Chapter 9 - DARIUS KANECole found Darius through the last person Roman would have expected.
Darius's younger sister.
Maya arranged the meeting in a twenty-four-hour laundromat several miles from the Strip at four in the morning.
No entourage.
No trainers.
No phones.
Darius walked in wearing a hoodie and baseball cap.
He looked exhausted.
"You've lost your mind," he said.
Cole stood beside a row of spinning dryers.
"Probably."
"If Roman knows I'm here—"
"He'll what? Make you fight me?"
Darius didn't smile.
Cole stopped joking.
"Round Seven."
Darius went pale.
Cole had his answer.
"You knew."
Darius looked away.
"How long?"
"Two weeks."
"What are you supposed to do?"
"Put you down."
"Legitimately?"
"If possible."
"And if not?"
Darius's jaw tightened.
Cole understood.
"You're supposed to keep hitting me until I stay down."
"Don't make me say it."
"Say it."
Darius looked at him.
"If you don't cooperate, I'm supposed to hurt you."
The dryers turned behind them.
Cole thought of Roman sitting somewhere believing two grown men were pieces on his board.
"Why?"
Darius laughed bitterly.
"Because you're the one fighter he couldn't get under contract."
"I thought you were undefeated because you were good."
"I am good."
The pride came immediately.
Then shame followed.
"But not twenty-seven-and-oh good."
Cole said nothing.
Darius continued.
"Three fights were arranged."
"Only three?"
"Only three that I knew about."
"Which?"
Darius named them.
Cole remembered each.
One opponent inexplicably stopped fighting after dominating early.
Another went down from a punch that barely seemed to land.
The third retired on his stool.
"Damn."
Darius looked at him.
"I never wanted it."
"You kept the wins."
"What would you have done?"
Cole didn't answer.
Darius stepped closer.
"My mother was dying. Roman paid two hundred eighty thousand dollars for treatment."
"So now you belong to him."
"That's what I thought too."
Darius's voice dropped.
"Until the bills were paid and he told me interest never stops."
Cole saw himself taking Roman's briefcase.
One desperate decision.
One chain around your neck.
"Why warn me at the weigh-in?"
Darius shrugged.
"Because I watched what happened to the last guy who said no."
"Luis Ortega?"
Darius stared.
"You know that name?"
"Ray told me."
"He didn't retire because of an eye injury."
"What happened?"
"Roman destroyed him financially. Got his contract buried. Threatened his family."
"Where is he?"
"Arizona, last I heard."
Cole stepped closer.
"Did Roman kill Ethan?"
Darius looked genuinely shocked.
"I don't know."
Cole believed him.
For the first time that night, Darius looked less like an opponent and more like another man standing inside a cage he had helped build.
"Take the fall," Darius said.
Cole laughed.
"I'm serious."
"So am I."
"Take the money. Lose in seven. Get your mother somewhere safe."
"And you?"
"I win."
"Another fake victory."
Darius's eyes flashed.
"You think I don't know?"
Cole softened slightly.
"What do you want?"
Darius looked toward the dark windows.
"I want one fight that's mine."
Cole stared at him.
"So do I."
A long silence passed.
Darius finally said, "Then tomorrow one of us has a problem."
Cole held out his hand.
Darius looked at it.
Not friendship.
Not surrender.
An agreement.
Whatever happened in the ring would be real.
Darius shook it.
May you like
Outside, across the street, a camera shutter clicked.
Neither boxer heard it.
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