Screwed

Chapters 1-3

Prologue

"Are we certain Garcia is going to lose this upcoming fight?" Arthur the head of the local Irish mob and big time real estate tycoon asked his right hand man Liam with a look of confident expectation.

Liam feigning offense that he would even ask such a question responded by asking his own. "When have I ever let you down? Especially in matters this delicate?"

Arthur responded with a loud harrumph. "C is anything but delicate,  though if we are ever sussed out, we are going to get it in the delicates."

With a knowing smile Liam said. "We wouldn't want that sir."

Chapter 1

"Who is going to win this one folks?" The announcer asked the fight fans over the microphone.

Left jab, right cross and switch step to the outside, setting up a left roundhouse kick to the head. The fighter pendulum's out behind the opponent. Then fires a heavy overhand right, and a ripping left hook to the jaw. The opponent stumbles. A beat later falls. The referee jumps in yelling "Stop!"

The victorious fighter walks to their corner with a slow, easy grace. No victory lap, no jovial banter. They had fully expected to win the fight fast. They had trained hard for this. Just as the victorious fighter reaches the corner, the inside of the octagon erupts into pure chaos. A rush of the doctors, coaches, and members of the other team trying to get through the tiny fenced entrance.

"Two minutes and thirty-six seconds." The fighter says to their head corner man Thomas Murphy aka Tommy. Tommy can plainly see his fighter is unhappy to say the least under the ultra calm veneer. He also knows this is a sore subject, one they had fought over quite a bit so he decides to err on the side of caution and say nothing and only hand over a bottle of water and then proceed to cut off the glove tape to free up his fighter's hands. After a moment of introspection the person attached to the newly freed hands says "Martin and I need to talk."

Tommy's brain begins to hurt and he starts to inwardly scream "FUCK!" in his head a hundred times. Martin is a big time fight promoter with deep pockets and had been fucking around with his fighter's chance at a title shot for a while now. Tommy knew why, it was because they drew in the crowds and Martin liked money. He decided not to share this bit of info knowing full well it would only make things worse and instead opts for a guilt trip. "Can you at least wait for the check to clear? For me? We go back a long way and I really need this payday. Besides, you have the press conference and after party you promised to attend?" Tommy waits somewhat nervous and after what seemed like an eternity he gets a slight head nod for his answer. He lets out a heavy breath. Shit, he hadn't even realized he was holding it.

The fallen fighter has finally come around and is up and about. Everybody begins to file out of the cage. Tommy takes his cue and heads out too. Both fighters are asked to come to the center with the referee to announce the winner.

The announcer comes on over the loudspeaker. "This fight lasted 2 minutes and 36 seconds and was finished by way of TKO by still undefeated champion Ciara O'Connell." The referee raises Ciara's hand and the crowd cheers.

Chapter 2

Back in the dressing room while Ciara is taking a shower Tommy starts packing up their things. They still have some time to kill before the press conference so Tommy is hoping to convince C to go for something fancy like Italian, or ohh maybe a steakhouse. Even though he is almost 100 percent sure she will want to go to a diner. Fucking gross. Tommy thinks and shudders at the thought. She absolutely loves crappy, shit-hole diners. She has never told him why but that isn't news. She doesn't tell him a whole hellva lot.