by Jessica Ashe
A few betting slips already littered the floor. They’d probably been bets on me winning within the first few rounds. I’d already let some people down.
My head stopped when I saw a familiar face in the crowd. Nora?
She disappeared behind a large guy before I could focus on her. I might just be seeing things. That wouldn’t be a good sign.
“Is Nora here?” I asked Duke.
The look between Duke and Gayle gave me all the answer I needed to that question.
“Why? What’s she doing here?”
“She wants to support you,” Gayle replied. “Look, don’t worry about her now. Just get out there and do the business.”
The referee yelled for both fighters to stand and get ready to fight, while Duke and Gayle cleared the area.
I caught another glimpse of Nora, but I couldn’t make out the expression on her face. Was she enjoying the fight? I doubted that. She hated the thought of me fighting for money. I’d left her to keep her away from this lifestyle. The last thing I wanted was for her to be here watching me.
Elliot wanted to start the next round as we’d finished the last; hyper-aggressive and at each other’s throat. I didn’t trust my instincts any more, so I avoided his advances and went back to circling the cage, waiting for an opening.
Elliot adjusted his technique quickly, but I could tell he was getting impatient. As I circled, I saw Nora again. This time I did see her face. We made eye contact for half a second, before Elliot blocked my view and sent a fist firmly into my face.
He’d broken my nose. There was no mistaking that noise.
I doubled over and staggered around, watching blood pouring down onto the floor.
Elliot approached, but with any luck my constant, erratic movement would make it hard for him to land the next hit.
It didn’t.
He swung up a knee into my head.
Everything went black.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Nora
The crowd let out a collective groan as Riker hit the floor. The sound of hundreds of betting slips being ripped up at once rose to the surface.
Then the chaos drifted into silence. Slowly the crowd began to notice what I’d been looking at the entire time. Riker hadn’t gotten back up.
He’d been on the floor for nearly a minute. The referee was knelt down beside him, using the old-fashioned technique of slapping him around the face hoping he would wake up.
Duke was equally useless; yelling at him to get up as if he’d just tripped. He hadn’t just tripped. I’d heard the impact from here. The knee to the face had broken bones, that was for certain. The only doubt was what other damage had it done.
The only person who had retained any composure was Elliot. He’d noticed something was wrong and had grabbed a phone from his manager to make what looked like a panic-stricken call to 911.
I had to get to Riker, but the crowd wouldn’t let me through. Most of them were streaming to the exit behind me. They knew that if an ambulance came then the police wouldn’t be far behind, and no one wanted to be around when that happened.
Eventually I got to the end of the row and just started climbing over people until I made it to the cage. I had one foot inside when Gayle grabbed me and pulled me back.
“You don’t want to go in there,” Gayle said. She was crying. I’d never seen her upset like this before, and I would have bet good money she wasn’t capable of crying. It must be bad.
I yanked my arm out of her grip and ran over to Riker. I froze in place when I saw him. His eyes were closed and he looked peaceful. At rest. He looked—
“He’s still breathing,” Elliot yelled out.
For a split second, I’d thought… God, I couldn’t wrap my head around that. I’d already lost one person I cared for. I wasn’t about to lose another.
The ambulance arrived quickly. The EMTs placed him on a stretcher and called ahead to the hospital indicating that they would need an emergency consult as soon as they arrived at the hospital.
The EMTs tried to keep me out of the ambulance, but they stood no chance. Nothing could stop a woman being with the man she loved, even if she’d never actually told him that. I’d only realized it myself a few minutes ago.
I did at least stay the hell out of the way. I’d watched enough medical dramas to realize that friends and relatives tended to make a nuisance of themselves.
The EMTs tried to act calm in the back of the ambulance, but I could tell they were desperate to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Every time the ambulance slowed down, I would catch nervous glances between the two of them. Every second counted.
As soon as we arrived, Riker was wheeled off to God knows where and I was left standing in reception looking clueless. I walked around aimlessly until a nurse took pity on me and guided me to a waiting area.
Riker might not be dead, but I’d heard enough words from the EMTs to be concerned. They said trauma continuously. I also heard “fluids” and “coma.”
I wouldn’t know what to do without Riker in my life. The fear of losing Riker sent me spiraling back down to the low point I’d faced after Mom’s death. If anything, I drifted even lower. I still didn’t have Mom, and now I might have lost the one person I thought might bring me happiness. There was no coming back from that.
I’d wanted him to lose the fight at one point. I’d stood there hoping he would lose and not want to fight again. Well, it looked like I’d got my fucking wish.
The hours flew past without any news. I never looked at my phone or checked the time. The only way I knew it had been a long time was from the people moving in and out of the room as they were called away.
“Nora?” A doctor stood in front of me.
Was this it? Was this how I got the bad news? I’d seen it on television before, but I never thought I’d be the one on the receiving end. Not again.
