Chapter 1
Many Years Later . . .
“I told you if we held out that they would pay you like you weigh. There was no way that I would let anyone low ball Solomon ‘Warborn’ Leota. Fuck outta here,” Cade said with enthusiasm.
My father, Hemi, and I jumped up from our seats and slapped hands. “Fuck yeah, Son! I told you it was nothing but up from the first time that you stepped foot into that octagon.”
The years had been good to me. I busted my ass throughout my career, and now at twenty-eight years old, I was the middleweight champion.
I was a multi-millionaire by my own right without my family’s money.
The ten-million-dollar endorsement that I just locked in for a popular sports drink company added to those millions.
“You fuckin’ right you did. Cade, man, I don’t know how the fuck I can thank you. You always make sure I get the most. I appreciate that shit.”
Cade had been with me my entire career like he was with my father during his career. Even after my father retired, he still was able to get him endorsement deals. The Leota family had a royalty bloodline when it came to this MMA thing.
Cade smiled with a titter. “Shit, trust me, you thank me every time I get my thirty percent cut. I feel really appreciated.”
As he should. “So, what’s the next steps since the contracts are all signed? I’m ready to get moving on whatever they have lined up,” Sol let Cade now.
“They will be in touch very soon about photo shoots and commercials. Based on the contract, this is the only brand that you need to be seen drinking publicly. Thank God, you actually like it,” Cade said with a boisterous laugh.
“I have a client who doesn’t like the sports drink, so his team fills the bottle with something else. ”
Hemi laughed. “That’s cold-blooded. I guess you got to do what you have to for that check.”
“Yeah. If he would have waited like I told him, the brand he wanted would have given him a deal. He wanted the first big check that was offered to him. There are some people who don’t listen to good advice and expertise,” Cade said before he rolled his eyes.
“That shit is crazy. Well, you know I don’t have a problem listening. That was the first thing my dad and uncles told me. Listen to Cade,” Sol responded.
Cade and Hemi nodded to my acknowledgment.
Cade shifted in his seat before he looked at his computer, then tapped on the mouse.
“Okay, now I’m working on this fight for you.
They’re still not talking about the money that makes my insides tingle.
I let them know that I wouldn’t even take a meeting of consideration if the ticket price wasn’t at least three million.
That’s just a meeting to negotiate more. ”
See, that was what the fuck I was talking about.
This dude who was ranked number five in my weight class jumped out there and said that he could take my title belt with ease.
That shit didn’t make any sense to me. When I was ranked anything lower than number one, I worked my way to the top.
I picked those fuckers off one by one until I was number one.
It was like everyone wanted the quick come up instead of doing the work to get there.
I was taught that slow and steady won the race.
“Yeah, if ‘Crybaby’ Carson wants to be embarrassed in the octagon and waste my time, I’m going to need my money. Oh, and he wants it to be a pay-per-view fight. That tells me that his team isn’t keeping him up on current news. We don’t even fight on there anymore.”
Cade laughed before he stood up. “You’re right. His team is a bunch of amateurs. There was no way I would give the promoters any money for you to fight. When his team said that they would, that told me all that I needed to know.”
We talked a little longer about bullshit before my father and I left. My car was at his house, so that was where we were headed. Ma said that she cooked tacos, and I loved damn tacos.
“I’m so proud of you, Son. You’ve gotten further in your career at twenty-eight than I did my whole career.” My dad’s smile was wide, and his eyes were soft. “That’s what legacy is about. Lifting the ones that come behind you higher.”
It didn’t take us long to get to my parents’ house.
They lived in a different house than the house that they lived in when I moved here.
This one, ironically, was smaller. I loved that my Ma Prue was a simple kind of girl.
She never needed a lot to be happy with life.
They could have had a twenty-bedroom mansion if they wanted to, but she wanted this nice five-bedroom home.
Although it was a modest home, the land that it sat on and the money they paid for the landscaping cost money.
