by Alta Hensley
I got back into boxing.
I fucking won.
I made some smart decisions… and now I was here after having sex with the most wonderful woman on the planet.
“So, what now?” Julep finally asked, but I got the impression that she meant at that exact moment, rather than for the future, which was a question that I could actually deal with.
“I do need to get home, to check on my dad… but I would love to walk you home first, if that’s okay?”
Call me old-fashioned, but I always preferred to do the gentlemanly thing, especially now. I might not have always behaved that way, but that was what spurred me on even more. It was the main thing that separated what I had with Julep from what I’d had with countless other women in my past.
“That sounds lovely.” She grinned happily at me, stroking my arm. “Thank you.”
We stood up, dressing ourselves slowly, but it wasn’t a moment that separated us because we kept smiling at one another and making sweet jokes. Usually, I hated the getting dressed part. I found it awkward and was unsure of what to say or do, but now with Julep, it actually felt right.
“Well, now this gym is going to have a couple of nice memories for you.” She laughed, and I smiled back. “Tomorrow’s training in this ring might not be as fun as what just happened here,” she said with a wink.
9
Julep
“Sure the fight was fixed. I fixed it with a right hand.”
– George Foreman
Over the next few weeks, I was far too busy with the gym and dealing with all the promoters who now wanted a part of The Matador to spend any alone time with Mateo. After that magical, unexpected moment in the ring, we really left things hanging in the air. At the time, I was happy with not having to face what exactly we were and what it all meant, but now that enough time had passed, it had left my head spinning.
I still felt like there was something there more than just a one-night hookup, because every time we looked at one another, there was a spark and a secret smile there. Mateo constantly left my heart fluttering, but that was all there would ever be for the time being. At least until we got some time alone, which with his intense training schedule, I didn’t see happening any time soon.
Mateo’s life was just about as insane as mine. On top of his training, the PR team we hired had him doing constant interviews and promotional opportunities to try his best to rebuild his reputation. I knew this was very important to the promoters setting up the fights, but I was also finding it to be a massive pain in the ass.
It was good for Shamrocks as well. The attention that Mateo brought to the gym had the money rolling in. More people were signing up at the gym, the number of promoters knocking on our door, and the advertisers were desperate to be a part of what we currently were rebuilding in Mateo. The entire sports world might be divided in their opinion of Mateo, and what sort of person he was, but it was attention. All publicity was good publicity.
I personally was certain that Mateo wouldn’t betray us like people were suggesting. My gut told me that he wouldn’t throw a fight and screw over Shamrocks and the team we built to support him, even if he did do it before. I didn’t know the full extent of the past yet, not from Mateo’s point of view anyway, but I got the impression that whatever drove him to make the past mistake was gone. He was a different man now. Maybe I was being naïve. Maybe I was just seeing what I wanted to see, but my instincts were telling me I was right, and that everything was going to be fine.
“We have a meeting today.” Danny stalked into the office, a furious frown on his face. “The Vegas promoters want to talk to us.”
My blood ran cold at his statement – if the Vegas promoters wanted to meet with us today, then we had definitely done something wrong. We had our annual fight, and that was always the same. Unless the shit hit the fan, then we never saw them before we traveled to the venue in Vegas.
“Do you think it’s about Mateo?” I asked, panic lacing my tone. I already knew the answer to that question. What else could it be?
“I would assume so,” Danny said, sending me a look. As he held my eye contact for a second, I had the horrible sinking sensation that he’d somehow found out about me and Mateo hooking up. I kept fearing that moment would eventually come. I kept trying to imagine what the consequences of that were going to look like, and it filled me with a cold pit of dread every single time. “I can’t see what else it’ll be.”
“What time are they going to be here?” I asked, knowing that I was going to get grilled. I was the recruiter. I went after Mateo. I basically forced him to join the gym. If they had any concerns, or they didn’t like it, it was me who was going to have to accept the consequences.
“In an hour or so,” he said, looking fraught. A part of me was glad that it was so soon because it didn’t give Danny too long to get worked up, but another part of me was totally freaked out. An hour wasn’t long enough to work out what I was going to say. Sure, I knew why I picked Mateo, and I knew that I’d done the right thing. But how was I going to get that across if they disagreed?
I instantly started researching, getting some solid numbers on Mateo and his stats to present to the promoters. With that, I started to feel a little more confident. He was a damn good boxer. He had a solid background, and if it wasn’t for the fuckup at the end, he probably would have been one of the most sought after fighters on the planet. He would have been the heavyweight champion for sure if he hadn’t thrown away his career.
I put in a call to Lola to find out what she knew about Mateo. I knew that she must have done some intense, out of the box research on him before she went to interview him, even if the piece was never run. She would have been looking at it from a different angle to give the article an atypical angle that she was famous for doing. It would give me another perspective, and maybe more than just stats to throw at the promoters.