I looked up and saw Alison staring down at me with a look of concern on her face. I hadn’t even recognized her voice. She didn’t have good news, but I was still pleased to see her.
“Come with me,” Alison said softly.
I followed her into a room with a solitary bed. Riker lay unconscious on the bed, with tubes hanging out of him, and a monitor displaying his heart rate. A nurse carried on taking tests and making notes of the results.
“How is he?” I asked Alison. I didn’t think I wanted to know the answer.
“He’s stable.”
“That’s good news, right?”
Alison hesitated. “It’s not bad news,” she said eventually. “He sustained a severe blunt force trauma to the head. There were a few moments of consciousness, but that didn’t last long. He’s unconscious and we aren’t going to risk doing anything to change that right now.”
“What happens when he wakes up?”
“We’ll run some tests. When he regained consciousness he was in bad shape. I think you need to prepare yourself for the worst.”
I’d been trying to prepare myself for the worst all night, but that was easier said than done. I should be grateful that he was alive and stable, but I didn’t want to settle for that. I wanted the old Riker back.
“What’s the worst?” I asked nervously.
“If there’s internal bleeding, he could have brain damage. There could also be a loss of vision, difficulties with speech, and possible problems with movement.”
I stared at Riker and listened to the soothing sound of the monitor beeping quietly at regular intervals. The nurse had cleaned up the cuts he’d received during the fight, and he had a protective shield over his broken nose.
However, it wasn’t the visible wounds that were the problem.
“You were right,” I said to Alison. “About the fighting. It’s barbaric what they do in there.”
“This doesn’t seem like the time for ‘I told you so’. Although you can bet your ass that’s coming somewhere down the line,” she added with a smile.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,�
�� I admitted. “They were destroying each other. It was… I don’t know.”
“Like human cock-fighting?” Alison asked, referring to the description she’d given me months ago. “Why did you go to the fight anyway?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. To see Riker again I suppose. I wanted to know if I could live with it. If I could then there might have been hope for us.”
“And now you realize there’s not?”
“No. I mean, no that’s not what I realize. Tonight I discovered that my feelings for him aren’t going to change because of what he does. I don’t want him to fight, but he’s good at it and it’s what he enjoys.”
Alison raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “He can’t be that good at it. And I can’t imagine he enjoys getting these kinds of injuries. What would the two of you do if you were a couple? Would you go to the fights and watch?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t watch that again. No way.
“So would you stay at home and wait for him to return beaten and bloody?”
“No,” I said with a sigh. I couldn’t do that either. I’d be a nervous wreck every time he left the house.
“Then this can’t work,” Alison insisted. “I’m sorry, Nora, I really am.”
“It can work. It has to.”
“Why?”
“Because I love him.”
Chapter Thirty
Riker
I was in a hospital. Even with a broken nose, there was simply no mistaking that smell of artificial cleanliness which fought to keep less pleasant odors at bay.
Two women talked close by but I couldn’t make out the words. One of the voices belonged to Nora, but I didn’t recognize the other. Probably a doctor or nurse.
My body was numb all over. I knew I was laying horizontally and therefore likely on a bed, but I couldn’t feel my body on the mattress. I might have been floating, but my head felt so heavy I knew there was no way it would be able to resist the pull of gravity.
My legs and arms wouldn’t move, but I tried not to panic. The doctors had probably put me under enough drugs to knock out an elephant. Not being able to move my limbs didn’t mean paralysis.
The only bone I remembered breaking was the one in my nose. Perhaps a few in my face as well. Maybe a couple of ribs. I often didn’t notice those until a doctor did an x-ray.
Then a knee had hit my head and I’d blacked out. I had a vague recollection of waking up and seeing a lot of bodies in masks looking down at me. Presumably I’d been in surgery. Either that or I’d been abducted by aliens.
The head injury must have been a bad one. What did that mean? Brain damage? I couldn’t have brain damage. Someone with brain damage probably wouldn’t be able to lie there contemplating whether or not they had brain damage.
The voices were still talking, but I could pick out the odd word or two now. They mentioned me by name, and I definitely heard a reference to ‘cock.’
Oh shit, please tell me my cock still works.
That worry faded away when it finally dawned on me that Nora was beside my bed. She’d come from the fight to be by my side. What had I done to deserve her loyalty? The last time I’d been with her, I’d left her alone in bed and told her it was over.
I hadn’t meant it, but she didn’t know that.
I’d never wanted to end things between us. That had just seemed like the sensible option.
My life was full of decisions that were selfish and anything but sensible. For once, I’d decided to do the right thing, even if it had made me feel like shit in the process.
Nora was still here. Still by my side. She’d even come to the fight, even though she must have hated every minute of it.
Me being knocked out must have confirmed every fear she’d had about me fighting. And yet here she was.
I began to pick up more of the conversation taking place beside my bed. The other woman might not be a doctor after all. Nora and the woman were talking to each other like they were old friends.
