“All set.”
“Go warm up the seat. I’ll be right down.”
He put up his hands, but he went. When he was out the door, I threw on my jacket and zipped up. I checked the pockets, but it was all there: the ID, the knuckles, the keys, my phone, and my black lipstick.
The door downstairs slammed shut and I saw him step out and hang near the building. I stepped back and punched up the number from the TV bulletin that came on right after they showed the bodies.
The phone rang twice, then picked up.
“Federal Bur—”
“I can deliver Luis Valle to you,” I said. The voice on the other end stopped for a second, and the line clicked but didn’t go dead.
“Do you still want him or not?” I asked.
“Hold on just one moment, please,” the guy said. The line went quiet.
Through the window, I saw Luis put his hands in his pockets and pace, shoulders hunched.
The line picked back up.
“This is Agent Wachalowski,” a new guy said. “You have information regarding Luis Valle?”
“I can give him to you.”
“Give him to me how?”
“There’s a reward for this, right?”
“Is he alive?”
“He’s alive.”
“Where is he now?”
“I’m not saying where he is right now, but I can tell you where he’s going to be. Am I getting paid for this?”
“Yes. Where is he going to be?”
“You know where the Arena Porco Rojo is?”
“I’ll find it.”
“That’s where he’ll be.”
“Where in the arena?”
“In the audience. I don’t know.”
“When?”
“In a half hour.”
“I’m on my way.”
“Wait, don’t you need my name?”
“I have your information, Ms. Flax,” he said. “Keep your phone on. I’ll find you.”
The line cut.
I headed out and locked the door. It was best anyway. Luis was in deep shit whether he knew it or not, and the Feds might pinch him, but at least they’d let him live. He’d live to fight another day, and that was the best he’d get at this point. Fuck him. He got himself into this mess. He put me in it too. Fuck him.
When we got to the fights, he called his cab, then sat in the bleachers to wait. With luck, he’d get grabbed before I even got in the ring.
By the time I put my gear on and got back out there, I’d lost track of him. In the octagon, Eddie waited in my corner while the other bitch tried to stare me down.
“You seen her before?” Eddie asked.
“No.”
The canvas had blood on it, but she just sat like she didn’t see it or didn’t care. She was skinny and tall, with skin black as night.
“She wants you,” he said. “Because of the last fight. Watch out for her.”
When I climbed up, there were cheers, but more boos. A lot of them hoped I’d get stomped after last time. I’d knocked that bitch off the roster for the rest of the season.
“You ready?” Eddie asked. I rolled my shoulders.
“Yeah, I’m ready.”
The bitch looked up then. She looked like she could stick a knife in my neck and twist it.
“In the left corner,” the judge barked into the amp, “weighing in at one hundred forty-two pounds, a new-comer to the arena …”
The crowd started stomping the bleachers and I wondered where Luis was.
“…here to replace the injured Brick- House Bonnie Bast …”
That kicked things up. The canvas shook with all the stomps and screams. They were geared to rush the fence already.
“Skinny …Minnie …Botma!”
“And in the right corner,” the judge said, “weighing in at one hundred fifty-one pounds, undefeated this season in her class …”
More boos. More stomping. I stuck up both middle fingers.
“The Bitch from Bullrich …Calliope Flax!”
We met in the middle of the ring, and the more she stared me down, the more I could not wait to force those big teeth of hers straight down her bitch throat.
“Shake hands,” the ref said, and we did.
“Guard up!”
We put them up, and waited for the buzzer.
The second it went off, she threw a hard punch at my throat and almost caught me. If I was a hair slower, she’d have put me out. As it stood, she just clipped my neck on the left side. She was quick too, and blocked me when I whipped an elbow at her face. For two beats, we both backed off.
She had a long reach, so I came in like I meant to throw a punch but threw a heel right at her ear at the last second, and I almost had her. It would have dropped her too, but that bitch was quick. She went down flat and scooped my other leg out from under me with an ankle sweep.
My back slammed down on the canvas, and as soon as I looked up, I saw her big black foot coming down on me. I rolled, and it stomped down right where my head had been with a loud boom.
“Point!”
I got up quick, but she didn’t try to pounce when I was down. She didn’t want it to go on the ground, so first chance that’s where I’d take it.
To do that, I had to get in close, past that reach. I lunged in at her, throwing a flurry of punches and getting my knee up in her gut. She got some in too, but by then we were face-to-face. She tried to pull back and I grabbed on, trying to get hold of a leg while pushing her back. I thought she was off balance, and steered her away from the fence….
Right then, a face jumped out at me from the crowd. Luis was there, cheering and waving his fists. A row back, a big guy in a dark coat was going for him.
I saw the fist just before it connected, dead on my right cheek. Sweat and blood sprayed in a burst of white light, and all at once I was falling.
“Ten points!” the judge screamed. “Minnie Botma! Ten points!”
The lights spun in front of me. I was going down.
“Calliope Flax is down!”
I hit the canvas on my back as that big foot came down again.
“Flax is d—”
There was no time to think. I rolled back and got the balls of my feet on the ground as her heel left a dent in front of me.
I sprung from a squat and blasted my elbow out like a jackhammer. It dug deep in her solar plexus and she choked. She had one arm out and I grabbed it, clamping down on her wrist. Blood poured out of my nose. I was in a rage, and she was going to get it.
