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“He said something about how I could never beat him in a legitimate, sanctioned fight. So I told him he couldn’t beat me if I tied my hands behind my back and fucked his mom first to tire myself out.”
Dane actually choked back a laugh.
“Then he might’ve tried to punch me, Johnny’s bodyguard got into it and Brampton called me a coward, and next thing you know he’s calling me out on the internet, challenging me to a sanctioned fight. Because he thinks I’m not as good as him just because I’ve never had a ‘legit’ fight. But we both know that’s bullshit because if that was the case he wouldn’t even know who I was. He fucking knew who I was. His buddies knew who I was. And the reason they all know who I am is because I’m virtually undefeated.”
“Yes. I know. You’re the reigning middleweight king of the underground.”
“I am. Thank you for noticing.”
“You should be happy with that title. It’s what you wanted, right?” Dane gave me a pointed look. “And now you can step down gracefully before you get killed.”
“I’m not gonna get killed.”
“So you’re gonna go on pay-per-view and fight a seasoned pro fighter with impeccable stats? We’re not talking about some seedy abandoned warehouse with a chalk ring on the floor, Shane.”
“Same shit, different pile.”
“Are you crazy? Is that it?”
“Probably. But we already knew this.”
Dane just shook his head at me.
“Look, his stats aren’t as relevant as you think. He’s getting old. And slow. And sloppy. I pack way more power into my punches. And I’m an all-around better fighter. I know I am. I just don’t have the data to back it up. He thinks I’ll be an easy victory. I need to prove him wrong.”
“Need?” he said dubiously. “Again,why?”
I didn’t even know what to tell him.
I got up and started pacing again. I couldn’t really explain why I was so itching to do this. Or why I’d been pacing a hole in the floor all night and day, with all this jagged energy in me. At least, I probably couldn’t explain it any way that Dane would understand.
He was super successful, loved to win in business, sure. For a billionaire, he worked way too hard and way too fucking much, but that was just my opinion. He didn’t understand the way I lived, either.
The man could sit still and focus like a fucking laser. For hours on end.
I was more of a raging bull. I didn’t like sitting still.
But hey, there was a point in my life when I was laid up in a hospital bed. When I’d literally almost died. I’d come this close to losing my life, fucking young, and I’d lost my dream career because of it. I thought I might never walk again or live a normal life, much less skate. And maybe I never got back out on the ice, but I’d fought my way back from the brink of death, literally.
I was still fighting, in every sense of the word.
Maybe it was some kind of addiction or obsession or something, but I would not give up the fight.
And I did not back down from a challenge.
Jolie Vola, of all fucking people, had lit something up in me yesterday and I’d left that brunch at my dad’s place itching to fight. And when I went out drinking with the guys last night, Moe Brampton provided me with an opportunity.
I knew it was a mistake to drop into that brunch. To see her. What was the point? It went down pretty much exactly how I expected it to. She was the stuck up snob I’d taken her for and nothing about that had changed.
If anything, seeing her disgust with me in person just added insult to injury.
So, fuck it. I’d be training for a fight that would consume my life for the next four weeks, with no need to run into her again. And by the time I looked up from my victory, the wedding would be over in a blur and she’d be gone the fuck back to California.
“You’re turning thirty-one in a couple of weeks, Shane,” Dane reminded me, still trying to talk me down when I didn’t answer him. “That’s plenty ready for retirement from fighting. Especially bare knuckle, concrete floor, serious-injury-prone fighting. It’s insanity.”
This, again.
I knew he wanted me to retire. He’d never liked that I went into fighting, especially in the way that I did—taking unsanctioned, bare knuckle fights on the underground circuit.
