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  “Okay,” Ace said. “So it’s done. Once Mr. Newman squares away what he owes me. We shall begin.”

  I whispered to Simon, “You could just pay him what you owe him and leave. You don’t have to do this.”

  “It’s done.” Simon sharply whispered back. “Now, please help me count out the money so I can pay him and get it back when he loses the bet.”

  It didn’t take long for us to count out twenty stacks of hundred-dollar bills.

  After handing the money to Ace, Simon said, “Let’s do this.”

  “So you will be betting $2.3 million dollars?”

  “Well,” answered Simon, “it’s actually two million and two hundred thousand. I just remembered I used a hundred thousand already.”

  “Very well. The briefcases, please.” Ace held out his hand for the money.

  Simon closed the open cases and handed them to him. “Leblac,” Simon said the moment he and Ace both had hands on the briefcases, “you better be ready to pay up once the fight is over.”

  “Mr. Newman, if-and I do mean if-you win, the one thing you don’t have to worry about is me paying my debts.”

  “I’m not worried, because if you don’t have my money, I will kill you.”

  “I’m sure you will try,” Ace replied as he finally took custody of the money.

  Chapter 26

  After the introduction of the fighters, I got goosebumps wondering how all of this was going to play out. Big Mike and Manuel stood in the ring facing each other like two soldiers on a battlefield. The plan was for Mike to take a dive. If he won and Simon lost all the money, how were we going to get out of there without Simon knowing he’d been set up? After seeing what I had seen earlier, he was not going to go quietly.

  When the bell rang, all eyes were on the cage. Mike came out swinging hard, hitting Manuel with deadly blows. This time, Manuel didn’t go down as fast. This time, he countered with vicious body kicks and punches that connected to Mike’s face with precision. From his seat, Ace started yelling at Big Mike to get his head into the fight. Meanwhile, Simon and Jim Payne cheered on Manuel for his outstanding performance. The other night, Manuel fought like it was his first bout and had the bruised up face to prove it. Tonight, the Peruvian warrior came to life. At the end of the first round, both men were still standing, but Big Mike looked winded.

  Simon noticed this and yelled across to Ace, “Leblac, you better be lucky I couldn’t get my hands on more money, or you would owe me your drawers!”

  Ace shot back, “Don’t be so premature! It’s only the first round! We have two more to go!”

  Ace sat calmly in his hand-knitted, two-thousand-dollar suit and cracked jokes with the people sitting around him, including the greaseball who told Simon about the fight. He looked over at me and winked. I didn’t know exactly what the wink meant, but I’m sure he was trying to tell me something.

  Not sure if Simon had seen him winking, I said to him, “Hey, I think your friend is trying to get your attention.”

  Simon looked over at him and nodded. Ace saw it and started drilling the little fellow.

  “I think you just got him in trouble,” I told Simon.

  Simon simply smiled. “He’ll be fine. I’m going to take care of him as soon as this fight is over. You know, you should pay well for good information. This was as good as it gets.”

  When the next round started, Big Mike must have been told some powerful stuff in his corner. He came out with a right hook that sent Manual staggering into the fence. Big Mike quickly caught up to him and hit Manual with an uppercut that lifted him off his feet.

  As Manual hit the ground, Ace jumped to his feet and screamed, “That’s it! He’s out!”

  However, while Ace was quickly declaring victory, Manual slowly rose to his feet. Ace would have never noticed if it wasn’t for Simon and Jim Payne yelling at the top of their lungs, “That’s it! Get up! Get up!”

  Ace turned from his celebration and yelled to Big Mike, “Michael, finish him!”

  Big Mike was also doing a little victory dance with his back toward his opponent. By the time he turned around, Manual was in the middle of a full roundhouse that was aimed at Big Mike’s head. Because of reflexes alone, Big Mike spun away from the kick and caught Manual in the air with his own spinning back punch that landed on the side of Manual’s jaw, forcing him to begin spinning uncontrollably in mid-air. Once his body hit the ground, he rolled a couple more feet before coming to a complete stop. Blood oozed from his mouth.

  Simon fell to his knees and screamed, “NOOOO!”

  Manual’s corner man ran into the cage to examine his fighter. He took one look at his man and yelled to the crowd, “Doc, come here. I don’t think he’s breathing!”

  Another man dressed in a gray suit ran into the cage with a stethoscope around his neck and quickly checked for a heartbeat.

  “He’s dead!” he said in disbelief, then he looked up at Big Mike. “You killed him!”

  Big Mike looked down at his hands and shook his head. Then he started to mumble, “What have I done? What have I done?”

  Hearing what the doctor said, Simon started to get up and go have a look for himself.

  That’s when all hell broke loose.