“Hi, Lola,” I said into the phone the second she answered. “I need your help. I need all that you have on Mateo. The Vegas promoters want a meeting later today, and I need to present all of my reasons for picking him and why they should allow him to fight. I’m going to have to defend my decisions, and I could use everything you have.”
“Of course,” my lifesaver said, filling me with relief. “Just give me a second. Let me find my folder on him. I have everything I learned about him in there, and I know for a fact I have some good stuff.”
I let out a deep sigh of relief as she ran through all that she had. This was going to be easy. I’d be able to do this. Once I told the promoters everything about the real man Mateo Vega was, rather than the media fuck-up they’d seen, then everything would be okay.
Well, it had to be… Shamrocks was on the line.
My heart raced the second I stepped through the door into the meeting with the Vegas team, because each one of them had a stern expression on their face. They were clearly already annoyed about everything, which was going to make this so much harder. Was I going to be able to make them see Mateo’s stats and understand the extra revenue that he could bring to the event if they’d already made up their minds about him?
“I think we all know why we’re here,” Jason Maxwell said, frustration and anger dripping from his tongue. “We need to discuss the latest… addition to your lineup.”
I felt sick to my stomach, totally afraid that I might actually not be able to work through this after all. It was all well and good having an idea of what I was going to say, but now that I had all those black, beady eyes staring into my soul, everything was just… floating away. I tried to discreetly take in a few, deep calming breaths, but it wasn’t working one bit. Nerves were bursting through my body, sending trembles through my limbs, and my heart was beating at epic proportions.
“Who the hell is responsible for this?” Jason added.
“I… I am,” I answered with a shake in my voice. “Shamrocks needed someone worthy of a champion title, and after a little research and a successful tryout session, we
felt like Mateo Vega would be the best addition to the gym. We see potential in him to become the champion.”
“So you decided to bring someone in who is infamous for throwing a huge fight and making a fiasco of our Vegas event? Again. Who is unreliable, and now far too old to really have a shot?”
“Well, if you look at his statistics.” I could feel myself shaking, all my speech flowing from my mind. I had it so well-written out, so perfectly constructed, and now he had completely thrown me by asking all the difficult questions from the outset. “He was undefeated before—”
“Years ago,” Jason interrupted, cutting me down scathingly. “Old stats don’t mean anything anymore. He’s been out of action for years. After his scandal, no one even knew where he went.”
“He won his last fight,” my brother completely shocked me by saying. I spun around to look at Danny, unable to believe that he was actually sticking up for Mateo. He was the one who had been dead set against the idea of Mateo joining in the first place, and I thought he would love the chance to say I told you so. “He’s been fighting with a renewed power, working hard, and showing that he may have what it takes.”
“But there is so much bad press surrounding him,” one of the cross-looking promoters I didn’t know interjected. “How are we supposed to just ignore that? He could turn our event into a damn circus.”
I felt more confident now that Danny had spoken out. It made me feel like I was not on my own here. These old school men would respect my brother’s opinion more than mine—as much as that pissed me off—so having his support was paramount.
“That media coverage could actually bring in more revenue, and you all know it,” I shot back, sending Danny a self-satisfied smile. “There might be shit talk, people arguing over our decision to have Mateo Vega fighting, but at least they’re talking about us. His supporters will be there. People who want to see him succeed and fail will be buying tickets. Whether that’s to hurl abuse at him or to support him, it really doesn’t matter. The money is lining your pockets.”
Of course, I didn’t really feel that way. I didn’t want people to yell nasty things at Mateo as he entered the arena. But I needed to speak the language of this group, and the only thing that they fully understood or cared about was money.
“But what if he throws the fight again? This time, for even more money than before?” Jason asked me directly, staring intimidatingly at me. It was as if he thought that he’d be able to get me to back down just by looking at me. “What then?”
“He won’t,” I said confidently, staring right back at him. “He’s made his mistakes, but this second chance means a lot to him. He has more people relying on him than the public realizes. He’ll earn back everyone’s trust over time. I can be sure of that. And while he’s winning everyone else over, we will all be benefitting from a string of wins like nothing we’ve seen in a very long time.”
I felt confident in my speech. I was pretty sure that everyone had been completely and utterly turned around by my words. I couldn’t stop the big grin from spreading across my face. I’d done it. I’d made things work, and I couldn’t be prouder of myself.
“Danny,” Jason snapped, completely looking away from me. “I expect you to keep a strict eye on Vega. I don’t trust him, and I need someone to ensure that he doesn’t fuck up. In fact, if you suspect that he might be up to anything unsavory, then I pull his ass.” He shot me a dirty look, before continuing. “We can’t do anything about him being on the lineup now, unless we want to deal with the shit storm that would cause with the press. So we’re just going to have to be careful to protect our asses. I don’t want this short-term financial gain to have negative long-term effects.”
