“Live-action games and combat. It’s part of the casino. Guests lay odds on their favorite fighter, and you do your best to win. It’s that simple.”
Kane glanced at the weight rack. Now he understood the reason for the strength-training circuit. The men in this dorm were fighters. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He was good with his fists, but not skilled enough to use them for a living. Then he remembered something Necktie Fleece had said on board the ship…something about fighting an opponent until the man was dead.
An icy finger traced his spine.
“Like gladiator games?” he asked.
“Yeah,” his boss said, nodding. “Exactly like that.”
The back door swung open, and a man in white walked inside, so tall he had to duck his head to avoid hitting it on the top frame. Clearly, he was a fighter, too. He hooked a left and disappeared inside the washroom, but not before Kane caught a glimpse of his battleship arms.
He wouldn’t last five minutes against that guy.
“Look here, kid,” his boss said. He must’ve seen the fear on Kane’s face, because he reached in his pocket and produced a gold inhaler. “Do you know what this is?”
“The refill we earn at the end of the week?”
The Redshirt laughed. “Hell no. Better than that. Way better. Forget that garbage you breathed on the ship. This will make you feel so good you’ll forget your own name.”
Kane’s heart raced with instant longing.
“This is a special kind of reward. Only two types of workers can have it—the lovers and the fighters.” He gave the tube a light shake. “The best part is you won’t have to wait a week to get your hands on it.”
Kane licked his lips, too hypnotized to speak.
“The pit fighters are the real stars here,” his boss said. “While the other schmucks haul luggage and fetch drinks, saving up for a weekly fix of diluted crap, you’ll be breathing this golden air every time you compete.”
A pang of need tore a jagged gash through Kane’s insides. He sucked on his inhaler, pumping it again and again to stave off the craving, but it wasn’t enough. He had to have what was inside that gold tube.
“Fight hard, and this’ll be yours,” the man promised. “Every single day of your life.”
That was all Kane needed to hear.
He jerked his chin toward the weight rack. “When can I start?”
Cassia’s second homecoming was no better than the first. While she couldn’t deny the accommodations were more luxurious—a private cruiser with Gage Spaulding as her escort—comfort wasn’t everything. At least when the Daeva had dragged her home in chains, it’d been with the knowledge that Kane was safe. That peace of mind had given her the freedom to focus on her own needs.
Which wasn’t the case right now.
She sat in the pilothouse, fidgeting in her seat, as she waited for Eturia to come into sight. During her last conversation with Jordan, she’d learned someone had cut the power to the entire prison block on the night of Marius’s escape, so in addition to her murderous husband, every rebel her men had ever captured was now free to resume plotting against her. Then there was the issue of keeping her people safe, something she could only do by urging them to stay indoors.
But despite the mounting crises, her eyes kept wandering back to the transmission switch. Renny hadn’t called today. Maybe she should radio the Banshee again to see if he and the crew had made any progress in tracking Kane.
“Land ho,” Gage said in a mock sailor’s voice while pointing beyond the pilot controls to a glowing marble in the distance. “There’s your home.”
Dread congealed in Cassia’s stomach. She wasn’t ready for this.
“Now, let’s make like a null matrix element and vanish.”
She slid him a glance. “A null-matrix-what?”
“Sorry,” he mumbled, going a little red in the cheeks. “Science-nerd humor. I’m cloaking us so no one will pick up our signal.”
With the press of a button, their ship became undetectable to satellites and radar. Gage’s cruiser had all the latest gadgets, one of the reasons she had asked for his help. The other reason had to do with his constant science jokes. He had a brilliant mind. It was Gage who’d listened to her description of Kane’s erratic behavior and theorized their plague was really an addiction. As soon as he’d suggested it, Cassia had known he was right. Half of her people were in withdrawal, Kane included, all of them in danger of losing their free will to Marius or to the mafia. But if anyone could find a way to break their dependency, it was the prodigy by her side.
“Thanks again for all this,” she said, waving a hand to indicate the ship and beyond. She knew how busy Gage was with his start-up business. “I can’t pay you right now, but I’ll wire you the credits as soon as I can.”
“Like I need your money,” he dismissed with a grin. “You see, I invented this super-fuel called Infinium. Maybe you’ve heard of it?”