by P. S. Power
Then all he had to do was not be a jerk.
Given that he was shaking a bit from adrenaline, that could be harder to manage than not at the moment, but the important thing was to seem like the good guy.
“You’re fighting Erlander Hodder in three weeks, right here in Las Vegas. Do you feel ready for that match?” The words were smooth and meant to take him by surprise.
So clearly that he smiled.
“I’m still in training for that. It’s going to be a hard fight and I don’t think otherwise. Maybe even one that I can’t win. What I promise everyone is that I’ll be doing my very best. Mr. Hodder is a very good, high level fighter. For me to even get this chance is a gift. One from him and his people that suggested it in the first place. I will do my very best not to waste it, or disappoint anyone.” He didn’t know if that was the right thing to say, because the woman frowned at him.
“You… Think you might not win?”
Tony shrugged then, smiling at the woman. Then he looked at the camera.
“I know that almost all fighters put on a big act. Dance around a bit and say that their the greatest and act really confident. For a lot of them it probably isn’t even an act. I won’t lie to anyone. That said… I feel pretty good about the work and practice that I’ve put in so far. I wouldn’t insult Mr. Hodder by coming in without being as ready as I can be. He’s always ready for fights, from what I’ve seen… So… Yeah. I might lose. I know that. The trick now will be in seeing if I can change that in the next three weeks. Plus… Who knows? I might get lucky, right?”
The woman smiled, clearly not happy with his response.
“How about the attack here earlier. That was former heavy weight title holder Ralph Simpson that attacked you… What was that about? It didn’t seem to be connected with anything you did. We got video of that. Can you play that now?” She nodded, then they stood there, waiting. It didn’t take that long. “The people in the studio want to know what caused this to happen in the first place?”
Anthony didn’t know what to tell them, but Tony knew that he had to be nice about it. Even if he kind of wanted to shoot the idiot for attacking him like that.
“Miscommunication. It started with him thinking that I was stealing his girlfriend at the time, which I wasn’t and then probably grew thanks to the fact that he wasn’t really ready to fight when he attacked me the first two times. I get that, but the guy really needs to let it go. I haven’t done anything to him, except prevent him from harming me. Still, we all know how people are, so I don’t know if he’s ever going to get that part.” There was more to add, but most of it was name calling and pushing the man to come for him, goading action with his words.
Wisely, Anthony stopped talking then.
It didn’t hurt that the police had come in through the main door to the conference room. There were several of them, but they made a line for Anthony directly.
One of the large men grabbed his arm, harder than was needed.
“Tony Winters?”
It was tempting to lie, but he had enough proof to keep him out of juvie. He was nearly positive of it. Not that he wasn’t going to be taken in for questioning. The police were basically bullies after all. Professionally, which was why the man was trying to push him around, his tone harsh enough that it could start a fight with a lot of people.
“Yes.” As soon as the words came out, he was spun around, so that his wrists could be shackled.
He didn’t resist, even as the man pushed him to the floor, forcing him to land on his face.
“We have a complaint against you. Assault with a deadly weapon. You’re under arrest.”
That news got an interesting response from the room. Several people made sounds like they were angry and Rick came over, his hands out, speaking calmly.
“It wasn’t like that. We have video of it? Tony was the one attacked.”
Before he gotten feet away, several of the cops put their hands on their weapons, unhooking the clasp on top, so they could start shooting. The real reason was intimidation, of course.
One of them barked, his voice rough.
“Sir! I need you to step back. Now!”
His uncle was a bit slow doing that, which had more officers starting to get ready to bring lethal force to the situation. One that clearly didn’t need it.
“It’s all right. I have this part.” His voice surprised him, but his uncle nodded several times and stepped back.
Then Anthony called out. Only one time, but looking right into the video camera. From the floor, as a man kneeled on his back. It wasn’t comfortable, but he was used to that kind of thing from practice.
“We have the footage of the attack. It’s already gone out on the air, so you can hide it. We’ve seen this officer here assault me already, dropping me on my face. Please make sure that you get all of this, in case they decide to beat me on the way to the station? I’m not resisting or in a position to resist. That kind of makes this kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment, but-” He was kicked in the face then.
Not hard, but it managed to cut his lip, causing a bit of blood to flow. It probably wasn’t bad, but the whole room gasped at the move.
It was almost like they weren’t used to seeing how police actually behaved. Anthony had seen a lot of it in his life. You didn’t really deal with the cops. No, you survived them. Now it would make them look bad if they even asked the cameras to stop rolling. Like they were planning to hurt him on purpose. Which they might be.
Even in some pretty bad areas he’d seen the police behave more calmly after a fight. It was strange.
On the good side all of the officers were called over, to watch the video. The brunette news lady had a screen for them to see the captured footage on. As it was being played live, the cops being shown in the corner of the screen. Which was hilarious. Especially when they replayed the part where Tony was kicked by the officer that had assaulted him. Twice. That probably wouldn’t stick, but by staying calm he’d managed to not make things worse for himself legally.
