Chapter 10 - Brothers in the RingTravis Kane.
The undefeated monster.
The man who had whispered that my father trained him.
The man who had protected me during the warehouse shooting.
Raymond Maddox’s son.
Cole moved first.
He shoved Victoria’s hospital bed behind a concrete wall.
Michael pulled Sophie into the stairwell.
Donnelly aimed at Adrian.
“Federal agent! Hands where I can see them!”
Adrian smiled.
His men surrounded us.
“No.”
Travis stared at him.
“How did you find out?”
Adrian laughed.
“I always knew.”
“You told me our father was dead.”
“No.”
“I was twelve.”
“Yes.”
“You let me think Dad was someone else.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Raymond thought you were weak.”
Travis’s jaw tightened.
“You knew.”
“I knew everything.”
“You knew Thomas?”
Adrian’s smile disappeared.
“He tried to turn us against our father.”
“Our father trafficked people.”
“He built us.”
“He used us.”
The brothers stared at each other.
Same broad shoulders.
Same dark eyes when angry.
I could see it now.
Travis had spent his life fighting without knowing the bloodline he was trying to escape.
Adrian looked at me.
“Thomas liked collecting damaged boys.”
“My father gave them choices.”
“He gave them guilt.”
“No.”
I stepped forward.
“He gave them something Raymond never understood.”
“What?”
“A chance to be better than who raised them.”
Adrian’s expression darkened.
He raised his gun.
Travis stepped between us.
“Don’t.”
“Move.”
“No.”
Adrian laughed.
“You still think you’re her guard dog?”
Travis didn’t move.
“She’s Thomas’s daughter.”
“So?”
“So you don’t touch her.”
Adrian shot him.
The bullet entered Travis’s side.
He staggered.
“Travis!”
Chaos exploded.
Donnelly fired.
Michael returned from the stairwell.
Cole pulled me behind cover.
Hospital sprinklers activated.
Patients screamed from distant rooms.
Federal agents rushed toward the floor.
Adrian’s men retreated.
Travis dropped.
I crawled toward him.
Cole covered us.
“Pressure!”
I pressed both hands against the wound.
Travis groaned.
“Not how I planned this reunion.”
“Shut up.”
“Very compassionate.”
“You’re not dying.”
He looked at me.
“Thomas said that too.”
“No.”
I pushed harder.
“He taught you to survive the second round.”
Travis almost smiled.
Adrian escaped during the confusion.
But his attack had cost him.
One of his men was captured alive.
And the man knew where Round Three operated.
An abandoned resort outside Michigan City.
Underground fighting arena.
Trafficking hub.
Prison.
Whatever name made people feel less monstrous about it.
Travis went into surgery.
Before they took him away, he grabbed Cole’s wrist.
“End it.”
Cole nodded.
“We will.”
“No.”
Travis looked at me.
“She will.”
The following morning, federal teams prepared a raid.
I was told to stay behind.
For once, I agreed.
Mostly.
Then I found Michael preparing a vest.
“You’re going.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Adrian knows me.”
“So?”
“He’ll hesitate.”
“Because you’re Thomas’s son?”
Michael shook his head.
“Because I beat him once.”
I stared.
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
The night Dad died.
“Adrian was there.”
Everything stopped.
“What?”
“He left before Raymond arrived.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know who he was.”
Michael explained.
Adrian had been one of Dad’s fighters.
That night, Dad discovered Adrian had been secretly reporting to Raymond.
Michael confronted him.
They fought.
Michael broke Adrian’s jaw.
Adrian fled.
“That scar beneath his chin.”
Michael nodded.
“Me.”
“So he blames our family.”
“Yes.”
Cole entered.
“He blames Thomas because Thomas chose you over him.”
Michael looked at him.
“Thomas chose anybody who wanted out.”
“Adrian didn’t.”
“No.”
I picked up my coat.
Cole shook his head.
“You said you’d stay.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Nora.”
“Do you want to waste ten seconds arguing?”
He almost smiled.
“God, I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.”
His eyes held mine.
“No.”
He didn’t.
The realization stayed between us.
There would be time later.
If we survived.
The resort raid began at 11:30 p.m.
Federal teams entered from four sides.
Cole provided building plans from old Maddox records.
Michael guided the underground route.
I stayed inside the command vehicle with Donnelly.
That lasted seven minutes.
Then radio contact with Cole vanished.
“Team Three, respond.”
Nothing.
Michael’s channel.
Silence.
Donnelly cursed.
“Jammers.”
A wounded agent stumbled from the entrance.
