Sawyer walked in, waving to the two guys who had volunteered for door-duty that night. She never did door-duty personally, but that was because she ran security for the entire thing. On Fight Night, the gym was hers and no one else’s. Charlie even asked for her advice on matters.
Tonight though, she was also another fighter. She didn’t participate very often, but she needed it tonight.
She wore a standard pair of low-rider jeans, torn thanks to actual work, and a black tank. She purposefully stepped heavier, so people didn’t realize how silently she really moved. She nodded to Charlie as she passed him, not stopping to tell anyone hello on her way to the locker room. She could have just used the apartment, but she liked getting into the locker room and meeting the other fighters, or at least getting eyes on them.
She dropped her bag onto a bench and looked over at the other fighters. Sawyer was the only woman who showed up regularly to fight. She hadn’t seen another female fighter in months, actually. The other women were girlfriends, ring girls, and patrons. So, when she looked over to the other fighters, she only saw a ton of dudes and nearly half were staring back at her.
“Can I help you?” She raised an eyebrow and began to untie her boots. Most of these guys knew who she was, but she saw more than a few new faces as well.
“You here to get with someone?” A new guy asked, causing a few of the other regulars to start coughing. A couple chuckles rang out, including one from her. “Because I’m single.” He said it with a tiny smile and a suave voice.
“No.” She grinned, kicking off her boots. New guys always thought they were cute. This one seriously was. Not her type, though. Too Italian. Not that she had anything against sexy Italians, they just reminded her of Axel and that made them… not her type anymore. She also wasn’t sure she would ever want to get involved with a guy with a scar like his. Nearly two-inches wide and cutting his pec in half diagonally, it was a nasty piece of work. “I’m here to fight.”
She pulled her tank off to reveal the black sports bra she wore to fight. She didn’t have large breasts, so it wasn’t like she was showing off anything. She saw the guys appreciate her abs.
“Well,” the newbie continued, looking her over. “If you’re interested, I’m game.”
“I’m not, but thanks for the offer.” She shook her head, still smiling. She got into her shorts quickly, ignoring the guys all talking shit before their own fights. No one knew who was fighting whom until they were called to the ring. There were rare occasions that they would know, but those fights were planned well ahead of time—rivalries and rematches, drama fights.
The locker room emptied, and she was still taking her sweet time getting ready. They wouldn’t start until she got out there. Charlie found her as she was wrapping her hands. He pointed to her left hand and she sighed.
“What, Charlie?”
“Someone was asking how you lost it,” he told her. She nodded slowly. “One of the new fighters, probably too scared to ask you himself. That Italian.”
Of course, the one that hit on her. Cute.
“What did you tell him?”
“Same thing I tell everyone,” Charlie chuckled. “If you wanted people to know, you would tell them. I wasn’t going to offer the information.”
“Thanks.” She grinned at him. “Who am I fighting?”
“You know I’m not telling you that.” Charlie patted her shoulder. “But you’re in the prime spot tonight. People missed you while you were in LA.”
“Well, I’m here now.” She stood up and looked herself over one last time. When she was satisfied that she was ready, she gave him a cocky grin. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
They walked out together, and Sawyer waved to the crowd. The prime spot was the first fight, the show-stopping opener that everyone spent most of their gambling money on. People cheered, and ring girls riled the crowd up further, strutting around and showing off. One helped her into the ring, and Sawyer planted a kiss on her lips, making the crowd holler wildly. Sawyer wasn’t the type to sleep with other women, but even she could appreciate some of the gorgeous ring girls that showed up.
Plus, it was good for her image to be involved like that. Something sexy, fierce, and completely out of the viewers’ leagues.
Being a fighter was as much show as it was fighting. A fighter developed a reputation as a hero or villain, a player or reserved character. She liked the limelight from fighting. She lived in the shadows for so much of her time, that when she got in the ring, she reveled in the lights and the crowd. It made her a fun fighter to watch, and people recognized her. No one in this group was going to give her up, either. They were all hiding from something outside of the gym. This was sanctuary.
