Fierce (25 page)

He suddenly felt very tired, as though his body was telling him all this was not helping his routine. “I just don’t know what you want from me,” he said. “I mean, I can change if I have to, but how’s that going to help me get in shape to beat Grillo?”

“You can ‘change if you have to’?” She paused. “That’s not how it works. I think you’d actually have to
want
to change, otherwise you’d end up hating me for it. I don’t know the answer because you won’t talk to me about it, about what’s made you like this. All I know is I feel invisible. And unless you’re about to save the world or something, I don’t think it’s fair for you to take me for granted like that. It’s like you’re
addicted
to this thing, whatever’s driving you. And nothing else matters. I don’t matter. Sure, you might slip back into charming Avery mode after you beat Grillo, but how long is that going to last? Until your next heavyweight fight? Then we go through this shut-out routine all over again?”

“You want me to retire—is that it?”

“Don’t be stupid. I want you to be here, with me,
especially
when you’re training the hardest. Tell me all about it, what you’re going through, how you stay on top of it. I want to know what makes you tick when you’re gearing up for a fight. I want you to bitch and moan occasionally about how tough your day’s been, or if you’ve got any aches and pains, I want to nurse them for you. Just little things like that. I don’t want to eat into your training time in any way; I just want to be in the loop, maybe someone you can run things by at the end of the day. It’s good to feel needed, even wanted. Right now, I don’t feel like I’m needed or wanted. I feel like a squatter who’s only kept around out of pity.”

He swallowed hard, bowed his head. “Jesus. Has it really been like that?”

“Yes.”

“Rose, I had no idea.” He looked up at her and saw that her stony scowl was brittle around the eyes and at the corners of her mouth. She was putting on a brave face, as she always did. “I’ve been such a shit,” he said. “I’m so sorry.”

“Not really a shit,” she replied. “Just not here in any way that counts. I guess that’s even harder to take in a way. At least if you were a shit now and then, I could tell you so to your face. I could straighten your heavyweight ass out. But it’s real hard to argue with someone who’s not really here.”

“Well, that’s going to change, starting now.” Avery took both her hands, then took a deep breath. “It’s time to tell you about Maggie….”

“Um, you have mentioned her before.”

“Then I’ve sold her short,” he said, “because you’ll never know the real me until you know about Maggie. And it’s time you know the whole story.”

“Okay.”

He told Rose everything, from the early days on the streets of Detroit, when the three of them had been inseparable—Maggie, Luca, and Avery—to the final, wrenching weeks when the pneumonia had hospitalized her and slowly taken Maggie from him. From the very first time he’d gotten into a brawl to protect her, Maggie had seen his potential, not just as a brawler but as a real fighter. While the other kids lost their shit and went out swinging and flailing, Avery had kept his head; he’d anticipated his opponents’ moves and had known when to bide his time and when to attack. It was instinctive, that know-how, and could be nurtured. So she’d introduced him to a friend of her uncle’s, who’d taught kickboxing at a local gym.

Luca had gone along as well. They’d both displayed a natural talent for the sport. But while Luca had soaked up the technical aspects and became a very astute pupil, Avery had always imagined himself fighting for Maggie. He hadn’t realized how much he was in love with her until he’d faced the idea of her not being there, in his life, ever again. And even though he’d told her how he felt before the end, she’d been too sick to comprehend. And that, more than anything, had made him throw himself into MMA, into mastering as many disciplines as he could, because even though she wouldn’t be there in person to watch him anymore, he’d felt she was there nonetheless, constantly talking to him through his fighting, in those flourishes of excellence, telling him to be the best he could be, for her. She’d helped set him on this path, and as long as he was shining brightly in the ring, she would be proud of him. She would see him as the man she always knew he could be.

Maggie hadn’t escaped the tough streets of Detroit, but she’d shown him a way out. And every time he fought, every time he began his pre-fight training, it was with that same intensity, that same focus he’d needed to protect Maggie in his very first brawl. He was still fighting that brawl, in a way, long after he’d failed to save her…

“I can still hear her voice when I pull off a tough move,” he said. “She used to cheer me ringside. She had this kind of shrill, girly voice that cut through all the others. I’ll never forget it.”

