Dark Horse (20 page)

“
I only wanted to enjoy my last few moments with Henry,” I said. “He’s responsible for the most fun I’ve had in a long time. It’s only appropriate that he receives something in addition to everything else he’s getting. Besides, I’ll only be able to play with him for a few more days. After Anderson is through with him, that will be the end.”

“
So everything continues as planned?”

“
Of course it does.”

Octavio nodded his head and pulled his cell phone from his jacket.

“And make sure they don’t do too much,” I said. “Let Anderson do all of the heavy work.”

“
Yes, Ms. Zara.”

As Octavio made sure that the last step
was completed, I pulled the compact from my purse. I looked at my reflection to make sure that nothing was out of order. I used a tissue to wipe off the excess fluids and lipstick Henry had smeared across my lips. I straightened out the hair that he had mussed. A few blonde strands hung over my forehead but I decided to keep it that way. There was something about the way it looked. It was like an organized piece of disorder. After everything else was in place, I stared at myself. I had done it. And when I realized everything was going perfectly, I began to smile.

Chapter 21 - Henry

As the days passed, I became more and more focused. I was growing to numb to everything that was happening all around me. I didn’t think about anything else except pushing myself while King trained me.

After the end of another long training session, I found that was tired but not beaten. The routine I had developed conditioned me into the machine I was hoping to be. King noticed it better than anybody else.

“That’s it,” he said to me. “Time’s up. The training’s over for today.”

“
Okay,” I sighed. “I’ll be back here tomorrow.”

King began to shake his head at me.

“You don’t train the day before a fight,” he told me. “Not when it’s a big fight like this. Take the rest of the time off. Gather yourself. You need to rest. Another day of training won’t help you.”

“
Are you sure?”

“
You’ve got everything down, Henry. You are who you are. I can’t change what you learned when you were serving. I only built upon it.”

I nodded in understand
ing.

“
I know how eager you are,” he said to me. “But you’re going to beat this guy. All of the punches and kicks you’ve thrown at me. The holds I’ve taught you. The sweat you’ve spilled. It was all designed to build you into what you are now. Just remember that he’s a man, the same as you are. You can hurt him the same way he can hurt you. You’re ready.”

I didn
’t think this moment would ever come. I had grown so used to showing up at King’s gym that I never imagined I wouldn’t need to train any longer. But there was nothing left for me here. Anderson was waiting around the corner. This was the last time my sweat would fall upon the floor of this gym.

As I wiped the sweat away wi
th the back of my hand, King spoke to Maxwell one last time. King still hadn’t warmed to Maxwell’s presence but the amount of disdain he had for him when we first stopped by was now a distant memory. King finally left us to train with some men who were training for the sport of it.

Maxwell was waiting for me with a smile on his face. After everything I
’d been through, I let out a deep sigh of relief and smiled back at him.

“
Are you ready, Henry?”

“
We’ll find out in a couple of days.”

“
I know you are, man. Hurry up and let’s get out of this damn place. This isn’t the last place we’re saying goodbye to.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
Come on now, Henry. What’s the next part of the routine?”

“
Of course,” I remembered.

We left King
’s gym late in the day. It was a bittersweet feeling to know that I would never have to train again. But leaving meant that I was no longer preparing for anything else. After saying goodbye to the gym, we headed to the diner like we always did. The waitress didn’t bother taking our order since we usually ordered the same thing every night.

Despite his complaints, Maxwell dug into his overcooked steak like he hadn
’t eaten in days. I stared at him and started to laugh.

“
I’ve never seen you eat a steak from here like this before,” I said.

“
Well, I’m just being nice, Henry. This is the last steak I’m ever going to eat here. After you whip this dude’s ass, it’ll be nothing but good eating from now on. You know what I’m going to do?”

“
What’s that, Maxwell?”

“
I’m going to buy a massive freezer. Then I’m buying up all of the best kinds of meat and storing it in there. And whenever I’m hungry, I’ll fry a piece up. I won’t have to deal with the guy here who doesn’t know what he’s doing or the waitress who always gives me attitude. I’m gonna live like a king.”

“
So you’ve got it all planned out, do you?”

“
Henry…”

Maxwell chewed and swallowed the mouthful of food. He stared solemnly at the plate in front of him, his eyes unmoving.

“Before I met you, a meal at a place like this was like a dream come true. I was barely making any money on the fights I was hosting. When one guy would step up, another would step up and knock him out. I didn’t know how to bet my money. I was barely making enough to survive. Now I’m already getting sick of the food in a place like this. A place I would’ve enjoyed just a month ago. I’ve got dreams, Henry. And they’re finally going to come true because of you.”

I had never heard Maxwell be so candid with me before. I sighed as he looked back at me. Then he laughed and shook his head befor
e digging into the steak in front of him again.

“
You’re putting a lot of pressure on me,” I said to him. “I don’t want to let you down.”

“
There’s already enough pressure on you. A little more won’t make a difference. You’re not doing this for me. I know that. I just wanted to say… thanks.”

Maxwell didn
’t look at me when he said it but I knew that he meant it. It felt like ages ago when I first saw him at that bar. I was desperately searching for a job and I managed to find something even greater. Now there was nothing left for me to do.

“
Is that all you
really
plan on doing?” I asked him.

“
What do you mean?”

“
You’re going to make a lot of money. Are you really just going to cook everything yourself?”

“
You’re right, Henry. I’ll probably just bring a few of those cuts of meat in here and have them cook it for me. Maybe that’ll teach them what a real steak is supposed to taste like.”

I laughed again at Maxwell
’s suggestion. He continued to devour the steak that he was always complaining about. Despite my affinity for this place and what it reminded me of, I was happy about no longer having to go here on a regular basis.

