Falling all in you

Part 2: The interview

Carlos POV:

"Come on, focus. Focus." Jacob's voice, echoed in my ears after he scored a punch on my face. I called him in for a short sparring session to wait for the time Ms. Tanner will come in for my interview. I had two days of rest, so now I was getting my body worked up again. Jake trained me ever since I was little. "Target, Hogan. Target." He threw a left hook, I swayed back and came back with a swift straight to his body. I caught him off balance this time and I finished him with an uppercut, causing him to fall back and onto the floor. We were both out of breath at that point.
"Nice one Hogan." he said laughing while still on the floor.I just raised my hand at him, as I was trying to catch my breath.

That was a good workout. I needed it. Jacob has been my coach since forever and I always keep in mind what he used to tell me. Boxing is a game of chess. You need to think one step ahead of your opponent. The only difference is that there are no turns. You can throw or block as many punches as you are physically capable of, but each punch is harder to throw than the last. He said he learned that from a book he read and one of the many quotes he lives by when it comes to boxing.

"Carlos, it's time. She's here." Danny called out to me and behind him, followed a reddish brown hair woman in black heels, wearing a brown ribbed knot-waist skirt with a white blouse. Almond shaped brown eyes, high cheekbones, full lips. I would say she has a very pleasant face.

"Ms. Tanner, meet ...The Carlos Hogan." Danny introducing us and then signalled Jacob to leave with him.

"Hi Mr. Hogan," she said.

"Please, I prefer to be called by my first or last name, without the word Mr." I said, panting. "What should I call you - - Ms. Tanner?"

"Tanner is fine," her voice wavers.

"Okay, Tanner it is. So ......... what's so special about you that my manager decided to push through with this one on one interview?" I said, taking off my boxing gloves. I had no shirt on so I got out of the ring and grab one from my gym bag outside the ring. She was taking out her recorder now from her bag, eyes still on me though. Or on my tattoos. Okay I was sure she's looking at my tattoos, one from my right shoulder up to my rib side cage and a small one at the bottom of my left hand. I threw on my light blue shirt real quick & leaned against a post of the matching boxing ring. She moved a bit closer to where I was standing that I captured a faint wisp of her scent.

"Where is your father, Carlos?" she asked, holding up her recorder close to me. Wow, she really doesn't waste time huh.

My arms crossed over my chest. "He's out of town, doing business."

"What sort of business ?", she asked.

"My father runs multiple businesses in this country. From a hotel to a multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores, I guess you can tell what kind of business he's doing out of town right now." I sounded a little hoarse there, but I think she needed to know I'm not going to say anything negative about my father.

"I gathered from what you just said, you were and are still in contact with your father, correct?," she asked.

"You're correct. I have nothing against my father."

"Then tell me this, despite the outcome of your father's case, do you think he was a part of the drug operation he was accused of ? Or better yet, playing one of the leading roles for this operation?

I laughed, "oh you're funny Tanner. To actually ask such a thing. They didn't tell me that you were funny." She looked at me seriously and I stopped my laughter. "But no, I never thought he was. Not once." I leaned in close to her recorder. "This case was dismissed ages ago because to my understanding, there was no evidence. You are the only reporter questioning me about this. Shouldn't you be questioning my father instead ?"

"Yes, when I'll get the chance. Or if he lets me," she responded.

"You're lucky I didn't turn you down then?", I murmured, feeling a flush creep across my face.

"Actually it was your manager who allowed this interview, not you." Tipping her chin up, she gazed into my eyes.

The flush creep on my face gone faster than lightning. "Okay but why me? Why now?", I asked.

"Well, alarmingly, the number of people victimized as drug couriers by international drug trafficking syndicates is increasing. And recently, there were 20 men arrested for drug trafficking. All refused to name who is running the whole thing." She uttered in disbelief.

"My father had and has nothing to do with this." I said.

"I'll believe that once I get an interview with him myself." She muttered disapprovingly.

"Well that will not happen anytime soon. I still don't get why you think he's got something to do with this." I said, sliding my hands from my chest down to the raised platform of the ring.

"Okay look at it this way, we know there was no evidence, but he was accused right ?", she asked.

I frowned at her, as if not understanding the question.

"That means someone was the witness and someone came forward to the police then," she said

"So? It doesn't mean anything," I said.

"Doesn't mean anything ?", she asked. Her eyes smoldering hot..... angry? I think I dug up her journalist DNA to strike through. "Let's say, someone murders your father and you know who did it and somehow the murderer cleans up all the evidence before you reported it? Would that change what happened ? No, it just means there's no evidence but what happened, happened, right ? Your father is dead but whoever killed him, got away with what he did."

I started to feel frustrated and didn't want to respond. What she was saying made sense. "It makes sense but it doesn't make it the truth." I whispered.

"I think that's exactly what it meant, there's some truth in what happened. Half truths but still. I think it'll lead me somewhere on this story. Anyways, do you know of anyone that might have done this to your father, you know, ratting him out as they call it ?"

"No. I was a kid then." I scowled.

"I'm talking about now, considering you were still in contact with your father all those years? You must know something or someone?"

"My father had a lot of enemies." I blurted. "Wait, cut that part out please." I gave her an apologetic look. "I just don't know okay ?"

"Do you have any family members here besides your father ?", she asked, looking suitably confident.

"No comment. Also that's private." How dare she asked me that?

She turned off her recorder. "One more question if you don't mind, off the record of course, your parents divorce, don't you think it says a lot about what happened?" I stared at her for a beat, shaking my head.

"I think you just went a little overboard Ms. Tanner."

She nods, gazing down at her recorder as she put it in her bag. "Okay, that's it. Thank you so much for your time." She reached out to shake my hand. The only thing good I gathered from this interview was her scent .... it was kinda nice. But fuck that and fuck Danny. I hate him for bringing in another Megyn Kelly to fuck up my family's life.