by Wild, Nikki
“I won’t. I won’t touch her.”
“Because if you do, I’ll come back harder on you than you ever dreamed possible. If you wanna see me in this lifestyle anymore, just try me. I’ll come back and wipe out your whole crew. I’ll make you wish for the days you only had to deal with some punk ass kid named Money.”
Ortiz nodded vigorously. I tossed the wine bottle on the floor and walked out of the restaurant. Now, I just had to get my girl back.
Riley
I always packed too much stuff. I had no idea how cold it got in Paris, but I was going to be prepared for anything. My flight was leaving at eight tomorrow night. If there were no delays, I’d be on the ground in time to grab breakfast.
My phone rang. I flipped it over to see Troy’s name on the caller ID again. He was fighting tomorrow. If I was ever going to talk to him, now should be the time, if only to wish him luck.
I held the phone and wished it to stop ringing. I knew it wouldn’t. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to talk to him, it was just… I had no idea what to say.
I had to bite the bullet.
“Hello?”
“I’ll be damned.” His voice was just as silky as it ever was. I’d never met a person in my life who was so unfazed by anything. He’d probably called me a hundred times and when I finally picked up, he didn’t even sound surprised.
“I finally answered.”
“I knew you would,” he said.
“If I didn’t, I was afraid I’d never be able to get another call through.”
“Nothing good in this life is ever gotten without at least a little bit of persistence.”
“You haven’t ‘gotten’ anything. What do you want? I’m kind of busy.”
“I want to talk.”
“So… talk. That’s why I answered the phone.”
“I will, but will you listen?”
“Troy…”
“Did I ever tell you anything about how I grew up?”
“Only that you lived in the same neighborhood you’re in now back when you were a kid.”
I wasn’t sure where he was going with this, but damn him for getting my attention. “You don’t know anything about how I grew up either, but you’ve made your assumptions.”
“I told you already,” he said. “I won’t make that mistake anymore.”
“What do you want to say?”
“My mom was an addict,” he said. “She never could keep us all together.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Who is ‘us’?”
“Just me, her, and my sister. I didn’t know my dad.”
“Is your sister the girl in the photograph at your apartment?”
“You saw that?”
“I did. She’s very pretty.”
“I don’t keep up with her anymore. The state split us apart when we were young and since we both became adults, we’ve only met up a couple of times. She lives in Texas now. I think she’s doing okay.”
“That’s sad.”
“My point is, I’ve had to scrap for everything I’ve ever gotten in life. It’s never been normal.”
I pushed some of my clothes out of the way so I could sit down on the bed. “It had to be hard.”
“Hard? Life is hard for a lot of people. I’m just telling you why I am the way I am.”
“I’m still listening.”
“That old life put me in a position where I had to do what I had to do to get by. It wasn’t always pretty, but I took care of myself. If there was another way, believe me, I would have taken it.”
“But Troy, you were doing so great. You had a good job, you were doing well to follow the judge’s orders... you even got a contract with a big MMA organization. Wasn’t that your dream? So, why now? Why did you have to go and mess it all up with stealing that car?”
“And, you,” he said.
“Me, what?”
“You forgot the best thing I had going for me, which was you.”
“So, why’d you do it?”
“Because, Riley. That old life I was telling you about? Sometimes it sneaks up on you and fucks with the program. It was something I didn’t have a choice on.”
“Troy, you stole a car. I don’t understand how-”
“Sometimes you have to do things to protect the ones you care about, okay?”
“I…”
“I’m not gonna go into it any more than that, but you have to know I never would have done it if there was another way. I talked to the detectives again today, Riley. They’re not going to pursue this any further if that’s what you’re worried about. I think they got the hint that the original owner of that car was no upstanding citizen in his own right.”
“Troy-”
“And what’s behind me is behind me. I can only do my best to make sure it stays behind me. Sometimes things are gonna come up that I have to deal with, and when they do, I’ll do my best to make sure you understand why.”
“This is… the timing on this is bad,” I said.
“Today is the day you picked to answer the phone. I think it’s the perfect time. Riley, I want you to come to my fight tomorrow. We can sort this out. You’re mine and I’m gonna figure out how to keep you.”
His fight was the whole reason I picked Saturday to leave. I knew I wouldn’t be able to stand being home while he had his big day so close. It was a symbolic gesture, but now I wasn’t so sure I wanted it that way.
“Troy, I can’t.”
“You can’t, or you won’t?”
“I’m leaving the country tomorrow night. I’m going to be in Europe for a couple of weeks.”
I could practically hear the air going out of him. Maybe it was going out of me, too.
“Tomorrow?”
“What happened with you was hard on me. I needed to get away to clear my head.”
“And now?”
“And now, I’m not sure. But Troy, I have to go. Everything is already booked. It will be good for me.”
His voice was soft. “I guess you have to do what you have to do.”
“Can we talk when I get back?”
