Cage Match (16 page)

front door and staggered down the steps to the street. He was drunk, stoned, or else

shaky with age.

Jabez tugged on Andreas‟s sleeve, urging him across the road through the sparse

traffic. It didn‟t take long to catch up with the tottering old man. He planted himself in

front of him and the man jerked back as if to dodge a blow.

“They still run a shelter there?” Jabez pointed at the building.

The man stared at him, mumbled something, and shoved past.

Jabez shrugged. “Anyway, I only spent a little time there. I‟ll show you some of

the other places I lived.” Before, he‟d avoided Andreas‟s personal questions. Now that

he‟d committed to this visit, he felt strangely driven to make him fully understand what

it meant to live here.

Halfway down the block, he noticed the man who‟d been watching them was back

and shadowing them. He felt the cool blade resting against his inner arm, ready to drop

into his hand in a split second. There was also the comforting weight of a gun beneath

his jacket and another knife hidden under his pant leg in case he was disarmed. The

concealed weapons made him feel safe, but his skin still crawled with nervous tension.

He knew how quickly a situation could erupt here and a life could end.

“So where‟s the place you robbed that got you arrested?”

“Not in B-town. Nothing worth stealing here and no cops to arrest you. It‟s strictly

gang law down here. Order maintained by whoever‟s in power.”

“So you were in New Englandia? I thought no one could leave here without proof

of employment.”

“Fake work visa. Got myself some better clothes. Figured I‟d hit a couple of shops

uptown and be set for life.” He laughed and shook his head. “I was more ignorant

about N.E. than you are about here. I blended in about as well as a wolf pretending to

be a dog.”

Jabez recalled his first view of the city had been like seeing another planet. He‟d

watched vids set in that wealthy world, but seeing it firsthand, so clean and orderly and

bright, had completely put him off his game. Hands shaking, body trembling like a

junkie‟s, he‟d walked into a store and drawn the gun. In seconds, store security had

taken him down.

“Got caught and arrested right away, spent a few months in jail before they

offered me the club contract. Fighting my way to an early release seemed like a good

idea.”

“It led you to me, so I‟m glad you took the option. But it doesn‟t seem ethical to

put prisoners in a position where they could be killed on any given night.”

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Bonnie Dee

“Sometimes there‟s worse things than dying. This way.” Jabez guided him down

an alley as familiar as the hallways of Andreas‟s house were now. “I squatted lots of

places, but this is the first one I remember.”

He and Andreas stopped in front of a huge building that might have held offices

sometime in its history. Almost all the windows in the crumbling ruin were missing or

boarded over. Jabez remembered how cold the rooms got in the dead of winter with

only a barrel fire.

He glanced at Andreas, trying to see the place through his eyes, but for himself all

he could see was Zach, Gentia, Ugly Joe, Lightning, and the others. His pack, his family,

until they died or disappeared one by one.

“The girl you remember, the one you think was your sister, what was her name?”

“Azura. I remember her laughing and running away. We were playing a game,

and I remember the food she gave me and her eyes.”

“What do you think might have happened to her?”

He shrugged. “A lot of people disappear here. Some are killed or overdose or

kidnapped and sold as slaves. But there are stories about black vans that come from the

other side and drive around picking up people and taking them away.”

“Who?” Andreas frowned.

“It was only a rumor.” Jabez hesitated, remembering a boy screaming, men

dressed in black putting him into a van and the door sliding closed before the vehicle

rolled silently away. “One night I saw something like that happen, but it probably had

something to do with gangs.”

The van had been too shiny and clean to belong to anyone in B-town, but he kept

that thought to himself. It was long ago, and even if that was what had happened to

Azura, he couldn‟t do anything about it now.

The distant sound of laughter and music came from inside the abandoned

building. His chest tightened with longing, a ridiculous flash of nostalgia for the place

that had been his home. He pictured the inside: sleeping bags or old mattresses on the

floor, odds and ends of clothing and whatever things the kids could scrounge, a bunch

of ragged brats acting cool and talking tough, getting high, screwing, arguing, and

fighting. But this wasn‟t his world any longer, and he wouldn‟t take Andreas inside.

“Come on. Let‟s go get a drink.” Jabez strode away, not waiting to see if his boss

followed.

He stopped at the first bar they came to and paused inside the doorway, waiting

for his eyes to adjust to the dim light. He searched for danger as heads turned their

way, judging them too, before he led the way to a table in the corner, sitting with his

back to the wall so he could continue to watch the room while he drank.

Andreas slid into another seat and their legs bumped beneath the small table. “It‟s

strange for you being back here, isn‟t it? Is there anyone you want to see while we‟re

here?”

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75

Jabez shook his head.

A waitress came over and he ordered the beer that was on tap, then fished

through his pocket for coins to pay with. He made a show of barely having enough

money, which should make some of their silent watchers lose interest, if only Andreas

didn‟t carry himself like royalty.

“I‟ve told you about my plans for B-town, but I didn‟t ask for your input,”

Andreas said. “That was arrogant of me. You‟re the one who lived here. You‟d know

better than me what‟s most needed.”

He stared. “You‟re asking
my
opinion?”

“Yes. Absolutely. In fact, I think after we work on this plan together, you should

come with me when I present it. Give the board a firsthand account of surviving in

Brick Town.”

Jabez gave a scoffing snort. “Fortias isn‟t going to go for your plan, and even if

they were willing to throw money into this crapper, it wouldn‟t change anything here.”

Andreas folded his arms on the table and leaned forward. “Do you really believe

that? You think there‟s no hope for things to get better?”