“Tonight, we have a treat for you!” Charlie stood in center ring. “My very own Dark Darling is back in town, and tonight, we’ll be seeing her bring out all the stops in a Magi fight against the up-and-coming star, Brick!”
People screamed, and Sawyer bounced on her feet, trying to get a little more limber before the punches started flying. She rolled her eyes at what Charlie called her, making him laugh as he continued.
“Now, we all know the rules, and there are very few!” Charlie pointed at them both. “No leaving the ring, and no letting your magic leave the ring. We don’t call rounds here; you fight until you drop. Once someone is on the ground, you back off. If they get back up, go for it. If they don’t, you’ve won the match. Finally, keep it short of killing each other. Fighters, ready to get started?”
She nodded and looked towards her opponent, Brick. He was short, maybe five and a half feet tall, but he was built like a truck. She made a quick judgement based on how he was carrying himself. Slow but he was probably a knockout champion. She couldn’t afford to take too many hits from him.
“Fight!” Charlie stepped out of the way, and she moved towards the center of the ring. Brick met her and took the first swing. She jumped back from it and grinned.
“Brick, huh?” She dodged another swing, and he glared at her.
“You going to dance around all night?” he asked, and she chuckled.
“I normally get to talk to all the fighters before getting in the ring, but I didn’t see you in the locker room.” She shrugged and looked out to the crowd. They were pressing to the side of ring, and she noticed they were nearly all cheering for her. “And you don’t want me to stop dancing around.”
She got hit with a blast of wind and raised an eyebrow at him. Wind manipulation. Well, if he had any finesse, he may cause her a problem.
“Why’s that?” He grinned viciously at her. He was definitely going for the villain persona. Even if he wasn’t trying for it, he was going to gain a reputation of being rude to the other fighters, and people would talk about it.
She sighed and blinked behind him. She no longer bounced on her feet as he turned around, wide-eyed, to face her. When he took another swing, she ended up behind him again. Blinking was instant, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop her from doing it. She couldn’t blink through shields, though, and if someone got their hands on her, they would go with her for the ride until she could end the contact. She also needed line of sight. Cool ability, lots of stipulations to stop her from killing herself using it.
This time, she didn’t wait for him to turn around. She put a punch into his kidney and kicked out the back of his knee, making him stagger.
“My fights are always a bit longer,” she told him as he turned to face her after regaining his balance, “since I try my best not to use my powers too much. They seem a little much, don’t they? But you want to rush things, so let’s just get this over with.”
He swung at her, roaring in anger. She didn’t blink and let the hand pass through her. She had a lot of control over her sublimation ability, and when he was about to make contact, she had started the change into smoke. She solidified as she made her move. Two right jabs into the gut. Left hook into the jaw, and his head snapped to the side, blood and spit f
lying away from them.
She didn’t wait for him to recover, pulling his head to her and sending her knee into his gut twice, making him grunt in pain. Hitting him was like hitting a brick wall, and she laughed at her realization. Brick.
She threw him back and blinked behind him before he could hit the side of the ring. Her elbow connected with the side of his head, and that was it. He fell to the mat and the crowd cheered, but Sawyer felt deeply unsatisfied with the win. The fight just didn’t work it out for her. It was too short, too easy. This guy had wanted to rush it and she wanted more time in the ring.
She let Charlie raise her arm in victory, but her mind was elsewhere as she smiled out to the crowd. She didn’t know where she was mentally or what was eating at her, but the distraction was there, taunting her.
She got out of the ring and sank into her seat, letting people come over and welcome her back. She laughed and tried to shake off her bad mood, but nothing seemed to help until Charlie sat down next to her and let another guy handle the ring.
“You need to have a drink and loosen up,” Charlie chuckled. “I know you don’t like Italians, but I hear there’s one who thought you were pretty hot in the locker room. The one that asked about your hand.”
