My Addiction: Second Chances Series (9 page)

Maybe it was for luck. I’m not sure. I couldn’t tell you.

When I first came here, I was scared shitless. After a few times of doing it, I didn’t think about it much. I left who I was at the back door and collected her when I left this place,
if
I left this place. So far, I’d been lucky but as always, luck runs out.

I applied some heavy makeup to my face and my eyes. It’s a requirement that we looked good doing what we do. Our goal is to make the patrons happy. The happier they are, the more money they spend.

Ramone banged on the door, and I rolled my eyes. I grabbed my bag, took off Brad’s t-shirt and walked out. The look on Ramone’s face repulsed me, but, as I said, I wasn’t Ayana anymore. I was someone else.

I gave him the finger.

“Anytime, Baby Doll. Just say the word.”

Yup, that’s what they called me, “Baby Doll.” I guess I looked fragile and wholesome compared to some of the girls. Man, when I said these girls looked rough, I wasn’t exaggerating. They seemed to have lived very hard and very tough lives. This was how they survived, but I didn’t knock their hustle.

Ramone walked ahead of me and spoke to one of the punks that ran shit down here while I looked around. Damn, this place was packed. Men and some half-dressed woman milled around the area and watched a “show,” as they called it, which was already in progress.

I turned to see Ramone standing in front of me, all serious and business like.

I guess it’s show time.

“You ready?”

I nodded and followed him to my spot and we went through the motions of getting ready.

I moved to the floor and stood there while my opponent made her way to the floor. She was huge. I looked back at Ramone to see a huge toothy grin and I shook my head.

I truly hate that son of a bitch
.

I put my mouthpiece in, banged my gloved fists in my hands and watched this girl as she approached me. I told you she was bigger than I was, about 5’11,” solid mean-looking white girl that any other day I would be running the other way from. Today, unfortunately, was not the day. I took a deep breath and thought about Noelle. I needed to do this for her.

Someone rang a bell and the yelling started. I heard my name called and I heard hers… Bruiser.

Yeah, it figures.

I moved my head side to side, cracking my neck as I sized up my opponent. There’s always a weakness visible in almost anyone you fight. The problem was they could probably find yours too. So the object is to figure out theirs first and as I found hers.

I smiled.

              *******

“You were a little slow with that one,” Ramone said in my ear.

I couldn’t respond… my chest was on fire. That amazon hit like a freaking ten-foot man. Not that I knew what that felt like, but I think I did now.

Damn!

He wasn’t wrong. It took everything in me to bring this girl down. I ended up doing a move that brought me on her shoulders with her head between my legs. My legs are one of my greatest strengths, and I made use of them. I choked her until she passed out.

That was before, of course, she landed a few in my chest, stomach, back and ear.

Oh, and I couldn’t hear out of my left ear.

I rose slowly from the bench, ready to call this a night when Ramone was approached by someone I assumed ran things down here; “here” was affectionately known as “The Hollow.”. Illegal fighting and gambling took place in the Hollow, underneath a strip club on Northwest Highway in Dallas. Men and some women went down here to see women grapple it out until someone fell.

Ramone looked at me as the guy talked to him. I watched him closely, hoping I wouldn’t have to fight again. I was tired and sore. I knew I wouldn’t be able to beat anyone in this place right now.

So far, I was undefeated. What’s driving me to do this stupid shit, you ask? Noelle Foster was my motivation, as well as the sure fire will to survive.

Ramone came over to me ecstatic.

“You’re in.” We moved to the exit together as he continued. “We have a fight scheduled for tomorrow night. They’ll email me the place and time. I need you to be ready. This is what we’ve been waiting for.”

I just nodded and we walked out of the building into fresh air. I tried to walk as fast as I could to my car, but Ramone kept following. When we got to my car, he turned to me.

“This is almost over, and we’ll have the players that we need,” he vowed.

I nodded again. “I’m going to go see Noelle and tell her the good news.”

He leaned in closer to me. “Watch your back. If anyone follows you to where she is, that could put her in more danger than she’s in already.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m always careful.”

He grunted. “You sure you don’t want to work for us?”

“Hell no… and when are you going to find one of your agents to keep this undercover thing going? I can’t do this forever. The deal was to get you in. You’re in. You have the reputation you needed and you have a name for yourself.”

“Yeah, and it just so happens so do you. You’re so fucking popular in that room it’s sickening. Yes, you’re the one that got us in
and
you’re the one they want. We promised to replace you and we will. We just need to get in and see what we’re working with. Two or three more fights and that’s it.”

I shook my head and cursed him, life, my mother for instilling in me to help others, and… did I say life?

I got in the car after he told me he’d text me tomorrow on the time and place as soon as he got it, and I drove off. I couldn’t wait to soak the stench and memories of today away.

This whole situation was messed up beyond measure, and I hated to say it, but this time it wasn’t my brother’s fault. It was mine.

For a long time revenge became my drug of choice, my addiction. It fueled me for a while, but now I felt it suffocating me. Close to six months ago, when I was picking up paper products from a restaurant depo for Ice, I happen to stumble on something that I wasn’t supposed to see. I was scared half out of my mind because of what I saw. I knew if I did anything about it, my life would be in jeopardy. I decided to seek wisdom from someone I trusted, and, instead, I got a dose of cowardice and selfishness that I didn’t expect.

“For once in your fucking life, Ayana, listen to me,” my so-called badass brother scolded. “Just don’t say or do anything. It’s possible they didn’t see you; then you’re safe. But the moment you open your mouth to the authorities, your life is forfeited.”