“I told you anyone lucky enough to get out should walk away and never look

back. There‟s nothing worth saving.”

“What about kids like you, growing up with nothing? Don‟t you think you

deserved a chance? Or that they do? I see the potential in you, and someone needs to

see it in them too and help them.”

His gut churned with anger he didn‟t know why he was feeling. As usual,

Andreas was trying to be kind and generous and do the right thing, but he was so

innocent Jabez want to punch him.

The waitress returned with two glasses. Jabez waited for her to leave before

answering. “You don‟t know anything about me or this place. We met because of a bet.

It was a fluke and good luck for me. But when it‟s over, I‟ll take my money and go

somewhere far away from this city. I‟ll never return to B-town, and I wouldn‟t care if

the whole place burned.”

Andreas held his glass but didn‟t drink from it. He focused on the foaming beer.

“All right. I understand.”

Jabez felt terrible, as if he‟d kicked a puppy.

“You‟re right; I don‟t know you or what you‟ve been through. I‟m finally

beginning to understand that. We don‟t have much in common, except for sex. Maybe

it‟s better if we back off on that and concentrate on the fight training. When I‟ve learned

all you can teach me, you‟ll go on your way.”

The pit of Jabez‟s stomach boiled, but not with anger this time. It was a sick,

hollow feeling that hurt much worse than anger.

“Because right now you‟re making me feel like I‟ve been using you like a whore.”

Andreas‟s voice had never sounded so cold. All the warmth and the shimmer of

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Bonnie Dee

amusement that usually colored his tone leached away, leaving it bone white and

jagged.

Jabez swallowed his beer in three gulps. The quiet between them was so complete

he could hear the tiny
click
the glass made when he set it back on the table.

“Hey!” a voice called from across the room. “Aren‟t you somebody famous? I

know that face.”

Picturing Andreas being held for ransom by the crew in the bar, Jabez rose from

his seat. “Come on. Let‟s get out of here.”

Following his lead, Andreas pulled the bill of his cap low over his face and stood.

From the corner of his eye, Jabez caught the movement of several people rising

from their stools at the bar. “Hold up. What‟s your hurry?”

He seized Andreas‟s elbow and hustled him toward the door. Better to play deaf

than respond to these guys. Not until he‟d pushed Andreas through the door and

closed it behind him did he draw a breath.

He continued to march Andreas along, but a glance behind told him trouble had

stayed in the bar. Not a surprise. It was one thing for them to threaten someone who‟d

stupidly stumbled onto their turf, another to come after him on the street.

A couple of blocks away, he turned a corner. Jabez took another look behind and

when he faced forward again, a fist cracked into his face, popping his head backward.

Pain exploded from his nose. Shock slowed his reflexes, and before he could slide his

blade into his hand or draw the gun, a knee to his gut drove the breath from him.

Blinking away the flashing lights in his vision, he looked for Andreas. A man

pinned his arms from behind, avoiding a backward head butt aimed for his jaw. Jabez

felt a flash of pride that Andreas had remembered to use the move; then he turned his

attention to his own opponent.

The man who‟d been following him earlier looked familiar close-up, but Jabez

didn‟t have time to figure out why. He bent over, drawing a choked breath, and let the

blade drop into his hand. Straightening, he thrust at the man before him, slashing his

shirt and nicking the chest beneath.

“Asshole! Don‟t kill me,” the man howled.

His voice was more familiar than his face. Jabez drove the knife up under his jaw

but halted with the point of the blade pressed to his throat. “Who the hell are you?”

As he looked into the man‟s eyes from inches away, he suddenly knew.

“Lightning.”

“Haven‟t been called that in years.” He bared his teeth in a white grin against his

dark face. “It‟s King Leonidas now.”

Jabez‟s eyebrows shot up, and he eased the point of the knife away. “King?”

“You know how fast things change around here. I run the whole southeast side

now. Always told you I was gonna be somebody.” He glanced down at Jabez‟s hand

and the blade that had nicked his skin. “You planning on cutting my throat?”

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77

“I don‟t know. You said hello by punching me in the face.”

“Love taps, baby.” He pulled his arm from Jabez‟s loose grip and pushed the knife

away from his throat. “Besides, I owed you that. Remember the last time we saw each

other?”

Jabez searched his mind and found a muddy memory of a fight about who owned

something; he couldn‟t even remember what now, a big argument, a fistfight, and

Lightning moving out of the squat. He‟d disappeared after that.

“You fucked me up good. Hadn‟t been for you, I‟d have been paying attention and

on my guard that night. Instead, I got grabbed. It was a miracle I ever escaped.”

“Escaped from where?” Jabez checked on Andreas, who‟d stopped struggling

now that the man holding him had loosened his grip.

“The black van is no lie. They take people, do shit to ‟em, and when they‟re done,

the lab rats are got rid of. If I hadn‟t got free, they‟d have taken me to that room.

Nobody ever came back from it.”

“Human experiments?” Andreas said. “Where did this happen? Did you go to the

police after you escaped?”

Leon looked at him, then at Jabez. “Who is this guy?”

“You have rights. People can‟t get away with that.”

Leonidas moved toward Andreas and Jabez tensed, but his old pal just rapped his

knuckles on the other man‟s forehead. “
People
can do whatever they want, and nobody

here‟s got any rights ‟cept what we take for ourselves.”

He turned back to Jabez. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Fact-finding mission,” Andreas spoke for him, and Jabez wished he were

standing closer so he could kick him in the ankle to shut him up. “There are some

who‟d like to make Brick Town a better place to live through outreach programs and

financial aid.”