20. KO
Fight night felt different this time. Not because of the cameras.
Not because of the money. Not because half of Vegas had my face plastered across billboards.
Not even because this was my big professional boxing debut.
Nah, it felt different because this time, I had a family waiting for me after the fight. I had a reason to be the greatest.
The locker room door swung open, and Dakoda came running through it, holding a crooked-ass sign over his head.
“Daddy!” he yelled, and I laughed immediately. The sign looked like it had lost a fight with a glue stick and a tube of glitter. I stared at the words written in Dakoda’s handwriting.
GO DADDY GO!
Every letter was a different size, and glitter covered half the poster board, but my son had made it for me, so it was perfect.
“There my boy goes.” I pulled him into a hug, and Dakoda grinned.
“You like it?”
“I love it.”
“Don’t encourage him. He got glitter all over the hotel room.” Lyrius shook her head behind him as she made her way over to me. I greeted her with a kiss on the forehead, and Dakoda looked between us, real serious, like he’d just discovered a hidden treasure or some shit.
“My mom is your girlfriend now, right?” he asked, and the entire room went quiet. Jaylen started laughing first, and Pops was right behind him.
“Yeah.” I wrapped an arm around Lyrius’s waist and pulled her closer, and his whole face lit up.
“Cool.”
“Cool?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “I always wanted y’all to be boyfriend and girlfriend anyway.” The room exploded. “Best day ever!”
Lyrius laughed as I checked the time. It was ten minutes to showtime.
“Everybody out.” I stood, and everybody started moving, asking questions. They knew the drill.
“Come on, Grandson.” Pops grabbed Dakoda’s hand, and Dakoda frowned.
“I wanna stay.”
“Nah, lil’ man.” Jaylen opened the door. “Your daddy needs a minute with your mama.”
“They trying to be romantic?” Dakoda asked, and Lyrius and I both fell out laughing as the door shut behind them.
“Your son, man.” I shook my head.
“Our son.” Lyrius climbed onto the training table.
The short dress she’d worn tonight rode up higher on her thighs.
My eyes followed automatically, and I crossed the room and stopped between her knees.
Immediately, her hands found the waistband of my sweats, and I grabbed her hands before she could start some shit we couldn’t come back from.
“Nah.”
“Nah?” She looked confused, and I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her into me.
“Tonight, I just want you close.”
“Maturity?” One eyebrow lifted.
“A little.”
She laughed and rested her forehead against mine.
“You nervous?” she asked softly.
“No.”
“Lie.”
“Okay, maybe a little.” I smiled. “It’s a lot riding on this shit. We not in warehouses anymore.”
“Yeah, you’re in arenas.” She looked me in the eyes. “And you deserve to be here. You’re going to walk out there and do exactly what you been doing your whole life.”
“Fighting?”
“No. Winning.” She smiled, and for a second, I just glanced at her because she was saying all the right shit. “You gonna beat that man’s ass.” She smiled.
“Oh yeah?” A grin pulled at my mouth.
“Yeah.”
“You gonna let me hit it from the back tonight when I do?”
“KO.” Lyrius rolled her eyes at me, but the smile on her face told me she was going to.
“What? I need an incentive.”
“The 3.5 million waiting on you isn’t enough?”
“Nah, I already got millions. I ain’t never got to hang my girl over a Vegas balcony and fuck her with my championship belt on.”
“Boy, bye.” She laughed. “Guess we won’t know until you win.” Before she could say anything else, I pulled her into me and kissed her. Lyrius smiled against my mouth, her arms sliding around my neck as I deepened the kiss.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
A knock rattled the locker room door.
“Five minutes!” Jaylen yelled through it.
“You gotta get ready.” Lyrius laughed softly as we pulled apart.
“Unfortunately.” I stepped back and grabbed my entrance robe from the chair. The black and blue fabric dragged across the floor as I slipped it on.
“Tonight might get crazy.” I adjusted the sleeves of my robe. “The press gonna be everywhere.”
Lyrius nodded. “We’ll be okay.”
“No. I’m serious.” My eyes found hers. “Stay with security.”
“KO.”
“Dakoda, too. Don’t let him run off.” I wasn’t insulting her parenting, just trying to prepare her for the circus outside.
“If the press starts pulling y’all around after the fight, Cherry’s gonna help y’all.
I already had her prepare some answers and shit.
” The second Cherry’s name left my mouth, Lyrius’s facial expression changed.
“What was that look?”
“What look?”
“That one.” I pointed at her face.
“It’s nothing.” She looked away.