“Riley, you’re doing this for a reason, and we both know what that reason is. All I can focus on is today.”
Tears welled in my eyes. I started to choke up. “I… I have to go, okay.”
“Bye, Riley.”
“Troy?”
“Yeah?”
“Good luck.”
Troy
The ritual before a fight is always the same. You go through the same routines with your team, you eat the same food, you take your shower at the same time of day... some guys even where the same underwear every time.
Earlier in the afternoon, Ray wrapped my hands just how I liked them. Most guys waited to put their wraps on until an hour or so before they went out. I liked to do it much earlier than that so I could break them in and mold them to my hands.
Fighting is a very precise business and fighters are creatures of habit. That’s why things were so fucked up. I was doing all the same things I did before any other fight, but it didn’t feel the same. There was an emptiness in me that was usually filled with fire right before I walked to the cage. It was a burning for the competition and the challenge. Today, just like Riley, it wasn’t with me.
I was going through my pre-fight warmup drills with Ray, but there was no snap to my punches. Blake had come along with us to help out and even he noticed it. “C’mon, Troy! You hit me harder in the gym than you’re hitting those pads right now.”
Ray moved the pads low and I delivered a kick that would have looked weak even on my worst day.
“Time out, time out. What’s happening with you, Son, is it nerves?” Ray asked.
“Hell, no it’s not nerves, I’m fine,” I lied.
“You’re not fine. Something’s wrong with you,” he said.
“Ray, put the mitts back up. I need to get my work in.”
“Yes, you do need to get your work in. So, start gettin’ it.”
“L
et’s go, then.”
“Not until you come to terms with whatever is wrong with you. You haven’t been this far off in the whole time I’ve been training you. You look like garbage, young man.”
Ray was nothing if not a straight shooter. He was too damn old—as he would always say—to mince words. Normally, he was encouraging though; especially so on fight night. It was a trainer’s number one priority to make sure his fighter was mentally ready. That’s why his words had some steam on them.
“Ray, I’m cool, I swear.”
“It started off with poor sessions the last few weeks at the gym and it’s carried over to tonight. At first I thought you’d be able to snap out of it, but now I don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Well, this sure as shit isn’t helping,” I said.
“I’m warning you, if you try to go out there with this trash, then Webster is gonna kick your ass. You’re a great talent—probably the best I’ve ever had—but this is the big time, now. That other fighter you’re going up against? He’s good too. You might get away with beating these lower level guys with less than your best, but not him.”
“I’ll find it when I get out there.”
“No, take five minutes to get your head together and we’ll try again. When you come back to me, I want you to be focused and on point with your striking.”
Ray shuffled out of the dressing room. Even when he was pissed off he couldn’t move fast.
“What’s up with you?” Blake asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t look good, Troy. You’ve been moping around back here all night like you’re Eeyore or some-fuckin’-body and you don’t even seem pumped up to fight. What happened to the guy who used to live for this stuff?”
“He’s still in there,” I said.
“Shit, we’ve fought in some of the worst dumps in Chicago and you were always ready to go. Now, we’re in an actual arena with a legit promotion and you act like you don’t even care. Hell, Troy, there’re T.V. cameras out there. This thing is being broadcast on some cable network.”
“I’ll be ready.”
“Your whole life has been leading up to this night. Start actin’ like it.”
Ray popped back into the dressing room and shoved the mitts on to his hands a second time. “We’re going out right after they come back from commercial break. Now, hit these again and show me what you’re gonna do.”
I threw a high jab and it landed like it used to. “Good! Good! Do it again.”
I put another one out there and then an overhand right. Each hit the pad the way I was used to. Maybe the little pep talk worked. Right as I prepared to throw a combination, a short man in a white polo shirt poked his head into the room. He was wearing a headset with a microphone on it and it looked like he was listening to some instructions.
“Guys,” he said. “We’re coming back from the T.V. break in thirty seconds. It’s time to make your entrance to the cage.”
“Alright, Son, you’re ready. Here we go,” said Ray.
“You got this,” Blake chimed.
The hallway was long. It wrapped around the seating area and led to a cordoned walk way that spilt a path through the crowd all the way to the cage. As I traversed the bowels of the venue, I focused on my breathing.
“Hold up right here for a second,” said the little guy with the headset. He put his hand to his ear and stopped us right in front of the curtain. “Okay, you can walk out whenever you’re ready.”
The lights in the arena flickered and my walk-out music erupted through the PA system. I took a deep breath and bent to the task in front of me.
It was my time.
Riley
I couldn’t go. There was no way. Not tonight.
It took me until after I’d already gotten to the airport to make my decision, but I knew it was the right thing for me. Now, I was sprinting across O’Hare International in a desperate attempt to get back to my car so I could make it in time.
I got strange looks from all directions. Normally, people were running the other way so they could catch their flight. I might have been the first person to run so fast away from the planes in the history of the airport.
“Excuse me, pardon me.” I shoved my way through the throngs of people waiting in baggage claim. They looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had.
