“Bring the new recruits to the ring!” Black shouted into the microphone, and my ears rang with his amplified volume. Black looked out around the crowd and seemed to stare right at Trev as he nodded. Trev put his arm lower around my back and started shoving me forward.
“What are you doing?” I asked, my heart kicking up. I wasn’t really worried until the men in front of us turned around, laughed, and then pulled me onward as Trev shoved. I felt like I was trapped in a riptide of people who jerked and manhandled me toward the stage even though I tried to turn back. I lost Trev, though Jason and Nicky Q. were right there at my side, shooting me terrified looks.
When we were jostled within a foot of the stage, the men at the front shouted at us to climb up. Not knowing what else to do, the three of us stared at one another. I was used to being in a ring. There were other guys, clearly as dumbfounded as we were, also hoisting their asses onto the stage.
With one glance back to where I thought Trev might be in the seething mass of people, I did what everyone was shouting at me to do. My legs shook as I pulled myself upward until I was standing, then glared out over the yelling, shouting men. This was like those few minutes before a fight started when the testosterone was heavy in the air, and I worried if I backed out, they might fucking eat me like cannibals. Weird shit went through my head at those times, and it always seemed so real. I swallowed hard. Someone slid the big door at the back closed, and true panic strangled my throat as the lights went down, except for the one right over us.
There were rudimentary ropes around the edges of the stage, except for up front. As I stood there with the small group of other confused men, who all seemed to be close to my age, a few people broke away from the crowd to come up and set poles at intervals. They quickly strung a top and bottom rope across. I felt like I was in the world’s cheapest boxing match. Hitting bare ropes would fucking hurt. There weren’t even pads on the corners. If anyone smacked against those poles they’d get damaged—bad.
I tapped Black on the shoulder and crossed my arms. He turned to stare down at me, and my insides vanished under his mean, beady-eyed glower, but I kept myself firm in my stance. “What the fucking fuck is going on here, man?”
He gave me a smile that was more of a smirk as he tipped his chin, considering me. “We’re making a better world. A world where we can live our lives without corrupt influences. Where we can be our best without oppression. Without politically correct pansies telling us we can’t be the men we have a right to be. Without those same people trying to steal our birthright!” He roared his last few words into his microphone and the men at the front of the crowd erupted with shouts and jeers. Trev stood nearby, smiling at me and clapping. He seemed comfortable, so I figured I was just being a pussy and shrugged.
“All right, old man. Why not?”
The guy’s eyebrows went up, and he bellowed out a laugh that had me scrunching up my face because it hurt my ears. He thumped me hard on the back.
“Not that old,son.” He pounded my back again. Too hard. I nearly fell on my face.
Nicky Q. and Jason made wide, sad eyes at me, and yeah, I’d dragged them into this mess because I’d been too fucking scared to come out to the country alone with Trev, even though I’d wanted to be alone with him more thananything else, but so what? I hadn’t held a gun to their heads or anything. I let out a breath and tried to firm myself up. It was clear some shit was about to go down. I put my back to the audience and moved until there was plenty of space between me and everyone else in the ring, even though the rest of the guys huddled together like ducklings.
Fucking stupid. How could I be this dumb?Trev had said there would be a fight. I wasinthe fucking fight. How had I not figured that out before now?
Someone tapped my leg and I almost flew out of my skin. Trev gazed up at me from the crowd with another one of those smiles that made my insides hotter than the surface of the sun. Stars from the lights above popped in his eyes and the blood in my veins became electricity. Every piece of me sizzled.
“You’re a perfect fit, Pete.” He nodded toward Nicky Q. and Jason. “You already have foot soldiers. Men to carry out your orders. I’ve seen the way your friends use you to decide their lives. You do this, and you can be on the front lines of keeping our country pure.” He gave my ankle a pat, and my gut sank. I glanced at Jason. He seemed like he was close to passing out with the way the whites of his eyes were very visible and he had a hand on Nicky Q.’s shoulder for support.
Fuck, Trev’s crazy.Nuts, I could handle. Hell, I would have ridden him hard and let him put me away wet if being bonkers was all I had to deal with, because I liked him just fine, but all this talk about purity made me feel gross.
I wasn’t confused anymore.
Fuck me.I glared at the flag on the wall across from me. AS had to stand for one of those fucking groups that hated Black people and Jewish people anda billion other peoplefor no reason I could ever figure out. Jason was right—Nazishit. I sighed and stepped away from Trev, scared and not sure what the fuck to do. My nerves jangled.
He’d seemed like such a friendly, normal fucking dude until now. I glanced back at him, and he gave me two thumbs-up. My heart twisted.
Black cradled his microphone in his hand like it was a weapon and noted my position, one that would give me plenty of room to swing my fists, with a small nod. I already kind of figured this would be like the worst of the back-alley fights I’d beat my way through to come out the other side standing. I might not be prepared, but I wouldn’t go down without giving it my all.
“Okay, boys. Prove your worth. You die, well, nice knowing you! Last two on their feet are the new squad leaders!” He laughed, and everyone in the ring sort of stood around looking at one another. I brought up my fists, but no one moved to do any punching. Black caught my gaze and winked as he took two steps forward and clocked Nicky Q. right in the eye. He went down like a sack of bricks.
That jumpstarted everyone else, and a guy I’d never met before bull-rushed me, which was stupid. He was big and his weight worked against him as I crouched down like I was bracing to take the hit, then sidestepped at the last second. The doofus hit the ropes and went sailing over the edge. I almost swallowed my tongue as the crowd closed in around him and began to kick anything they could reach—including his head.
Fuck.
The fight didn’t last long. In fact, it was brutally short. Only me and one other guy, a tall, blond Dolph Lundgren-looking fuck, seemed to know how to fight. If someone had to come out on top and someone on the bottom, well,thiswasn’t where I wanted to bottom. I stepped into Jason’s side. He was freaked out and crouched on the floor with his arms over his head.
“Sorry!” I yelled.
“It’s okay, let’s just get out of he—”
I cracked him square on the jaw and he went down groaning. My fist barely hurt. Shrugging to myself, I moved on as I heard Trev shout, “Good boy, Petey!” My cheeks flushed, and even though I needed to drop him like last week’s moldy garbage, I was pleased.
There was another boy in front of me, a scrawny redhead, and he tried to swing, but I stepped back and brought in a liver shot under his rib cage. He gasped at the low hit and held the spot I’d smashed as he collapsed to his knees. I didn’t know him from nobody, so I kicked him over. He coughed, and I took a few seconds to feel superior.
My back exploded in pain, just under my right shoulder blade, and I groaned as I pivoted, already swinging. The kid who’d punched me wasn’t ready—some Italian boy by the looks of things, with his tan and deep brown eyes. I cracked him in the eye with my left fist, going all southpaw on him, and his head rocked back. I wasn’t normally a one-hit wonder in a real fight, but it was sadly obvious these guys had no clue what they were doing. Another couple of punches and wins and I was standing with three guys groaning on the floor around me. The blond kid I’d been worried about eyed me up from where he’d taken a corner of the ring, and he also had barely broken a sweat.
This was too fucking easy, his narrowed eyes seemed to say as he shot me a long look.
And he was right, if he was thinking what I was, that is, and I hadn’t gotten a concussion that made me imagine things.