Rose intermingled their fingers, as she replied, “I can tell she still means a lot to you. Not sure I’ll ever be able to compete with that.”

“That’s what I’ve been getting round to, in a totally long-winded way.”

“That I’ll never be able to compete with her?” Rose went pale.

He lifted her chin and gazed into her eyes. “You couldn’t be more wrong,” he said. “What I’m trying to tell you is…I don’t see Maggie when I’m training anymore; I don’t hear her when I’m sparring. It’s someone else.”

She didn’t respond right away, but her eyes were full and searching. “You’d better not be messing.”

“I’m not. It’s you, Rose. I know that now. It’s been you ever since we landed in that ditch. I was running on empty before that day. Why do you think I hadn’t had a fight in nearly a year…until I met you?”

She shrugged.

“It’s no coincidence,” he said. “Whatever reason I had to go on fighting, I lost it, until you showed up. It’s that simple.”

“So in your own way, you’re kind of not really shutting me out, because it’s like I’m there with you all the time? Is that what you’re saying?”

He sighed, knowing how delusional that sounded. “Something like that. I’m not making excuses. You’ve been here for me, and I’ve not been here for you. I’ve had tunnel vision, and it’s a shitty way to be. I need to make it up to you. But it’s important you know I wasn’t doing it on purpose.”

“You’ve just hardwired yourself that way,” she suggested, “as a way to get there, to the top.”

“But I can change. I
will
change.”

“So will I,” she said. “Now that I know we’re not all that much different, we can change together. I guess that’s what people like us have to do.”

“What’s that?”

“Move on. Adapt. Otherwise we’d be fighting the same old fights forever, and we’d never be happy.”

He smiled a warm, genuine smile. “You know something? You’ve got entirely too many brains to have an ass like that.”

Rose pouted coquettishly. “Wish I could say the same for you.”

Touching his ear, Avery asked, “Was that…the bell for round one?”

“Uh-huh. Think you can take me, Wright Hook?”

“Any time I want.”

She threw her top off and sat upright, right in front of him, looking beautiful. “Prove it.”

The expensive hotel room he was staying in, just like the hotel itself, along with many other hotel-casinos in Las Vegas and across Nevada, belonged to famous billionaire Shane Hoskins. That was no secret. Meanwhile, one of his top men, Delgado, a ruthless and (to the public) faceless entrepreneur in his own right, was running a widespread blackmailing and fight-fixing racket that had rocked the sport of MMA in recent years. That was hardly a secret either, but it was not known to the general public.

Placing Avery here, alone, in the run-up to the biggest professional fight of the decade, was simply too big an opportunity for Hoskins and Delgado to pass up. With millions of dollars in betting up for grabs, there was no way they could let him slip through their fingers. Agent Nix hadn’t outright suggested it, but he’d immediately jumped on Avery’s idea.

Let the wolves come sniffing and wait for them bare their teeth.

Now, a careful operator like Delgado would never come himself. And Hoskins? Forget it. But they would send someone. Avery and Nix, and Nix’s boss, Special Agent Helmsley, were certain of that. The only questions were: who would they send, and how much would they say? Any direct threats made against Avery or Luca or Rose, and the FBI would have actionable evidence. They could play their own blackmail games against Delgado’s men, in private, and ferret out the rest of his organization that way. But first they needed to catch the fight-fixers in the act.

He might be the undefeated Light Heavyweight Champion of the World, but today he was bait. Pure and simple. A pawn in a very dangerous game that involved not only him, but the girl he loved and the brother he’d die for. It was worth the risk, though, because if it worked, and the FBI brought down Delgado’s criminal ring, he’d have not only saved a great many other fighters’ careers, he’d have also removed any further threat to Rose.

That, right there, was worth any indignity he might suffer when the messengers came calling.

***

It was 6:41 p.m. The knock was loud but unhurried. It got Avery to his feet in a cold flash of anticipation, like the bell for the start of a new round. He was unarmed. Nix and another FBI man were in the next room, listening in, watching on their monitor, but if something should go wrong, if he didn’t give these people the answer they wanted, he might not be able to defend himself. And that, for a professional fighter, was a bitter pill to swallow.

