He stamped down the hope that swelled in chest. These were the McNealy cousins he was dealing with. They gave nothing for free. “There’s always a catch. What is it?”
“There is.” The man leaned back in the chair and linked his fingers on top of his stomach. “We want you to throw tonight’s fight.”
Lance shook his head. “You want me to do what?”
“It’s pretty damn simple, Black. After dominating in the Last Man Standing event, you’re favored to win by a large margin. Now we want you to lose.”
“I can’t fix a fight.”
It went against everything he was as a fighter. It wasn’t honorable. Hell, he couldn’t cheat all those people out of their money. Not to cover his own ass.
“One fight. One loss. We’re done. Doesn’t that sound more appealing than continuing this out for another month or two?”
Fuck yeah it did, but he didn’t know if he was capable of going into the cage and intentionally losing. Hell, he’d refused to lower himself to cheap shots during an anything-goes bout. He’d had his eyes gouged, his balls kicked, his mouth hooked and he never countered with an illegal move. He wanted a way out, but not like this.
“It’s no big deal,” Gabe said. “Give a pow here and a pow there, throw in a couple of oomphs. Then let him catch you in a submission hold and tap out. Simple as shit, man.”
Simple as shit. Not even close.
“Do we have a deal?” Mitch asked.
“Umm.” God, did they? No reason to even tell them no. He wasn’t up for dealing with their shit right now. “Yeah. A deal. I probably should go get ready.”
Lance left the office feeling like he’d been bitch smacked. The McNealys were finally offering him his freedom. He’d be cleared of all debt when he left here tonight—all he had to do was lose.
He caught sight of Kelsey making a beeline for the McNealys’ office. Of course she wouldn’t stay away. She was most likely on her way to give the cousins an earful, but he let her go. He really didn’t want to talk to her right this minute—he didn’t think he could look her in the eye and not tell her about the cousins’ offer. And he couldn’t tell her, because she’d push for him to do it. Reiterate that it was finally a means to an end.
And she’d be right.
As he stepped toward the cage to wait for his fight, he studied the fencing around the octagon-shaped ring he respected so much. It should’ve been a no-brainer, but he wasn’t sure if he could go through with it.
Ella slammed the door behind her as she stormed into the McNealys’ office without knocking. Both their heads snapped up in unison.
“You two have lost your goddamn minds,” she yelled.
“Holy shit, Kel-Kel. What’s brought out the fangs?”
“You can’t keep putting these guys up against each other like this. Someone’s going to wind up dead.”
“Jesus Christ.” Mitch slammed his fist down on the desk. “I thought we were done with you. Fuck.” He pointed at her. “Listen to me clearly. These are all grown men. If they’ve had enough, they don’t have to fight.”
She put her hands on her hips. “Except for Lance. He has to fight.”
Rolling his eyes, Mitch leaned back in his chair. “We have a special agreement with Lance.”
“I know. He told me. You two should be ashamed of yourself for using the money he needed to save his daughter for your own gain.”
“Whoa.” Gabe held up his hands. “You need to check yourself. We’re not a fucking charity. He owes us a lot of fucking money. If we decided we wanted to speed up the payback process, that is our business. Not yours.”
“Then I want to complete the process.” God, Lance was going to kill her, but she didn’t care. He couldn’t continue on like this. She slapped a cashier’s check on the desk. “I want to pay off the remaining balance, and you pull him from tonight’s fights.”
Gabe’s eyes went wide as Mitch stared at the check. He shook his head. “You’re about ten minutes too late for that to happen.”
“What do you mean?”
“We just offered Lance a new arrangement. He can walk out of here tonight not owing us another dime.”
She stared at them for a moment, digesting that piece of news. “What kind of arrangement?”
“All he has to do is throw the fight.”
“And he agreed?”
“Yep.”
A relieved sigh shot out of her mouth. “Okay.”
Lance’s name suddenly blasted from the speakers as his fight was announced, and she stiffened. Ella hurried outside into the warehouse and saw Lance standing inside the cage. The barely faded bruises on his torso held her attention. Tonight it would be over. Finally.
As the referee backed away, signaling that the two men could begin, Lance burst toward his opponent with an onslaught of punches. Her heart caught tight.