  We heard a loud crash. Two men came running in from the back of the room, yelling for everybody to freeze. As we all froze in place, we turned to see who was giving the orders. The first man I knew. It was Special Agent Dott. The other man with him I had never seen before. He was white, with a stocky build and a military buzz cut. He was holding a gun, but he wasn’t holding a badge like Special Agent Dott. What was even more surprising was that Simon called out his name.

  “Tillman?”

  I looked surprised at Simon. “You know him?”

  Simon ignored me. “Tillman?” he asked again. “What are you doing here?”

  Ace took his eyes off of Special Agent Dott’s gun and set his sight on Simon. “You set me up!” Ace shouted, accusing Simon as he pulled a pistol out from the small of his back. “You little rat!”

  Special Agent Dott yelled, “Gun!” and everybody’s survival instincts kicked in. Everyone dove to the floor, except for Ace, Special Agent Dott, and Simon. I watched from a safe position as Ace opened fire, aiming for Simon’s chest. However, Ace’s chest was the one being punctured with bullets. I watched in horror as Ace fell to his knees, gripping his chest. I screamed so loud that Simon had to cover his ears. I think my screaming was the only thing that could have taken Simon’s attention away from Ace’s dying body.

  He bent down to comfort me. “Linda, it’s okay. Linda? Linda?”

  I couldn’t hear a thing. The blast from the guns left my ears ringing. I looked through the folding chairs as I saw Special Agent Dott, who had his gun still aimed at Ace’s body, ordering the other man to get Simon out of the building. The man threw the chairs out of his way as he came our way.

  “Let’s go, Simon!”

  I could only read his lips, but I’m sure that’s what he said. I started to wiggle my ears to help stop the ringing. I wanted to know what was going on around me.

  “Simon!” I cried out, but again, he ignored me. He was busy arguing with the man he called Tillman about the money.

  “Simon,” said Tillman “are you nuts? If you stay here, you will be wrapped up in two murder cases! How are we going to explain that to your father?”

  Simon knew the man was right, so he started to follow Tillman’s lead until he remembered me. “We have to take her with us! She’s innocent in all this. I dragged her here!”

  Tillman took one look at me and said to Simon, “And do what with her? Take her back to Houston? She’s black! Your father would have a heart attack if he saw her walk through the door with you.”

  Again, Simon knew Tillman was right. “Sorry, Linda, but I have to go. You should be fine. Just tell them you don’t know anything.”

  My eyes watered as I begged, “Simon, don’t leave me here! SIMON, DON’T LEAVE ME!”
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  He was already out the door.

  Tillman stopped to talk briefly with Special Agent Dott, asking him, “Can you promise that Mr. Newman’s son’s name will stay out of this?”

  Special Agent Dott assured him as he handed Tillman a set of keys. “I got this covered. You just make sure you tell Mr. Newman that I did my job and I expect the money in my account by morning. Now, take the rental to the airport and get out of here before the local police come. I’m sure somebody called them by now.”

  Tillman nodded, gave his gun to Dott, and followed Simon out the door.

  Chapter 27

  My legs felt like cement as I dragged my tired, worn-out body to my lifeless mentor. The closer I got to him, the more I swore that my eyes were playing tricks on me. I’d never been so close to a deceased person before. I didn’t know the deceased smiled or that their eyes blinked. I thought it was just the trauma sinking in.

  I cried out, “Ace, what the hell went wrong!”

  I wasn’t expecting a reply, but when he said, “Nothing went wrong. Everything went according to plan,” I was scared beyond belief. He scared me so bad that I started crawling backwards trying to get away from the talking corpse.

  Walking up behind me, Special Agent Dott said, “Marco, don’t tell me you didn’t teach her the brush off?”

  Ace sat upright and examined his bloody shirt.

  “You know,” he said, “I really liked this shirt. What was I thinking? Now it’s ruined.”

  I stopped crawling when I realized I wasn’t going crazy. Ace wasn’t dead. Special Agent Dott hadn’t shot him. All of this was part of the con. I looked into the cage where Big Mike and Manual had fought only moments ago. Manual was shaking Big Mike’s hand. The man with slick black hair, who told Simon about the fight, helped me off the floor.

  “I don’t think we've had the pleasure. My name is Josh Pizzo. You did a great job, Linda. Truly one of the best cons I’ve seen in a while. What crew did you run with before Ace’s?”

  I brushed off my knees and slapped my hands up and down against each other as I answered him. “I don’t think you’ve heard of my old crew. We did most of our work out of Chicago.”

  I knew I never worked with any crew before Ace’s, but that wasn’t his business.

  I ran over to Ace and gave him a big hug. “Ace, please tell me the situation with Malik was part of the con.”

  “Why don’t you ask him for yourself? Malik!” he yelled to the back of the gym. “Come out here, son!”

  Malik came from behind the office door holding the briefcases. I released Ace, ran to Malik, and hugged him like I hadn’t seen him in ages. Then I let go of his embrace.