Okay, you bastards, let’s get this over with.

After hours of waiting, it all flooded back—exactly what he had to say and how he was supposed to say it. It was like those hours had never existed. He’d skipped over them somehow. React, but don’t overreact, Nix had told him. They have to think they’ve blindsided you. They have to leave that room thinking they’ve won a victory. They can’t know you’ve just taken a dive.

Avery remembered the agent’s wry wink after he’d delivered that line. Clever. It was a clever thing to have said. Whenever he thought of it, it reminded him that, at the end of the day, this was all a game. A risky game, but a game nonetheless.

The knocks repeated. Even louder. Slower.

Avery opened the door. Four men stood in the hallway. They were dressed more like casual golfers than hitmen: polo shirts, light, open jackets, tan trousers. One of them was older than the rest, in his late fifties; he wore a blank, white baseball cap and an even blanker expression.

Avery said, “Yes?”

“Mr. Wright, we’ve come to have a word about your security.” Mr. Blank peered past him, making sure the room was empty. “Can we come in?”

“Um, sure.” Avery stepped aside and let them all in.
Four.
He hadn’t expected this many, and neither had Nix. How many were armed? “You’re here about fight night security?” he asked. “I wouldn’t have thought tonight would be problem. It’s just a press conference. A few photo ops and all that jazz.”

When he closed the door after them, he noted that two lingered there, near the door, covering his exit.

“Actually, it’s a general security problem,” Blank said as he retrieved a Beretta from his shoulder holster. He pointed it at Avery’s chest, and immediately put a finger to his lips.

React but don’t overreact.

Avery felt his eyes widen and his pulse begin to thump, with real weight, in places it probably shouldn’t. In his ear, for one. Mr. Blank motioned for his colleague to pat Avery down, to check him for a wire.

He found nothing.

Avery almost glanced up at the spot where a fibre-optic camera was watching the room—from the smoke detector—but checked himself just in time. “Whatever you want, it isn’t here. I always travel light.” He thought that was a good response. It was vague, a bit dumb, and it suggested he had no clue who they were.

“Actually, it’s you we want, Avery.”

He hated that the bastard was using his first name, the same name Rose and Luca and his friends used. “What do you want with me?”

“I’ll make this quick,” Blank said. “We wouldn’t want you to miss your press conference and all that jazz.” He winked—the opposite of Nix’s wink. This one was loaded with dark secrets. Things he knew that Avery didn’t. Things Delgado could make happen.

Avery swallowed.

“You have two choices on fight night, and only two.” Blank aimed his pistol at Avery’s crotch, forcing Avery to place his hands there. “You lose the fight or you lose the girl. That bitch from The Dolphin. Rose, right?”

Avery grimaced and took half a step forward. The sounds of clicking weapons all around him forced him to freeze. But his fists were clenched so tightly at his sides he felt as though he was crushing something
in them. If only these bastards weren’t armed. He would, without flinching, snap their necks one by one…

“Who the fuck are you?”

“We’re nobody. We don’t exist. Until you disobey us. Then we’re in your life in ways you’ve never dreamed of. Rose will die slow, and she’ll wish she was dead long before we oblige. Then we’ll dismantle what’s left of your life until you have nothing left. Your brother? Dead. Your gym? Burned to the ground. Your career? Over and smeared forever. Starting to get the picture?”

He said nothing, just glared ahead at the man he knew only as Blank.
Christ,
he hoped Nix was getting all this, because he didn’t know how much more he could stomach.

“Of course, that’s option two,” Blank said. “Let’s look at option one. You fight the good fight against Grillo, you give it your all—and hey, who knows, you might be good enough to take him down. But you don’t. You
do not,
under any circumstances, walk out of that ring as the winner. Before the final bell, you either tap out or you’re counted out. Anything else and, well, see option two. We clear?”

Avery grunted.

“I said,
are we clear
?”

Avery narrowed his eyes and gave the faintest of nods.