I still had no idea if I could really trust him, but my heart told me I could.
I reached my car in record time and slammed it into reverse. It wasn’t until I was paying the lot fee that I realized I’d checked my luggage. At least my winter coat would get to tour Charles de Gaulle.
Traffic merged as people tried to get back on the freeway. I saw a tiny hole spot of daylight between two SUVs and I didn’t hesitate to race for it. Somebody honked at me and I gave an apologetic wave in their general direction. Troy was supposed to go on by eight. There was no way I was going to miss it.
My friends would’ve gotten a kick out of the way I was driving. I was known in our circle of friends as the “overly-cautious” one when it came to being behind the wheel. I’m not sure I’d ever driven more than five over the limit in my whole life. Tonight, however, I could’ve passed for an Indy pace car driver.
“Siri, give me directions to the Allstate Arena.”
“Here are driving directions to: State Road Eighty-Nine.”
“No! You piece of shit. Take me to Allstate Area.”
“Here are driving directions to Allstate Arena. You are currently seven minutes away from your destination.”
“Thank you!”
I jetted across four lanes to make my exit. Thankfully, the parking situation wasn’t too bad. When I finally pulled into a spot, it was just after eight.
I ran full-speed through the security line. It was empty aside from one daydreaming guard who didn’t look up until it was too late. “Miss, you have to stop here first!”
Not today.
I barreled down to the lower level, dodging fight fans the whole way. I had no idea it was this big of a deal. Music boomed from the speaker system. The cage appeared to be empty. It looked like I’d made it in time.
“Hey! You need a ticket to be down here?”
Another security guard was quickly closing in on me from behind.
“I’m with one of the fighters,” I said.
She gave an annoyed grunt and thrust her clipboard in front of her. “Which one?”
I looked to my left just in time to see him coming down the walkway. He was wearing dark blue trunks and had a satin robe draped over his back. The robe had “Eason” stitched in gold across it. “Him!” I shouted. “That one, right there.”
“Is that Troy Eason?”
“Yes, that’s him!”
I was being jostled from side to side as people tried to get to their seats. The anticipation and energy was building around me. People seemed excited to see this fight.
“Are you on the list?”
I hadn’t heard anything about a list. “I don’t know. My name is Riley Beckett.”
The security guard flipped through a couple of pages on her clipboard. “Oh yeah, here you are!”
Perfect.
“But you need to come with me. The section for friends and family is down here. I’ll show you to your seat.”
“Thank you!”
A minute later I was standing cage-side as the thousands in attendance screamed their excitement. Seeing Troy walk with such confidence made me realize that I’d definitely decided correctly in canceling my flight. The magnitude of my time spent away from him didn’t fully hit me until right then. I missed him like crazy.
“Troy!”
I screamed his name at the top of my lungs but he didn’t hear. No one could hear a thing. It was electric in the building.
“Troy!” I waved my arms. He couldn’t have been more than ten feet away from me, but he never looked up. From looking at his profile, I could tell he was totally and completely in the zone. Even if he
and I were the only two people there, his focus might have been strong enough to block out my screams.
That was fine. It was just how I wanted him. He needed to be completely dedicated to the task and seeing me might break his concentration.
I hadn’t had a chance to feel nervous about this fight before now. Because of all the drama, I didn’t have time to worry about this. Now, it was very real. There was a chance he could get hurt out there and I didn’t like it.
Troy’s opponent came to the cage next. He was slightly shorter than Troy, but still a monster. His thighs looked like tree trunks and his neck was as thick as a stump, too.
He was dripping from head to toe in bad tattoos and his head was shaved close on the sides. He looked to be everything Troy wasn’t, which I was thankful for.
I watched Troy bounce on his toes and shadow box. He looked smooth and ready. If he was nervous, it didn’t show.
The house lights dimmed and the announcer took the microphone. “Ladies and Gentleman, thank you and welcome to tonight’s main event. This is moment you’ve all been waiting for.”
Cheers erupted behind me and they seemed to roll through the crowd with growing energy.
“In the blue corner is a mixed martial artist from right here in Chicago, Illinois. He’s undefeated as an amateur fighter and is making his pro debut this very night. Introducing, from the windy city, Troy Eason!”
Troy raised one hand when his name was called while he continued to bounce on his toes. He was completely unfazed.
“In the red corner is his opponent, a mixed martial artist from Ann Arbor, Michigan. He holds a record of seven wins and zero losses as a professional fighter. Please welcome to the cage Brandon ‘The Barbarian’ Webster.”
The lights raised and the fighters met in the center of the cage. The referee went over the rules and the two of them touched gloves and retreated to their respective corners.
The bell rung.
I put my hands over my eyes.
Troy
I thought she was going to be here. It’s what gave me the juice to come out and find my focus. But when I looked around the crowd that final time before the bell rang, and she wasn’t out there, it took something out of me.