Stand of Redemption

by Cathryn Williams

  She tried to figure out what to do. She knew Lacey would be asleep and would have called Chris, but she didn’t want to interrupt him. There was a gas station a couple of blocks away. She stopped there many times on her way home and knew the friendly, elderly man who worked there. She could ask him if he could jump her car.

  She looked around and felt safe enough to get out. She hadn’t heard of much crime in the area and knew she didn’t have very far to walk.

  She stepped out of the car and locked it. She then turned to walk to the gas station, keeping her phone in her hand, and enjoying the fresh air after being in the bar all night.

  As she thought of the money she’d made, she saw a shadow come toward her. She tried to hit send on her phone to call Chris, but it was knocked from her hand. Then she was dragged into an alley between two buildings.

  She felt herself thrown against the wall, and her head bounced off the concrete. She whimpered from the pain as she tried to see who was attacking her, but it was too dark and her vision was blurry from the blow to her head.

  “You fucking thief. Did you think I wouldn’t notice the extra money you stole for yourself?” She heard a deep voice growl in her face.

  “What are you talking about?” Ria was shaking with fear. She hadn’t stolen any money; she’d earned that eight hundred dollars.

  The man shook her again and shoved her against the wall. He then wrapped his hand around her neck, slowly constricting her airway. “Don’t play dumb, bitch. I saw the copy of the receipt with the extra three hundred.”

  In her haze, Ria’s mind jumped to the previous weekend. Oh, no, she thought to herself. Chris hadn’t credited the money back. She should have known tonight when her tips were excessively high that he must have slipped her the money back. She had thought the college students had left her the extra-large tip.

  “I’m sorry! I’ll give it back. Please, please, let me give it back.” Ria strained to say the words as his grip tightened on her throat.

  “Oh, I’ll get it back… and more.” His other hand slid under her skirt, grabbing her roughly. “You piece of trash, showing your tits and ass, but playing hard to get. Girls like you are meant to serve men like me. You think you can take what’s mine? I’ll get what you were promising me,” he said softly as he pushed her panties to the side.

  Sickened at his touch, Ria kicked out. Oh God, she didn’t know what to do. She tried to claw at his face, but her head was killing her, and she couldn’t put much strength into fighting back.

  He managed to pin her flailing body against the wall when she felt herself suddenly released.

  Finally able to breathe, she saw another man punching her attacker. She scooted away, although she could see that whomever had saved her had her attacker under control. The out of shape man didn’t stand a chance against her savior.

  Eventually, her attacker quit fighting back. She could hear him groaning, so at least he wasn’t dead.

  The other man turned to her. “Are you okay?”

  Ria could hear the concern in his voice as he checked on her. Now that the shock was wearing off, she felt like she was going to pass out. She touched the back of her head, feeling the large lump forming.

  “I... I think so,” she mumbled. It was so hard to think, but her mind kept telling her to do something.

  “I need to get you to a hospital.”

  Ria shook her head no. There was something she had to do. As she felt herself start to slip away, she forced herself to stay conscious. The money!

  She reached into her pocket and pulled out the cash.

  “What the hell are you doing?” the man snapped at her.

  “Give him three hundred dollars, please,” she panted.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he snapped again. “He was going to rape you!”

  “Three hundred dollars. Give it to him!” she said with as much strength as she could muster while she held the wad of money out.

  “Fuck. Fine.”

  Ria watched him count some money out and throw it at the man.

  “Let’s go.” He pulled at her.

  Ria tried to walk with him; however, the blackness took over.

  The last thing she remembered coming from the man was, “Oh, shit!”

  * * *

  Ria opened her eyes and looked around at the strange surroundings. She was in a small room with nothing except a bed, nightstand, dresser, and desk with a backpack next to the desk. The sunlight shining through the window indicated it must be the next morning. She’d thought she would be at a hospital, but apparently, the man had decided to bring her here.

