Chapter 10
I left Brielle’s spot around noon feeling better than I had in a long time and I wasn’t gonna sit here and try to fake like I wasn’t. A nigga had been on cloud nine the last two days for real.
We hadn’t put a name on anything. We hadn’t had that conversation and I wasn’t pushing for it because pushing Bri had never once gotten me anywhere.
We both understood what it was, and it didn’t have to be explained.
What I knew was that for the last two days I had been sleeping in her bed and waking up next to her.
It felt like something I could get used to even though I knew it was probably the most dangerous thing I could do to myself right now.
Before I left I gave her five hundred dollars and told her to go do something for herself today.
She tried to give it back and I didn’t let her.
I knew how women liked them spa days, getting their nails and feet done and shit.
She looked at me for a second with an expression that was somewhere between appreciating it and wanting to say something about it.
That was Bri learning how to be in my world without fighting every part of it and I respected that even if I knew it wasn’t gonna last forever.
She didn’t know any details about the fight tonight.
She knew Gutta had offered it to me, but I hadn’t told her the details of this one and I wasn’t going to.
That part of my life I needed to keep away from her for as long as I could.
Not because I was hiding something but because watching her watch me in that cage the night of the Champ fight had done something to me that I didn’t need happening again before every fight I took. I needed my head clear tonight.
I went home, showered, ate, got my hands wrapped and my mind right. Being with Bri was giving me a feeling that I could do anything right now. I wasn’t nervous or nothing about this fight. I already knew I was about to win. That wasn’t a question.
—
Gutta pulled up at eight.
We rode in my car and Gutta talked the whole way there about Simone which I let him do because it kept the energy in the car loose and I needed that going into a fight.
I honestly feel like Gutta whole problem is rejection.
Simone hasn’t given in like the other girls and that’s what makes this nigga want her more.
He ain’t never talked about a female do damn much in his life. This is some different shit.
“I want Simone so damn bad that I haven’t even thought about that good pussy having ass old bitch not even once. Well, I think about her but I don’t want nobody but Simone.”
“Wait, what nigga? Never mind,” I was about to ask him about an old bitch but decided against it. His ass was on some other shit. But I couldn’t help but laugh.
Every fighter had their pre fight ritual and mine was quiet confidence but Gutta’s energy had always been the right kind of noise for me. Never too much, never distracting, just present. Exactly what I needed right now.
“So you really feeling her, is what I’m gathering.” I said when he took a breath.
“I been feeling her. She’s the one that’s been taking her time.”
“Because she’s smart.”
“Because she’s stubborn. That’s the difference.” He looked over at me. “How you feeling about tonight.”
“Good.”
“For real though. You still sore from Champ?”
“Ribs a little. Nothing that’s gonna matter once that bell rings.”
He nodded and looked back at the road.
“Tino ain’t Champ. Not even close. This nigga got more losses than wins on his record and the wins he do have are against people nobody has heard of.
Only reason this fight is paying twenty five is because the promoter knows your name after what you did to Champ and he’s trying to build a card around you. ”
“I know, and I’m gone take it cause that money sounds lovely.”
“So go in there and end it fast. Don’t play with him, don’t let him hang around thinking he got a chance. First round you feel him out, second round you put him down and we go home.”
“That’s the plan.”
He dapped me up and we pulled into the spot.
—
The venue was a warehouse on the south side, different from the basement where I fought Champ but the same energy.
Underground, packed, money moving everywhere, the kind of crowd that showed up specifically because what was happening and that my name was on the card for tonight.
Knowing that this shit was supposed to be discreet, that made it more exciting to them.
I had been in enough of these to move through them without getting caught up in the atmosphere.
Gutta had me in the corner going through the warmup and I could already see Tino across the space.
Shorter than me, stocky, moving around with a confidence that his record didn’t back up.
I had seen his type before. Men who had lost enough times that they started fighting desperate instead of smart.
One thing that I knew was that desperate men were dangerous but they were also beatable because desperation made you predictable.
