Raw Deal(45)

"Before this? So you'd be willing to be with me when I'm not a fighter,  but not if I am. It doesn't make any sense. I can't change what happened  to your brother. I can't change what I am. So you either want to be  with me knowing it all, or you don't."

"It's that life I don't want!" she burst out. "I've seen what Rowan went  through with Tommy. I know what it entails. Even if you win the title,  what then? A rematch. Defenses. It'll just go on and on until you lose,  or you get hurt, and then you're done. I can't take it, Michael, I  really can't. I can't watch it."                       
       
           



       

"Savannah-"

"What if I asked you just to take some more time? Would you do that?"

"This is it. If I back down from this, I'm as good as done. In this business, there is no tomorrow."

She threw her hands up. "Oh, Jesus. Stop quoting Rocky."

"That was Creed."

"I know who it was! I've seen it a thousand times."

"Look, you said when we first met that Tommy wouldn't quit, but that's  what you would want from me? You would want to see me as a quitter?"

"I don't want to see you as someone who has to fight for survival.  Because you're still doing it, you know. It's no different than when you  were a kid."

"It's completely different," he practically hissed, and she drew back  from his sudden vitriol, though it tore at his heart to see her do so.  "Don't ever say that to me. I didn't have a choice back then. I do now."

"And you've made it!" she yelled, shooting to her feet and showing him  that she could fight, too, when she needed to. "To hell with me and what  I want for you, to hell with everyone, you only care about your pride  and fucking glory and a belt around your waist. You don't have anything  to prove to anyone!"

"I have to prove it to myself." The louder she grew, the quieter he  became. "And I have to prove it to Meyers, who knew exactly who he might  be talking to at that press conference in there."

"See? Your pride."

"You want me to fucking back down? To tell Meyers and the world that  he's right, I've been hiding, I'm done, that's it, I'll never come back  from what happened to Tommy? That's not how I'm made, Savannah. It's not  in my blood. If that's what you want from your man, you picked the  wrong motherfucker."

"I want my man to give some consideration to his woman's worst  nightmare, and do his damnedest to not make it a reality for her,  starting by not doing the one thing she asks him not to do."

"Except that one damn thing is everything I'm about."

"No, it's not. I've seen what you're about. It isn't that. It has nothing to do with that."

"Then you haven't gotten to know me at all. You only see the side you want to see."

She straightened, drawing herself up to her already considerable height.  And the slow inhale she took was probably the most dangerous thing he'd  seen her do since he'd known her. "I guess I'm seeing that now," she  said icily. "All right. What are you standing here arguing with me for?  Go home, get started. Good luck and Godspeed and all that. Forget about  my brother, forget about me. Go do you."

"That isn't what I want."

She brushed past him and headed for her living room, only speaking when her back was to him. "Well, you know what I want."





Chapter Twenty-One


The wipers squealed across the windshield, the sound grating on Mike's  already frazzled nerves. New York City was as damp and rainy as New  Orleans had been, but it wasn't so miserably humid. Mike stared blindly  through the tinted backseat window of the SUV taking him over to the  press conference to announce his name being added to the main card at  Mayhem. The street was clogged with yellow cabs, the bleak gray world  interrupted by splashes of color from open umbrellas.

He would rather go twenty rounds with Meyers tap-dancing on his face than sit through this.

"You did the right thing," Brad said at his side, and Mike wondered if  he was trying to convince himself as well as his client. "I think you  need this."

He grunted some form of response and cracked his knuckles, twitchy as  fuck in slacks and a black long-sleeved shirt. If he had to do this, he  preferred to be comfortable and himself in jeans and a T-shirt, but Brad  was all about appearances and respect for the audience. This was about  as dressed up as he was willing to manage.

Though he'd been happy enough to do it for Savannah when they'd gone out to dinner.

Jon turned to look at him from the passenger seat. "How ya feelin'? You don't seem like yourself."

Neither of the guys knew he'd left his heart in Louisiana, that  particular organ that was going to be so crucial to getting him through  the next few weeks. He hadn't spoken to Savannah since he packed his bag  and left her apartment five days ago for the long drive back to  Houston. It had rained almost the entire way.

"Play it cool," Brad was saying. "Frank's gonna take every opportunity  to get under your skin, and something tells me it isn't going to be very  hard for him today. But we don't need to let him see it."                       
       
           



       

"I got this," Mike said, finally looking away from the clusterfuck of  traffic. Frank Meyers had been under his skin for years, and he knew it,  and nothing was going to change about that.

Jon and Brad exchanged a look. Mike tried to pretend he didn't see it.

It was the usual sideshow when they arrived, tables set up on the stage  with his name on a card, sponsorship plastered everywhere on the  backdrop along with a huge image of his face beside his opponent's.  MEYERS VS. LARSON ON PPV. Always a trip to see that. Cheers went up from  the crowd when he entered from the side of the stage, and he stopped to  wave and bask a moment in the adulation as flashbulbs went off. It was  basically his first public appearance since the aftermath of the shit  hitting the fan, and the reception amazed him. He'd expected to be a  pariah of sorts, and the acceptance and welcome from the press hit him  hard for a moment. He patted his chest and pointed out at the crowd,  their whooping and applause swelling louder.

He wished Savannah could be here. But she would probably feel insulted  on her brother's behalf that he was getting any love at all from the AF  fans and press after what happened. He glanced over at Brad and Jon, who  grinned encouragingly. Jon flashed him a thumbs up, then he took his  seat at his table as Meyers came in.

Well, that dude hadn't changed a bit. Big and dog-ass ugly. Mike didn't  look forward to the fucking face-off, that was for sure. He'd rather get  hit by Meyers than see him that close up.

He was sure eager to show that fucking belt off, hoisting it above his  head to way more catcalls and jeers than Mike had received. Yeah, he  took some pleasure in that.

Reid Downing took his place at the podium between the tables and gave an  opening statement, going on about how grateful they were for Mike  stepping in so this fight could go forward, how it was going to be a  great matchup and he was looking forward to seeing it. Then he opened it  up for questions, and it was showtime.

"Mike," the first reporter asked, a stocky fellow with glasses, and Mike  figured he could have asked the question right along with him; it was  what everyone would want to know. It was also the worst fucking thing  they could ask him. "When the match gets here, it will have been around  three months since the death of Tommy Dugas shortly after your fight.  Has that had an effect on you, and if so, do you think you've taken  enough time away to deal with that mentally?"

What the fuck do you think? Mike blew out the breath he was holding  before he picked up the mic lying on his table. "Of course it had an  effect on me, it was the worst thing I've been through in a long time,  and I wasn't planning on coming back anytime soon. But this opportunity  presented itself, and after talking it over with my team, getting their  input and thinking it over, we're here and we're ready." And he put the  mic down. Brad and Aaron, his publicist, had coached him to take the  Forrest Gump "And that's all I have to say about that" approach with  that question. He was worried about coming off too callous, but they  didn't want to expose any weakness that Meyers could exploit.

The same guy had a question for his opponent. "Frank, what are your  thoughts about the switch and does the sudden change of opponent have  any bearing on the way you train or your strategy for the fight?"

Frank put his mic to his lips for what was sure to be a tirade of  bullshit. "Everyone in this room knows that Anderson didn't have a  chance, so whether I was beating his ass or beating Mike Larson's ass,  it makes no matter to me, just another day. I've beat him twice already  so there's no reason to change up strategy, I already know what works.  It's the same as it's always been because he's predictable. I gotta say,  though," he added loudly over the sudden eruption of voices, "it's a  little sweeter this way, I think Dugas deserves some vengeance after  what happened to him and I'm gonna get it for him."