“What?”
“I never fought a woman!” he snapped. “If it wasboxingthen it doesn’t make any feckin’ difference—a woman’s just like a smaller man. But she’ll fight like she fights on the street. That’s completely different.”
My heart was suddenly pounding. This was much, much worse than anything I’d prepared myself for.I might as well not have trained at all.Out in the pit, Rick seemed to be coming to the end of his speech. We had seconds. I started to panic-breathe.
Aedan grabbed my shoulders. “OK, look. If it was a man, he’d try to bite and gouge. So keep clear of her teeth and be ready to block her when she scratches at you. And a man would try to knock you down and pin you so he could finish you off, so stay on your feet.”
“Okay,” I said breathlessly.
“It’s not all bad,” he said. “She probably hasn’t been trained. She’ll be undisciplined. Unbalanced. Keep your guard up and look for a weakness. Remember you’re an out-boxer—keep your distance.”
“Okay,” I said again.
In the pit, we could hear Rick giving it everything he had.“From the mean streets of New York City!”he bellowed.“Raised by a junkie mom and a deadbeat dad, she started selling her body at fourteen. She beat up girls who tried to steal her turf and now she lays down the law in a gang.Jacki!”
I saw Jacki roll her eyes and wondered how much of that story Rick had made up. But she stalked out into the pit to huge cheers.
“Just stay focused,” said Aedan, rubbing my shoulders. “Don’t panic. Don’t drop your guard.”
“And from the Upper West Side!” Rick yelled.
What?I wasn’t from the Upper West Side. Even when Dad was alive, even whenMomwas alive, we were still poor.
“She was society’sit girl,” Rick told the crowd. “Pampered and privileged. Sent to a Swiss finishing school to learn manners, where rumor has it she fucked half her male teachers. Then to Harvard, where she studied law...”
The crowd growled. Everybody hated lawyers.
“But then she fell from grace!”
The crowd roared their approval.
“Unable to resist the bad boy charm of her very first criminal client, she eloped with him...only to be dumped by the roadside. Disowned by her wealthy family, desperate for money...now she’s here!”
The crowd went wild. I exchanged disbelieving looks with Aedan, feeling sick. Not only had he made up a ridiculous story for me—and probably for Jacki, too—but he’d set her up as theunderdog and me as the wealthy, snobby girl who needed teaching a lesson.
It was clear who the crowd would want to win.
“Sylvie!”yelled Rick.
Aedan grabbed me and kissed me hard. Then he lifted his fists towards mine. I realized he wanted me to tap fists with him. The same good luck ritual I used to do with Alec. I stared at his huge, scarred hands and at my own much smaller ones, and then I tapped.
And ran out into the pit before I could change my mind.
29
SYLVIE
I’d watchedplenty of fights from the balcony. And I’d been down in the side room, where Aedan now was, when Alec fought. So I thought I knew what to expect.
I was wrong.
The crowd above became a hooting, screaming hurricane, their voices surrounding me and leaving my ears ringing. The harsh overhead lights blinded me whenever I looked up, turning the people above into faceless silhouettes. I could just see the white of their teeth and the gleam of their spit as they yelled.
The pit itself was a merciless prison. Smooth concrete walls much higher than my head. A bare concrete floor. The doors into the side rooms looked pathetically small.
There was nowhere to run.
Jacki was already standing directly across from me, glaring at me. Rick slapped me enthusiastically on the shoulder and ran back to the side room to wait with Aedan.