“Wow,” she snorted. “Really, Charlie?”
“Seriously,” Charlie elbowed her. “Think about it.”
“No.” She shook her head with a grin, her eyes finding the new guy. He had a small fight and won. He hadn’t used his magic, but he was obviously a Magi. She met his eyes, and even she could admit he was handsome. His voice might have been suave, but he had a ruggedness to him. A five o’clock shadow accented dark green eyes that seemed to bore into her. She looked over his cut abs and finally just shrugged at him. She saw his eyes go a little wide before she looked back to Charlie.
“Well?” Charlie started laughing softly.
“Still a no.” Sawyer grinned. “I don’t sleep with the fighters.”
“I’ve never understood that rule of yours. I sleep with the ring girls when they offer.”
“You old pervert,” Sawyer laughed, slapping Charlie’s arm. He only shrugged with a cheesy grin.
“My wife wouldn’t want me to stop living life just because she was gone,” Charlie reminded her. Sawyer knew that since she was the one who had convinced Charlie to live his life in the first place. He’d been a wreck when she showed up, at least emotionally. If he was going to force her to continue in this world, she had decided she would do the same to him.
“But a ring girl? Those girls are my age.” Sawyer continued to laugh until tears rolled down her cheeks.
“I ignore that part,” Charlie huffed. “Don’t make it weird.”
“Oh, I’m going to make it weird.” Sawyer elbowed him. It was actually a little gross, but Sawyer was going to make fun anyway. “Which one?”
“I’m not telling you that.” Charlie narrowed his eyes on her. She didn’t back down and broke out in a triumphant laugh when he relented. “Susan.”
“Seriously? She’s twenty-one, Charlie,” Sawyer howled, delighted with the news.
“Deal with it,” Charlie grumbled.
After that, the night moved along quickly. Fights were intense, everyone trying to give their best show. She cheered and even got in on the gambling, going from a hundred dollars in her wallet to a thousand. She poured everyone shots at one point because of her good fortune. Everyone except Charlie, who had just lost a bet to her and was pouting over it.
When they got inside the apartment after cleaning up, she and Charlie were laughing about a fight where some noodle-armed guy decided he had what it took and won. He had ten to one odds against him, but he got in a lucky hit. It was the clumsiest shit Sawyer had ever seen, but he’d done it. She and Charlie hadn’t bet on that fight, since they thought it was too one-sided, but they were already making plans to bet on the kid’s next fight.
“Good night, Charlie,” she called to him as she staggered, a little drunk, to her own room.
“Good night, kid,” he laughed, waving her along.
She collapsed into her bed and drifted into a deep sleep. For the first time in weeks, it was dreamless.
8
SAWYER
Sawyer straightened her hair slowly, preparing for another Fight Night. Three weeks of day-in and day-out life had done a lot to ease her concerns over what had happened in LA a month before. Once she was done, she went downstairs to find Travis and his mother waiting in the main area. The gym would be closed in twenty minutes, so she frowned and walked over. It was late, and the teens were normally out of there around seven; it was nearly nine.
“Can I help you?” She stopped near them, careful not to get too close and in their space. Alicia smiled at her and nodded, extending a hand. Sawyer shook it and was pleased to notice that Alicia gave her a real handshake and not some dainty, weak-wristed one.
“Yes, actually. My son takes classes here, and I was hoping to join, myself.” She elbowed her son, and Sawyer grinned.
“We have adult classes on every night of the week for those parents with busy schedules. You can pick any days you want to come, and your first five classes are free of charge.” Sawyer ran over to the desk and grabbed a flyer. She handed it to Alicia when she got back. “Any reason you want to learn?”
“I’m recently single and thought that it would be a good idea to learn to protect myself, since I don’t want Travis to feel that he needs to do it all.” She pulled her son closer into a hug. “We’re a team, he and I.”