  She sat up and felt the pain shoot through her head, forcing the memories from earlier to return. She looked over at the nightstand and saw a glass of water and a bottle of Ibuprofen. She put her feet on the ground as she reached for the bottle.

  As she popped the pills and took a drink of water, she heard some noises below her. There were men yelling and loud thuds.

  She slowly stood up and walked out the door and down a hallway overlooking a large room with several rings where men were fighting each other.

  How did I end up here?

  She looked around to see if she recognized any of the men. One man stood out to her in the corner. He was talking to two younger men and looked angry. It appeared as though one of the men was trying to explain something. The man gave the younger one a look which caused him to stop talking.

  She looked down the hall to see how to get downstairs before she made her way down the hall. She glanced over to look at the man who appeared to be in charge, and when she did, their eyes met. He appeared to have a few more things to say to the two men, though.

  She walked down the stairs, noticing several posters of fighters holding belts. She assumed they had trained here. She would never understand why anyone would want to do this for a living.

  Several men turned to look at her as she made her way across the room. Ria felt self-conscious as she felt their attention on her. She looked at the supposed owner and saw him watching her walk toward him.

  One of the younger men turned to her. “Hey, how are you feeling?” Ria could hear the concern in his voice and recognized it from the night before.

  “Much better, thanks to you,” she replied. “I’m Ria Sloan.” Ria put her hand out to shake the hand of the man who’d saved her. She would never know what her attacker’s intentions would have been after he raped her.

  She saw the men all stiffen when she introduced herself. She looked at them curiously. It was as if they were surprised by her name.

  The young man reached out to shake her hand. “Hi, Ria. I’m Ty, and this is Lane. We both train and live here. This is Zane; he owns the gym.”

  Ria looked up at the tall man. She vaguely remembered him from the night of the championship fight. She had been more focused on tending to Nicholas’s broken arm, though.

  Looking at him now, he took her breath away. He was tall and perfectly proportioned in every way. He had a commanding presence that seemed to let everyone around him know he was the one in charge. He seemed like a man who called the shots and got his way.

  “It’s nice to meet all of you,” Ria said warmly.

  She turned to Ty. “But why am I here?”

  “Ty thought it would be best to bring you here where you would be safe,” Zane answered for him.

  Ria turned back to Zane. “Safe from what?”

  “The man that attacked you,” Zane replied as if she was daft for asking.

  “Oh, yeah.” Ria bit her lip. She didn’t want to admit what she had done, but she didn’t think that man would be coming back after her now.

  “We checked your head and there’s a bad bump, but it’s not life-threatening.” Zane turned to scowl at Ty. “Considering Ty apparently beat the shit out of the man then left him there, we didn’t want charges pressed against Ty until we could make sure you were okay.”

  “Oh, no! Ty saved my life. If not for him, God only knows what wou
ld have happened!” She didn’t want to take this to the police. She could only blame herself for this mess.

  Ria continued, “I’m fine. Like you said, it’s just a bad bump. I’ll take it easy until the swelling goes down.”

  “You need to report this to the police. Unfortunately, because Ty left the scene, the man was long gone before we could find him.” Zane scowled at Ty again.

  Ria looked to see Ty’s reaction. She saw a mixture of rebellion and frustration in his face, though he kept his mouth shut.

  “Look, it’s okay. I don’t think he’ll do it again. The only reason I was out last night was because my car wouldn’t start,” Ria explained.

  “That doesn’t change the fact that you were attacked by a stranger,” Zane said firmly.

  Ria could see he thought she wasn’t all there. Damn it, she was going to have to admit to what she had done.

  “Listen, I fucked up last week and gave myself a tip on his credit card receipt. He had been an ass the whole night and when he didn’t leave me a tip, I wrote one in for myself,” Ria said quickly while keeping her eyes down in shame. “I know it was wrong, but I’m so tight for money right now I needed the tip. Regardless, that’s no excuse. I’m ashamed of myself for doing it.” Ria purposely omitted that she had thought Chris had fixed her deception. He had only been trying to help, knowing how desperate she was for money. It was embarrassing enough to have admitted her poor choice of actions out loud for others to hear.

