“Keep fighting like you are.” Tommy’s eyes scan to the crowd. “All of you keep fighting and winning, and you’ll always find yourself walking away with this sweetness.” He raises a bundle of dollar bills and smacks them in his palm.
I’m the only one tonightnotgetting paid. And I mean, it may not be about the money for me, but it still sucks. I watch everyone take their winnings. Remy flaunts his, bragging to no end how good he is. Eli takes his quietly. He doesn’t have much to say outside of getting on my case.
When everyone has collected their winnings, they disperse into the night. They trail up the road leading above ground, but I hang back. Tommy and the dude who trails him like a shadow—it reminds me a lot like Finn and his goons—hover by their car, an old school Cadillac with shiny, expensive rims that could use a paint job. It probably wasn’t smart for them to drive it down here. I’m sure Tommy insisted. It offers him protection, a quick getaway, if need be, though I’m not sure how far he’d get.
I approach him, my hands deep in the pockets of my bottoms. The sides of them are still damp, my skin most likely pruned underneath it. The cool almost January air slithers up my legs. I bring my shoulders to my ears and nod at the man in charge. “Tommy? You good to have a quick word?”
His blue eyes plunge into me like an icicle falling from a roof. He’s not happy. Probably doesn’t think my last few fights are the kind of quality he wants, but has he forgotten about all the others before? I have a damn good winning streak. Better than what the guys we go up against can say.
“Colson,” he says in greeting, but I hear the sharpness in it. I also sense the impatience. As I’m gearing up to talk, he walks the short distance to the back of his car and says, “Not your best night.”
“That’s actually what I want to talk about. I thought our pair-ups were supposed to be equally matched.” I must sound like a little bitch, complaining over this trivial shit. “That guy was pushing close to two-fifty.”
“He’s who we had for you tonight.”
I scoff. “I find that sort of hard to believe.”
“I never said this wouldn’t happen, Colson. I like to match fighters up with their class, yes. Guess it’s the wrestler in me from all those years ago being on the mat. But it’s not written in stone and sometimes the payout is bigger when there’s a bigger guy in the mix.”
“I don’t see you pairing the other guys with bulkier dudes.”
Switching Remy’s opponent with mine would’ve been a better match for the both of us.
His eyes narrow on me, and he takes a step closer. “Consider it a test, a means to see if you have what it takes and how you handle your business.”
He has got to be fucking kidding me.
“I’ve won every match minus two. You put me in the ring after I got blasted in the side of my head, and I still foughtandwon. If that doesn’t show you my commitment or how I handle myself then what exactly am I supposed to do?”
He shrugs. “That’s for you to figure out, but the first step in proving you know how to fight is by bringing in cash and knocking your opponents out.”
I blink and look off to the side. I don’t understand how I’m putting forth all the action, showing up, fighting, and winning nine times out of ten, and it gives off the impression that I’m not serious.
“What’s this really about, because I feel like you’re giving me the jerk around.”
Tommy smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “I test my guys' limits. I want to see how bad they want it. The lengths they’re willing to travel shows me how committed they are to the cause.”
“There was no cause discussed when Eli introduced us.”
I don’t like this sneaky shit he’s pulling. How he’s going back on his word and throwing in other stuff that we never discussed.
“Well,” he says, “Consider myself the cause. Either you go through the hoops like everyone has?—”
“You’ve done this with the others then?”
He’s being polite when he says, “Don’t question how I manage my fighters,” but I can see his eyes and they’re anything but. “If you don’t like how I run things, you’re free to go. Just remember what we talked about.”
“Remember what exactly?” When Eli introduced me to Tommy, my only priority was getting out of my head. I recall most of what was said, but now I’m wondering if I missed something.
“The buyout.”
“What?”
“If you want out,” Tommy says slowly. “You’ll pay your way out, Colson.”
Yeah, no. I would have definitely remembered that. “You never mentioned a buyout.”
“Consider this an amendment to our prior discussion.”
