Chapter Twenty-Six
The noise was the first thing Rin noticed, loud enough to have her flinching as so many people yelled back and forth. Next, there was the smell of so many bodies packed together, a mixture of assorted colognes, sweat, and body odor, as well as faint traces of blood. On the outer edges, groups were cheering, money changing hands as wagers were placed, but Rin couldn’t see past them to figure out on what exactly they were betting.
Rin stiffened her spine and shouldered her way into the crowd attempting to get a better look – praying the entire time she wouldn’t see anything barbaric like cock fights or dog fighting. She was jostled, took a hard elbow to the shoulder, and her foot was stepped on before she finally found a vantage point.
A loud cheer went up just as she spotted what had the crowd’s attention. One man on his back on the cement floor, bleeding profusely through his fingers as he held his nose while another man stood over him, panting, and a third man, who seemed to be some sort of referee, declared the man still standing the winner.
Rin frowned, by the looks of things she’d stumbled into some sort of fight club. Scanning the crowd she looked for Mike. Was this how he was making all that extra cash? Betting on this brutality? Her stomach churned as the injured opponent was helped out of the center area and the referee raised his hands to regains the crowd’s attention.
A call to place bets was made, the next opponents for tonight’s event announced. The referee going so far as to draw out the names in a dramatic fashion like this was some professional boxing match. Rin moved back, intent on finding her way back to the exit. She had no desire to stay and watch such violence when she spotted Mike stepping into the center area, bouncing on his toes, his wrapped but gloveless fists throwing rapid punches in the air.
Frozen in place, unable to even feel the jostling of bodies around her, Rin’s heart pounded and the noise of the crowd dulled to a muted roar as all the blood in her body seemed to rush to her head. Mike wasn’t betting on fights, he was one of the fighters! And his opponent was huge. He had to outweigh Mike by close to a hundred pounds.
A moment or two passed, the two fighters circling each other, both their faces intent as they waited for an opening. It was Mike who moved first, fast, lunging for the bigger man, his fists making contact with his opponent’s torso in a blur of motion.
The one man may have been big, but he was slow, almost clumsy in his attempts to fight back as Mike easily danced around him. It was obvious the bigger man had been banking on his longer reach and sheer brute strength to win, while Mike exhibited a level of skill his opponent couldn’t hope to match. A jab, another jab, and then a third which snapped the bigger man’s head back, blood leaking from his injured mouth which he spat on the already stained concrete and the crowd cheered.
Was that a tooth? Rin’s stomach revolted, sweat beading on her upper lip, she swallowed hard. She needed to get out of there before she threw up. Pushing and shoving through the crowd, she finally made it to the door and burst through it as if the hounds of hell were fast on her heels. She ran, not stopping for the doorman who called out to her, not caring what he had to say. She ran until she reached her car. Once there, she laid her head against the doorframe and finally sucked in great gulps of cold air.
Such brutality. She was having a hard time reconciling the fighter she just saw to the person she thought she knew and loved.
The sound of glass breaking and male laughter brought Rin out of her daze and reminded her that she was in a rather seedy neighborhood, alone, at night and she would be best served to do her thinking elsewhere.
The drive home was slow, possibly even slower than her original drive to that address, mostly because she couldn’t stop shaking. Did Mike enjoy all that violence? His face had shown determination, there had been no glint of satisfaction or pleasure that she had been able to see, but why else participate in something so barbaric, not to mention, illegal?
She remembered the cut on his brow that had been healing the first day she went to the garage, a few days later the black eye and swollen jaw – what had he said? – His sparring partner got carried away. An excuse he’d used before when questioned by Lily. Then there was the bruised ribs which he’d blamed on an accident on the job. The sound of Rin’s snort filled the car. Lies, all lies. He was getting the crap beat out of him and beating the crap out of others for money. And obviously he knew it was wrong or he wouldn’t be lying about it.
Rin slowed further coming up on the sharp turn just before Malsum Pass. It had started to snow, and a light dusting was already coating the road so she was able to clearly make out the tire tracks of a previous vehicle and see how they had missed the turn, and continued straight ahead, right off the road. Coming to full attention, Rin scanned the shoulder area with the help of her high-beams and finally spotted the car at a prone angle, its nose in a ditch.
Pulling over carefully, Rin slammed her car into park and raced over to the other vehicle. Through the window, she could see that someone was still in there. The driver’s side door swung open fast and hard nearly knocking Rin to the ground. A cloud of alcohol fumes hit her full in the face and she nearly gagged. Next came the scent of blood, and the scent of bear – a smell that would normally have her hesitating, even running in the opposite direction, but not this time. This time she lunged into action. The male was big, held in place by his seat belt, seemingly unconscious and bleeding from a cut on his forehead.
Rin snatched her cell phone out of her pocket and held it aloft. No service – not even a tiny fraction. Not a surprise this close to Malsum Pass and no traffic to flag down to give her a bit of help. She was on her own. Sending up a little prayer that she didn’t further injure the male by moving him, and also for the strength she was going to need, Rin braced her shoulder against the male’s body, unclipped the seatbelt and set her legs apart in preparation to take the weight as she pulled him from his seat.
They both ended up on the ground, Rin groaning from two hundred plus pounds of dead weight landing on her. She took a moment to get her breath back and coughed when the alcohol fumes that seemed to be seeping out of his pores, burned her nose and set her eyes to watering. Giving him a mighty heave, she managed to free herself and crawl out from under him. She would have to drag him to her car and hope she’d be able to get him up into the backseat. If she was lucky, a Good Samaritan would drive by and give her some much needed assistance.
Running back to her car, Rin put it in reverse and backed up as close as she could get and then opened the back door. She searched the trunk for anything that she could find to assist her in getting the male loaded and came up empty.
Steeling herself, Rin said a quick apology to the still unconscious male, grabbed a handful of his coat at the shoulders in each hand and started tugging. Only able to manage a little bit at a time, the effort seemed to take forever. Then she had to crawl onto the backseat herself, grasp the male under his armpits in a hug and heave, pull, and lift for all she was worth. By the time he was finally crammed into the small space, and the doors shut, Rin was sure she had a hernia, but there was no time to catalog any of her assorted injuries, the male in the back needed immediate attention. For the first time ever, Rin slammed her foot down hard on the gas and set the car flying toward Malsum Pass.