“You’re lucky she never told me about that shit,” I cursed. “And if I didn’t have a title fight in twenty minutes, I’d beat the shit out of you,” I growled. “Get the fuck out of my face and out of this damn arena before I change my mind. You’re fired.”
“I’d take his advice, before he makes good on his threats,” Pit added.
I glared at Greyson as he backed away and grabbed his bags, exiting.
“Idiot,” I grunted.
I had my PT step in to finish tapping my hands.
When Pit moved to the other side of the room, I shook off my anger and tried to remember my strategy for the night. It’d been drilled into me for months, but my damn brain was cloudy. Another casualty of that night with Syd, was my ability to zone everything out and focus on the fight.
“Chin up. Even if you lose tonight, you’ll still get one hell of a payout,” Kelex said as he came up clapping me on the back.
“Don’t touch me. What the fuck do you mean even if I lose? Type of talk is that?”
He chuckled. “Just checking to see where your head is at.”
“I’m fine.”
“That’s the second time you saidI’m finein the last five minutes,” Deacon replied from across the room. “You’re fucked.”
“Who let you all back here?” I asked.
“Uh, that would be you,” Skittles reminded me.
“Note to self, don’t invite a bunch of assholes to be your wingmen before a title fight,” I mumbled.
“You’re asshole enough all by yourself,” Tak added.
I grunted, ignoring them as I proceeded with my warmup stretches and shadowboxing. Doing my best to put my attention into the fight, I thought back to all of Rodriguez’s fights I watched over the months. I knew his game inside and out. Ordinarily, I walked into a cage confident, certain I’d come out with the W. That had to be my attitude every time I stepped inside, but right then, I just felt numb.
A knock on the door sounded and Lenny entered the room, followed by one of the employees of the arena.
“Jacob and Grace arrived. They’re in their seats,” Lenny told me.
I nodded.
“It’s time, Mr. McConnell,” the dude with the headset on, said.
“Let’s get this shit over with,” was all I could muster to say.
Pit and the rest of the crew headed out to take their seats. Lenny moved behind me and held open my robe for me to slip my arms into. Following Lenny, David, and the arena employee out of the room, I inhaled deeply, expecting for the usual energy to pulse through me. I could always rely on that tingling feeling that started at my toes and spread throughout the rest of my body. Yet, as we entered the arena, nothing.
Not even the cheers and chants from the audience or the lights streaming around the room and down onto the cage could pull a reaction from me. Seeing Rodriguez at the far side of the cage as I approached stirred nothing inside me. All I felt aside from a deep desire to get this fight over with was that same numbness that accompanied me day and night for weeks.
“Okay, Luke, let your training to take over,” David said coming up behind me and massaging my shoulders.
Shaking him off, I said, “Don’t touch me.”
Lenny removed the robe and I stepped closer to the cage. I bounced up and down on my toes and kept moving to keep my muscles loose and limber.
“You’ve got this, Luke,” Lenny said behind me but not touching me.
Once the announcer stepped inside the cage and gestured for the fighters to enter, I stepped into the cage, still waiting to feel something. Without a conscious thought of doing so, I scanned the audience, looking for the one person missing from my corner. Once I realized what I was doing, I stopped and turned to rest my gaze on Rodriguez.
Mentally, I ran through everything I knew about him and his fighting style. He stared across the cage at me, baring his teeth before putting in his mouth guard. Even that show of aggression didn’t pull a reaction from me.
“And fighting in this corner…” The announcer at the center of the ring yelled into the microphone, announcing Rodriguez as the defending heavyweight. Rodriguez’s fans roared in applause.