  “That explains the money now.” Ty turned to Zane and Lane. “Before she passed out, she begged me to give him three hundred dollars.”

  “I’ve been sick about what I did. I had to give it back.” At least now she could get over the guilt, but it didn’t take away how shitty she felt about doing it in the first place.

  Zane stared at her. “He could have reported you. He had no excuse to attack a young, defenseless woman.”

  Ria nodded her head. She didn’t know what to do now.

  “What’s his name?” Zane inquired.

  “Henry Masterson,” Ria replied.

  Zane nodded his head. “Okay, I can handle him without going to the police, then.”

  Ria wondered what he meant by handling him, but something about Zane made her believe he would take care of the situation. “Thank you.”

  She turned back to Ty. “I don’t know where I would be if you hadn’t shown up when you did.” While she reached to give him a hug, she felt herself start to cry, thinking about how close she had been to being hurt.

  “Oh… um… Okay. It was no problem.”

  Ria squeezed him tightly as he awkwardly patted her on the back.

  She heard Lane snickering at Ty’s discomfort, but didn’t care.

  She heard the front door open as she held on to Ty for support.

  “Nick. Hey, man, you’re late,” Zane yelled as he walked toward the front door.

  Ria jerked around to look at the man walking in. It was Nicholas. Their eyes locked, and she saw the surprise in his. What she didn’t understand was the flash of anger she saw next. His attention seemed to redirect to Ty. She was still wrapped in his arms at the moment.

  “What’s she doing here?” Nicholas asked. The glimpse of anger she had witnessed had been replaced with a friendlier tone, though Ria could still see the steel in his eyes.

  She stepped out of Ty’s embrace and sensed him slightly relax. She wondered what that was about.

  “Do you know her?” Zane asked with a strained tone.

  “Yeah, she’s one of the EMTs that took me to the hospital after our fight,” Nicholas replied as he looked at her.

  Zane looked back at her, as if he was trying to recall something. She felt herself getting confused. It seemed like there was something going on that she didn’t know about.

  “Oh, I see.” Zane turned to her. “I thought you were a waitress?”

  “I am now. I got fired from my last job,” Ria replied.

  She bet she sounded like a real winner, stealing money from customers and getting fired from jobs. She wondered what these men thought of her now.

  She looked down at herself. She was still wearing her work clothes from last night. A short spandex black skirt and a sleeveless, gold, shimmery wrap-tank with a deep V-neck. She hated what she had become, and the image she portrayed to others.

  She looked at Nicholas and caught him staring at her.

  “You still haven’t told me what she’s doing here,” Nicholas repeated to Zane, but before Zane could answer, he asked, “How did you get fired?”

  Ria gaped at him. “My car wouldn’t start after work last night. When I was walking to the gas station for help, a man attacked me. Lucky for me, Ty saved me. He brought me back here to recover,” Ria said quickly. “I was waitressing at The Plaza since that’s the only place that would hire me after you complained to the administrator of the hospital about my attitude.”

  Nick turned to Zane. “Where’s the guy?”

  “We’ll get him,” Zane responded.

  Nick nodded then turned back to Ria. “They fucking fired you?”

  Ria didn’t know why he was surprised. He was a local celebrity, as the administrator had pointed out several times. Nicholas had donated time and money to the women’s wing of the hospital.

  Ria felt her shoulders slump. “No one wants to hire someone like me. My actions of that night got around. I’m studying to become a paramedic, though. I think I’ll be able to get a job in another city then.”

  Ria saw his look of anger. She liked that he seemed upset, yet couldn’t understand why. He had been the one to complain to the administrator.

  “I’m here to work with Ty this morning. Stay and watch, then I’ll take you to your car,” Nicholas told her.

