Rocky's Choice

by Xander Hades

  She hopped off the bike, leaving it in the lot and stalked into the office. She’d apparently taken her cue from Angelica in the parking lot. Val also had a take-no-prisoners sort of look that didn’t bode well for him.

  “Did you get fired?” Rocky asked, already dreading the answer.

  “No. I don’t have the job anymore though. There’s no job to have.” She crossed her arms over her chest and took a wide stance. “You remember I said that sleaze ball talked to Jonny about getting rid of me?”

  “Yeah,” Rocky creased his brow trying to figure out where this conversation was heading. “But I thought Jonny told him to fuck himself.”

  “He did.” Val said, and for a moment it looked like she was having trouble speaking. She swallowed hard. “And my guess is that’s why he doesn’t have a bar anymore.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, it’s been burned down. The place is gutted. And they think it’s arson.”

  “You think they burned down the bar just…”

  “… just to make you fight for them. What the hell is going on? Who are these people? Who would go through all of this just to get you to fight?”

  “I don’t know,” Rocky said, flipping the card around between his fingers. “I really don’t. I mean, I’m good, but I’m not famous, not yet. There’s no reason to go through all of this!”

  “Well, whatever it is, they want you. They want you enough to burn down a bar just to keep up from getting enough money to live on.”

  “I know…” He stared at the card. He suddenly felt very old. Very tired. “I think I might have to accept the offer.”

  “WHAT? Are you serious?”

  “What choice do I have? Really?” he shot at her, waiting for her to think it through, to see it the way he did. “If they burned down a bar, they could burn down one crumbling old hotel. Hell, the city would probably thank them for it.”

  “Get funding from the state,” Val said. “Live the way they want, it’s the kids that matter, isn’t it?”

  “They’re not going to fund this place!” Rocky said, leaping to his feet. “I told you that! They need improvements, changes, hiring people with degrees and there’s no place left for us! I can’t afford the changes they want!”

  “Then let them do it their way, take a step back, finish the degree, maybe you can restart it again later. When you have the means to do it the way you want.”

  “No,” Rocky shook his head. “I’m not walking out on these kids. I am not setting them aside so I can maybe help someone else later on! These kids have nowhere else to go!”

  “But they are leaving!” Val pointed out. “More and more every day! You’re not able to help them, not right now!”

  “Diego hasn’t left, Angelica hasn’t left. If there’s even one kid that will stay out of the gangs, I will not just throw them out!”

  “Fine, then what about that friend you and Hoodoo have? That rich guy? Anyone that can forgive a quarter-million debt has to have a few pennies socked away.”

  “If anyone gets wind that the mafia is funding this place…”

  She blinked. Took a step back. “Wait, mafia?”

  “Why do you think Hoodoo calls him ‘hitman’?”

  “Well, we have a problem,” Val said, crossing her arms again. “And the only solution is to go to the state and get funding.”

  “I tried that! I can’t get it!”

  “Meaning you can’t get it on your terms!” Val said hotly. “But maybe this isn’t about you! This is about them!” She thrust a finger to the wall and the children screaming as they played just outside.

  “It is about them. And twenty thousand would solve a lot of problems.”

  “If you actually get it, sure. Rocky. They torched a business, threatened two others. Didn’t you get what he called you? Puño de la muerte?”

  Rocky walked over to the phone, ignoring everything she was saying. She was being unreasonable. Not listening. “I’m just going to ask,” he said, and held up his hands. “Not making any decisions, no commitments, just asking.”

  “Asking what? Did they torch the bar? Did they slander you? Are they evil?”

  “I want to know why me,” Rocky said, his voice quiet. “And I want to know why it’s so important that I fight for them.”

  Val closed her eyes and exhaled. Rocky dialed.

  “Hey, this is Rocky Veliz. I just wanted to ask a few questions. No, I just wanted to know a couple of…” he looked at the phone and gently replaced the receiver on the cradle. “He’s coming,” Rocky said, quietly. “He said he was in the area, so he’s coming by. He said an hour.”

  “Rocky,” Val said, pleading. “At least call Murray. He’s your agent after all. Please?”

  Rocky nodded and dialed again. Val scrambled to his side so she could hear the conversation.

  “Murray,” Rocky said when he answered. “Any word on the findings?”

  “Autopsy isn’t in yet, Rocky. There are cultures to grow and tests to be done. It’s going to take time.”

  “Well, there’s this group in Mexico that want me to fight for them…”

  “No. You fight anywhere while this investigation is going on and you’re permanently out. I mean, not so much as a bar fight! Even arguing with that pretty girl of yours is bad. No fights!”

  Rocky winced. All he and Val had been doing lately was argue.

  “Murray, this is that pretty girl of his,” Val broke in before he could say anything. “First of all, thank you, and most importantly, this group wants to pay him $20 thousand dollars. Is that normal?”

  There was a telling silence on the other end of the line. “There is a Mexican version of the MMA,” Murray said slowly. “It’s a good outfit, but underfunded. There is also a darker fighting school. They don’t have a name.”

  “What do you mean darker?” Rocky asked, not liking where this was going.