I walked into the house after my dad. The smell of the tacos made my stomach grumble. I was ready to eat something. My parents still shipped in my favorite guacamole from California once a month. “What’s up, family?”
HJ turned around on his seat at the kitchen island. “What’s up, Bro? Did you earn some extra millions to give me?”
At thirteen, HJ was cool as fuck. One thing that I learned over the years when I looked at my uncles, aunties, and cousins was that Polynesian blood was strong as hell.
They were even stronger than my Granny Jamilia’s black blood.
Don’t get me wrong; the melanin seeped through.
The Leotas were many shades of brown. My brother HJ’s skin was the lighter version of brown.
I laughed. “Oh, I need to give you some of the ten million that I just hooked? That’s crazy, lil bro.”
“Oh my God! That is amazing!” Ma Prue ran out of the kitchen and jumped on me. She was my biggest supporter. She literally had gotten into a few fights behind people talking shit about me.
I laughed at her zealousness. “Thanks, Ma. You know ya boy be on it.”
“Yeah, my boy definitely be on it,” my dad added. “Those tacos smell good, baby. It smells like you made some steak ones too.”
Prue walked over to my father, wrapped her arms around his neck, then kissed his lips.
HJ and I groaned at their teenaged level display of affection.
I moved to the pots and started to build my tacos.
I told HJ to come on. By the time we finished, our parents were gone. I cringed at the thought of it.
“I heard you passed your math test, so Dad is going to let you start training,” I said to HJ.
He wanted to train since he was like eight years old.
He had a little bit of a discipline problem, so my father made the agreement that if he consistently stayed out of trouble and had good grades, then he could start training.
HJ finished the food that was in his mouth before he responded. “Yeah, I can. I can’t wait.” When his brow arched, I knew he was about to say some smart ass shit to me. “I’m gonna be better than you one day, Bro.”
I wrapped my arm around his neck from where I sat beside him, then put him into a headlock. “Is that so! You’re gonna be better than Warborn. Ain’t shit wrong with that.”
We wrestled for a second with laughter before we went back to eating. I could only hope that he would be better than me some day. That would be the ultimate goal of everyone who had a hand in his training, including me. Afterall, legacy was is about lifting the ones that come behind you higher.
Why Are You Here, Girl . . .
I stayed at my parents’ house for about two hours before I headed to my house.
My house was only fifteen minutes away from my parents.
I built in the same neighborhood as them.
I took a note from my ma and stayed modest with my home.
I was a single man, so I didn’t need a bunch of rooms. A four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom house was just enough space for me.
When I did find the woman that I would be with forever, it would be up to her whether she wanted something bigger.
I stopped at my door after I walked into my house. The sound of ratchet television annoyed the fuck out of me. Why the hell is this girl here?
I went to my kitchen first to get a bottle of water before I headed into my den. I stopped, rolled my eyes at how comfortable her ass was on my couch, then plopped down on the couch. “Why the hell are you here and not at your place, Michelle?”
My stepsister looked at me with tight eyes. “Um, because your house is better than my condo. Why do we always have to go through this, Sol? You ask me the same question, and I give you the same answer. Let’s not do this. Now watch this. She just found out that Kellie is fuckin’ her baby daddy.”
“I’m going to change the code to my damn door. Where the hell are Cadence and Tsia? You’re here more than me, girl,” I fussed. Her being here didn’t really bother me.
Over the years, we’d gotten really close.
Unfortunately, when she was twenty-four years old, she experienced the pain that I felt by the loss of a parent.
Her mother, Corrine, succumbed to injuries from a car accident she was in when she was in another state on one of her travel nursing assignments.
It was a hard time for everyone. When people heard the story of how Corrine became a part of our tribe, it baffled them.
How did a woman handle their husband adopting their own damn child?
“Don’t piss me off, Solomon. They are both in their damn skin. You say you’re going to change the code every damn time, and you never do. That song is getting tired,” she said with annoyance laced in her tone.
