Filthy Fight (Hard n' Dirty Book 2)

by Alta Hensley

  The paramedics arrived, and Dad was pulled from me. Watching them carry him on a stretcher sent everything freefalling too quickly for me to keep track of anything.

  This couldn’t be it. It just couldn’t. I was not ready.

  15

  Julep

  “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses—behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”

  – Muhammad Ali

  “Oh my God,” I gasped into my phone as Mateo told me what had just happened with his father. “Are you okay?” I couldn’t believe it. They were both only in my office yesterday afternoon, and although Cisco had looked sick, I hadn’t thought he was heading right to the hospital. “Is there anything I can do?”

  “I… I don’t know,” Mateo said with a morose break in his voice. “My head is all over the place.”

  “I’m coming over,” I said decisively, knowing that was what I needed to do. I didn’t know if I would do it for any other member of the gym. I’d never been in this position before, but there was no point in pretending that Mateo was just another boxer to me. We’d hooked up. I liked him. I cared a lot about him, and I wanted to be there for him. “Just wait for me.”

  “No, you don’t have to,” he tried to argue weakly, but I was having none of it. I had made my mind up now, and I was coming whether he liked it or not.

  “I’ll be there soon.”

  As I raced the car toward the hospital, I tried to steady my nerves. I needed to remain strong for Mateo. I practically ran through the hospital hallways until I finally found Mateo standing there with his head in his hands. Without even thinking about it, I hurried to his side and threw my arms around him, pulling him in for a deep embrace. I could feel Mateo trembling against me, falling into me, and I felt helpless. I just wished that there was more that I could do. This strong man who could decimate any beast was broken. I held nothing but pieces in my arms. The shell of tattooed muscle crumbled within.

  “It’s the cancer,” he said softly. “It’s spreading through him. I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do about it. I want to help him, to get him treatment, but I don’t know how.”

  Oh fuck, I thought to myself. Don’t do it. Don’t get too desperate. Please, don’t go down the same road again.

  I held him closer, willing him to feel me, to know that I was there for him. If he knew he wasn’t alone, maybe he wouldn’t get sucked into the darkness so easily. I knew he was more grown up now and a changed man. But I could see there was a desperation within him, and that scared the hell out of me.

  “And on top of that, your brother keeps calling me because I need to get ready for the match tonight,” he continued, reminding me that there was a fight that was about to happen. One that we were fucked with if Mateo didn’t show up. It would be a PR nightmare if he didn’t show, but of course we couldn’t ask him to box. Not now. Not with all of this going on with his dad. “I don’t know what to do about it,” he admitted, pulling back from me. “I want to fight because I need the money. I also haven’t given enough notice with regards to my contract. But I also don’t want to go and leave my dad. I’m a fucking mess.”

  “I’ll stay with him,” I offered, knowing that I’d do whatever he needed me to. “It doesn’t really matter if I’m at the fight or not. Danny can fill in for me where I would be missed. This way you can fight, and you’ll know your dad isn’t alone. I won’t leave his side.”

  “You will?” he asked, looking really relieved. “This has been plaguing me. I’ve been trying to make a decision for the best. Dad’s asleep at the moment. He might not even notice me gone, but still.”

  “Just go,” I assured him. “I’ll be fine. Your dad will be fine. Trust me. I’ll get in touch with you if you’re needed.”

  With that, he pulled me in for a deep hug and rushed from the hospital. I was sure a part of this was a coping tactic, and that he needed to go punch a man into oblivion to feel better, which was fine. He needed to feel normal when his life was spiraling out of control. Fighting was his normal. Any way that I could help him, any way that I could keep him from going down a bad path, was fine by me.

  I stepped into Cisco’s room, where like Mateo said, he was fast asleep. I sat myself on the chair by his bed, looking down at his weak and fragile frame. My heart went out to the both of them. It was obvious now, with Cisco in his hospital gown, that he really was dying.

  This was bad. This was really bad. I didn’t know how Mateo was going to deal with that if he did die.

  In great need of a distraction, I flicked the crappy old hospital room television on to watch the fight. I kept the volume low as it was only the commentary and preparation part, but somehow that seemed to be loud enough to wake up Cisco.

  He grumbled, sitting upright.

  “Are you okay? Do you need a nurse? Mateo has his fight tonight, but I can get him back if you want.”

  “No, thank you,” he whispered. “Just some water, please.”

  As he gulped down the cool liquid I handed to him, color began to return to his face, and it wasn’t long before a weak smile spread across his lips.

  “Julep, what are you doing here? I only just realized that it was you sitting there.”

  I grinned at him before holding his hand in mine. “Mateo didn’t want to leave you alone. But he really needed to fight tonight, so I offered to stay here with you for him. I hope you don’t mind. It’s just until the fight is over.”

  “Mind? Being looked after by a pretty girl like you? Of course not! You are far better looking than my son.” He laughed, causing me to join in. It seemed like it didn’t matter how sick Cisco got, his sparkling personality wasn’t going anywhere. “You’re a real sweetheart. Thank you.”

  “Um, I just put the fight on… Well, it hasn’t started yet, but I can turn it off if it’s bothering you?”

