I’d called him to schedule a meeting with him and Preston the next day. He was off training for the next two weeks after the exhibition, but he needed to speak with us about those losses. From watching them, it seemed like he had intentionally lost them. To the naked eye, it wasn’t obvious, but I had been fighting a long time. I was pissed it took me so long to see it.
“They’ll call back,” I said, pushing the phone aside.
Lena’s frown deepened. “If you’re avoiding taking the call because of me, don’t.”
I tilted my head to the side. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked while the phone stopped ringing.
“Exactly what I said.” She shrugged. “If there’s someone else who’s trying to get your attention, please don’t let me keep them from you.”
I went to respond, but my phone’s buzzing sounded again. “The fuck,” I grunted. “Hello?”
“Wolf? Shit, it’s me. Jake.”
I tried to pinpoint the voice since this number wasn’t in my phone. “Jake Coven?”
“Yeah.” Rick was a former MMA fighter who’d come up through the ranks in the same league as I had. He’d retired early, though, due to a significant injury. He lived in the Dallas area and managed a few gyms up there.
“You signed Gatlin, right?”
“This isn’t a good time to talk business,” I said sternly, wondering why the hell he was calling me so late to talk about Eli.
“Yeah, I figured, but wanted to let you know, your guy’s about to enter the ring of this underground fight. There’re ten Gs on the line.”
“What the hell?” I clenched the phone tightly in my hands, my mind racing, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. “Where are you?”
Jake ran down the address of where he was. I barely heard him explain that he’d gotten involved in an underground group. All I knew was that Eli was down there about to blow up his entire fucking career before it even got started.
“Is everything okay?” Lena asked with concerned eyes.
I pinched my lips to prevent the slew of curses that fought to break free. The last thing I wanted to do was scare her.
“I’m sorry, Cin. We’ve got to cut tonight short.” We’d already finished dinner but had plans to go to a late movie. I waved the waiter over, handing him my credit card.
Rick sent the fight's location to my phone, and I saw it was only ten minutes away from where we were.
“What’s wrong?” Lena asked, wrapping her hand around my arm.
At that moment, I felt the urge to tell her all of my secrets, big and small.
“Eli. He’s about to fuck up his career doing something stupid.”
“And you’re going to stop him?” she asked, blinking.
“I’m going to try. But I need to get you home first.” Sighing, I ran my hand through my hair. “I might be too late,” I mumbled.
My place was a half an hour drive from our location. I’d have to drop her off and then double back to get Eli.
I explained the situation to Lena as I escorted us out of the restaurant and to my car.
“Take me with you,” Lena said.
I shook my head. “Hell no.” I didn’t want her around any of that bullshit. I knew the types of guys who hung around underground fights. Some were regular guys who fought to live out a glorified fascination with the sport. Others were blackhearted criminals.
“You need to help your fighter. I can see the concern in your eyes. Let’s go,” Lena insisted.
“You’re going to remain in the car,” I said before I reversed my car and started for the location of the fight.
Thanks to it being close to ten at night, few cars were on the road, and a typical ten-minute trip took me around five.
