The Gender Game (22 page)

Then, as we kept close to the wall and pulled on our raincoats, Lee led me back to the parking lot. Reaching the car, he opened up the front passenger door. I collapsed inside, stowing the bag beneath my knees. I expected Lee to take a seat next to me and immediately drive off, but instead he whispered, "I'll be back in a minute. I have to go back in and restart the cameras."

He swept back to the building and through the glass doors. He didn't take long. Three minutes later he was back in the car and we drove toward the parking lot exit. We both were silent until we were firmly outside of the gate and speeding back toward home.

"What happened?" the two of us demanded at once.

"I'm sorry," Lee replied first. "The cleaners were
not
due in today. They were supposed to come tomorrow. A change in the schedule was obviously made, and whoever was responsible for it forgot to mark it in the works calendar. It couldn't have been prevented.” He looked at me sideways. "Did you pull it off?"

"Yes," I huffed. "It's done."

Lee nodded, relief washing over his face. "Good girl."

A
fter we returned
to Lee's house, he didn't have anything for me to do for the rest of the day, but he preferred not to call Viggo. My voice was too deep to see him, anyway. He suggested that I see him again tomorrow, when my main priority would be to figure out whether his schedule would be changing on the night of the banquet.

Lee drove me to head office in the morning and took me upstairs to Viggo's floor.

"Come in," came a familiar grunt as Lee knocked.

Lee pushed open the door and the two of us stepped inside.

Viggo sat behind his wide desk wearing a dark green t-shirt, his coat hanging from the back of his chair. A small pile of papers lay in front of him.

"All right, Viggo?" Lee asked pleasantly.

Viggo nodded, his eyes moving to me.

"Violet mentioned the contract. Congratulations!"

"Thanks," Viggo replied, monotone.

"Okay, I'd better head off. See the two of you later." Lee turned to me and leaned down to peck me on the cheek before leaving the room. The second kiss he'd laid on me. The first he had laid in public.

Trying not to get too caught up in mulling over Lee’s weirdness, I approached Viggo's desk. As our eyes met, a smile spread across both of our faces.

I took a seat opposite him. "How was your day yesterday?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "Uneventful. Yours?"

I couldn't quite bring myself to say 'uneventful', so instead I replied, "Fine. Lee had the whole day free and wanted us to spend it together."

Viggo nodded stiffly, averting his eyes to the table.

"Mr. Sands must've called you, right?" I said.

"He did."

"Well?"

"They want the fight to be sooner than I had expected. Next week."

"Next week? Which day?"

"Saturday."

The banquet was to be held the Wednesday after. I supposed that meant Viggo's schedule would remain the same, if the fight was to be over days before. Any changes to his training routine would in theory take place prior.

"Are you able to get any extra time off from your warden duties to train? It's so soon."

"No extra time off above my yearly allowance," he replied. "I'll figure it out."

"Who are you up against?" I asked.

"They've decided they want to escalate me straight to Cruz."

"Seriously?"

"Yup," he said, rubbing his jaw.

"Are you nervous?"

He shrugged again.

I guessed that meant no.

"So, what's your plan for today? Warden duties until evening?"

"No, I've got the second half of today free. I plan to train a little, but I'll be heading back home. I think your husband is expecting that I take you with me, and then drop you at your house at the end of his work day."

"Okay," I said. This would be the first time I'd be alone with Viggo in his house, so far away from other people. I wondered if it might feel awkward.

Viggo returned his focus to his papers, but said, "By the way, you might be interested to know that the man we reported—or rather, you reported—at number thirty-two will be questioned today."

"Good," I muttered. I'd done my part, now I had to hope justice got served.

Viggo finished leafing through the papers in front of him before tucking them into a drawer.

We spent the rest of the morning outside. The rains of yesterday had given way to a bright blue sky. Viggo had to make another visit to the arms store for a meeting with the manager, which took up a good part of the morning, before returning to head office. He led me to a large conference room on the ground floor, where he met with about fifty other wardens—all of them working under him, apparently.

I sat in the chair by a corner, a little separated from the men. I didn't want to cause waves by taking a seat right among them. Viggo had three things on his agenda: first he informed them of new weapons that the force was bringing in, as well as giving them a demonstration. Next he spoke about new security protocols to be instigated near "Thickets Bridge"—apparently a bridge located somewhere in the mountains that connected a route to Porteque. And finally, he asked for an update on what was happening regarding the man who had escaped from the recent kidnapping incident, the man I hadn't managed to catch. There were no updates in that regard. Apparently he had escaped, well and truly.

