Losing Nuka (Litmus Book 1) (28 page)

“Ugh.”

“Come on!” he yells enthusiastically. “Gotta keep that sponsor of yours happy.”

I stop dead in my tracks.
Of course.
Spinning on my heel to face Ryker, I mouth the words, “Gabby. Tell Gabby.” She can get to Dec.

-23-

I’M BACK

Walking back into Litmus sends a chill down my spine. It’s my first fight back, and I think I’m even more nervous than I was for my first fight with Steve. Back then they expected me to be crap, now they’re hoping for it.

I can hear the taunts now.
“Oh, how the mighty have fallen!”
Okay, so that’s a little dramatic. It’s not like I almost died … well, okay I did, technically.

The pressure is on me to do well tonight. I can’t let my first loss become what I’m known for.
Knocked out by a normal. Ugh.

Walking into the Deakin locker room, I’m met by Ryker, Colton, Steve, and Palmer. They all hug me, even Palmer, which is surprising.

When Palmer pulls out of the hug, he looks me in the eyes with a sympathetic stare. “Ryker told us what you did for Brett. I’m sorry he’s gone.”

I nod, willing the tears to stop forming in my eyes. “Me too,” I whisper as he steps away.

“Is it just me, or do you look extra tarted up tonight?” Colton asks, stepping forwards to pull on a strand of my curled hair.

I have to laugh. If I don’t, I’ll cry. “I’m not sure if it was payback from Vidia for Brett leaving, or if she was ordered to ‘up the skank.’”

Colton smiles. “I like it.”

“Why does that not surprise me?”

“Come on,” Steve says. “You’ve got an ass to kick.”

I’m relieved when my entrance is met with screaming and applauding.
Better than booing, anyway.

I make it to the stage, and Felix welcomes me back with a big hug. He starts bantering with the audience, as usual.

“Heatwave is back! And she is determined to claw, and fight, and beat the crap outta you, just so she can redeem some of her floundering reputation.”

A few of the audience members laugh. I manage a weak smile.

“But there’s a big misconception out there that certain people from upstairs want me to clarify.”

Great, here we go. More blindsiding from Cade and Jonas. What’s it going to be this time? I’m actually the daughter of a long-lost royal bloodline?

“Is it true, Heatwave, that Brawn is no longer with us? We’ve been hearing these rumours for over a month now. He hasn’t been here at all while you’ve been recovering. Come on, you can tell us. We’re really good at keeping secrets.” Everyone laughs. “What really happened to Brawn?”

I tsk playfully, telling myself to keep calm. “Well now, if I told you, I might just have to kill you, too.”

“Oh!” Felix yells taking a few animated steps away from me. “Was that a confession?”

The audience is lapping it up. I was told to keep Brett’s disappearance vague, but Jonas and Cade think playing up the rumour of me killing him would be good for my weak image. Either the audience knows this is all a show, or there are some really screwed-up people in this audience.
Uh, hello, they’re betting on you to beat the hell out of someone. Yeah, pretty safe to say—they’re pretty screwed up.

“Perhaps you haven’t been out injured at all? Maybe that’s just an alibi. Maybe, we should get a challenger up here to find out how rusty you really are.”

The crowd goes wild, clapping and cheering, and before I know it, I have three volunteers to choose from.

As they take to the stage, I quietly ask Felix, “Is this normal? I’ve never had more than one volunteer before.”

He leans in and whispers in my ear, “They think you’re an easy mark because of your last loss. No pressure, kid, but you’re going to have to prove them wrong.”

I nod. “I’m ready.”

Training with Ryker has been going exceedingly well. Turns out, Brett was a big ol’ softy on me, allowing me breaks when I didn’t need them. Ryker pushes me way past where I think my boundaries are, but it’s effective. He still lets me have a break, but not before we get to breaking point. He knows I need to perform well, so he doesn’t hold back. Plus, I secretly think he enjoys causing pain.

“Okay,” Felix says. “First up, let’s make sure you all qualify. Don’t want to make that mistake twice.” He turns to the audience with an “oops” expression, making them break into laughter.

The man knows how to entertain, I’ll give him that.

Two men and one woman stand before me, each showing off their ability. The woman steps forwards, her limbs stretching like rubber. She does a flip backwards but completely does a full loop before her lower half of her body follows.

“Flexible. Got it,” I mumble, moving onto the next person.

He holds his arms out and winces as they turn to some kind of metal or steel. It only goes to his shoulders, though. I wonder if his ability is only local to his arms or if he can do this to his whole body and is just holding back.

I nod. “Interesting.”

As I move onto the last guy, he steps forward, creating sparks between his fingers. I’m instantly reminded of Taser and his ability, and my suspicions automatically go into overdrive.
Did Taser send another one?

I instinctively shake my head. “Number two. In the middle. You’re up.”

The crowd goes insane with screams as the other two contestants leave the stage.

Felix says into the mike, “Okay, you’ve got a few minutes to finalise bets.” He then leans into me and whispers, “Confident move, going for the biggest contender. Let’s hope you can pull this off, hey?”

I nod. “Let’s hope.”

I decide to not even play with this guy. This needs to end quickly. When the round one buzzer goes off, I don’t stall. My hands are quick, and my feet are faster. He can’t predict the randomness of my moves—something Ryker and I have been working on. It’s been hard with the broken arm and ribs, but we’ve worked around that.

It turns out my opponent’s body armour can protect all of him, but every time I connect, it falters, making him weak.

Heating his armour causes him pain, so I use that to my advantage, making sure my hands are blazing hot at all times.