  “Um… that’s okay. I can walk.”

  “We need to talk, but I don’t have the time right now. I’ll take you home when I finish.”

  Ria wanted to tell him to go to Hell, but she bit her response back. Maybe he felt bad enough about her firing that he would call the administrator and get her job back.

  She really didn’t want to stay. Never in a million years would she have thought she would watch cage fighters train. It went against every thought she had toward this sport. But she couldn’t turn down the chance of getting her job back. She’d been resistant to the idea before; however, after last night, she was starting to rethink things.

  “Nick, I can take—” Zane started to say, but Nicholas cut him off.

  “I got it.”

  Zane gave him a questioning look, but then simply nodded and walked to one of the rings.

  After Nicholas went toward another of the rings, Ty walked on one side of Ria, showing her the observation area.

  “How’s your head?” he asked.

  She reached up to feel it and winced when she pressed down too hard. “It’s okay, just sore. It’s just a goose egg now.” Ria grimaced as she recalled how close she had come to being raped. “It could have been a lot worse if you hadn’t shown up when you did.” Ria looked at Ty gratefully.

  “Ty, get in the ring and warm up,” Nicholas yelled from across the room.

  Ria came to appreciate the dedication of the men as she watched them work out. It was grueling and physical. She’d had no idea it required skill until she saw the blood from Ty’s busted lip and Lane’s nose. She had somehow thought it was all fake.

  After they finished, the men disappeared behind one of the doors. Nicholas was the first to reappear.

  Ria couldn’t take her eyes off him. She thought he was spoiled and believed himself entitled; however, there was no denying his good looks.

  He knelt down in front of where she was sitting. Ria tried to control her breathing; she didn’t want him to see the effect his proximity was having on her. When he reached up to feel the back of her head, she waited for the pain from his touch, but he was gentle; she could barely feel his fingers lightly grazing over the lump.

  She looked up at him and stared into
his blue eyes. He brought his hand around and tucked some of her hair behind her ear then slid his hand under her chin and lifted it up. Now she couldn’t hide the heavy breathing. She felt goose bumps cover her body at the softness of his touch.

  “Are you going to be okay?” he asked with so much concern Ria felt herself tear up at his sincerity.

  She swallowed and nodded her head. “Yes,” she whispered.

  He ran his hand down the side of her arm and squeezed her hand. “Good. I’ll give you a ride home as soon as I finish; we were just taking a break. Then I’ll see that your car is taken care of.”

  Ria nodded, wondering why he was taking the time to take her home himself when he could have easily had someone else do it. Although they were still strangers, she couldn’t help hoping she had been wrong about him. Maybe they both had gotten the wrong impression of each other.

  He had to feel the same way, or why else would he want to talk? Or, at least, she hoped he did. She wanted her old job back.

  Chapter 6

  “Now go for the sweep,” Nick yelled at Ty.

  Nick was wrapping up the training session. He was rushing the session, not wanting to keep Ria waiting too long. With his arm still in the sling, Nick couldn’t spar with Ty, so one of the other guys had volunteered to stand in. Zane was good about giving the volunteers some free training when they helped out; therefore, it benefited all parties.

  Nick watched Ty do as he was told. He was able to get his partner on the ground and quickly shift into a submission hold. Nick was impressed with his progress and knew he was ready for his first real fight.

  “That’s good for today. Nice work, Ty. I’ll talk to Zane about setting you up for a fight.”

  He saw Ty’s face light up, but then watched him try to play it cool. God, had he ever been that young?

  “Thanks, Nick,” he said stiffly.

  “No problem. You deserve your chance.”

  Ty nodded in response. “I’m ready.”

  Nick turned to step out of the ring and looked for Ria. She was at the water fountain, taking a drink, giving him a clear view of her tight ass in that short skirt. He took a moment to appreciate the view then quickly looked around. He growled to himself. He wasn’t the only one noticing the view.