After the meeting, everybody piled out of the conference room and headed to the canteen for lunch. Viggo and I accompanied them. As we collected trays and served ourselves a hot meal, I felt eyes watching me. Nobody looked directly at me for more than a few seconds, but I could tell the men were wondering who I was exactly, and why I was hanging around with their chief.

After we'd eaten, we left the building and headed to Viggo's motorcycle. Soon, we were speeding toward his side of the mountains.

We hit an unexpected spell of traffic along the way. I thought that maybe another accident had taken place and was clogging up all the roads again, just like the other night. But that didn't appear to be the case here. I strained my neck to see through the line of honking vehicles.

"Damn," Viggo murmured.

"What?"

"I forgot it was today."

"Forgot what was today?" I squeezed his waist, pressing him for an answer.

"King Maxen is making an appearance just up the road. You see that gold sedan?"

"Uh, yeah. Just about." A shiny golden vehicle was parked up near the sidewalk to our left.

"That's the king's. It's the inauguration of a new hospital… I'm off-duty now, otherwise I'd be there making sure things ran smoothly."

"A new hospital?"

"They say it's going to be the most technologically advanced we've ever had in Patrus," Viggo said.

"Lots of new, uh, technological stuff going on around here," I commented.

"Yeah," Viggo said. "And there will be a lot more to follow in the coming months. Don't ask me for details. I don't make a habit of reading the papers."

Or watching the news or listening to the radio, if his cabin was anything to go by.

I guessed life was a lot quieter that way. More peaceful without the constant bombardment of headlines.

I had lived that way for a lot of my life too—not that I'd had much of a choice in recent years, being stuck in detention centers. It wasn't exactly a priority there to keep the girls informed of current events.

I inhaled deeply as we approached the foothills, once again relishing the crisp, pure air.

"Do you always train by yourself?" I asked.

"Of course not. There are guys I spar with in the gym. But sometimes it's good to be out in the open."

I agreed.

Ascending higher and higher, I finally caught sight of Viggo's cabin as we traveled the last stretch of road. This was the first time I had seen it in daylight.

It really was small for a guy like Viggo. I wondered if he ever felt claustrophobic. Then again, if he did, he could sit out in the open, which I guessed was what the chair on his porch was for…

After disembarking and parking his motorcycle, he led me up the steps to the wooden platform that ran around the cabin, and opened the door.

"Come in if you want," he told me, already heading toward his bedroom. "I need to change."

Closing the door politely behind me, I headed to the sitting room. It looked the same as the night I'd last visited. Even the ointment and bandages were in the same place, although the hearth was not ablaze.

I was left to look out of the window—down at the bustling city—for a couple of minutes before Viggo returned barefoot, sporting a loose pair of pants and a looser black shirt that revealed a flash of his chest.

"Want something to drink?" he asked me. "I only have water."

"I'm okay for now."

We returned outside and I followed him around to the back of the cabin, where he had a sprawling backyard. Most of it was overgrown, but there was a stretch in the center where the grass had been kept trimmed. A makeshift log shelter stood by its border. Beneath it was various exercise equipment. Weights, benches, and other strength training gear I couldn't put a name to.

The view from this side of the house took me by surprise. Viggo's home being on a high plateau, it afforded a view of the
other
side of this mountain. The cliffs and peaks dipped down into a lush valley, through which ran a glittering river. And on the other side, more regal mountain ranges sprawled out for as far as I could see. Some peaks were so high, I couldn't even see their tips. Low clouds hung over them in an otherwise spotless sky.

Viggo's view was unique. Cityscape on the one side. Wilderness on the other.

He caught me staring in awe.

"So, deeper into these mountains is where you plan to buy land, once you quit being a warden?" I asked him.

"Not too deep, but deeper."

I squinted, trying to gauge how far my vision would stretch into the distance. "What's too deep?"

"Certainly no further than Thickets Bridge."

Wherever that was…

Viggo moved over to the log shelter and picked up some weights. I knelt on the grass as he began to warm up, my attention half on him, half on the view that was still taking my breath away. So far, things didn’t feel awkward, and I suspected that wouldn’t change. He was the same man as he was down in the city… just with a bit more breathing space.

