.

  “Aren’t we supposed to toast or something?” she asked.

  Kade shifted in his chair and didn’t wince. “That’s a good idea. I don’t suppose you know any.”