“Lyrius.”
“I don’t wanna bother you with this before your fight.”
“Lyrius.” I gave a firm look. “We said no more secrets, right?”
“I know.”
“So tell me what’s up.”
She hesitated. Then, finally, she sighed. “Yesterday at the weigh-in, Cherry came up to me.”
“And?” I immediately frowned.
“She said Victoria would be excited to know I was in Vegas.”
For a second, the name meant absolutely nothing to me, and then it clicked. I remembered Lyrius mentioning Victoria when she told me about her past.
“Victoria?” My expression changed immediately, and Lyrius nodded.
“The girl I used to run with. The one that spared my life.”
“You sure?” My stomach dropped.
“Positive.”
“Those exact words?”
“Yes.”
I stared at her, trying to think fast. Everybody who was there that day I got shot was supposed to be six feet under for the rest of eternity, so I was confused.
“How would she even know Victoria?”
“That’s what I’m saying.” The room suddenly felt smaller.
“KO . . .”
“You think she’s connected?”
Lyrius shook her head. “I don’t know. I just know it felt like a threat.”
Boom. Boom. Boom.
This time, the knock was harder.
“Time to go!” Jaylen yelled through the door, and I looked at Lyrius. I mean, really looked at her. She looked uneasy, like this Victoria girl had her shaken.
“I hear you.” The words came out calm for what I was feeling right now. “We’ll deal with it after the fight,” I said, grabbing both sides of her face.
“KO!” Another knock sounded on the door.
“Stay with security. You and Dakoda.”
“We will.”
“Don’t leave security,” I repeated.
“I won’t.” I kissed her forehead and then her lips one last time. When the door opened, Jaylen was standing there waiting with Cherry beside him.
“Ready?” Jaylen checked, and I nodded.
“Que-lo is ready for your entrance. The crowd is already going crazy out there.” Cherry smiled.
My eyes landed on her. The shit Lyrius had just told me had me ready to snap her damn neck.
I looked back at Lyrius. Stay with security.
I didn’t say it aloud this time. I didn’t have to.
She nodded anyway, like she’d heard my thoughts.
“Aight,” Jaylen said. “Let’s go whup some ass.” I took one last look at Lyrius, then walked out of the locker room.
The crowd was already on their feet by the time Que-lo and I stepped onto the ramp.
The cameras in front of me flashed as my walkout music thundered through the speakers.
My eyes scanned the crowd and the thousands of fans screaming from every direction before landing on the ring.
This was it. Everything I’d worked for had come down to this.
“Let’s go make history,” Que-lo said, bumping my shoulder. I nodded my head as he started rapping.
“KO got next!”
“KO got next!”
“Got the whole crowd yelling, KO got next!”
I cracked my neck and tapped my gloves together. The nerves I’d carried backstage disappeared beneath the adrenaline rushing through my veins.
“Ladies and gentlemen!” The announcer’s voice boomed through the arena as I started down the ramp toward the ring.
“Making his first championship title appearance . . .”—the crowd got louder—“with a professional record of twenty-nine wins and one loss . . .”—I stepped into the lights—“fighting out of Azalea County . . .”—my music got louder, and so did the crowd—“Dakota ‘KO’ Knox!”
Blue flashing lights bounced across the arena as I made my way down the tunnel with Que-lo rapping beside me and Pops and Jaylen on either side of me.
My eyes found Lyrius and Dakoda immediately.
They were exactly where they were supposed to be, in the front row behind my corner with two security guards at their sides.
Dakoda was standing in his seat, waving that shiny ass sign over his head, and Lyrius was laughing, smiling, and screaming my name.
A smile pulled at my mouth. This match was for them, for our future.
I reached the ring a few seconds later and climbed through the ropes.
My opponent, Hollywood Lou, was already across from me, bouncing on his toes and shadowboxing for the cameras.
He was undefeated, the biggest name in boxing, and he was the ticket to it all.
The ref called us to the middle of the ring and started going over the rules.
We touched gloves and then turned and started back toward our corners.
That was when I felt something hit my palm by way of the ref.
I looked down at the folded piece of paper that was small enough to disappear inside my glove.
By the time I opened it and scanned the words written across it, the ref was already halfway across the ring.
Throw it.
I read the words probably a thousand times in a matter of seconds.
My expression never changed. I knew what this meant.
I’d gotten the same note back in my underground boxing days, and every time I’d gotten one, I folded, showed it to Jaylen, showed it to Pops, and tossed that motherfucker in the trash.
I didn’t take orders, and I didn’t lose.