Page 1 of Nicolette

Chapter 1

Nicolette

Fighting, it’s all I knew.

The only way I could stay alive in the hell I’d landed myself.

There was no one else to blame for my fate but me. It had been my choice to make a deal with the devil—excuse me, The Broker. He was no demon asking for my soul in exchange for what I needed or a genie who let me make an ill-fated wish. No, the bastard was a greedy, shady leprechaun, and those bastards loved to make deals and promises, trapping you in the fine print. Should have known fucking better than to trust a gangster who owned the slums I’d grown up in.

The problem was, when you’re desperate, barely surviving, and doing everything you can to save what family you have left—you signed the damn contract. Besides, who took the time to read all fifty pages of the blasted contract when the money you needed was sitting right in front of you? Next time—if I lived long enough for there to be a next time—I’d read every fucking word—twice.

“Swurve,” Dregu bellowed from the locker room entrance. “Get your scrawny human ass out here.”

Checking the wraps on my hand one last time, I rolled my shoulders and stood. Barefoot, I padded across the room to the hobgoblin who’d been assigned as my keeper for the night. The Broker, or LC—short for Lucky Charms as I called him, didn’t like to risk his favorite toy being stolen from him. In an odd way, I supposed I should be honored, but all it did was hammer home how much I was a slave to the bastard.

Dregu stood just outside the door, arms crossed, glaring. I was not sure any of the hobgoblins that worked for LC could look anything other than pissed off. Their sickly green skin, short pointy ears, and lower incisors that came up past their upper lip didn’t help their case. They weren’t as tall or muscular as their cousins, the orcs, who were favored for the role of muscle for hire. Instead, they were much closer to human proportions, adding to their inferiority complex. They were easy to manipulate if given an ounce of power and respect, which is why I think LC liked having them around.

“You know better than to make the boss wait,” Dregu pointed out as he turned and marched off to a set of stairs leading up to LC’s private box.

My so-called master delighted in having a chat with me before my night of fighting started. The little man loved to get on his power trips whenever possible to remind himself and others how important he was. Since I happened to be one of the few humans who’d proved themselves of any kind of value, he took every opportunity to make sure I didn’t get a big head about it.

Dregu opened the door and allowed me to go ahead. After ten years of this routine, I didn’t need to be told where to go.

The main part of the box had cushy chairs for whatever guests he had with him for the night. I headed for the red velvet curtain that blocked off LC’s private area. Shoving it aside, I found the red-headed menace sitting on the couch with a woman between his legs, giving him a blowjob. For a man who was only four and a half feet tall, I had to wonder if all things matched proportion-wise.

I’d made it clear from the beginning that I would do anything needed to pay back my debt as long as it didn’t involve any sexual favors hence how I wound up being LC’s secret weapon in the fighting ring.

“Ah… there she is, my golden ticket,” LC greeted when he spotted me.

Grabbing the woman’s hair, he ripped her off him and tossed her to the side. The fucker didn’t even bother tucking himself back in, but it was easy enough to just keep looking at his face. He loved to do everything he could to make me uncomfortable. His latest efforts had been with sexual situations like this, knowing I would never give that part of myself to him. Thankfully the name I’d built as a fighter had given me the cards to hold to keep from becoming like that woman.

“Tonight, you have three fights. The first two will be with humans, but I’ve decided it’s time to switch things up, and your final fight will be with a Supes,” LC informed me.

Frowning, I crossed my arms. “I don’t fight Supes, though.”

“Yes, well, all things must change, and I can’t find people to fight you. My dear girl, you’ve taken out all top human fighters over the past ten years. There’s no one left. If I’m going to continue to charge what I am for your fights, then I need you to have a worthy opponent,” LC said, waving off my concern. “Remember, the only reason you’re still alive hinges on the fact you make me money to repay the half a million dollars I loaned you.”

Grinding my teeth, I fought to keep from snapping at him. I’d been making him a fuckton of money. I was almost positive that I’d cleared my debt some time ago. But the shifty bastard wouldn’t let me see the numbers or tell me how much more I owed him. That told me it was because he wouldn’t have a hold on me anymore. But the problem was, I couldn’t just walk away. I signed the contract with blood, and if I were wrong, walking out on my debt would kill me—literally.

“What kind of Supe am I fighting?” I bit out.

“Tonight will be a witch. I figured we’d start you off with something simple,” LC reasoned. “If this goes well and you survive the fight, then I’ll start seeing what else you might be able to tackle. You may be able to fight some of the stronger ones if I give you an advantage of a weapon of some kind. That will all depend on how the spectators receive the change. Who knows, you might get lucky, and they hate seeing you fight a Supe.”

Fat fucking chance that will be a thing.

“Now, go win and make me some glorious money, my lucky penny,” LC ordered, slapping me on the ass.

Without saying a word, I turned and left the room, heading back down the stairs with Dregu following after me. What I wouldn’t give to just clobber the asshole right in the face, but I knew better. He might look like a harmless man with red hair in a business suit, but he had razor-sharp teeth and claws when he wanted to get nasty. Thankfully LC felt it was best to put on a human front for his main business dealings. Otherwise, I’m not sure I would have survived this long.

The Lucky Shot was an underground space beneath one of his warehouses. LC used them to run legit businesses out of to hide the fact this place was here. Each weekend, though, it was packed with people looking to gamble, bet on fights, get drugs, or purchase women for the hour or night, whatever their money could buy them.

I headed right for the bar that ran the entire width of the space. Supernaturals, or Supes as we called them, liked to drink, and they drank a fuckton. We had fairies that specialized in brewing wine and beer that would actually get a Supe drunk. I stayed as far away from that shit as possible. It only took waking up in a pile of naked dead—well, technically sleeping—vampires laying on you to decide it was a terrible choice.

I might not be willing to sell myself to cover my debt, but that didn’t mean I was a nun, either. Quite the opposite, I had an incredibly active sex life, especially since after fights, I had both men and women of all species begging to sleep with me. Everyone knew I was hella picky about who I’d fuck, but I was open and willing to explore if you caught my attention.

“Swurve, looking for the usual?” Nomolin, the dwarf that ran the bar, asked.

“You know it,” I said with a smile, hopping onto one of the stools. “How’s the crowd behaving tonight?”