“Ambush.”
I got out.
Donnelly grabbed me.
“No.”
“They need help.”
“You’re not an agent.”
“No.”
“You don’t have tactical training.”
“I have better training than half the people inside.”
“That is not reassuring.”
A second explosion shook the building.
Donnelly released me.
“Stay behind my team.”
Close enough.
Inside, we found chaos.
The underground arena was enormous.
Steel cages.
Medical rooms.
Dormitories.
Locked cells.
People.
Dozens of them.
Some fighters.
Some barely adults.
All terrified.
Federal agents began freeing them.
I heard shouting from the arena.
Adrian.
“COME ON, COLE!”
I ran toward the sound.
Cole stood inside the ring.
No gun.
Adrian faced him.
Michael lay outside the ropes, bleeding from his forehead.
Armed men watched from above.
Adrian had rigged explosives around the exits.
“Welcome,” he said.
“Nora.”
Cole looked at me.
“Why are you here?”
“Bad decision making.”
Adrian laughed.
“Family trait.”
He tossed a pistol into the center of the ring.
“One bullet.”
Cole stared.
“Fight me.”
“No.”
“If you win, I give you the detonator.”
“And if you win?”
“I kill Thomas’s children.”
Michael climbed to his feet.
“You always needed an audience.”
Adrian glared.
“Get in here.”
Michael did.
Cole tried to stop him.
“No.”
“This is mine.”
Adrian smiled.
“Finally.”
The brothers—not blood brothers, but men raised by the same violence—circled.
Michael hit first.
Adrian answered.
They fought brutally.
Not like a sporting match.
Like six years of hatred.
I watched patterns.
Dad’s patterns.
Both men used his footwork.
His counters.
His defensive turns.
Adrian had learned from the same teacher.
But something was different.
He fought angry.
Fast hands.
Angry heart.
My father’s words from the photo.
Except I had assumed they described Cole.
Maybe they described Adrian.
I looked at the photograph in my memory.
Beside Cole’s initials.
Fast hands. Angry heart.
Cole had been angry once too.
But he changed.
Adrian never did.
“Michael!” I shouted.
He looked.
“Left after the double jab!”
Dad’s combination.
Michael understood.
Adrian threw two jabs.
Michael slipped left.
Hook.
Body shot.
Uppercut.
Adrian fell.
The entire arena went silent.
Michael stood over him.
“Thomas taught us better than this.”
Adrian spat blood.
“Thomas is dead.”
“No.”
Michael looked at me.
“He’s the reason you lost.”
Adrian lunged for the pistol.
Cole kicked it away.
Adrian grabbed the detonator instead.
His thumb hovered over the switch.
“Everybody dies.”
A shot cracked.
The detonator flew from his hand.
I looked toward the entrance.
Travis stood there.
Hospital clothes beneath a stolen tactical vest.
Bandage around his side.
Gun smoking.
I stared.
“You escaped the hospital?”
“Technically.”
Donnelly looked furious.
“Put the gun down.”
Travis did.
Adrian stared at his brother.
“You chose them.”
Travis shook his head.
“No.”
“I chose myself.”
Federal agents entered.
Adrian was arrested.
Explosives teams disabled the charges.
The cells opened.
People walked into freedom.
Some cried.
Some stared at the sky like they had forgotten it existed.
Cole stood beside me outside as dawn approached.
“It’s over.”
I looked at him.
“People keep saying that.”
He smiled.
“Fair.”
Michael approached with Sophie.
Travis was returned angrily to an ambulance.
Donnelly was threatening to handcuff him to the bed.
For the first time since the wine spilled, I laughed.
Actually laughed.
Cole looked at me.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“Your smile.”
“Careful.”
“Why?”
“You might start thinking dinner is still an option.”
He became serious.
“I owe you an apology.”
“One?”
“Several hundred.”
“Good start.”
“I was an arrogant bastard.”
“Yes.”
“I used power to make you uncomfortable.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
I studied him.
No joke.
No performance.
“I accept the apology.”
His shoulders loosened.
“But.”
He sighed.
“Of course.”
“If you ever give another woman ten seconds to choose between dating you and getting punched, I will personally put you in the ring.”
Cole smiled.
“Understood.”
Behind us, Michael groaned.
“Please don’t date him.”
I looked at my brother.
“Ten seconds.”
Cole laughed.
Michael did not.
For the first time, we almost felt like a family.
Then Donnelly walked toward us with a phone in her hand.
Her expression erased every smile.
“What?”
May you like
She looked at me.
“Raymond escaped federal custody.”
