The Broken Lake (12 page)

I made it through work in a good mood, and had even picked up a new book to keep me busy that night.
Not.
Wes called me as soon as his flight landed in Tucson and I wouldn’t let him get off the phone. Okay,
let
is a strong word. I simply talked my head off until my eyes were too heavy to stay awake, and he listened.

I heard, “I love you. Good night.” Then I dozed off to dream of coconuts and a white horse.

Saturday was a drag. Not because anything was wrong at the bookstore. I just didn’t like feeling the separation. For some reason, it makes a difference when you know the person you want to be with forever is only a few
minutes
away. I did things to keep myself busy all day, and thankfully the normal crew was at work again.

Mr. Healey was out running errands. Danny was shifting around some shelves and Dawn and I were hanging out at the register. She was extra bubbly as she twisted around on her stool.

I caved and opened a can of worms I wasn’t sure I wanted open. “What are you so happy about?”

“Me? Hmm. Let’s see. I’m off restriction and my dad is letting me go out with Jackson tonight.”

“Really, so soon?” It was good news, but a little surprising. Her dad must’ve really believed her bogus explanation.

“Yeah. Well only because Danny will be with us.”

I scrunched up my nose. “Danny is going with you…on a date?”

“No, I don’t need a chaperone, thank you very much.” I still wasn’t following so she continued. “See, Danny and his friend Jared, who happens to be Jackson’s older brother, are going to a boxing match tonight. Jackson is going too. Sooooo, I asked Danny if I could come, and he said yeah.”

“Why would he let you come to a boxing match with him?”

She was getting a kick out of where the story was going and made me wait while she pulled a piece of gum from her pocket. Unwrapping it and folding it in, she said, “Because Chase is in a match and Danny owes me for ratting.”

I was trying to picture the whole circus when she grabbed my arm.

“Hey, you guys should come too. Wes would probably like it. It’s a guy thing.”

I shook my head. “No, Wes is out of town.”

“Then you come, Sophie. Please. It’ll be fun. I’ll probably be the only girl there.”

“I don’t think so.”

She was squeezing now. “You can’t stay home alone tonight. What are you going to do, have phone sex? Come
on
. It’ll be cool.”

“No.”

“Sophie, seriously. What else are you going to do?”

“Nothing.”

“Then come. Aren’t you even the least bit curious? This is supposed to be big time. Danny says the guys are pretty good.” She paused. “Hey, you might get to see Chase get his ass kicked.” I perked up. “See? Now you want to come.”

Although it did momentarily sound appealing, I didn’t want Chase or anyone else to get beat up. “I don’t want to see anything like that.”

“Then do it for me. I don’t want to feel like Danny is babysitting me. If you come, then it’ll be like we’re all hanging out—to watch Chase get beat up.” She smiled.

I knew I should’ve just held my ground, but for some stupid reason, I have the hardest time telling people no. I thought it was a product of Wes’ chocolate brown eyes, but I was learning that it was just a weakness of mine. I told her yes, but that I’d drive myself. I wasn’t going to get stuck waiting for a ride home. She was thrilled and asked if she could ride with me.

Wes had told me his conference was an all-day thing, with a dinner to follow. Then he was heading straight to the airport. I had already told him to come over no matter what time he got back, and of course, he agreed.

In the meantime, I couldn’t call him to tell him where I was going. Instead, I texted him:

DAWN IS DRAGGING ME TO A BOXING MATCH TONIGHT :(.

He texted right back:

??

I KNOW. I MISS YOU.

I pictured him texting a hundred miles an hour, because all the questions, like where, what, when, who, came flashing across my phone. I quickly let him know that Danny, Jared, and Jackson were chaperoning. I neglected to tell him about Chase, only because I didn’t want to distract him from the conference more than I already had.

At any rate, he seemed much more relaxed to know that big brother was coming. My phone buzzed one last time.

BE CAREFUL. SEE YOU SOON.

I knew by his choice of words that he wished he could be with me right then, and hidden somewhere in the undertone was a, “You probably shouldn’t go without me.” But I figured I’d be perfectly safe with Dawn and her older brother, so I didn’t think much of it.

I turned to Danny, curious. “What do you wear to a boxing match anyway?”

