Sugar Pop (The Riot Crew #2)

11. Frankie

Chapter 11

Frankie

“ T hank you all for coming.” Troy smiled and leaned back in his leather chair.

As if we had a fucking choice.

I sat at the end of the row of chairs, with Ari next to me, Bones in the middle, and Lotto at the other end. We all looked dressed as if we were going to some show or bigwig meeting.

But this wasn’t a meeting. It was a fucking hostage situation.

How else would you describe how tight Troy had a hold of our balls?

“I appreciate the showing last night. Great match.”

“We didn’t realize you would be there,” Lotto said around a tight smile. Clearly, he was still pissed off at the last-minute switch of the originally planned fight. “Or else we would have greeted you personally.”

We certainly wouldn’t have. Lotto was always the best ass-kisser of our group. I stayed silent per Ari’s request in the car. If I didn’t “keep my damn mouth shut,” she was going to kill me. Or deny me sex until I learned my lesson, which would certainly kill me anyway. With such slim pickings, I let Lotto and Ari handle the talks.

For now, anyway.

“Why did you invite us here?” Ari asked. When she crossed her legs, her tight black dress rode up on her thigh. My jaw clenched. I didn’t want Troy’s predatory eyes on her body, but it was also a great reminder of what I’d be missing if I fucking blew this. “Bones said you have an offer for us.”

“I thought it was pretty obvious,” Troy said.

A Bones and River fight. If that was all he wanted, why was he taking so long and dicking us around? Something wasn’t adding up.

Bones clenched his jaw. “A fight with River.”

“A headliner at Heathens Hollow.”

I glanced past Ari to check on Bones. He looked like a mixture of pissed and worried. His eyebrows furrowed, and his chiseled face looked even more angular with how hard he frowned. Though we tried to placate him all last night, he had reason to worry. River was a fucking brickhouse of a man. Bones had got a few good shots on him last night, and he hadn’t even winced. Bones might have been at his prime, but so was River. A one-on-one match between them would rake in the big bucks, but at what cost?

But a fucking headliner. That was a chance we couldn’t pass up. The previous headlining match we did had catapulted us to the top of the underground. A second one? We’d be certified legends of cage fighting. Smiley’s would be un-fucking-stoppable.

Which meant it was too good to be true.

Lotto clearly felt the same because his glare hadn’t let up. “When would this be?”

“Two months. Gives time to train and build hype. People from all over the West Coast would be there.”

It also gave time to pay off the cops and make sure they were looking the other way when the time came. Most underground fights were short notice and on abandoned property to sneak under the feds’ noses. Heathens Hollow was on its own damn island off the coast and the perfect place to pick your poison and get fucked up for the night.

Or hide a few skeletons in your closet.

Ari looked at me with practical question marks in her eyes, but I didn’t have an answer. Troy Godwin hadn’t earned a lick of my trust, offer or not.

“What’s in it for us if we agree?” Bones questioned.

Troy snapped his fingers, and the man in sunglasses standing to his right stepped forward with a duffle bag in hand. He threw it on Troy’s desk and opened the zipper. Inside were stacks and stacks of crisp hundreds.

“A hundred K.” Troy picked up one of the stacks and threw it into Bones’ lap. “No strings attached.”

I couldn’t contain my scoff. “I doubt that.”

“Say yes, and you walk out of here with it. Should be enough to pay for the repairs to your little gym. Insurance can be a little bitch, can’t it?”

How the fuck did he know that? This bastard had eyes and ears everywhere. Another reason we needed to deny this deal.

“And all we have to do is agree to this headliner deal?” Ari asked, her eyes on the bag. “A Bones vs. River fight for the ages?”

“It’s not what I originally had in mind,” Troy admitted and sat up in his rolling chair. He slid a jackal smile at Bones that made me sick. “Do you know how many people want to kick your ass, Bones?”

“I have an idea.” Bones grunted.

“Double that idea and you might be correct.”

“Is there a point to this?” I asked. Ari swung out her hand and clipped my upper shoulder, but I held firm. I wasn’t starting shit, I was merely playing into it. “We all know Bones is at the top of the food chain or else we wouldn’t be here.”

“My first plan was to invite you to a type of opponent’s ladder. See how many people you could take on before you were knocked out or worse.”

Or worse. I grimaced. This fucker needed to stop watching Fight Club .

“But,” Troy drawled and fixed a stray hair from his gelled-back style. “Where’s the fun in that? I won’t make any money off of you if you’re in the hospital or dead.”

“So you want him as your cash cow?” Lotto asked.

“More like a cash bull. Loosen up the look, Bones, before you stab me with your eyes.”

If anything, Bones glared harder. “I fight for Smiley’s, not you.”

“And Smiley’s will fight for me. Isn’t that the same thing?”

The room went silent. I looked between the other three, each looked as pissed off as I did. Troy didn’t just have us by the balls. He had us by the throats, arms, and legs. The chains around our bodies would be tough to remove if weighed down by 10,000 Benjamin Franklins.

Ari reached toward the bag, and Troy snatched it closed. His jackal smile grew even larger.

