Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
My father’s smile is as off-putting as our previous four hours together. We ate at Petretti’s Restaurant before attending his tailor to purchase me a suit. I knew he was up to something, but since I gave him my word I’d do anything asked if he spared Old Man Stephens’ workshop from going up in flames, I went along with his twisted game of pretending he is a devoted father.
But, in saying that, these final proceedings aren’t close to what I was anticipating. I thought he was bringing me to heel to ensure the leash was short once my trust fund unlocks. I never considered the idea that he’d want me to be a participant in his illegal fight circuit.
I’ve never been an overly cocky man—Dimitri snagged the pompousness needed to succeed in our family’s ‘industry’—so not only do nerves take flight in my stomach when my father suggests I warm up for my fight, my naturally engrained flight mode activates as well.
I would have been out the door ten minutes ago if I didn’t see a blacked-out SUV parked half a block up from Old Man Stephens’ ranch. If I don’t go through with this fight, five decades of hard work will be removed with a tin of gasoline and a handful of dirty rags.
Since I gave Old Man Stephens my word that wouldn’t happen, I head for the locker room at the back of the warehouse to warm up, hopeful as fuck today won’t be the day I bow out of my family legacy for good.
“Put this on.” Mario tosses me a satin robe professional fighters wear before instructing the two goons by the door to make a path through the crowd of rowdy spectators. I don’t know much about my father’s side business. I avoid his shady ‘enterprises’ as much as possible, but a gimmick like this seems strange. Even more so when Mario instructs, “And pull the hood up. We want your identity to remain a secret until it’s time to fight.” When my eyes stray to a gym bag my father dumped onto a bench without peering my way twenty minutes ago, Mario spits out with a chuckle, “No gloves. We fight bare-knuckled around these parts.” He cracks his bloody and bruised knuckles to emphasize his point. “You’d know that if you weren’t a pansy.”
I slant my head to hide my smirk that he thinks I’m gay. The more disapproving my father was of my so-called ways, the looser his reins became. His belief gave me a range of freedoms Roberto and Dimitri never had.
If he hadn’t caught me with my hands down the front of a cheerleader’s pants my final year of high school, I doubt I’d be here now. He’d never place himself in the position of being embarrassed, and me losing this fight tonight would do that, wouldn’t it?
Dread fills me when I follow two of my father’s goons out of the makeshift locker room at the back of the warehouse. The hum of the crowd makes it difficult to determine one voice from another, but from the tidbits of the conversation I catch from reading their lips, it seems as if tonight’s fight is the feature match. Words like ‘undefeated,’ ‘possible world champion contender’ and ‘blood bath’ are used far too often to exclude them as a minor detail, but regretfully, my name is never associated with them.
Not a single man filling the outdated building of steel and glass know who I am. They don’t hiss in shock when my slip through the frayed ropes of the boxing ring exposes my face. They’re not even glancing my way. They are too busy taking in the exchange between Ophelia, our father, and a man I’ve never met but is so well known in this industry, he has the attention of everyone in the room.
And the attention grows when he stands up to my father like I did when I was six.
Although the stranger’s stance is strong, there’s only so much controversy a man can endure before his knees eventually buckle. Mine bent from hope. His bow under the pressure that it isn’t just his life at stake, it is my baby sister’s as well.
Mario has his gun directed at the back of Ophelia’s head. If the unnamed man denies my father’s terms, Mario will kill the woman the stranger is endeavoring to save without an ounce of remorse on his face. Ophelia is worthless in this industry. All women are. That’s why my father so blatantly used my mother as a shield, because to him, her life would never be more valuable than his.
Mercifully, Ophelia’s date doesn’t feel the same way. After bartering with my father for what feels like minutes but is barely seconds, he alters the direction of his steps. He heads for the boxing ring instead of the exit he was racing for mere minutes ago.