  “You’re an asshole!” I said, slapping him across the face as hard as I could.

  I had been waiting all day to do that, and it felt really good! Then I leaned in and kissed him with so much passion that everyone in the room started to clap. I stopped kissing Malik and started to blush.

  “Okay, everyone,” Ace said. “Let’s break this place down and meet up at the pool hall for your take. Malik and Linda, I need to talk to you two. Please come with me.”

  I looked at Malik and wondered if he knew what was going on. While Big Mike, Jim Payne, Josh Pizzo, and the rest of the crew started disassembling the cage and putting up the folding chairs and the table, I walked in the back office with Malik and Ace.

  Ace immediately gave me a big fatherly hug. Then, he gave Malik a longer hug. After he released Malik, he started crying. He had both hands on Malik’s shoulders as he started to speak.

  “Son, this is it. This was my last con.”

  “What do you mean, Ace? Why now?”

  “It’s my time. You and Linda can handle it from here on out. I just can’t do it anymore. I’m tired.”

  By now, Malik was crying, too. I wanted to go over and hold him to let him know it would be alright, but this was a conversation between father and son.

  “What are you going to do now?” Malik asked through his teary eyes.

  “I have something I need to clear up in Texas, then I’m moving to Paris. I bought a villa over there a couple of years ago. Now it’s time I spend more time enjoying my old age. Come here, Linda.” He waved me over and gave me a shoulder hug. “You take care of my boy, will you?”

  “I will, Ace. I promise I will.”

  “Good. Now that that’s taken care of, let’s get out of here, just in case Simon turns around and tries to make sure I’m dead. Shall we?”

  Malik looked at his phone. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. Sean just text me that Simon and his bodyguard just boarded their private jet.”

  “That’s great. Well, I guess it’s time to celebrate. You two did a beautiful job!”

  *****

  Later that night, we were all at the pool hall. I saw everyone from the Asian gang members to the cab driver that I kicked in the butt. They all smiled and thanked me for the performance I put on. I felt like a movie star.

  Ace informed us that two million was to be split between four of us: Malik, Big Mike, Jim Payne, and myself. The other four hundred thousand was split between all the shills and Special Agent Dott got his ten percent. Ace thanked everyone for their stellar performance. Shortly after that, he put on his hat and wished everyone good luck with their futures. Then, he made a beeline for the exit.

  I looked at Malik and asked, “Don’t you want to say goodbye to him before he leaves?”

  “Nah,” he said. “I’ll see him again.”

  Ace turned before he walked out the door and tilted his hat to Malik, who nodded in return. When Ace walked out of the door, I thought it would be the last time I ever saw him.

  “You know we need to talk,” I said, looking up at Malik again.

  “I know. You ready to go?”

  “Yeah.”

  Instead of going out the front door, Malik took me to the rooftop. Although it was springtime, it was still cool outside. Malik wrapped me in his arms and held me tight.

  “Why didn’t you tell me what was going on? I was worried sick about you.”

  “Ace told me not to. He wanted to see if you could keep your composure no matter what we threw at you, and you did.”

  “I almost didn’t. When I saw that finger, I almost lost it. You know, I could kill you right now for all the shit you put me through. I thought you were going to die! You’re such an asshole.”

  “So, you do love me?”

  “You wish.”

  However, standing in his arms, I knew one day I would.

  Chapter 28

  Ace called Shadow after getting into the back of a stretch white limo that was waiting for him outside the pool hall.

  “Is everything set up?”

  “Yes, Ace. I was just waiting to hear from you. I’m putting you through now.”

  A laptop was sitting on the backseat for Ace. He opened it and found himself looking at his old partner in crime.

  “Good evening, Newman.”

  Newman looked up from his paperwork and glanced around his office, before he realized no one was there.

  “Look at your computer, old man.”

  Newman looked over at his computer. His face turned red.

  “Fontanne, you faggot! You’re supposed to be dead!”

  “Oh, but I am dead, thanks to the hit you put on my head. I will stay that way as long as you don’t come looking for me. You know, Newman, your son has a temper just like you. I’ll tell you something. He can’t stand you just as much as I can’t.”

  “So you call me to gloat?”

  “A little, but my real reason is to let you know I collected the money you owed me.”

  “What, that measly two million? You were always a small thinker, Fontanne. That’s why you could never beat me. So you got two million dollars. I’ll make that back while I’m sleeping tonight.”

  Ace watched as Newman laughed in his face. He waited until Newman got it out of his system before saying, “You know you were never a good
chess player, always thinking just one move ahead. Let me ask you a question. The money you used to deposit into your son’s account, where did that money come from?”

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  Then, Newman understood the question. He also knew something was wrong.

  “Did you really think I would go through all this trouble for two million dollars? I knew you’d figure that one day I would come for my money. Being the smart man that you are, you hide a hundred million in a Swiss bank under your son’s name.”