Fight for Her #2

by JJ Knight

  “Take it down. Both of you.” He holds my fist in his palm. His face doesn’t show any emotion, but I can feel the strain in his arm as he maintains his grip. Colt may be the light heavyweight champion, and he might be strong, but I’m pissed.

  He shoves my arm away and lets go.

  Buster comes barreling into the room, his bald head shining in the overhead lights. “I’ll run the whole lot of you out of my gym if you come to blows. I won’t have it.”

  “It’s all right,” Colt says. “We’re getting to the bottom of it.” He folds his arms over his chest. “Parker, we have a contract, and you’ve got me involved, and Buster, and Brazen. The match is in ten days. You can take off for New York after that.”

  “What if he wins?” Brazen says. “He’s got a shot at the league! It’s what we’ve worked for.” He paces in a tight circle. “Five years, down the damn drain.”

  “Parker is not required to take the slot even if he wins it,” Colt says. “He’ll just be offered a contract. He can turn it down.”

  Brazen takes off out of the room and into the addition, toward the MMA cage.

  “You seriously going to skip the deal?” Buster asks me.

  I sink back down onto the weight bench. “I don’t know what to do.”

  Colt sits beside me. “Did you tell her about the Vegas fight? It’s a lot of money you’re leaving on the table. Your career.”

  “No.”

  “She should know,” Jo says. “She won’t like it if she finds out on her own. She might not want you to give all this up.”

  “Oh, she will,” I mutter.

  Buster looks at Colt, who waves him off. Jo pats my arm before disappearing back into the addition.

  Hudson is still on the floor, the kettlebell on his chest.

  “You go on back,” Colt says to him. “Killjoy will have something else for you to do.”

  Hudson rolls the weight onto the floor and scrambles up and out of the room.

  A couple guys we don’t know are still lifting on the opposite side, but they aren’t paying any attention now that nobody’s yelling.

  “What kind of job?” Colt asks.

  “Something in her office building. Security or something.” I can’t look him in the eye. “But there’s a gym there interested in me for training. I might do that instead.”

  “All good work,” he says.

  He’s being generous. He knows I’m blowing it. We listen to the clink of the weights for a bit. Brazen’s orders filter in from the other room. Hudson’s probably taking the brunt of the anger I caused.

  “It’d be a pretty big deal to pull out of this fight now that we’re in it,” Colt says. “If you’ve got a little time before you’re expected in New York, you should do it. You don’t have to go into league play. Nobody’s locking you down. You’d still have to beat Viper anyway.”

  Colt’s got this authoritative thing going now. He didn’t have it before the gunshot wounds, his rehab, and his comeback. He was like any of us. Hotheaded. Impulsive.

  Maybe this new attitude comes from nearly dying. Or maybe it’s due to his responsibilities since he’s been the reigning champion. But I know I have to listen. I feel all over the place, ideas and worries knocking around my head like a ping-pong ball.

  “Call your girl,” Colt says. “Tell her you’ve got one last fight, a big one, and then you’re all hers. She’ll understand contracts. She’ll appreciate you’re getting a decent payday on it.”

  What he says makes sense. It’s just one fight. And if I’m going to retire at twenty-five, I might as well go out in Vegas.

  Chapter 13: Maddie

  I try to call Parker several times that day, but I don’t get him. It’s frustrating. It’s not the sort of thing I can just leave in a message.

  Hey, Parker, go ahead and get your face bashed in a second time. It’s cool with me.

  The workday crawls by.

  I try one more time before I go down into the subway for the ride home, but it rolls to voice mail instantly, like his cell is off. I shove the phone in my bag and head toward the Seven line.

  One of those rare New York moments happens on the way home. I’ve never been a part of one before, but a few months ago, the Broadway cast of The Lion King sang on the A line.

  Today it’s a quartet, four men in identical black satin jackets. Three of them start to rock back and forth, snapping their fingers in rhythm. The fourth, who is shorter than the others, kneels in front of an elderly lady holding an overstuffed grocery bag in her lap and sings the opening line to “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.”