The fight went exactly the way Gutta said it would.
First round I let him come forward and figured out his rhythm.
He was a pressure fighter, liked to get inside and work the body.
He thought his stocky build gave him an advantage in close range.
It didn’t. I ate two of his shots to confirm what his power felt like and then I started timing him.
Every time he rushed in I made him pay. I was giving him hard body shots that damn near folded him.
Second round I stopped being patient.
I caught him with a right hand forty seconds in that sat him down and when he tried to get up I was already there.
After that, the follow up put him back down and this time he stayed down.
Referee waved it off and the room went up.
The crowd going crazy for me felt good as hell.
I walked to my corner and let Gutta slap my back and say what he needed to say.
This shit was easy money. The way my cousin spoke to me and let me know he was proud, that shit was worth every hit I’d taken. We had our lil minute, then we moved.
Twenty five thousand dollars for less than two full rounds of work.
We got our money from the promoter on the way out and I felt good walking to my car. Not the same satisfaction like I had after the Champ fight but the clean feeling of a job handled. Tino was a paycheck and I had cashed him.
I got to my car, pulled my keys out and that’s when the lights hit. We had just sat down in my car not even a minute ago.
Blue and red strobing off the buildings around us.
The reaction from the crowd still outside was immediate, people started scattering in every direction.
They were running for cars, cutting through the lot, getting ghost because when you are from the hood, that’s what everyone does when law enforcement showed up.
Gutta was already on the passenger side and I saw his whole body tighten up.
“Just be cool,” I said low.
“I’m cool.” His jaw was tight in a way that said the opposite.
Two officers walked up to my car. One on the driver side, one on the passenger. I kept my hands visible on the wheel.
“Evening,” the driver side officer said.
“What were you guys doing out here tonight.”
“Just chilling,” I said. “Came to see some people.”
He looked at me for a second and then looked past me at Gutta and back at me. He didn’t say what he already knew and I didn’t confirm it either. We both understood exactly what had been happening in that warehouse tonight.
“License and registration.”
I reached into the glove box slow with one hand and got the registration, I handed it over with my license.
He took it and walked back to his car without explaining what the stop was about.
I sat there and waited while Gutta was quiet.
That shit was worse than Gutta talking because Gutta going quiet meant he was working very hard to keep his cool inside.
“Say nothing. Everything clean, we gone be outta here shortly. They just fuckin with folks cause they know a fight just went down.” I told him.
“I ain’t said nothing.”
“Keep it that way. I know you, nigga.”
The officer came back and handed me my information and then looked at me straight.
“Step out of the vehicle please.”
“Can I ask what this is about?”
“Step out of the vehicle.” he said, using his authority to be an asshole. I hated police ass niggas like his ass.
I got out slow with my hands visible, Gutta got out on his side and immediately started.
“Why is he stepping out? What’s the reason for the stop? Y’all can’t just—”
“Sir I need you to calm down. If you don’t want to join your partner.”
“I am calm. I’m asking a legal question. What is the reason—”
“Gutta.” I said his name flat and he stopped but his whole body was tight. The vein in his neck was visible and I knew he was about two exchanges away from making this situation way worse.
The officer on my side called for backup on his radio and I stood there by my car. I kept my face neutral and my hands where they could see them and waited.
Two more units pulled up within three minutes.
And then the first officer came back and stood in front of me.
“Xavier Hendrix Jr.?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m placing you under arrest on an outstanding warrant for Aggravated Assault causing Bodily Injury.
” He moved behind me and I felt the cuffs go on my wrists.
He started reading me my rights and I listened to every word and didn’t fight it.
I didn’t say anything because Legal had told me years ago that the moment those cuffs went on the only words that should come out of my mouth were that I want my attorney.
Gutta lost it.
“For WHAT? He ain’t do shit! Y’all always on some harassment shit, always got to use yall power to try to railroad a —”
“Sir if you don’t calm down you will also be placed under arrest.”
“THEN ARREST ME! This is BULLSHIT—”