He laughed. “Well, we don’t have front-row, celeb tickets, so I would say whatever you’re wearing now is fine.” He seemed glad I was going, and I was starting to warm up to doing something new. That’s one thing I could say. I’d never been to a boxing match before.

I went home to change, despite Danny’s advice. I changed out my blue shirt and white sneakers for a black shirt and black Converse low-tops. Then I drew my hair up into a ponytail, applied a little bit of eyeliner, and drove over to Dawn’s.

“You got directions, right?”

“Of course,” she said with a
Duh!
tone as she hopped up into my Jeep. “But we have to get Jackson first.”

“He’s not riding with Jared and Danny?”

“No. They went out for drinks first. Plus, we thought we could make out in the back of your Jeep on the way.” She winked in a joking way, only she wasn’t.

They absolutely sat in the back of my Jeep, kissing and carrying on as I drove them around like a chauffeur. It felt odd to be around the two of them together. They seemed so young. They were seventeen, but for some reason, their carefree mentality made me feel older. Plus, they’re complete opposites. She’s dark-haired, outgoing, and bold at times, including the heavy eyeliner she likes to wear. Jackson’s laid-back, usually dresses in light colors, and has perfect blond hair that nearly covers his eyes. The bangs sweep themselves perfectly in one direction. I wanted to take a pair of scissors to them, just so I could see his eyes. Then, realizing I sounded like my mother when it came to my own hair, I nixed that thought.

The venue was in Albany, and the only thing Danny gave Dawn was a street address. Computer mapped and ready to go, we headed to the location. All was smooth until I realized the computer printout was navigating me to an area of clubs and bars. No large arena or anything. I drove by a few dilapidated buildings and was about to turn around when I saw Danny standing on a corner with his hands in his pockets.

He flagged me down and pointed around the corner while waving his other hand to signal a nearby space.
This can’t be right,
I thought.

All Dawn kept saying from the back seat was, “Cool.”

We got out and met up with Danny and Jared. We heard club music pounding around the corner, and I thought we were headed toward it. Instead, Danny turned down a dark, narrow alley behind the buildings. It was just wide enough to fit a Dumpster and have enough room for one person to walk between it and the brick wall.

Danny stepped through the narrow passage first, and I followed close behind. Not because I was eager to go, but because I was not about to be the last person in line. Once we were past the Dumpster, the alley opened up to a dark, pothole-ridden path leading to what looked like a dead end. The deeper we went, the more I imagined rats and dead bodies at my feet.

“Danny, where are we going?” I asked, starting to get the creeps.

“Chase said it was around back.” His casual voice was not calming my nerves.

We finally reached a metal door that read “No Trespassing.”

Danny knocked on the door three times before it opened outward, toward us, tempting me to cover my ears as the weight of it scraped the asphalt. A rather large, bald, sweaty guy with tiny, birdlike eyes stood before us. His tight black tank top pressed against his man boobs and beer belly. And even though it was still very dark, I could see that tattoos completely covered his arms and neck.

“What?” he hissed with a deep, scratchy voice.

Dawn and I exchanged shocked glances and then she weaved her arm through Jackson’s for protection.

Danny, seeming a little out of his element, but nevertheless prepared to negotiate his entrance, mumbled the words, “The red sun rises.”

The guy looked at Danny and then at the rest of us. “There are too many with you.”

Danny cleared his throat. “We were all invited.”

“By who?” The man spat back. “Four max. That’s the rule.”

Counting Danny, Jared, Jackson, Dawn, and me, it was clear we were one person over the limit. I stepped up, about to volunteer to leave when Danny pointed to me.

“Yeah, she was a last-minute addition. Chase personally invited her.”

Baldy raised his dark brows and gave each of us an intimidating look-over. Then he tilted his head toward the inside. “Hurry up.”

The invitation felt more like a threat and caused me to jump a little. Temptation to leave overcame me, so I glanced down the dark alley and saw a group of men filing in past the Dumpster. Walking toward them alone was not an option for me, so I decided to cling to Dawn’s other arm instead.

