by JJ Knight
He wants to go down fighting. Go out bested by somebody, not by quitting.
For the sport. For a good show. For honor.
I give him elbows. I give him jabs.
The ref pulls me back.
He’s called it.
I’ve won.
Viper rolls over for a second. The crowd is insane, jumping and screaming. Brazen runs into the cage, waving his arms and hollering.
I look around as the house lights go up over the arena and I can see everyone now. Green and silver ticker tape falls over the crowd in a sparkle of color. My colors. This is really something. The big time.
Viper comes over and the ref gets between us. He takes one of each of our hands. Then he lifts only mine in the air, signaling the win.
The crowd noise surges again. The president of the league is here, and he comes in to shake my hand and lift my other arm. It’s a move to show that he’s going to usher me into the league, that I will fight for him.
Maybe.
After a hundred photo flashes, the president lets go. It’s the moment I’ve pictured, and Brazen passes me the ring box. But Colt comes up alone. No Maddie. No Lily.
No moment.
Brazen talks to the league guy. The ring girl circles the cage. Colt strides up to me. “She’s still here. She just didn’t want the publicity,” he says.
Actually, that makes sense.
She’s a smart woman.
I palm the box.
The right moment will come.
We head back down the red carpet and to the back. Doc leads me into the dressing room. “Let’s clean you up enough that your daughter doesn’t think you’re the monster under her bed.”
I laugh at this. “She’s not afraid of those.”
“Then you’ve raised her right,” he says.
Have I?
He does his thing while I sit on a stool. Brazen is crazed, running around and jumping on furniture. I’ve never seen him like this.
Colt comes over. “I’ll go let Maddie and Lily know you’re coming.”
“Thanks,” I say.
Doc stands back. “You’ll pass,” he says. “Shower and then I’ll do one more cleanup.”
So I head back to the bathroom, heart heavy, hoping Maddie will be all right with my career.
Hoping everything will be all right.
* * *
Lily is the first to see me when I make it to the green room. She jumps from the sofa and runs straight for me.
“Daddy!”
I lean down and pick her up. She puts the boxing gloves on either side of my face and looks at me with concern. “Did you forget your helmet again?”
“Sometimes the rules say I don’t get to wear it.”
“Really?”
“They try to see how tough I am.”
She tilts her head. “You must be really tough.”
“I am.”
Maddie watches us from the sofa. I can’t read her expression. I don’t know what she’s thinking. Jo stands behind her. She seems happy, so nothing too bad must have happened after the win. If Maddie were going to immediately fly back to New York and not come back, Jo would probably be more concerned.
I carry Lily over to her.
“Tough fight,” Maddie says.
“You’ve had worse,” I say.
She laughs. “And no ref to call it then.”
“Yeah, I had it easy this time.”
She stands up. “So, you going to train here in LA or in New York? Jo says you were looking at a facility there.”
I shift Lily to one side. She’s got her head on my shoulder. I think she’s wearing out.
“I will go wherever you are.”
She swallows hard. I can see the lump in her throat. “Okay,” she says. “Maybe we can tour the facility in Queens, see if it’s good enough for a big-time MMA fighter. If not, I guess Anton will have to live without me.”
My jaw tightens to control the emotion flooding through me. She’s got this. She’s going to stay the course.
“I’m sure glad I’m not Anton,” I manage to say.
She moves in closer and lays her hand on Lily’s back. Her voice drops to a whisper, and I realize Lily has fallen asleep on my shoulder.
“You’re never going to have to be,” Maddie says.
I lean forward, carefully, so as not to disturb our sleeping daughter. When my lips hit Maddie’s, it’s different than before. It’s not a passionate kiss, or a punishing one. It’s not uncertain, or full of doubt, or trying to convey anything at all. It’s just us, doing what we do, because we’re together, not thousands of miles apart. Not separated by misunderstanding, ego, or fear.
But as a team. The most important team there is. Our family.
Epilogue: Parker
It was all Colt’s idea.
The music is subtle. Two guitars, picking out a harmony. A small crowd of very famous people. Actors, musicians, the producer of a hit movie, and a program director for MTV.
Maddie sits next to me with Lily on her lap. We’re at a small table near the front. The singer is Dylan Wolf, some rock-star friend of Colt’s. His wife, Jessie, is at the table next to us, sitting with Colt and Jo.