  “No, of course not,” he insisted, sitting up even more, wincing through the pain. “If I can’t watch the fight in the front row with you, then at least we can watch it from here.”

  We lost ourselves in the commentary for a while, both listening to the opinions of the hosts and their banter. But as soon as one of them mentioned Mateo’s name, Cisco spoke out once more, bringing my focus back to him.

  “He’s not a bad guy, you know?” he said sincerely. “I know that my son has done some bad things. But he isn’t a bad guy.”

  “Oh, I know.” I nodded at him. “I can see that.”

  “Has he told you about his birth parents?” I instantly shook my head at this. He hadn’t mentioned anything about his past further back than the one mistake he had made. It was almost as if he had shut everything else out besides that. As if in his mind, that moment was the beginning of his life. “Well, I hope this will make you understand a little more. His birth mother couldn’t keep him and decided to give him away as she didn’t know who his father was. When he was older, we tried finding her again, but she disappeared without a trace.”

  “Wow, I didn’t know that.”

  This information literally broke my heart. How much had this man been through? “My late wife, Louisa, and I couldn’t have kids, so we made the decision to adopt at exactly the right moment. She had been working at the clinic in Cuba when baby Mateo was left at the doorstep in a weathered box. As soon as Mateo was well enough to leave the hospital, he came home with us for what we believed would be a long life together as a family.” I didn’t like where this story was going. I could already tell that there was a lot more sadness, and I wasn’t sure that I was ready to hear it. “Then when Mateo was three years old, Louisa was killed in a car crash. He was in that crash, but he managed to survive with only a few scratches. The other car that hit them lost all the passengers as well which included several children. He always wondered why he alone survived.” Cisco sighed deeply, and I felt a bolt of sickness coursing through me. “I think he must feel like he’s cursed or something. Like a dark cloud follows him. I think
that’s why he went so crazy when he found out that I was ill. I think he’s too afraid to lose me. I don’t think that he wants to be alone.”

  My heart stopped dead in my chest. This was the saddest story that I’d ever heard in my life, and it related to someone I knew. Someone I cared a great deal for.

  “I think that’s why he holds back,” he added seriously. “I think he’s afraid to care about anyone because he’s scared to lose them. But he does like you, Julep. He likes you a whole lot.”

  “I like him, too,” I reassured Cisco, but inside I felt a mess.

  Did he really like me that much, or was Cisco seeing what he wanted to see because he was afraid of leaving his son alone? Sure, when we were together, I felt like we were both all in and that we could really be something special. But then we were apart again, and everything felt awkward.

  I just didn’t know where I stood, and that was the hardest part of all.

  “What a great fight!”

  Cisco and I were still celebrating the win a while after the fight had finished. It was tense, and we could tell that Mateo’s head wasn’t always in it, but he pulled it out of the bag at the last minute, causing us to cheer so loudly that we almost knocked the walls down.

  “Are you okay?” The door burst open, and Mateo marched through it, looking disheveled and sweaty. It appeared as if he didn’t even bother to shower after the match. He just pulled some clothes on and got back here as soon as he could. “Is everyone all right?”

  He was clearly shocked to see his dad sitting upright, and for a moment, I thought Mateo was about to burst into an apology for leaving him, but Cisco spoke out before he got the chance. “Great fight, son.” Cisco smiled proudly. “I wish I was there to have watched that in person. I’m so proud of you.”

  I saw Mateo’s eyes light up as he pulled his dad in for a big hug. There was such a strong emotion there, and now I felt like I really saw a side of Mateo and his connection with his father that few could understand. It reminded me of my own relationship with my father, and I understood the fear of losing someone you were so close with. Mateo had lost everyone. Cisco was all that he had left, and now Mateo was scared he was about to lose him too. Death was a part of life, but losing a parent was never an easy thing. Never.

  We all glanced toward the door as the doctor stood with a clipboard in hand and with a grave look on his face. “Do you have a minute, Mr. Vega? Can we talk?”

  “Yeah…” Mateo stood up straighter with clenched jaw. Seeing him so scared made my heart beat a whole lot faster. “Come in.”

  The doctor stepped in through the door and glanced down at his clipboard. “I hate to have to tell you this, but Cisco’s insurance doesn’t cover the treatment that he needs, and only a small percentage of the medications. There aren’t generics of many of those prescribed. And without the treatment, there really is not much we can do for him. I see he is already on hospice and home health has been assigned. So at least you are taken care of there… We’re going to have to send him home.”

  My heart fell to the floor. I might not be a medical expert, but I did know that if Cisco went home in his condition and he didn’t get any treatment, he might not survive much longer.

  And from the gutted, hollow look on Mateo’s face, it seemed like he realized the same thing. He also looked like he might just fall the fuck apart.

  16

  Mateo

  “Bruce Lee was an artist and, like him, I try to go beyond the fundamentals of my sport. I want the public to see a knockout in the making.”

  – Sugar Ray Leonard

  Fucking hell, my brain swam with chaos as I had heard yet another no. To be fair, this time I didn’t have much hope. With Julep by my side, I thought that it might be a little better, but again no luck. I was starting to feel like the world was conspiring against me, desperate to send me down the road that I was so anxious to avoid. I was starting to lose hope.