  Some of the passengers whoop and cheer as the lady blushes, her wrinkled cheeks turning pink.

  They’ve chosen the longest unbroken part of the ride for their performance. Their harmonies are flawless, and the emotion pouring out of them feels genuine even if a bit schmaltzy. I look around the seats. A few people are unmoved by the music, staring at their electronics as if this is nothing spectacular.

  As the song moves to its high point, the lead singer crooning his heart out, he stands up and begins to wander the train. He gestures to one woman, then another. For a few lines he sings to a cranky construction worker in a yellow hard hat, and everyone laughs.

  Then he spots me.

  The song is about to end, but they roll around to the chorus one more time.

  I’m sitting near the middle of the car on a seat that faces out. The singer takes my hand in his. He’s earnest, his coal-black eyes right on mine. His skin is dark and smooth. His hair is burred close to his head, which makes me think of Parker. I swallow. Every romantic moment now makes me think of him.

  Parker would never do anything like this. He doesn’t even sing in the shower. But as the words flow over me, it’s almost like it’s him. Like it’s a message for me before we talk again about his career and where he’s going next. With me or without me.

  Yesterday, he chose me. Now I’m going to have to decide if I choose him.

  When the song winds down, the man lifts my hand and lightly kisses my knuckles. The crowd claps and hoots. The car slides into a station and when the doors open, the singers slip away as though they were never there at all.

  Those of us left in our seats look around, as if wondering whether the whole thing was some sort of crazy dream. But I feel this glow that makes me want to talk to Parker right away. I’m so different than I was just a few weeks ago. When I first saw him again in that pizzeria drawing pictures with Lily, I was ready to hate him. I wanted to hold him away from me.

  But now that seems impossible.

  Everything about him feels right.

  I’m relieved to get to my stop and escape the confinement of the subway. The walk to the house is chilly. I wish for Parker to cozy up with. I’m becoming more and more sure that whatever he does with his life, I will have to find a way to handle it. Because no matter what he does, I want to be doing it with him.

  Chapter 14: Parker

  I have to admit, I’ve been avoiding Maddie’s calls. I don’t know what she’s going to say when I tell her I have one more fight. With Blitzkrieg, no less. Televised, where any humiliation will be national news instantly.

  I want to be at home, no distractions, when I call. I need to be able to think clearly, say everything just the right way. And I want to be able to see her face so I can adjust if I need to.

  It’s five o’clock my time, eight hers. I know it’s almost bedtime for Lily. I send the video request, more nervous than I’ve been in a while. Probably the only time I was more anxious was walking through the airport, worried Lily wouldn’t know I was her dad.

  When Maddie accepts the call, I can see she’s a little upset. I give a little wave. “Is Lily still up?” I ask.

  “Yeah,” she says.

  The screen is a blur for a second, and I figure Lily has grabbed it from her. Sure enough, Lily’s small face appears, super close. All I can see is her eyes and nose.

  “Close your eyes!” Lily ins
ists.

  I do as I’m told. “All closed,” I say.

  “Don’t open them until I tell you!”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

  I wait a second or two, then Lily says, “You can look now.”

  I open my eyes. Lily has pulled the camera away so I can see more of her. Her black hair is piled on her head. A sparkly crown sits on top.

  “You’re a princess!” I say.

  “I have a wand too,” Lily says. She waves a blue stick in front of her face.

  This makes me think of skinny little Hudson again. “Where did you get that?” I ask.

  “One of my friends gave it to me for my birthday,” she says. “She didn’t come to the party because she was sick.”

  “I like it,” I tell her.

  Lily’s face gets all serious. “But I have to ask you something.”

  “Anything.”

  “Can I be a princess and a fighter too?”

  “Of course you can. You can be anything you want to be, all at the same time.”

  “Okay!” Her face brightens. “Mama says I have to go to bed. Nighty-night!”

