Redemption: A British Stepbrother Romance (57 page)

I
knew
Elliot would be a challenge from the second the bell rang.

He didn’t do anything. That was always a bad sign.

From the outside, MMA in a cage might look a bit like boxing, but it was nothing like it in practice. Whereas in boxing it was common for the competitors to size each other up in the early stages, in cage fighting, it was more typical for the opponent to come speeding in hoping to make an immediate impression. There was little subtlety or intelligence in this game.

In every single one of my past fights, I’d managed to get an early upper hand by using my opponent’s early aggression against him. Sometimes I would be able to dodge out of the way and then throw them behind me for an early introduction into the cold metal surrounding the cage.

Other times I would just keep on my toes and let my opponent throw punches and kicks at the air until they’d tired themselves out enough for me to move in for the kill.

Elliot wouldn’t go down that easily. We danced around the circle of the cage, sizing each other up, but neither willing to make the first move.

I almost smiled as I mentally compared the situation to that of Nora and me when we’d both liked each other, but neither had wanted to be the one to take things to the next level.

Then Nora had brazenly invited me up to her room. Everything changed at that point.

The punch hit me out of the blue. I’d been staring directly at Elliot but my mind had been elsewhere. My head didn’t snap back, but it was enough to daze me, and break the chance.

“Wake the fuck up, Riker,” Duke yelled from just outside the cage.

Elliot could—and would—punch me harder than that. He looked as surprised as me to find my defenses down. He’d probably suspected it was a trap. I wish.

There was nothing like being punched in the face to wake you up a bit. Suddenly I remembered I was in a fight.

I missed Nora, and hated the way we’d left things, but getting beaten up wouldn’t help matters.

We both went back to circling the cage, but this time I used the opportunity to spur the crowd on, raising my hands in the air and encouraging them to scream my name. I hoped the noise would deafen me and drown out all thoughts of Nora. It didn’t work.

Now wasn’t the time to think about Nora. Now was the time to fight. So I fought.

I narrowed the gap to Elliot. With one quick step forward I could land a punch on him, but he could do the same to me. Time to shit or get off the pot.

I stepped onto my left foot and faked to throw a punch with my right fist. He fell for it, dodging a punch that never came. Instead, my left fist swung out and landed on the side of his face as he ‘dodged.’

My left hand wasn’t as strong as my right, and the bait and switch had left me off balance, but that first punch always hurt like hell.

Elliot reacted quickly. He let the momentum of my punch swing him round to the side, and swung out a leg, kicking me hard on the back.

I had more than enough muscle there to cushion the blow, but it sent me staggering forward leaving me exposed from behind.

My previous opponents would have rushed in right now, desperate to capitalize on an advantage, but Elliot kept his distance and used the time to recover from my first punch. This guy meant business.

The crowd was getting restless already. They weren’t used to see me taking things slowly. Usually I had the upper hand already. I could have let the discontent wash over me, but I enjoyed having them on my side.

After tricking him with that last punch, I knew Elliot would be suspicious of my every move. I advanced towards him and positioned myself to throw an obvious right handed punch.

It couldn’t have been more signposted and obvious. Elliot assumed it was another bluff and didn’t move. Perfect.

My fist slammed hard into his face. This time it was my strong hand, and I had perfect balance. That one was going to hurt.

Elliot went staggering back until he came to a rest on the side of the cage. He’d have been better off falling to the floor and trying to swipe me off my feet.

With his back against the cage, he had nowhere to move and I had temporary control. The only tough bit was deciding exactly what to do. I settled on landing two more punches to the face; one with the right hand and one with the left. There would be plenty of time to get body shots in later.

Elliot was a good-looking guy and good-looking guys didn’t like getting their faces ruined. Elliot wouldn’t be the first person to lose the mental battle because of concern over his looks.

I should have known Elliot wouldn’t go down that easy.

“
Y
ou’ve got
the upper hand in this,” Duke insisted. He always gave a similar pep talk halfway through the fight so I’d heard it all before.

Gayle did her best to clean up some of my wounds, but one on the head was bleeding heavily and I knew it wouldn’t stop before I went back out for the next round.

“The scout’s impressed,” Duke continued.

“He might be impressed with Elliot,” I pointed out.

“Maybe,” Duke agreed. “But you’re a better fighter. It’s good that Elliot’s giving you a challenge though. It just makes you look better.”

Gayle finished cleaning me up and dried the sweat from my face. I squinted and blinked my eyes to get my full vision back. There were no black eyes yet, so I still had my sight at least. It wasn’t uncommon for an eye to swell up and make the fight a hell of a lot more difficult.

I surveyed the crowd to check out the mood. They were still on my side, but some of them were getting nervous. They didn’t particularly care about my well-being; they’d just put large bets on me winning.

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.

T
he 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.”