The event is a fund-raiser for a domestic-violence group. Jo’s gotten involved in it. She’s glowing and happy, watching Dylan sing.
I tap my jacket pocket for the hundredth time. The ring box is still there. I’ve taken to carrying it around full-time in the three months since the match with Viper. I keep waiting for the right moment. But there is always something.
Next week is my first official league match. I’ve been in intense training. Right now we’re in New York, but Maddie is already making noise about a brother or sister for Lily, and being near grandparents. I know she’s right. Lily will go to kindergarten in a year, and it’s time.
Colt glances over at me and nods.
Speaking of it being time.
Dylan ends the song and the crowd claps.
He speaks into a microphone angled in front of him. He and the other guitarist are sitting on stools. There’s no stage, just a space for them. The room is small, maybe fifty people. No cameras. No press. Just some big-time donors giving money for Jo’s cause.
“We’ve got a special thing happening tonight,” Dylan says as he keeps strumming a light melody. “I know you guys have seen how hard it is to keep a big moment to yourselves.” He nods at a burly actor a few people away. “Especially you, bro. How many helicopters flew over your wedding?”
The crowd laughs.
He looks over at his wife, Jess. “I had a rumble or two trying to get married to that fine lady right over there.” His music slides into the chorus of “Blue Shoes,” a song so famous you’d have to be dead not to have noticed it.
Jess presses her hands to her face. Her belly is just a little round, and I wonder if she’s pregnant and not saying.
I try to shake off my nerves. I know Dylan’s giving me a moment to screw up my courage by being chatty.
Dylan keeps talking. “Tonight we’ve got another guy trying to keep things on the down low. But I think you all will appreciate what he’s got to say.”
The light shifts from Dylan to our table. Lily spots it and points. She’s wearing a silver dress that sparkles when the beam hits it. “I look like a fairy princess!” she says and the crowd laughs.
Maddie shushes her, her face confused. She glances at me with a “What are you doing?” look.
I pull the ring box out, and then she relaxes. She gets it.
I stand up a second, wave at everyone, and then get down on one knee.
Now the crowd realizes what is happening, and a small “Awwww” courses through the room.
“I’ll let him take it from here,” Dylan says, and he and the other guitarist continue their soft background melody.
“Maddie,” I say. “I’ve been in a lot of fights.” This gets a titter from the crowd. “But no matter who comes at me in the cage, there’s nobody out ther
e more worth fighting for than you.”
“And me!” Lily says. A ripple of laughter follows.
“And you.” I wave Lily over. “Maybe you can help me with this.”
I open the box. Lily looks in. “That’s too big for me!” she says. Another laugh.
“It’s for Mama,” I say.
“Ooooh.” She looks up at Maddie. “Are you going to wear it?”
Maddie’s working hard not to cry. “I think Daddy is supposed to ask the question.”
“But I already did!” She sighs and turns to me. “You’d better ask her.”
Everyone is roaring now.
“I guess I’d better,” I say. I reach out for Maddie’s hand. “Madelyn Antoinette Greco, will you be my wife?”
The question hangs out there for a moment. Maddie looks so beautiful, her hair up all fancy, in a shimmery green dress that Anton made for her as a going-away present.
“Yes,” Maddie says. “Yes, yes.”
I slide the ring on her hand. I can’t believe it’s finally there. Lily takes her hand too, looking at the sparkling diamond. She turns to me. “Can I have one too?”
I squeeze her. “Yes, you can have one too.”
I lift Maddie’s hands to my lips and kiss them. Lily jumps off my knee, so I stand up and pull Maddie up with me.
This time when I kiss her, it says everything. That I love her. And I’m awed by her. And this time, no matter what happens, we’re going to stick it out together, for better or for worse, all the way until the end.
This is the end of FIGHT FOR HER!
Thank you for being a part of it.
Did you love Jax? He’s got his own series coming up called The Vigilante’s Lover.
I’m writing it under a new pen name: Annie Winters.
But it’s still me!
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Thank you for reading!
Love, JJ
Fight for Her is part of JJ Knight’s Uncaged Love books about MMA fighters. If you missed Colt and Jo’s story, you might enjoy going back to read their love affair in Uncaged Love, Volumes 1-5.
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