  And just like that, she’s gone and I’m looking at the white ceiling.

  Maddie picks up the phone. She’s talking to someone else. Probably good ol’ Delores.

  Eventually she looks back to me. “Wait just a second,” she says.

  I guess she wants to get away from Delores. I would too. The background changes behind her as she moves. The scene goes from light to dark. I guess she’s gone out on her porch.

  “Won’t you be cold out there?” I ask.

  “I’ll manage,” she says. Her hair flies around and her cheeks start to go pink.

  “I have to talk to you about something,” I say. I’ve already forgotten all the things I rehearsed.

  “If it’s about the Vegas fight, I already know,” she says.

  I blow out a huge rush of air. “MMA sites?” I ask.

  She nods. “I may be your number-one stalker.”

  This makes me laugh. “I’ll take it.”

  “You have to do it,” she says. “It’s a big deal.”

  “I’m under contract,” I say. “I tried to get out of it this morning.”

  She looks away, her eyes cast out toward the street. “Because of me?”

  “I didn’t want you to go through all that again.”

  “I probably can’t afford your pay-per-view fees anyway.” She’s got a half smile on now, and when she glances back at the screen, my heart catches a little.

  “How about I take care of them and you pay me back in sexual favors?” I say.

  Now her grin is big and wide. “You should be paying ME sexual favors,” she says.

  It was a good idea for her to get away from Delores. “I believe I’ve been doing that at every opportunity,” I say. I sit down on my sofa.

  “Can you swing back here after that fight?” she asks.

  “If I win, I can charter the plane,” I say.

  She raises her eyebrows. “What will you do after that?”

  “Come be a security guard, sounds like.”

  She frowns then. “But the article said you would get a shot at joining the league.”

  “Not part of the contract. I just have to do the exhibition.”

  “But it’s what you’ve wanted.”

  “It’s what I used to want.”

  She shivers. Her breath is puffing in the cold now. She looks around and I try to picture what she’s seeing, her neighborhood at night.

  Finally she says, “I don’t like the idea that you are giving all this up for me.”

  “I’m not,” I say. “I’m doing it for Lily.”

  “Lily would like it even less.”

  “Not if I’m there. I can get a minivan and drive the carpool.”

  But Maddie doesn’t laugh. “I don’t think you can make a decision this big in one day,” she says.

  “I’m not going to lose you over a career that could end any day,” I tell her.

  “Let’s see how the fight turns out, okay?” she says. “Then maybe we can make some sort of plan.”

  “Don’t watch the fight, then,” I say, crushing all those thoughts of bringing her to Vegas, getting married by Elvis. “Wait for me to call you. I’ll tell you how it went.”

  “I’ll try to avoid it,” she says. “Though I think the footage is going to be everywhere.”

  “Stay off the Internet,” I say. “Besides, there’s this embarrassing animated GIF going around.”

  “I already have it,” she says, laughing. “I set it so that it comes up every time I turn on my phone.”

  “You cruel, cruel wench,” I tell her. “I’m going to spank you for that.”

  She whirls around and sticks the video feed next to her butt, round and tantalizing in gold-colored pants.

  I smack my coffee table with a BOOM, as if I’ve spanked her.

  She pops up again and turns the screen back to her face. “Now you’ll have to kiss it and make it all better.”

  “You’re going to make this a rough night for me,” I say.

  “That was my intention.”

  I feel this rush of emotion. I want to tell her how I feel, but it’s not something for a video chat. “You go get some sleep, if you can,” I tell her.

  “All right. Train hard. Don’t get your ass kicked this time.”

  “I’ll put it on my to-do list.”

  Maddie pushes a chunk of wayward hair out of her face. “Talk to you later.”

  “Goodnight, Maddie.”

  I feel too pent up to stay inside all night. It’s early here. I sling on a jacket and head out of the apartment. I was going to go look at motorcycles, find something now that the car is sold. But if I’m moving to New York in a couple weeks anyway, that might be more trouble than it’s worth.