Sawyer eyed Travis and gave a knowing smile. He nodded a little. He was telling her that the step-dad was officially out of the picture. She had contacts with a few divorce lawyers and tried to help them expedite the process. Alicia had no idea, but Travis did.
He’d been the first kid to call her out about his missing step-dad, and she had chosen to be honest with him. Yeah, she beat the shit out of him and chased him off. Since then, they had been as thick as thieves about getting his mother free of her now-ex. Sure, the other teens she trained knew what she did, but there was a general rule that it wasn’t talked about. Travis had confronted her after his first day in her class, right in front of everyone, the little shit.
“I’m glad. He’s a good kid around here, we’ve been happy to have him.” Sawyer heard Charlie come in and looked over to him. “Right, Charlie?”
“Huh? Travis? Yeah, good kid, but needs work on his right hook. He’s a leftie so it’s to be expected.” He shrugged, and Sawyer rolled her eyes to Alicia, who was laughing.
“We won’t keep you any longer. I just wanted to grab some information, and we were passing by and saw you were still open.” She waved to them, and Sawyer waved back. She fist-bumped with Travis and watched them walk out.
“Feels good, doesn’t it?” Charlie walked up to stand next to her, and she nodded.
“Yeah, it does.”
“There’s no money in it…”
“I have enough money,” she laughed. “You said it yourself. Retire with what I have and just live life. I’m following your advice.”
“You have a bug though, Sawyer,” Charlie chuckled. “I give it another month, and you’ll be itching to go back out and get a job, break into something, or cause some level of general mayhem in someone’s life.”
“So much faith.” She rolled her eyes, but the smile didn’t leave her face. He was probably right. Sawyer didn’t have it in her to settle down and never had. Once she got out of Georgia, she started traveling the world. New York was her home base in a sense, but she loved picking up sometimes to see a new place. Jobs did that for her.
“Let’s get this all set up.” He thumped her arm and began to walk off. She started pulling out chairs and prepping for Fight Night. Tonight was special. Liam was coming in for the first time. He was old enough, and it was going to be fun. This would be the first time she did a fight with him in the building.
A chime from the front door told her Liam was there.
/> “I’m here!” He called, and Sawyer grinned at him.
“Get over here and help me set up!” She laughed, pulling him in for a hug. “You excited?”
“Yeah, and you sure seem to be,” Liam laughed. “It’s not like I haven’t been asking for a year.”
“Well, I figured, since you know all of the rest, why not let you in on this, now?” Sawyer shrugged. “I also think you’re the only one interested in this.”
“Well, I did spend four years listening to it from the stairs,” Liam chuckled.
“Yeah, I know.” Sawyer elbowed him. “I remember Charlie and me chasing you off every time, too.”
“What about me?” Charlie walked by and frowned at them. She just grinned until he narrowed his eyes and shook his head before leaving.
“People are going to get here in like, ten minutes,” she whispered to Liam. “Let’s get this done.”
They worked for nearly an hour to set up, even as people started filing into the gym. Tables were set up for the makeshift bar where people could put their alcohol for anyone to drink. Sawyer nearly couldn’t finish her work when the ring girls started hitting on Liam, who had never had a girlfriend, as far as she knew. Liam kept his secrets when it came to those relationships, and she didn’t blame him. She and Charlie were nosy.
“I need to get ready.” She could barely speak without cackling, and Liam tried to hide his face as a girl sat on his lap. “Behave.”
By the time she made it to the locker room, the first fight was being called into the ring, and most of the fighters were out in the main area to watch. A couple girls hung around outside the locker room door, trying to get some private time with any of the men left, and she only nodded to them. She didn’t hold it against them for looking for a night with a hot fighter, and she never would. A girl had needs, and those needs had to be met, which only reminded Sawyer that she hadn’t gotten laid in two long months. Between the job in LA and getting back into the groove in New York, she hadn’t gone out hunting for her own night of fun in quite some time.
The Redemption Saga Box Set Page 7