By the end of round one, he’s looking pretty battered. I’ve barely been touched. My knuckles are bleeding from the hits I’ve been dishing out, but that’s nothing compared to what I’ve been through lately. I don’t ease up in round two, and with a minute still left on the clock, I deliver two extremely hard blows to the side of this guy’s head. A right hook, followed by my elbow to his face while his guard is down. He falls to his knees, giving me my opportunity. With a knee to his head, he’s down and out. My first
real
knockout.

Quick, simple, done.

I take my victory proudly as the crowd screams my name in a chant.

I’m back.

***

After fulfilling my promotional duty, I’m on my way out of the corporate box when Cade grabs my arm. “Meeting, now,” she says in my ear.

Sighing, I follow her into the office where Jonas is behind his desk.

“Great fight tonight,” he says.

I almost stumble backwards, surprised by the praise.

“It’s a great start to getting you back in the game,” he adds.

“Uh … thanks.”

“We’ll be moving you onto the main roster in two weeks, so you’ve only got one more Wild Card night left.”

“Do you think I’m ready for that?”

“Don’t care, really. You’ll bring in bigger money fighting the others—especially after that knockout.”

“And if I get injured again because I’m
not
ready?”

“You already know what’ll happen then.”

“A night with Heatwave?” My voice cracks as I swallow the lump in my throat.

“Train hard, Nuka.”

***

Jonas would make a great motivational speaker. His words, “Train hard,” keep running through my head during training sessions, and Ryker’s been pushing me harder and harder. He’s had to stop sending my bodyguards to the bathroom every time we needed to talk—Byron’s not as dumb as he looks—but he subtly gave me a heads-up a few days ago that he got to Gabby. Now all I really need to do is wait.

I still feel like we’re nowhere near getting out of here, but at least now there’s hope. Gabs just has to go to Declan, and he will go to my family.
This has to work.

“You’re going to kill it,” Ryker says, walking into the locker room at Litmus. “Better get you ready for your last hoorah.”

It’s my last Wild Card night for a while, and it almost feels like a graduating ceremony.

Walking out and taking centre stage, I go stand in my corner and wait.

“She’s been known to kill a man,” Felix starts.

Here we go. This rep’s probably going to follow me everywhere.

“Heartbroken by our very own Brawn, she killed him in cold blood and is back to finish off any man who may cross her.”

All I can do is laugh. It probably makes me seem even more psycho.

It still kills me to hear about Brett, or even think about him, but with my sole focus now on getting Sasha and me out of here, I’ve barely had time to wallow over him.

I don’t cry at night anymore, mainly because I don’t want to show how weak I really am in front of Sasha. But the tears are always there, always on the brink. I nearly always make it to the bathroom before I let them spill over.

Felix calls for challengers, and just like my first fight, there’s hesitance within the audience. Not surprising since I knocked out my last volunteer, and now Felix is telling everyone I killed a man. I’m under strict instructions to not do that to this volunteer … knock him out, not kill him. Although, I’m sure they meant that too.

When the crowd starts parting to make room for a sole challenger to make their way to the stage, the only thing I can see is the top of his head through the throng of people. But then he speaks.

“Next time you try to kill someone, you better make sure they’re really dead.”

That voice.
It’s competing with the one inside my head screaming,
No, no, no, no, no!
He can’t be here.

Am I breathing? I’m pretty sure I’ve stopped breathing. Air? Hello? I need you. Fill my lungs, dammit!

I’m praying to a god I don’t believe in that I’m maintaining my composure at seeing
him,
but I can’t be sure, because right now all I’m trying to do is remain standing
.

Brett walks up the few stairs, taking to the stage.

I remain frozen in panic and confusion.
Why the hell is he standing in front of me?

The crowd goes ballistic, while Felix stands still with his mouth agape. He snaps his head out of whatever confused trance he was in, yelling into the microphone, “Guess he’s not dead after all. Brawn, tell us, where’ve you been?”

The crowd is still screaming, and Brett waits until they quieten down before answering. “It’s true that I left.” There’s a collective gasp from the audience as if he just said the worst thing imaginable, like him dying was more acceptable than him voluntarily leaving. “I abandoned the one person who gave me everything. It didn’t take me long to realise that it was a mistake. I belong here, with the woman I’m in love with.” The crowd’s awing fades away as he steps closer to me, suddenly making me feel like we’re the only two people in here. “However, by her stunned expression, I’m not entirely sure she wants me back.”

“You shouldn’t be here,” I whisper, surprising myself that I actually get any words to come out at all.

“Sorry, what was that, Heatwave?” Felix asks, putting the microphone in my face.

Brett takes another step, the only thing separating us now is Felix’s arm and the microphone. “She said I shouldn’t be here.”

The crowd boos.

“Why are you here?” I ask.

“I had to come back.”

“No,” I whisper. I take Felix’s mike and shove it out of the way. “They’ll kill you. They already—”

“I know,” he whispers. “But I’ve got it covered. Just trust me, okay? Go with whatever I say, and I’ll explain everything to you as soon as I can.”

I nod.

“First thing, pretend to be more pissed off than stunned, please.”

My mouth opens to protest, but I relent and nod again instead.

“Just put on a good show.”

Thankfully, Felix pretends he can’t hear what we’re saying.

Part of me won’t stop asking questions.
Why is he here? Where’s Paddy? What happened to make him come back? Why is he doing this?
Then there’s the other part of me that’s making me plant my feet to the spot to save me from throwing myself at him.

Brett takes the microphone from Felix and turns to the audience. “Seems like my little impromptu vacation made my girlfriend a little bitter. So I challenge her to a fight.” He looks back at me with a smirk. “If I win, she has to give me another chance. If she wins, I’ll let her make her own mind up whether or not she takes me back.”