  “I mean that they don’t exactly have rules. I mean that their fighters fight until one of them can’t anymore.”

  “Knockout?” Rocky asked, frowning. That wasn’t so bad. For that kind of money, a concussion wasn’t an unfair exchange. Not if it put them back on their feet. And who was to say he’d be the one to go down?

  “Or death.” Murray said, his voice somber. “I have heard of that happening often enough. Fighters are locked in and when one of them can’t leave under his own power. Only then it’s over and not before.”

  “Wait,” Val said, “are you seriously saying that this fight is to the death?”

  “It’s not intentionally to the death. But yeah. It happens. Even if it’s not dead, the loser may never fight again. Or feed himself for that matter.”

  “Holy shit!” Val said, looking wide-eyed at Rocky. Rocky squared his jaw and met her gaze square. Again, he’d have to be the one to go down. Why was everyone so all-fired sure he would?

  “These are things I’ve heard,” Murray explained. “But the Mexican police are cracking down on these rings. They’re always looking for them, but the promoters are tricky and hide the venue. Then they record it and send it out over the internet as though it was live. That way they can put all the money on the winner.”

  “Thanks, Murray,” Rocky said.

  “By the way,” Murray added, “I did dig up some dirt on that man you fought. Seems he was Golden Gloves contender while in the Navy, but he vanished about three years ago. Hasn’t been in a ring in six years, though.”

  “Ok… thanks again, Murray,” Rocky said and hung up the phone.

  “Didn’t you hear Murray? These people fight to the death! Even if you survive… it won’t be you anymore! Can you live with that?”

  “I am living with that!” Rocky reminded her.

  “You’re living with an accident. You walk into that cage in Mexico and it’s deliberate.”

  Rocky looked at his hands. When he looked up at her he seemed… old.

  “What choice do I have?”

  “Don’t,” Val said, chok
ing on the word. But in the long silence that followed, it was already decided.

  She knew that, too.

  “I need to go home,” she said, and went shakily to the door. “My vacation is over.”

  Chapter 20

  “You are too stupid for words, do you know that?” Maria put her hands on her hip and looked at Rocky like he was something Diego had dragged in from the gutter.

  “Don’t start, ok?” Rocky said. “I already had my lecture.”

  “No…” Maria said, “I’m not going to talk to you about the fight. You’re right, you have had that lecture and it didn’t get through that thick bone you have for a head. But as stupid as that is, you are even dumber than I thought. You let her go.”

  “She left me!” Rocky said. “I need her, now more than ever, and…” He threw his arms in the air and began pacing.

  Maria sat heavily and looked at him. “Rock,” she said, reaching out a hand to stop him, to make him look at her. He refused. “Do you remember the day… Dad moved out?”

  Now Rocky stopped. He turned to her. It was a touchy subject. “Vividly.”

  “He took off without a word, just left.”

  “And took his money with him.” Rocky glared.

  “Mom sold everything. And then even that money ran out.”

  “Rick is my father,” Rocky said. “Not him.”

  Maria nodded. “Rick was a good man, he loved you like his own son. It would have upset him to know you had to leave school because of him. But I am asking to remember that other father, your birth father.”

  “I was a child,” Rocky said, petulant. Not wanting to talk about him.

  “And now you’re not. But now, you hate him.”

  Rocky said nothing.

  “Rocky, he didn’t run off. He was arrested.”

  Rocky stared. “What?”

  Maria nodded. “He went to Mexico for some money someone owed him and he was wanted down there… he wasn’t a good man. You hate him because he left you. Mom had to give up on him and it broke her heart. She would have been a lot happier if he’d been poor and there for her. But he was so hell-bent on giving her money that he… did things. He’s still in prison for all I know.”

  “I’m not going to prison,” Rocky muttered.

  “Are you sure? Are these fights legal?” She stalled him with her hands up. “Even if you’re right, even if you’re right, you’re still leaving. You’re not the man she met. She lost you today, Rocky. Whatever you do, she’s gone. Now, it’s your call. You can do whatever you think is right, but the choice comes down to this: you can do these things for money for children that will resent you leaving them. Or you can have a family.”

  She stood and walked to the door. “You can’t have both, little brother. I still have my degree, I can go back to the nine to five. If I work in a corporate office, they can’t touch that.” She walked out of the door calling over her shoulder. “Do what you think is best. I’ll be here to help you fix your stupid mistakes.”

  The door closed and Rocky stood, immobilized.

  I have to provide for the family. He grabbed the edge of the desk as a thought occurred to him. I first have to give them me. DEATH-MATCH? Hey, Diego, you proud of Rocky? He killed someone else today! What the hell am I thinking?

  He bolted to the room. Val. He needed her, just like he said, but not to be in his corner rooting for another death. He needed her because she had been right the entire time and he’d been too… TOO FUCKING PROUD.

  He slammed the door to the room open so hard it vibrated against the wall. There was no one in the room. The drawer she was using was empty, her bag was gone. The dress she’d worn to the dinner was laid out on the bed.

  He’d had his realization too late. He’d missed her. Val was gone.