  Ever since we got back from the hospital, I had started fighting my damn ass off to save my dad’s life, but nothing seemed to be working. When I got him into bed to force him to rest, I scoured the whole house for something valuable to pawn, but couldn’t find anything. I sold a whole lot of shit to keep myself afloat as I was trying to start my welding business, and now I regretted all of it. I needed all that shit now. I needed to sell it all to get my dad what he needed. I especially regretted selling my custom Jace Wallace motorcycle I got from upstate New York. That bad boy was a lot of money and I remember when I sold it thinking I should hold on to it in case Dad got sick again. That motorcycle was all I had left at the time, and I needed to sell it for welding tools.

  After I realized that searching for money that didn’t exist wasn’t getting me anywhere, I set up a whole range of meetings with banks to try and arrange a loan. I knew it was going to be a long shot, but I had to try everything I could. I wore my best fucking suit, explained my situation to them in great detail, told them about the payments I could make, and it seemed like all was going well…

  Until I got the no.

  Again.

  And again.

  And again.

  Now I was sitting in what I already knew was going to be my last resort. I didn’t want to come to Danny to ask him for a loan, yet here I was regardless. This was actually Julep’s idea, and I figured that with her influence, and her pleas too, I might just be okay.

  But how wrong that assumption was.

  As Danny explained to me in a very calm and considered manner, the well-thought-out reasons for why Shamrocks couldn’t give me the loan, my heart sank. This was it. The last legal route I had to go down. I really didn’t have anything else.

  I tuned Danny’s words out, and nodded along, trying to keep the cool expression on my face while he cut me down. I didn’t need to hear words that would make me feel like a piece of shit. I didn’t need to hear the excuses of not having the money themselves. I just needed to hear the word ‘yes’.

  Julep slipped her hand onto my thigh, trying to calm me down, but even her touch wasn’t enough right now. Not when my entire world had been shaken up.

  As we all filed out from the office, I felt like I was floating on air, having a horrible, sickening out of body experience. I no longer felt connected to anything anymore.

  “I’m sorry,” Julep said quietly to me once we were out in the hallway. “I had a feeling he was going to say that. I’m so sorry, but don’t worry. We’ll come up with something else, I promise you. I don’t know what, but I’ll go back to the office right now and do some research.”

  “Thank you,” I said morosely. I knew that she meant well, but it was no good. There really wasn’t any other option. Nothing at all, and she’d soon figure that out for herself. “And thank you for sticking up for me back there. I really do appreciate it.”

  She pulled me in for a hug. I willed myself to feel something… anything would do at this point, but it was as if my body had shut down completely. I couldn’t actually feel anything—unless you counted misery.

  “Do you want me to go home with you?” she asked quietly, trying desperately to make me feel better.

  “No, I need to go and look after my dad,” I said. “But I’ll see you soon, okay?” I just needed to be by myself right now.

  I walked away from her, feeling even more alone than ever before. I knew that I was pushing her away. That I was rejecting her when all she had done was care about me. But my mind was consumed with the problem at hand. I needed to solve this now. I needed to make this right, and I really didn’t know how.

  As I got into the car, and I started to drive my way home, an idea from the deep, dark pit of my mind began to form. One that I didn’t want to ever have to think about again. I knew that it was wrong. I knew that it was sickening, but I really had tried everything else. This time, I’d done my best to do things the right way. I had tried to go down the responsible route, and I’d gotten nowhere.

  I didn’t want to have to admit that the shady route
that I took before might be the only way, but I was desperate. I was freaking the fuck out, and I knew that if I didn’t do something, I’d regret it forever. I didn’t have a lot of time. My dad was getting weaker and weaker by the day. Hell… it seemed like he was getting weaker by the hour.

  Fuck it. Fuck it, fuck this world, fuck everything. I didn’t know what the hell I was supposed to do. What was the right way to move forward now? I knew what I was thinking about was wrong. I knew that I was supposed to be more responsible now, more mature, but I couldn’t see any other way out.

  By the time I actually got back home, my mind was made up. I didn’t want to have to accept it, to have to admit it, but I was fucking doing it anyway. I felt like utter shit as my heart tore through my chest, telling me that I was wrong. My heart knew that it was a bad choice. My brain screamed at me to stop, but I was shutting it all the fuck down. There was no listening to my emotions. There was no listening to my brain. I just needed to do what I had to.

  I took in a deep breath, glancing at the business card between my fingers, and I started to dial the number with a shaking hand.

  “What the hell are you doing?” My dad’s voice rang out, making me jump. He yanked the card out of my hand. “When I first saw that business card sitting on the table, I assumed that it had to be there for a good reason. But now I’m standing here watching you actually take that step? Are you going to call that man for money? Tell me I’m wrong!” There was real anger in his tone, and disappointment too. His reaction made me feel physically ill. “You’re calling that asshole? One mistake is forgivable… but two?”

  “Look, Dad, I need to do this. I can’t just stand aside and leave you here with no treatment. I have to do this. I don’t have any other choice. Trust me, I’ve been through every other option. This really is it.”