“So would you stay at home and wait for him to return beaten and bloody?” the stranger said.
“No,” Nora replied. She sounded exhausted.
How long had I been here for?
“Then this can’t work,” the woman said. “I’m sorry, Nora, I really am.”
“It can work. It has to.”
“Why?”
“Because I love him.”
I already felt like I was floating. Now I felt like I’d just shot up through the ceiling.
The beeping of the machine next to me sped up in response to my drastically escalated heart rate. Both the women approached, and I heard one of them press buttons on the machine, before taking my pulse at the wrist.
I sure hoped she was a doctor and not just some random friend of Nora’s.
One of my eyes opened sharply as the woman yanked my eyelid up. The light startled me, but my body didn’t move in response. The eyelid dropped shut, but then she opened it again and this time shone a light in my eye.
Okay, enough of this crap.
I forced my other eye open, and then blinked a few times to adjust to the light. I had to squint for the time being, but it was a start.
“Is he awake?” Nora asked excitedly.
“Yes,” the woman replied. I could make out the white jacket that doctors always wore, so she at least had some training, even if so far it only extended to blinding me.
“I didn’t think he’d wake up so quickly,” Nora said.
“Neither did we. We gave him enough to knock him out for an entire day.”
I tried to talk, but my mouth was so dry that I had to peel my tongue off the roof of my mouth. The nurse quickly shoved a straw in between my lips and I slowly sucked up a few drips of precious liquid. I didn’t exactly feel thirsty—presumably one of the needles stuck in my arm was supplying me with fluids—but the water provided a natural comfort to my weary body and it meant I could move my dry tongue.
“Riker, it’s me,” Nora said softly.
“Stand back please, Nora,” the doctor said. “We need to do some tests.”
The doctor must have hit an alarm, because three other doctors streamed into the room and started poking and prodding at me.
I lay there patiently and answered questions designed to test that I still had all my senses. I think I passed, but I wouldn’t know if I’d given the wrong answer.
I might be imagining everything right now. Maybe I wasn’t really a fighter. Maybe in reality I worked a nice respectable office job, brought home a good salary, and had a mortgage. Nora might be my wife, not the woman I’d abandoned.
After an hour, the doctors left me alone and told me to get some sleep. I’d slept plenty, but I had to admit my body was tired.
“Can I stay with him?” Nora asked.
She was still here. I must be forgetting something, because I couldn’t remember a single reason why she would still be by my side right now.
“No, you need to leave. He’s going to fall asleep again soon.”
There was no way in hell I was going to fall asleep again now. I had to tell Nora how I really felt, before she came to her senses.
The last thing I wanted was to—
Chapter Thirty-One
Nora
“How is he?” Duke asked as I returned to the waiting area.
Duke and Gayle had showed up after getting everyone out of the gym, and finishing up what sounded like a rather awkward conversation with the police.
“He woke up and the doctors ran some tests. They’re not telling me anything and now he’s asleep again.”
Gayle growled in frustration. “We tried to get details, but no one will tell us anything because we’re not family.”
“We’re the closest thing he has to family,” Duke snapped, blaming the messenger.
“I know that,” Gayle replied. “But they have so many fucking rules at these places.”
“I bet they’d let us pay the bill though, wouldn’t they?” Duke replied.
We sat there in silence, occasionally getting up to pace around the waiting room. Every time a doctor or nurse entered the room, we looked up expectantly hoping for news. Nothing.
The battery on my phone had died a long time ago, and I could only keep myself amused for so long with out-of-date women’s magazines.
I’d had enough. I stood up and stormed over to the reception desk. Just before I could make a scene and get myself kicked out, Alison came into the room and motioned for me to join her in a private room.
That couldn’t be good. What couldn’t she tell us in public?
I grabbed Gayle and Duke and the four of us stood in a small room looked a lot like it might be for grieving relatives.
“Tell us what’s going on,” Duke demanded as soon as the door was shut. “And don’t give us that BS about not being relatives because—”
“Duke, calm down. Alison is a friend.”
“This is Duke?” Alison asked.
I nodded. “You can tell us, right?”
“Yeah. I told the attending physician that you three were essentially family in all but name. Oh, and if he asks, Nora, you’re engaged to Riker.”
I nodded. I’d marry him right this second if I thought it would make difference.
“What’s the news?” Gayle asked nervously.
“He responded well to all the tests for brain damage. We won’t be able to say for sure for another few days, but he seems fine. Mentally.”
“Physically?” I asked.
“He’s got a few broken bones.”
“That’s normal after a fight,” Duke explained.
“There’s nothing normal about it,” Alison snapped back, forgetting the professional demeanor she’d been keeping in place so far. “He’s broken his nose, a couple of ribs, and he has fractures on his cheekbones. But that’s not the problem.”
“What is?” I asked. “You said he was going to be fine.”
“I said I thought he would be fine mentally. Physically, I’m concerned.”