I really couldn’t tell if that exchange went well or not, but Danny was already standing up and shaking the hands of everyone, smiling as if all of this was over. I knew for a fact now that the future of Shamrocks really did all rest on my shoulders. We wouldn’t be able to bounce back from a scandal as big as Mateo throwing another fight or doing even the slightest thing to bring us bad press. I really hoped that I was right in trusting in him. I really hoped that Mateo didn’t fuck up. Not only did I really want to maintain the reputation of Shamrocks, but I didn’t want to think I’d felt something for someone, hooked up with someone, who was nothing more than a liar and a cheat.
10
Mateo
“He can have heart, he can hit harder and he can be stronger, but there’s no fighter smarter than me.”
– Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr.
What the fuck is that? I thought to myself as I pulled up at home. Ever since I joined Shamrocks, I hadn’t had many visitors at my house. Which was probably because no one knew where it was. So, it was a shock to see a strange car in my driveway. To make it worse, it was a flashy sports car, which meant that it belonged to someone who had a whole bunch of money. But I had no idea who it could be. Was it a recruiter from another gym trying to steal me away?
No. Maybe in the olden days that would have happened, but not anymore. No one was going to want to take on the PR nightmare that I was other than Julep.
So who then?
It wasn’t until I stepped out of the car, and I spotted the very unwelcome, very familiar number plate, that it hit me. KingNero1. The car belonged to Nero Rodriguez. The man who got me into this fucking mess in the first place. The man who made me throw that fight. The man who helped ruin my life.
My heart rate kicked up to a whole new level as I started to realize what this might mean. If he was back in my life, he must want something. Even though I didn’t have a damn fucking thing left for him. He already had absolutely everything of mine.
I pumped my fists angrily at my side as I marched toward the front door, noticing that he’d already let himself in. Something he always used to do. Of course, back then, he was letting himself into my mansion, wandering among the hallways of greatness, helping himself to top-shelf booze on my mahogany bar that cost more than most people made in a year. Whereas now, he’d gone into a shitty, rundown house.
I shoved the door open violently, smacking it against the wall with a loud bang, and I stalked from room to room just waiting to see that damn fucking face of his again. That fucking smug bastard smirk. That horrible way he squinted his eyes. The arrogant aura around him. How the hell had I ever thought that he was my friend? Sure, he came into my life at a very vulnerable point. Just when I found out that Dad had cancer the first time around. Nero had shown me a surprisingly good time, despite all of the shit I was going through. I was a fucking naïve idiot back then. I thought that he wanted to be my friend. I couldn’t seem to see that he was grooming me, drawing me in to be one of his biggest clients. He used my dad’s vulnerability to get to me. He took me to the casino, and he showed me how easy it was to win big. He seemed to realize that I needed a quick cash fix to help my dad, and I fell for it all. I was so desperate for cash, and I got sucked in like a fucking chump.
Well not again. I would never, ever be fooled by that damn idiot again, and I intended to let him know that the second I saw him. It enraged me to no end he was even here, anywhere near my life, and it terrified me too. The influence this man once had on my life, and the threats he made to get what he wanted out of me, fucked with my head. Nero was a big part of the reason why I wanted nothing more than to lock myself away from the rest of the world.
I soon found him standing in my front room with his arms outstretched to hug me, as if we were old friends. “Hey there, Mateo. It’s wonderful to see you again!” he said smarmily to me, with that familiar smirk I hated playing on his lips. “How have you been?”
I had no intention of having any fake small talk with this guy. Especially as I didn’t know what fucked up game he was playing. “What do you want?” I snapped back. “And how did you find out where I live?”
“When I want to know something, it’s easy to find,” he said, making his meaning very clear.
When I was penniless and out of t
he sport, I was no use to him. Now that I’d made my comeback, all of a sudden he wanted to know me again. He had come back to me because he thought he could sink his claws in. Knowing what this man was like, he probably knew about my dad being sick again too. He was probably aware of how ill he was, and he intended to use that to his advantage.
Well, not this time! I was stronger now. More capable. I’d find a way to look after Dad by myself. Somehow.
“I thought I made it perfectly clear last time I saw you that I never wanted to see your face again,” I barked.
Our last meeting was not a good one, to say the least. It was just after I threw the fight, allowing him to make a whole load of money from bets. Back then, no one would ever think I’d ever lose on purpose, which would pay off the last of the debts I owed to Nero.
What had started as a way to make enough money for Dad’s cancer treatment, had taken a really bad turn. I was consumed by gambling. Sucked in by the promise it held, and that led me to take out numerous loans from my good friend Nero. In the end, I owed him so big, that the fight fixing was really the only way to get out of my huge hole. I owed money to a lot of people—to a lot of bad people who had lost patience in being paid. There was no other way. Or at least no other way I could see in my constant drug and alcohol infused state at the time. What was one fight?
What was one fight where I sold my soul to the Devil?
Hell. That was what it was. Complete and utter Hell.
I let myself down, the fans down, and everyone who knew that fight was mine to win. Then, of course, the media guessed what might have happened, and they printed all kinds of terrible things about me. They didn’t know for sure, but by that point, it really didn’t matter.