Viggo worked out for the next hour and then retreated into the cabin for water. He brought out a steel jug and two glasses.

"Hope I'm not distracting you by being here," I told him, accepting a glass.

"No," he said, dropping down on the grass next to me. "I planned to give myself a bit of a break today anyway. Still some days to go before the fight… and I know Cruz's style. Seen it many times before."

He removed his shirt, wiping the sweat from his face, chest and neck.

I stood up and wandered over to his equipment, testing the weight of his dumbbells. They were heavy. Very heavy. I played with a few other items before turning to face him. He was watching me.

I slipped my hands into my pockets, kicking at the ground casually as I asked, "Would you teach me a thing or two about what you know?"

"Teach you what, exactly?"

"I don't know. Some punching and blocking tips. Some grappling techniques. You're like a snake when you get a hold of someone."

He glanced toward the front of his cabin, as if to check no one was watching. "Okay." Putting down his glass, he strode over to me. "Let's start with some blocks… Say I go to punch you like this"—he moved his fist toward me in slow motion—"how would you block it?"

I swiped it aside with a swift chop of my right forearm. Not the most elegant move, but it usually did the trick.

"Okay," Viggo said. "And what about like this?" He came in with a slow round hook. Since there was enough space between us, I ducked down and went for his knees.

"Now I would floor you," I said, hooking the back of my ankles against the back of his.

"Try it," he said.

I jerked my ankles forward, causing him to lose balance. He caught his fall expertly with his arms rigid and palms spread out.

"And now," he said, sitting up and twisting me around so that my back was against his chest, "if I held you in this choke…" He locked one arm around my neck, the other fastening my arms behind my back. "How would you get out?"

Hm. Good question.

This was difficult because neither of us were standing. I couldn't knock him to the ground like I had done back in his changing room when he'd held me from behind.

I tried to maneuver my legs to distance myself and loosen his grip on me, but I failed. I realized that I actually did not know—or remember—how to get out of this.

"What's the answer?" I asked.

"What if I told you the answer is, there's no way out of this one?"

"I'd call bull."

He chuckled. "Then get out of it."

His challenge got my creative juices flowing.

I realized what I would do. My knees were touching the ground, which meant that I had leverage. Due to the nature of his hold, his face wasn't far from the back of my head. I would jerk my body upward suddenly, catching him with a head-butt strong enough to weaken his grip on me for a few seconds. Then I'd slither out.

Obviously, I wasn't going to actually do that now. I didn't want to give Viggo a bloody nose before his fight, so I just explained it to him.

"Hm. That might've worked," he said. "But I guess we'll never know. Now that you've told me your idea, I'll be sure to watch the back of your head."

Still his grip remained on me. "Hey, come on!" I said, grinning.

"There is another way out of this, though," he said. "At least one other way that wouldn't require you to smash my face in. Figure it out."

Viggo was a hard taskmaster, but I liked it.

Another idea came to me, and this time I acted instantly. Using my knees, I shoved all my weight to the right as I leaned backward. The mix of movement and direction was enough to rock Viggo's balance. We both toppled to our sides on the grass. As we made contact with the ground, there was a second where Viggo's hold loosened on my arms. I managed to slide them out in front of me and then break his hold on my neck enough for me to squirm and twist until I was facing him, our noses inches apart. I froze, realizing just how close we’d come to each other. Closer than we’d ever been. I paused for a few seconds to take in the details of his eyes, his dark lashes, every hue of green in his irises and the way they seemed to gleam as he looked back at me. Then, experiencing a flush of bashfulness, I switched back into fighting mode. Curving my right arm around him, I shoved myself further upward until my right shoulder dug into his neck, while I flattened his left arm beneath me. His right arm was still free, but I kept my head pressed close to his, which made it tougher for him to gain control of me.

Of course, if he was actually fighting with me, he would've made things a lot more difficult. But as I released him and we both sat up, there was still a shine to his eyes. He seemed pleased.

We spent the next few hours discussing techniques and putting them into play—mostly grappling, which was what I enjoyed the most, but also some punching and kicking. Before we knew it, dusk was upon us. That was just as well, I supposed. Viggo had worn me out. I was fit from manual labor, but I hadn't done resistance training for years. Of course I didn't have anywhere close to Viggo's lasting power. He could have continued all night.