Chapter 1 - Kane
Kane
The pit tonight is heaving with sweaty bodies. Men filled with testosterone and lust. Here to watch the female cage fighters. It’s the closest some of these men will ever get to girls like these. Each one of these girls has a body to die for, and if they aren’t up to par, then they might just die. This underground fight club is ruthless. The fighters can only win the purse by knockout. There are no holds barred. The only rule; No weapons. The real money is made up here in the gallery, above the cage. They place high-stakes bets. Millions being bet on which fighters will survive and which will end up dead. The losers, if their owners don’t want them, get killed or sold on. No one wants a fighter that can't win and make money. The body will get dumped in some back alley, and the cops will assume they are victims of the lawless streets, a mugging or a robbery that went wrong. They’ll just be another statistic. Most of the owners couldn’t care less if their fighter dies. They’re an object. A resource. They might make a bit of money back if they sell them on because that's how they come to be here. Sold to the pit bosses by traffickers. The pit bosses don't care where they came from as long as they can fight and make them some money.
One of those low-life bosses is standing beside me now. Eddie Grogan. He’s been in the game for a while and his latest girl is about to go into the cage.
I stare down at the cage as the bouncers pat her down, searching for any hidden weapons. Not that she needs them. I’ve seen her fight before. She’s young but has a confidence about her. The confidence that comes from being an undefeated cage fighter. Her blonde hair is braided tightly and her pale blue eyes shine with intensity as she stares at her opponent. She flexes her muscles in a show of strength. Even that drives the crowd wild. Not only is she undefeated, but she’s also a favourite. I don’t doubt for a second that she’ll win the fight tonight.
I’ll give Grogan his due. He didn't put her in the cage until she was ready to win, like some of the other mongrels in here. She was more than ready, in fact. He must have known she’d be popular. Her fighting skills notwithstanding, she’s fucking gorgeous. Why the hell she is cage-fighting? I’ll never know. She’d fetch a helluva lot more on the open market. If her life had panned out differently, she could have been a model or a film star. She doesn’t belong here, that’s for sure, which is why I’m about to have a conversation with this piece of shit.
I don’t beat around the bush. It’s not my style and never has been. Besides, money talks and I have plenty of it. Money and power which I’m not afraid to use to get what I want.
“How much?” I ask, “for your girl?”
I gesture with my head towards the girl in the cage. I don’t know her name, just that Grogan owns her.
He laughs.
“Sorry friend. She’s not for sale.”
I take a step towards him, and he stops laughing immediately. I have about three inches on him, and whereas I work out and have the physique to show for it, the only thing he has to show is a belly. The result of too much fast food and alcohol, which I can smell on his fetid breath. There are damp patches on his once-white shirt. He’s sweating like the pig he is, and the aroma of stale body odour permeates the air around him.
He swallows nervously.
“Let’s get one thing straight, Grogan. I’m not your friend and what I want, I get. Right now I want your girl, so name your price.”
He glances at me, then back down at the cage. His girl is currently beating the crap out of her opponent. Not that I expected anything less, which is why I bet a large sum on her to win. The payout won't be huge, but if I was her owner, that would be a different story, because she wouldn't be fighting for her life, and definitely not in the pits.
He licks his lips. Weighing up what he thinks is a price I can’t pay, or perhaps he just wants to be rid of her before the inevitable happens, and she loses to a better fighter.
“Two million. I won't hand her over for any less,” he grunts.
I hold out my hand. My face is a blank mask. Inside I’m laughing. I would have paid five times that much.
He stares at my hand as though he doesn’t believe it.
“Do we have a deal?” I growl when he doesn’t take my hand.
“I get another fight before I hand her over,” he states.
I sigh, but nod. The sooner I get her away from this piece of shit, the better.
He takes my hand to shake on the deal.
You can tell a lot from a person's handshake, and Grogan’s is weak as hell. It’s like holding a wet fish. Weak and clammy.
I pull my hand away.
“Next week. I want her by then.”
Grogan pulls his hand away and nods.
“You have yourself a deal, Mr Alexander.”
It's no surprise to me that he knows my name. Everyone around here does.
I glance down at the cage. The bouncers are removing the unconscious girl's body from the cage while Grogan’s girl watches.
She’ll only fight in that cage one more time, then she’ll be mine. She’s far too good for this shithole.
“What’s her name?” I ask him.
He looks at her.
“Jaime Skinner,” he huffs,
He looks at me and narrows his eyes. He wants to say something else, but he a spineless bastard.
Most of them are when it comes to me.
He assumes I want her as a fighter, but there’s that question in his expression that it might be for something else.
Too bad if it is because he’s just sold her to me.
The people who frequent this dump know who I am and they know what I’m capable of.
That’s why no one ever questions my intentions. No one wants to make an enemy of Kane Alexander.
I can't help but smirk at him as he turns to leave.
If I want Jaime Skinner other than as a fighter, then I’ll have her, because I always get what I want and right now, it's her.
I watch as Grogan walks away to collect the winner's purse, and then I pull out my phone.
“Kane?”
Cameron answers the phone after barely one ring. He’s not only my best friend and brother, but he’s my second in command when it comes to our less-than-legal enterprises.
This isn’t one of them, though. Trafficking disgusts me, but pushing back too hard against the people that do would earn me no favours, nor would it help my other business interests. I just avoid them when I can.
Cameron is my go-to person for information. He won’t be happy to hear that I’ve actually bought one of these poor bastards, but Jaime Skinner is different. I knew from the first moment I saw her.
“I want everything you can find on Eddie Grogan and a girl called Jaime Skinner.”
I can almost visualise him rolling his eyes. Not because of the information I want on Grogan, but because there’s a girl involved.
“Who is she this time?” he huffs.
I smirk.
“That’s what I’m hoping to find out. Currently, she’s a cage fighter in the pits, but as of next week, she’ll belong to me.”
Cameron sighs. He thinks my dark side just got a little darker.
“I can’t believe you fucking bought someone, and a girl at that.”
I look down at the cage. Grogan has an arm around her shoulder and is leading her back to the dressing room. The bouncers make sure that the punters don’t get anywhere near her.
“It's not what you think,” I grunt. “Just get me the information.”
I end the call before I get drawn into an argument with my brother.
I need to find out how she came to be in Grogan’s possession. She’s young, which probably means she was payment for a debt. She’s a good fighter. He’s probably trained her better than most of the others that fight here. Maybe it was part of the deal when he bought her because with the looks and the body she has, she would have been a perfect specimen for the sex traffickers.