“That’s good. That’s real good. You do it right, and no one ever needs to know. It’ll be our secret. You do it wrong, and it’s all on you. But if you mention this conversation to anyone, at any time, we automatically pursue option two. Is that clear?”

“I hear you.”

Blank lowered his weapon. “Okay, boys, we’re done here.”

And just like that, they left. Avery glanced around the room when they were gone and couldn’t believe how quickly it had all happened. In and out—a matter of minutes. They’d obviously had lots of practice at ruining the careers and lives of professional and amateur fighters. But this time, they’d gone for the jackpot. The fight of the decade. And as much as he hated to admit it, Avery couldn’t see any way out of the bind they’d just put him in. If Nix and Helmsley weren’t protecting Rose and Luca right now, he might have no choice but to throw the fight of the decade.

This has to stop,
he thought.
They have to be stopped.

Then it hit him, darkly, right between the eyes. What if they
had
got to Rose? The FBI had promised to protect her, but after Reno, the police corruption there, could
any
of these officials really be trusted? After all, this was Shane Hoskins they were talking about. The guy practically owned a freaking
state
!

He called Rose right away, even before he went to see Nix. His sweaty fingers smeared the touchscreen on his smartphone so that he had to try several times before he brought up her number. The experience of facing the barrel of a Beretta was nothing compared to the dread of hearing the phone ring, and ring…and ring.

Nothing answered his worst fears, and the more he heard the ring tone, the more convinced he was that something terrible had happened in Mitre.

Then he heard a voice on the other end. But it wasn’t Rose’s.

It was a man’s voice.

***

She muted the TV and gazed in terror at the ringing cell phone on the coffee table. Her cell phone. Its vibration hummed beneath the jaunty ring tone. It inched its way across the glass surface. Rose didn’t dare pick it up. What if something bad had happened, and this was Agent Nix calling to give her the bad news?

Special Agent Helmsley strode in from the kitchen, toting a bagel. He saw Rose biting her nails, said, “Do you want me to answer that?”

She nodded in reply. It might be cowardly, but it felt safer, letting him do it.

“Hello? Is this Avery…? No, no. It’s fine. Everything’s fine. This is Helmsley. I’m answering Rose’s cell phone for her. She’s in the backyard, getting some air. Do you want me to…? No problem. I’ll take it to her.” He paused and offered the phone to Rose.

She almost snatched it off him. “Hey. Is everything okay?”

“I think so. Man, that scared the
shit
out of me. I thought something had happened to you.” His voice was shaking. He sounded stressed as hell.

“Avery, what’s happened? Did they show up yet?”

“Yeah, yeah. Just now. I called you right away because…” The sound of hushed voices in the distance made her press the phone to her ear. If it was all over, why the cloak and dagger routine? “Sorry, babe, I’ll have to call you back. Something’s come up,” he said. Then he hung up, leaving her worried all over again.

She squeezed the phone in her grip and held it against her chest.

Helmsley stopped chewing, lowered his bagel. “What did he say?”

“He said he’d call me back. Something’s come up.”

The special agent looked as bemused as she was. Then he gave a reassuring nod and walked away. Rose glanced around and caught him pressing buttons on his own cell as he disappeared into the kitchen.

***

The door to his hotel room flung wide. Nix rushed in, immediately put a finger to his mouth. He looked startled, even scared. Avery lowered his cell phone and whispered, “What is it?”

Nix shook his head emphatically. He gestured for Avery to put the phone down, or switch it off. Avery couldn’t leave Rose hanging like that without saying a word, so he promised to call her back. Nix winced a little when he heard that. Again he put a finger to his lips. He made straight for the writing desk in the corner, where he felt underneath the lip of one of the sides. He soon plucked out a small, black and chrome gizmo about the size of thumbnail. It had a tiny metal proboscis.

Nix took out his sidearm and used the butt to smash the gizmo against the desk.

“What exactly did you say over the phone?” the FBI man asked. “I only caught the last part.”

“Wait? You’re saying…they bugged
me
?” Avery stepped away, mentally back-tracking over the past few insane minutes.

“Avery, I need you to focus. Did you give anything away? Did you mention me, or that you were expecting a visit?”