Which meant a call came in, about ten minutes later. There were two or three big issues it seemed.
The first was that it was Las Vegas. That meant the whole thing going out on the air like it had could have cost them several millions of dollars in tourism cash inflow already. More when it went national. Tony didn’t figure that part out. It came directly from the sergeant that called them over their little radios.
The second was that they had the police abuse dead to rights.
The third was a bit more painful, since the cops let Ralph Simpson get into the room, kicking him four or five times in the ribs before he was taken down to the floor.
By Donaldson, of all people.
“What the hell, Uncle Ralph? That’s it. You’re fired. Just…” There were a few harsh words after that, but one of the other police officers, who hadn’t personally kicked him for speaking calmly, came and let Anthony out of the handcuffs while the others got Simpson in some.
That got a fight. One that the police had to struggle with. Anthony wasn’t about to help them, either. They tried to taser the large man, but he pulled the lines that had stuck into him out, making his arm and middle bleed. Then they started to beat him with sticks.
One of them was about to start spraying the room with pepper oil, or whatever they called that, Tony saw, when officer kicky-face decided that it wasn’t a great idea, since they were on camera and in a small enclosed space. Hearing the words, Tony nodded, moving back. The next bit was kind of hilarious, since the other cop sprayed Ralph right in the eyes, which got him to thrash around blindly. Knocking the still spraying mist toward the other officers. Only three of them got hit, but they acted like babies about it, moaning and clutching their faces.
Even Simpson wasn’t doing that. Then, seeing it coming, he’d wisely closed his eyes and mouth.
It was tempting to run, but they had his name, so he just moved away and let them flail at each other. In the end, after doing a
good bit of light damage, Simpson ended up in handcuffs. Then officer kicky-face started to punch the bound man in the head. About ten times. Given he couldn’t really fight back, that seemed a bit unneeded, but it was all going out live anyway.
Seeing that part, another officer pulled him back. Off the larger man who was starting to make gasping noises.
It would have been more alarming if he hadn’t been screaming foul language at the same time. Really, as much as he liked seeing people that had done bad things to him get some of it back, it was kind of sad. There’s been no reason for any of it. Then, some people were just bad.
Anthony didn’t say anything however, since some of those bad people had guns on them. Not being bullet proof was a failing of his, so he tried to avoid that kind of thing.
Interestingly, after an hour, when the police left, they still had to finish all the weigh ins. There were other fighters left to go, after all. That meant getting the cameras back around and doing things right. They had to straighten up the chairs for that part. Well, he didn’t, but calling in hotel staff after making a big mess seemed like a bit much.
Rick came over to him and handed him a white washcloth that had ice in it.
“For your lip? That… was unfortunate. Are you all right? We can sue the Police Department here, but…”
He nodded, since that kind of thing wasn’t news to him.
“Except that it won’t do anything, we’d lose, then probably be harassed every time we had to come here for a fight for the next fifteen years? I know. No huge thing. Thanks to the cameras. I’d be in lockup by now if not for those.” It was just the truth.
Though, it left him wondering who’d claimed that he was the one that had attacked. Not Ralph, he didn’t think. No, that would have been hard for him to pull off. True, there had been a thing like that before, but it didn’t feel like the kind of thing that a man who settled problems by jumping random people would have come up with. That kind of person knew to stay far away from the cops.
If not him, that meant someone else had done it. Donaldson had called him Uncle Ralph. Not that the fighter had left the room to call the police. In the mess of the moment, he hadn’t really been watching to see who did what, however. That probably meant it was going to be a mystery in his life.
Though a few minutes later, when Don Teevan stood up at the front of the room, Anthony had a few suspicions. Honestly even filtering it through Tony, he did. Since that guy was trusting and polite all the time, it meant something was fishy as all get out.
“Now, thank you all for staying. This was a bit… Rambunctious. I’m certain that the rest of the weigh in will go smoothly. I say that this energy shows how eager the fighters all are. Not just for tonight. Tony Winters seems ready to get in the ring, which I wasn’t sure was the case. I’m looking forward to that mega event! Now… Let’s get back to business.”
He sounded happy.
Like someone who really wanted to sell you a used bridge in the middle of a swamp.
Chapter fourteen
The fight line-up was incredible. The boxers were all pretty close to top end and this event, being a large ticket thing, had fewer matches than was normal. There were five of them, with three being title matches in one show. That was almost unheard of. The man that had put it together, Don Teevan, seemed pleased the whole time as well.
For this particular fight, Steve and Clyde were two of the technical undercard. Meaning that most of the people had come for the title fights. Which was natural. The problem that Anthony saw with that was the fact that doing that would mean missing out on two incredible fights. Steve and Sumner went first that night, which was a match that Tony doubted he was going to forget.
Both men started out using full power. Their form was great, with Sumner being near perfect all the time and Steve just hammering the other guy constantly. At the end of each round, when the bell rang, they went to their corners. Sumner just standing there, looking away. Blankly. Like he always did. But at round five something strange started to happen.
The man was gasping for breath.