Once we were inside, a narrow hall led us down steep stairs and then to another metal door below. Hard-rock music was pounding on the other side. Danny pulled it open to a stench of sweat mixed with cigarette smoke. Instantaneously, I held my breath as I tried to figure out which was worse, the smell or the noise. After about thirty seconds, I decided it was the smell.

A few turns later we entered a large basement area with about twenty guys standing around. They were much more fit than the bouncer but had just as many tattoos. There was no ring, no ropes, and certainly no one in a tux announcing the impending rounds.

“Um, this is not what—”

Dawn cut me off. “Yeah, I know. Just stay close.”

“Danny, what is this place?” I demanded.

“It’s a fight club.”

“A what?”

Before he could answer me, a stocky, shirtless guy about our age, with a dark buzz cut, slid past us. Danny’s attention was fixed on him with an envious smile. I watched as the guy, wearing dog tags and camouflage pants, walked toward the center of the room. His torso was shaped like a perfect V and his stagger was confident. He looked in charge, but something about him looked weathered.

The crowd parted like the sea for Moses as he made his way through. At the center, he turned, and in a shocking, military boot-camp style chant shouted, “Are you rrrrreaaaddddy?” I thought he was about to drop and start doing pushups.

Instead, my senses were overpowered as the entire room of men shouted back, “Yes. We. Are!”

Suddenly, it was a chant, back and forth, with each round getting louder and louder until the leader was hopping up and down. Just when I didn’t think it could get any louder, he stopped and crouched low to the ground.

His voice grew softer, and he said, “Let the fighting begin.”

A movement to the right caught my attention, and a man stepped forward. He, too, was shirtless. Though taller, he was ripped and defined like the leader. Pale and already sweating, he had a fire in his eyes. Danny and Jared were nodding as if in respect for the guy. No doubt he was a familiar face there.

I knew nothing about fight clubs, but I suspected he’d been around awhile. He was probably thirty and had multiple scars on his face, including a nasty raised one going across both shoulder blades. He spit, then showed his teeth, raised his arms, and completed a three hundred sixty-degree turn.

As he stepped aside, a figure moved in from the left side of the room. Everyone’s gaze diverted to a much smaller guy with a blond buzz cut and flannel shirt.

“There he is,” Dawn whispered.

Once my brain finally caught up to my eyes, I realized it was Chase with a new haircut. Drastic, bold, vicious. I almost didn’t recognize him. He’d been annoying before, but had never looked so intimidating.

Once he stepped to the center and turned our way, I noticed his unbuttoned shirt revealed a tattoo traveling from the center of his chest, all the way to the line where boxers were peeking out from his jeans. He was equally ripped, like the other guys, but more lean.

His introduction was less of a production, only releasing a small smile before turning toward his opponent. Once they were chest to chest, it was clear that Chase was just a kid. He couldn’t have been older than twenty and he came up to the guy’s collar bone.

I thought it might be nice just to see Chase get punched good one time, but this was not cool, not fair, and nothing I wanted to see. The leader had other plans. He clapped his hands together, and in an instant, the other guy was all over Chase like white on rice.

Within two seconds, Chase was in a headlock and getting punched in the face by the man’s bare fists. Then he rammed Chase’s head into a metal support pole and kneed him in the abdomen. I closed my eyes until I heard an unsettling cackle. I opened them to try to find the moron who thought this was funny, and to my shock, the odd laugh was coming from Chase.

The man kept punching him, over and over, and Chase was laughing the whole time. Blood began dripping from his mouth and then, out of nowhere, he spun out of the guy’s hold and rammed the guy’s head into the same pole that had been used on him. For a minute, I felt relieved, and then I saw Chase twist the guy’s arm behind his back. In a swift motion, he lifted the man off the ground and slammed him onto that defenseless side. Everyone in the room saw and heard his shoulder pop out of its socket.

I expected the leader to jump between them. Instead, a smirk appeared on his face as he looked entertained. This was not entertainment. This was stupid and cruel. Chase, meanwhile, swelled like a beast, puffed out his chest for the audience, and then rammed his foot into the guy’s side.

Unable to defend himself, the guy tried to stand, but Chase pounced on his back like a monkey, grabbing his hair in a violent grip. With no mercy, he began banging the guy’s face into the concrete.