  I might be getting that minivan for real.

  The thought makes me laugh as I lock up and stride toward the street. I could call some of the fighter boys I know, grab some dinner. Or maybe I’ll just walk.

  A smallish figure pops out from behind a tree and I stop short.

  For a second, I can’t believe who I’m seeing. Then, I get pissed.

  It’s Lani. I haven’t seen her since the night I brought her and her friend Annie to an underground fight as a favor to Jo after she and Colt got shot in an alley.

  Lani and her brother were the ones who planned the attack and hired some thugs to beat them up. When the fighters walked away, nobody knew one of them would have a gun.

  But I heard the shot and ran back. Lani didn’t. Neither did the others. They would have left them both to die.

  “What are you doing here?” My voice isn’t kind.

  Lani glances around. She’s got a hoodie pulled up over her hair. She’s small and nonthreatening. We’ve been friends since we were young, which is why her betrayal was such a shock. I couldn’t see her doing any of this, even for her brother Striker, who had a vendetta against Colt.

  “Saw you hitting all the MMA news,” she says.

  “What of it?”

  “It’s not right.”

  My anger starts to boil over. “I’ve been fighting for years to get this break.”

  She explodes, lunging at me like she’s going to take a punch. “Striker’s looking at jail time. Two other fighters got banned from the league. And you’re here sitting pretty, like you had nothing to do with it.”

  I walk away, out toward the street.

  She doesn’t follow, but calls out, “Watch your back, Parker.”

  This makes me halt. I whirl around. “Maybe you should be watching yours.”

  But Lani just smiles. “Never bring fists to a gunfight,” she says. “Especially in Vegas.”

  My blood runs cold. “What about Vegas?”

  “Lots of underground fighters there. Way tougher than you sorry chumps, begging for sponsor money.”

  Something dawns on me. Striker is out on bail, waiting on
his delayed trial. “Is that where your brother is?”

  Lani smirks. “Maybe.”

  This is unbelievable. “What the hell has happened to you?”

  She shrugs. “When everything gets taken away, you strike back.”

  “Nobody took anything from you. You destroyed it yourself.”

  Lani crosses her arms. “It’s a shame you couldn’t see who your real friends were.”

  “The ones who attack other fighters? With hired thugs?” It’s taking every bit of my self-control not to shake her. “I can’t believe you’re standing here threatening me after we’ve known each other all our lives.”

  “I can’t believe you didn’t stand up for any of us, but sided with that asshole who ruined Striker’s career.”

  That’s it. I’ve had enough. “If you can’t see that Striker did that for his own damn self, then there’s no reasoning with you.” I whip around and take off one more time.

  Lani’s laughing like a lunatic. She’s lost it. I don’t even know what she expected to happen from our little meeting. Me quit fighting just because of her threat? Was I supposed to have disappeared quietly like they all did after the hearings?

  Colt befriended me despite everything that happened that night because I went back. I was not going to let anybody die. If Lani and Striker think that’s a slap to them, then I’ll just have to leave them to their delusions.

  But I’ve been warned. I’ll have to watch my back.

  Chapter 15: Parker

  The lights of the Vegas Strip are unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Neon in every color under the sun. Enormous casinos. Huge screens advertising shows and singers and more Elvis impersonators than should be allowed in a single city.

  In front of the Bellagio hotel, water sprays dance in time to music. Behind it, a bright replica of the Eiffel Tower makes you feel like you’re in some other world.

  Colt and Jo walk a little ahead of me, their fingers intertwined. I’m wishing for the thousandth time that Maddie was here. Lily would love this light show. I almost don’t want to watch it so that it will be new to me when I see it with her.

  But Maddie and I agreed that this was the best way. Whether I win or lose, I will make enough money to fly them to LA for Thanksgiving in a few weeks. She is excited to see her mom. And we know it is time for my parents to meet their granddaughter.