So was Steve, but in all of his fights Clyde had always prevented that kind of thing from showing. It was a crack in his armor. By the end of the sixth round, for the first time ever, Clyde Sumner had to have a stool brought out. The fight was incredibly even at that point, but Tony had no doubt that both men were going full out the whole time.
Steve knocked him out in the seventh round, but Clyde wasn’t a quitter, so stood back up after an eight count. That just meant he went down again in the next round, not making it. Giving Steve a clean win. A knockout in the eighth round.
There was standing and cheering after that. Deirdre stared at him as he did it, speaking when he sat down.
“What happened to your face? You have a fat lip…”
That no one had told her anything actually made a lot of sense to him. It was just hard to work out what to say. Tempting to lie as well. He didn’t. That part of him was becoming habit, he noticed. It worked too, for the most part.
“I guy attacked me at the weigh in. Ralph Simpson? I don’t know why, but it’s like the third or fourth time he’s done it. Someone called in and claimed that I was the attacker. I’m… Working on who did that. I have a few ideas, but no proof. Anyway, a cop kicked me in the face, but I wasn’t resisting or anything, so they had to let me go when they figured out that I was innocent.” Which was all true, but not going to be enough for his mother.
Except that she turned to look at Jen, who’d been with her the entire day.
“Did you hear about this?”
That got a shrug.
“Rick said something had happened. Not what. We can go over it later?” She was looking at him, Anthony noticed, not his mother.
“Right. I think it’s settled for now. Oh! The next fight is starting.”
He was deflecting, not really wanting to go over the whole thing the entire evening. Not that he really figured that he wasn’t going to be doing that. Still, that was what later was for. Annoying things like dealing with his mom.
Tony smiled about it all, being nice, even to Deirdre. It got her to relax, he noticed, probably thinking that everything must be fine if he were happy and cheerful seeming.
The next fight wasn’t as good as the first one, but was still a very solid middleweight match-up. It went to six rounds and honestly Tony wouldn’t have been able to guess the winner until the fourth round. It was close the whole time.
The next fight was Denny going up against Donaldson.
That was a battle. Apparently Denny was pissed at the other man still and it showed in the fight that went on. The other man, for his part, seemed intimidated the entire time. Right until he hit the mat, unconscious, at the end of the third round. That was in a title match as well, so everyone was on their feet, screaming at that point. The other man didn’t even try to stand up as the count hit ten. Even after that, to be fair.
It took long enough that medical people were on the stage. Not their doctor, but the other teams. After a few minutes the other guy was on his feet. Looking unsteady, but being willing to admit that Denny had won.
So that was two of the fights down.
Mark’s was different still, in that it went twelve rounds, with both men standing at the end. To be honest, it looked to him like Mark had won. It was really close though and the judges went for the current champ. Jenny winced a bit, but leaned over his mother to talk to him about that part.
“Titles don’t pass on close decisions very often. Mark won, but… The other man gets to keep his belt.” Which meant that Mark was probably going to be upset later.
That was the last fight of the night, which meant that the people had to leave before they could get on the bus, even though they were going right back that night. The crowd had been loud at times before, but the background din just rose a few notches as everyone got up and left. Half fighting for their cars, trying to get out first, the others saving their effort for that firs
t round of people got out of their way.
Interestingly, Rick was waved over by Don Teevan at the end, along with several other people.
Anthony glanced at the others and shrugged. Then moved to head in that direction.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes. I need to talk to a man about a fight.”
That got Jen to seem worried for some reason. Deirdre started to follow him, but Denny, a bit battered after his win, even if not too much for a hard fight like he’d been in, put a hand out and started to speak to the woman softly. Leaning in.
Rolling his eyes Tony got over to the group that was standing there, chatting.
Don Teevan was smiling hugely, his dark skin shining slightly, the building being a bit warm.
“This was a wonderful evening, gentlemen. I’ll be in touch over the next few days. We need to get on to the next set of events. I…” He stopped and looked at Tony, who was just staring at him, trying to smile a bit. “I need to speak with young Mr. Winter’s here, I think. I’ll call each of you. Thanks.”
The others all left, except for Rick, who stood there looking questioning.
Anthony just nodded at the fairly tall dark skinned man with his big hair and decently nice suit.
“So… You called in the claims for Simpson. Or had him do it the first time. Were you behind the attacks, or just capitalizing on them? Also, why blame me for them?” He was kind of an innocent bystander in the whole thing, except for the bruises. The victim. But blamed each time.
Don didn’t bother lying about it, just smiling. Hugely. It was a bit creepy.
“I saw a chance to get your name in the public eye and handled things for you. You tend to be a bit… Call it humble? That doesn’t get butts in the seat on fight night. Controversy does. So I arranged for you to be seen. I didn’t set that up. What Simpson was thinking… I suspect it was the steroids effecting his judgement. He was driven to anger and didn’t have the ability to overcome it on his own. It was powerfully clear that the man has taken damage over the years, to his mind. Not a smart man, Ralph Simpson.”