  He buried his head in his hands. How long he was like that, he didn’t know, but a small hand tugged on his shirt. It was Diego and the boy was sporting another lollipop. “Where did you get that?” Rocky asked.

  Diego held up an envelope. He thrust it into Rocky’s face and Rocky snatched it from him. “Careful,” Rocky said, “Don’t hit people in the face…” He paused a moment. “… unless you’re getting paid to do it.” He winked and Diego grinned.

  Rocky opened the envelope and stopped breathing. A chill ran down his spine and he began to shake. “Who gave you this?” He demanded. Diego’s face grew worried. In reply, he held up the lollipop.

  “Next time,” Rocky said. “You don’t take lollipops from people without asking me first.”

  Diego’s eyes grew huge and he shoved the wet ball of candy into his pocket. He nodded solemnly. Rocky ran out of the room calling for Maria. The paper he was holding floated to the ground. Diego looked at the picture. It was Val. She looked like she was asleep, but she was tied up like something out of a movie. It looked like she was in the back of a van.

  Diego bolted from the room. He knew where he had to go, but it was a long trip for him. He wasn’t sure that he would ever get to come back again.

  ***

  Maria was straightening Rocky’s room. Cleaning was what she did when she was fussed. It relaxed her, but nothing was going to relax this. She went out to the storage shed, checking on Val’s bike. Her bag was just inside of the door. They must have taken her when she was getting the bike out, no one could see them from the storage area.

  She locked the bike back up and took the bag into Rocky’s room. Diaz had come and they’d headed over the border for tomorrow night’s fight. The address was written on the picture he’d shown her. Maria emptied the bag and began folding Val’s clothing and putting everything carefully away. The girl’s cell phone bounced from the bag and onto the bed. Maria picked it up. The screen was locked but for EMERGENCY CALLS ONLY. If there ever was an emergency… the other read IN CASE OF EMERGENCY. She pressed that button.

  “What the hell is a Hoodoo?” she asked the phone.

  “Calling Hoodoo,” the phone answered.

  “Lord you hear about as well as Diaz!” she snapped, looking for a way to hang up.

  “Hello?” A deep male voice answered. “Val! How’s LA? Coming back soon?”

  “Hello,” Maria said.

  There was a long pause. The humor was gone from the voice that had answered, the accent thicker. “Who’s this?”

  “I’m… I’m Rocky’s sister,” Maria said. “Val is in trouble. Big trouble.”

  “Where?” The question came out as a snarl. Maria started to fill the stranger in when Diego ran breathless to her side. “Where have you been?” she demanded of the boy, covering the phone.

  “Hector is heading out to get her,” Diego said, “along with the Azuls.”

  Maria’s eyes grew wider.

  “And I tol’ some guy named Jonny, too. Hector wanted me to tell him.”

  “Mr. Hoodoo, this is worse than I thought,” Maria said into the phone.

  Chapter 21

  “Until I know Val is free, I am not stepping foot into any cage,” Rocky said.

  “Man,” Diaz said, “Rocky, this is that new-age dude!”

  Both of the men looked at Diaz. He sighed. “Remember? That last fight at that bar? I told you, man, some tall, skinny dude came before the match and wanted me to tell you to ‘keep alive in your heart, it’ll get you morning’.”

  Óscar blinked and looked at Rocky. He thought for a moment, and then Rocky saw that Óscar had worked out that cryptic comment. Óscar shook his head sadly. “I said, ‘take a dive at the start, this is your only warning’.”

  “DIAZ!” Rocky’s shout encompassed the entirety of the two weeks of hell since the last fight. “GET SOME FUCKING HEARING AIDS! DID YOU HEAR THAT?”

  Óscar was laughing. “Well, at least now…” he looked over to Diaz and spoke louder. “Now at least I know you weren’t defying me! You didn’t get the message.”

  Rocky turned to him. He’d vented his frustration, all he cared about was Val. “Even if I had gotten the message, nothing would have ch
anged,” Rocky said. “Wait…”

  Now it all makes sense. Oh, shit!

  “That guy, that dead guy, that Tony Metruco… that was your man, wasn’t it?”

  “He was indeed.” Óscar smiled. The arrogant bastard was enjoying watching Rocky figure this out.

  “He was not qualified to be in a cage fight, hell he was wasn’t even qualified to be in a bitch-slapping contest. What the hell was he doing in a cage with…” Take a dive at the start. Take a dive at the start. No wonder the man looked so frantic. He was supposed to hit me once, and I was supposed to fall over.

  “No, he wasn’t.” Óscar confirmed. “So, no one bet on him. It would have been a sucker bet.” Óscar leaned in to deliver what he obviously thought was a punchline. “The odds against him were incredibly high. 30 to 1, in fact.”

  “And you put down a wager,” Rocky muttered, filling in the blanks.

  “Me?” Óscar fluttered his hand over his chest. “I don’t like to gamble. Even on a sure thing. But I represent a group of investors who do. They wanted you dead. I convinced them that it would be more profitable to bring you on board. We’re going to tape the fight tomorrow tonight. Win or lose, you’ll make it up to us.”