Maxwell left a generous tip for the waitress before we left. He said it was more of a thankful goodbye present
because he no longer had to deal with her service. As we walked through the streets and headed toward the apartment, the sky became dark.

I looked around and took in all of the sights and sounds. I usually ignored everything around me but this was the last
time I would have to see it. Hopefully, this would be our last walk from the diner back home.

As we headed home, I noticed a strange group of men just across the street from us. They didn
’t look any different from the thugs I usually noticed in my neighborhood. But these men were different. They were taking an unusual amount of interest in me and Maxwell.

“
Do you know those guys?” I whispered to Maxwell.

“
They look familiar. Maybe they’re some guys from the old neighborhood. You know those punks are harmless though.”

“
Yeah…”

Maxwell and I both knew how to take care of ourselves. But that wasn
’t what was bugging me. These guys were paying attention to us when they usually ignored us. I tried my best not to let it get to me. As we neared the apartment complex, I noticed that they were still following us on the other side of the street. I looked around and there was no one else to be found. The apartment complex Lanea owned was in an odd part of the city. Nobody else lived there so there were no other residents. But I knew that she had people keeping tabs on the area to keep people from loitering around here. The same kind of people that were still there, watching us.

They suddenly ran across the street and got in front of our path. I looked at all of them and t
ried to walk around them but they moved in front of both Maxwell and me. When I stared at them, they were looking back at me with an inexplicable anger in their eyes.

“
What’s going on, fellas?” Maxwell asked them. “You need some help?”

I was still confused
as to what they wanted from us. Maxwell did his best to diffuse the situation by acting like this wasn’t anything new.

“
No, we don’t need any help,” one of the men said. “But I think
you
might need some.”

“
Whoa, what’s going on?” Maxwell exclaimed. “Listen, whatever beef you might have, it’s not with us. I don’t care what anybody told you but—”

“
Shut up, punk! I don’t want to listen to you talk.”

There were four of them. I wasn
’t afraid of any of them. I was just wondering what business they had with us. It was clear they weren’t going to give me the answer I was looking for. Maxwell tried to diffuse the situation by putting his hands up to try and calm them down. I balled both of my fists and stared back at them. I was tired and exhausted but already it didn’t look like there was any other way out of this. There was nobody else here to stop them.

“
Listen, man!” Maxwell said. “We don’t have any problem with you guys! Just let us—”

The man in front rushed at Maxwell and swung at him. Maxwell ducked out of the
way and fell backward. I raced forward and decked him on the side of the face, knocking him to the ground. I readied another punch but two of the other men jumped on top of me before I could respond. The last man quickly went up to me and delivered a swift punch to my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. I collapsed to my knees and did everything I could to fight off the pain.

Maxwell made his way back up to his feet and threw a punch that would have made King proud. The man who originally swung at him we
nt back to the floor. He then attempted to save me but was quickly tackled back to the ground. I struggled with the two men holding me. They tugged and pulled me down to the ground.

“
What do you want?” Maxwell shouted at them. “We don’t have any money on us, okay? Just let us go! You have no—”

“
I thought I told you to shut up!”

Two men held me down and forced me down onto my stomach. Another man had Maxwell held down. I looked up and watched as the last man stood over me. He kicked me on the side of my head
and I nearly lost consciousness. As I tried to maintain my senses, one of the men tugged on my arm and extended it across the ground.

“
What are you doing?” Maxwell shouted at him.

One of the men pulled my arm out and pushed my hand down onto the pavement.
I struggled to free myself but it was no use. I didn’t have the strength to fight the two men off. I looked up at the man standing over me. He had a sinister look in his eyes as he smiled at me. Then he raised his foot up and violently began to stomp on my hand. I shouted as I listened to the sound of my hand being crunched underneath his boot. Each stomp increased the amount of pain surging through my hand.

“
Henry!”

The men suddenly freed me and all of them began to run away. I wanted to chase them down b
ut the crippling pain in my hand forced me to lay on the ground in agony.

“
Henry, are you all right, man?”

Maxwell stood over me and rolled me onto my side. I gripped my wrist and held it tight. My right hand didn
’t look as bad as I expected it to. The prints of the man’s soles were dark upon my knuckles. But none of it mattered to the amount of pain I was feeling. I didn’t know how many bones were in a hand but I knew that some of them had been broken.

I stared at
my mangled hand and did my best not to yell out in pain. Maxwell again asked me if I was okay as he helped me up to my feet. We quickly headed to the apartment where I collapsed upon the couch.

“
Oh, fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

Maxwell began pacing back and fo
rth as I held my hand out in front of me.

“
You have to see a doctor, man,” he said to me.

“
No, I can’t.”

“
What are you talking about? They just broke your hand.”

“
If I go to a doctor, they’re going to put this thing in a cast. I can’t let Anderson know that I’m at a disadvantage. I can’t let him know that I’m unable to use my best punch.”

“
Henry, listen—”

“
Who were they? Why would they do this?”

“
I don’t know. I thought they looked familiar but I don’t know why they would do what they did.”

I continued to t
ry and focus on my breathing, doing everything I could to ignore the pain from my hand.

“
Don’t tell anybody about this,” I said. “I’ll just stay here in the apartment for the next two days. I need to rest until the fight.”

“
Henry—”

“
I don’t want to hear anything else. Just head to the store and get me some bandages. I have to wrap this up and let it heal as much as it can before the fight.”

I looked at Maxwell for a moment. I didn
’t care that my hand was definitely broken. I only had to make it to the fight and win it. I wouldn’t allow Maxwell to try and reason with me.