I thought Terrence was full of shit. I mean, seriously people report things all the time anonymously, right
?
Well, I listened at first, but I continued to think about what I had seen and felt sick as if I had done the crime myself. After seeing the unsolved case of the crime I witnessed on the news a few days later, I felt even worse.

Then as fate would have it, I saw it happen again, but with another girl. Okay, I’ll admit fate had nothing to do with this. After I saw the girl get murdered, I continued to drive around that area every day looking for the killer. I wasn’t sure what I would’ve done if I saw the man again, but what I didn’t expect was to see him hurt someone else. What would you do if you were in my shoes? You’re at the same place around the same time and you saw the same thing happen again. Questions go through your mind, fear, anxiety, but then what do you do? Well, let me tell you – I didn’t just walk away.

I watched the girl get beat pretty badly, and then watched, as she was strangled, just like the other girl. When the piece of shit was done with the girl, he left her there to die just as he did before. I waited until he was out of sight and I went to check on her. I thought she might be dead and if she was, I would have just left, but she wasn’t. She was barely holding on, but she was alive. I picked her up, struggling a little, but she weighed nothing at all, and carried her to my car.

I didn’t know what to do at that point. I thought about dropping her off at the hospital. You know, have it be a good citizen type of story, give them the ‘ol “
found her on the side of the road
” bit. But I didn’t. Instead, I called my brother, told him what I had done and that I needed a safe place for her to heal.

After about thirty minutes of him yelling at me, calling me every unpleasant thing he could think of, he told me where to take her.

Easy peasy, right?

Well, what I didn’t know, and found out the hard way, was the girl that I saved happened to “belong to” a very dangerous family in the city. The doctor ratted my brother out after he figured out who the girl was. Apparently, she had some bar code on her neck that represented property of this family, the Santos Family. I knew what this family was capable of, and I knew I couldn’t do this on my own.

The Santos family was from Central America. They weren’t as big as other mob families, but they had some connections. What I found out about them that turned my stomach and sent me on this crusade was the fact that they dealt with women trafficking, mainly young innocent girls. This family would take these girls, sometimes from their homes, but mainly from the streets, string them out, sell them, pimp them and use them for whatever sport they wanted.

The part of the family business I stumbled on was underground fighting. It was a ring of different men in the underground world participating in this fiasco. They would pit half-naked women against each other fighting until someone passes out, tapped out or died. The ones that tapped out or refused to fight were beaten senseless and killed.

That’s what happened to that other girl I witnessed being strangled and what happened to Noelle. Noelle didn’t want to fight, but she was placed in the ring anyway and she tapped out. They had no patience for quitters and women that lost them money, so their punishment was death; however, I saved Noelle from death.

When I told my brother all about the family, he freaked out. Apparently, so did his crew. They forced him into hiding in order to keep him safe. There were a few attempts on his life, drive bys and gang related shootings, which Terrence knew Santos orchestrated. The doctor only knew his street name and no one in my brother’s world knew too much about me; those that did were sworn to secrecy, so I was safe for now.

After my brother bailed on me, I wasn’t sure who I could trust. My first thought went to Lock. I figured he would know what to do, but when I went to him, he went off on me. He told me how his brother was happy, getting married and didn’t need me asking after him. He yelled and screamed so much that I didn’t even get a chance to ask him for help. So I had to think of something else.

I tried my brother again, stressing how I needed him, used all the times I risked everything for him, but he didn’t budge on coming out of hiding. What he did give me was a number to someone he knew and trusted in the FBI’s Organized Crime Division. I didn’t ask any questions, just took the hand that was dealt. When I called the number and told the FBI agent what was going on, he wasn’t too interested in what I found until I told him who was behind everything.

Noelle needed serious medical attention. I couldn’t prolong it any longer, so I made a deal with the Feds. If they came and helped Noelle, my brother and me, then I would help them. Special Agent David Martins ended up flying from Washington on the next thing smoking with Ramone and they took care of Noelle. They took my statement and I took them to where I found both girls. I gave them a description of the man who beat both women and that’s when I learned about the fight club they were running.

Martins, who was a about my height with short brown hair and brown eyes, was the one who came up with the idea that I get into the fight club. Ramone would stick around as my handler or coach, whatever you wanted to call him. I was quick to help Noelle. That’s how I was raised. But thinking about being able to channel this frustration I had in me made me say yes.

I trained for months and lost a ton of weight; I had to in order for me to fit in with the girls. One great thing about Martins is he prepared me for what was to come. He hooked me up with some of the best street style fighters available. A few years back, I started kickboxing, but street fighting was something completely different. First, there are no rules to follow. It’s beat or get beaten. When I fight against these girls, I know I was trained better than any of them and all of them put together. Unless they were huge, like the girl I fought tonight, I annihilated my opponents easily.

Martins’ theory was if I could prove I had skills, I would be put in better fights. Now I guess, after weeks of fighting, I made it. I hope that they could find the players in this ring and shut it down. I wasn’t naïve to think I would stop this ring completely, but maybe I could save some lives even if only for a little while.

*******

Once I got to the area Noelle lived in, I drove around the block a couple of times to make sure no one followed me. Once I was comfortable that no one followed me, I parked three blocks from the warehouse where Noelle was hiding out. I locked my car in a twenty-four hour Laundromat on the corner. I walked inside and started a load of my fighting clothes, towels and some regular shirts. I stood by the window for a minute, then left the Laundromat and started walking. I doubled back a few times, again just to make sure no one followed me before I finally made it to the warehouse.