“I wouldn’t touch that just yet, beautiful. Not until you hear the rest of my proposal.”

A sick feeling sank in my stomach. The rest of his proposal? What the fuck else did he want?

Ari swallowed and sat back against her chair. “Then what’s your plan?”

“Bones isn’t the only one with a target on his back.” Troy stood up and rifled through some papers at the edge of his desk. After a dramatic pause he evidently found what he was looking for. He pulled out a stapled pack of papers and smirked. “You’ve got quite a hater yourself, Ari.”

“What?” Ari sat forward, her eyes wide. “What are you talking about?”

“Maybe you should thank Perk’s Gym. They gave me the idea in the first place.”

Troy threw the wad of papers at Ari, and they landed perfectly in her lap. I leaned over to get a good look.

HEADLINER AGREEMENT

This agreement is entered between and by Troy Godwin, CEO of Godwin Industries (“Party A”), and Misty and Jace Perk, co-owners of Perk’s Gym (“Party B”), for ? —

“What the fuck is this?” I tried to snatch the contract from Ari’s lap, but she moved it out of my reach so she could keep reading.

“You went to them?” Lotto’s eyes were locked on the papers Ari held. “To set this whole thing up?”

“They came to me, actually.” Troy sat on the edge of his desk. “I think you pissed them off with your antics, Bones.”

“What the fuck did I do?” Bones growled. His grip on the arms of the chair was so tight I thought he might rip them off. “All I did was fight at your damn club.”

“And wiped the floor with the competition. Jace Perk isn’t exactly a fan of you. Big ego on that guy.”

“Look in the mirror,” I spat and tried to grab the papers. Ari ripped them away, her expression darkening as she flipped to the next page. “Hand them over, Ari.”

“I’d let her keep reading if I were you.” Troy’s smug ass smile was so punchable, I had to dig my shoes into the ground to keep from standing up. “Since the agreement hinges on her.”

“What?” Lotto, Bones, and I said at the same time. We all turned to Ari as she kept reading.

Eventually she let out a shaky breath and closed the contract. “It’s a three-on-three matchup between Smiley’s Gym and Perk’s Gym.”

Three-on-three? We didn’t have three. We had Bones and Teo. That was about it. And even that was pushing it. Teo was a nice enough guy but a shit fighter. He would need a lot more polishing to get to Heathens Hollow caliber, if he was even interested in the underground shit in the first place. Then where could we find a third?

“And?” Troy pressed like a teacher waiting for some fucking quiz answer.

“And,” Ari said slowly, her eyes locked on Troy’s, “Misty and I have to be one of the matches.”

“No,” I immediately answered. “ Fuck no. We’re not doing it. Bones, give the money back. We’re leaving.”

“Are you?” Troy asked and nodded to the contract. “You should read it yourself. It’s pretty lucrative.”

“I don’t give a fuck?—”

“What are you offering?” Lotto asked.

I almost saw red and pushed from my chair, turning to the rest of the group. “It doesn’t matter what he’s offering. Ari isn’t stepping foot in the ring. We’re fucking leaving.”

“A ten percent cut of whatever I make from the fight plus a chance for an exclusive contract as headliners at Heathens Hollow.” Troy tapped his knuckles on his desk. “I’d sit your ass down and really consider it, Frankie. I’m nice enough to even offer you that.”

Troy? Nice? Two words that didn’t belong in the same fucking sentence. He was a fucking bastard who knew we were backed into a corner and was using it to his advantage.

“Frankie,” Ari murmured and set her hand on my elbow. “Sit down.”

She couldn’t be serious. I stared at her with fire burning in my eyes, and she didn’t even flinch. She patted my seat and firmly ordered, “Sit.”

I slowly slid down into my chair while Troy barked a laugh. “What a good boy you are.”

“Insult him again and I’ll let him shove this contract up your ass.” Ari held up the papers with a glare. “Or I’ll do it myself, though you’d probably like that seeing as how you’ve had a hard-on since I walked in.”

Bones cleared his throat to hide a laugh, and Lotto’s expression relaxed slightly. I didn’t find it funny. I felt like I could beat the shit out of Troy, nurse him back to health, and do it again.

Anything for a good show.

Troy’s lips thinned but he didn’t respond to Ari’s comment. Instead he said, “Even if you lose, ten percent is still a huge cut.” His gaze slid between the four of us. “Between the drinks, the bets, the pay-ins, and the after club, this a hundred K will be pocket change.”

To him. Even if he made half-a-mil, we’d only get fifty K of it. That wasn’t enough to cover Ari’s safety. And no matter what this asshole offered, it would never be enough.

Ari wasn’t stepping in the ring.

“You won’t find a better deal anywhere else.” Troy’s eyes blazed as he stared Ari down. “Take it or leave it.”

I huffed. “Then we’ll?—”

“Take it,” Ari murmured. No matter how much I stared at the side of her head, she didn’t look at me. What the fuck was she thinking?

Ari held up the contract, her blue eyes shimmering with confidence. “You have a deal, Mr. Godwin. I’ll do it.”