“We won’t profit if you lose, boy.”
“This is my last match regardless of anything else. I won’t be arrested. That’s nonnegotiable. And I want Adam taken care of. I don’t mean how you often do that. I mean, get something on him where he’s the one who gets fucking arrested.”
Seamus chuckled. “Ye think you get to dictate anything?”
I looked at him square in the eyes. “Yes. I do. Because I’m the one in the ring. I’m the one taking all the risk. And I’ll give you my winnings when I knock the guy out in the sixth.”
He studied me intently. “No charity this time?”
I smirked. “That’d be your call, but I’ll put the same amount he offered you on the line. A hundred grand. Those are my walking terms. I’ll make it look like I’m losing. We’ll feed the gossip mill that I’m in bad shape to start. Then I’ll take him down, and you’ll get whatever the over-under on me is, plus the parlay since I’ll put it on the sixth round for knockout.”
“I’ll take care of him,” he said slowly, with a measured tone. “I don’t have to tell ye not to double-cross me.”
My eyebrows lifted. “Have I ever?”
“No. Which is why I’m willing to make this deal.”
My taking Curtis down in the sixth the way I did earned me two hundred and fifty grand on my one-hundred-thousand-dollar bet. All of that went to Seamus. Incidentally, Adam lost two hundred grand on his bet.
“What does that mean?” Braelyn asks cautiously. “That Adam is taken care of.”
Forest comes over with his phone in his hand and plays a video of a wasted Adam, who apparently continued his drinking spree during the fight, getting arrested by the chief of police, who Adam hired to take me down. He’s belligerent and barely understandable, but he’s threatening to sue everyone and their grandmother. Including mine. Good luck with that one.
“He was part of a sting,” Forest tells us with a smirk he’sbarely able to contain. “According to the police chief, they’d been tracking him and his egregious illegal betting for a while.” He looks at me. “Did you know he’d been placing bets on you for years, though he rarely came to your matches?”
“Yes,” I tell him. “I made him a lot of money.”
Braelyn gasps. “I didn’t know!”
“Well, the cops might have had some help tonight, but they have a very lengthy trail of evidence that he was placing large bets and covering his earnings in multiple ways like calling them work bonuses, corporate expense-earnings, or most of the time, simply not declaring them at all. Except he put the funds into his regular accounts.”
I almost choke. If my ribs weren’t literal fire right now, I might. “You mean tax evasion and money laundering on illegal bets?”
Forest is almost gleeful. “Yep. He’ll go to prison for this.”
Braelyn is about to lose her mind. “Can someone please explain this to me?!”
“Not here,” the three of us say in unison.
“It’s all cleared out,” Hayes states. “You two can go without any issue.” He extends his fist to me. “Good fight, brother. Glad you’re finished.”
“Finished?!” Her hands shoot out. “Why does everyone here know everything that’s going on but me?”
Somehow, I get myself to stand. “Come on, kid. Let’s go home.”
She waves a finger back and forth, again, like my grandmother would. “No way, Roman Fritz. You need a hospital.”
Fuck. I should have known she’d do that.
“Don’t test me on this,” she warns dangerously. “You need a chest and facial X-ray, and a renal CT or ultrasound. Plus, a med student to do your facial stitches.”
My lips bounce. “A med student?”
“You don’t even deserve an intern after the night I’ve had at your expense.”
Damn. “Hopefully, you’re into Frankenstein then.” But I can’t argue with her. The woman handed me pictures of me kissing someone and was being stalked by a woman who clearly meant harm. Speaking of that. “Hey, I need a call with you tomorrow,” I say to Forest.
“Sure.”