You two are a thing? Didn’t see that one coming.” Then he grinned. “Nah, I’m fuckin’ with ya. Saw this coming a mile away!” He threw his head back and laughed.
Donna finally dropped her arms. I put some distance between us but kept one arm propped on the wall next to her head.
“Stop messing around.” Now Donna had gone serious. “What are you doing here?”
“I gotta talk to your man about a dog,” he said.
“You can talk in front of Donna. She—”
“No, it’s OK.” She looked over my shoulder; people were coming out of the gym. “I should go anyway. Call me later.”
She gave me a quick peck on the lips and pushed off the wall.
Shady leaned forward and puckered his lips, raising his eyebrows expectantly, but she just flipped him off and sauntered away. I smirked as we both watched her disappear around the corner.
Once she was gone and the people from the gym were in their cars, Shady turned a dead serious expression on me. “What the fuck you doin’, man? We both know you have no interest in those fights.”
“I told you. I have a score to settle. I’ll only come if your people can guarantee Will Frydenberg will be in the ring with me.”
“Not my people.” He crossed his arms and tipped his head back, watching me for a few moments.
I stared him down, not faltering.
“OK.” He gave a disappointed shake of his head, as if he wanted to say more, and turned to leave.
“Shady.” He stopped. “Do you go to the fights?”
“Sometimes.”
I glanced around the darkening parking lot one more time. He’d looked out for me in his own way, and he’d made it clear he wasn’t on board with this fight club bullshit. “If you happen to have other plans for this particular fight . . . that might not be a bad thing.”
I raised my eyebrows, hoping he got my gist.
But guys like Shady operated in gray areas, were fluent in ambiguity. He cocked his head to the side, then slowly nodded. “All right.”
Without another word, he walked away.
The next day, around lunchtime, I got a text message from an unknown number. It contained an address, the word tonight, and nothing more.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Hendrix
The address was for an abandoned factory in an industrial district about an hour out of town. It was massive, and the adjoining properties were far enough away that no one would hear any noise coming from the squat but sprawling building I’d just pulled up to.
I’d asked Donna to check if Drew had gotten the same message, not daring to piss off the younger Mead sister by contacting him myself. Donna and I had been texting each other freely—it fit with what the Frydenbergs suspected of our relationship anyway—but we dared not discuss the fight or our plan. Donna’s text to Drew had been masked as her asking him for the address because I was being stubborn and wouldn’t tell her. He was home sick that day, but Donna confirmed he’d received the text too.
As soon as I got word to the others, Harlow sent all the evidence from Joseph’s computer in anonymously—directly to a cop Donna knew from the legal center where she used to volunteer, knew wasn’t dirty. Harlow had been corresponding with him, though she’d refused to come in and make a statement, and had told him to be ready near the factory that evening.
I got out of the car and walked slowly toward the building. Half the windows were smashed, and weeds grew between the cracks in the concrete. Not a single light was on, either outside or shining from within, but even without light, it was clear there were no other cars parked near me and no other people hanging around. Maybe everyone was already inside. Maybe they were instructed to park at the back.
Still, as I neared the building and looked for a way in, my steps slowed. It was too quiet. Was it possible the fight was set up in some underground area, away from prying eyes and ears? I wasn’t sure, but something didn’t feel right.
“Right on time, my man!” Shady emerged from the shadows near a side door set deep into the wall. He was in one of his tracksuits, the cocky grin firmly in place.
“Hey, dude.” I slapped his hand and thumped his back, looking around. No one—not a single other person—was in sight. “I thought you had other plans.”
He shrugged. “They fell through. Couldn’t miss your debut in the