If Michelle was here, then that meant that Cadence more than likely was out of town on an assignment, and Tsia was busy or at work.
Corrine inspired Cadence to become a travel nurse.
Tsia was a dental hygienist at her mother’s dental practice.
Analise went from being a dental hygienist at my Auntie Flem’s orthodontic practice to becoming a dentist and having her own practice.
I rolled my eyes, then grabbed a handful of popcorn out of her bowl. “Oh, shit! She punched the fuck out of that bitch.”
I hated that it was so easy to get sucked into ratchet television. It was so outlandish that you couldn’t help yourself. It was the only place where violence was semi accepted. You couldn’t make me believe that they didn’t sign contracts that told them they had to fight.
I wasn’t sure how long we were engulfed in the show before I heard my alarm system beep to alert me that a code was put into my front door. Each person had a different code, and the system made a different beeping sound for the different codes.
“A damn shame. You talk shit about ratchet television, but here you are watching it,” Jessop said from behind me with a titter. “I don’t know if I should be disappointed or impressed.”
I told him to shut the hell up. I met Jessop after my third professional fight.
He had just moved to Charlotte and started to workout at Leota Fitness & Fight.
He asked if I wanted to spar, and it was up from there.
We’d been locked in since. He was ranked number three in the light heavyweight division.
My boy would have a title belt soon if he continued to work as hard as he was.
He sat in the single armed chair. “What’s up, Michelle? I’m so surprised to see you here.”
The sarcasm that dripped from his voice caused me to snicker. My sister’s middle finger in the air caused me to laugh.
“I don’t know why y’all insist on fucking with me. All I’m doing is minding my damn business, and here y’all come.” Michelle’s eyes bounced between me and Jessop. “Can’t we all just get along, you two buff bitches?”
We both burst into laughter. She loved to call someone a buff bitch. Before we could say anything, the alarm went off again. Seconds later, my cousin Issac walked in. “What up, y’all?”
“Oh, great! The third buff bitch has arrived. The three buffkateers are in full effect,” Michelle jested. She was a lot often, but I loved my sister. Everyone knew she meant no harm.
Issac went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water out of my water fridge before he came into the living room. He sat on the floor. It was crazy that no matter where he was, he sat on the floor. “Michelle, shut the hell up. Cadence must be out of town and Tsia at work or something.”
Issac went a different direction with his career.
He trained with me but chose not to go into the mixed martial arts career.
He was a teacher at heart. The family was impressed when he decided to become a wrestling coach.
In the five years since he’d been the coach, they won the national championship three times.
Multiple students of his had gone on to get college scholarships for their wrestling skill.
He even had some training in MMA and continued on in the amateur league, with hope to go big one day.
We sat around and got completely caught up in the ratchet television that Michelle got us into. Michelle got up and cooked dinner for us. If there was one thing that she could do, it was cook. That was on par since she was a professional chef and caterer.
“Aye, Michelle, good look on referring ole girl to groom Frack. She’s coming through tomorrow. I hate taking him to the groomer. It’s so much easier to have someone come to me. Plus, it’s an additive that she’s black,” Jessop said.
Michelle gazed up from the pot in front of her. “Oh, no problem. I was in a bookstore café that I go to all the time, and she’s the owner’s best friend. She’s such a sweet girl.”
“Aye, y’all, get this. Her name is Gorjess,” Jessop pointed out. “Like that is for real her name. That’s what her parents named her.”
Issac and I laughed. “Well, shit, is she gorgeous, though? That’s the real question.”
He shrugged. “I don’t even know. Y’all come through tomorrow. I’ll throw some meat on the grill. The appointment is at two.”
“Y’all, don’t fuck with that damn girl. She is there to do a job and mind her dog grooming business. Leave that girl alone,” Michelle fussed.
I waved her off. She was so damn worrisome. “No one is about to mess with that damn girl.”