Roses & Ruin

Chapter 21 (Anthony)

        "GENTLEMEN, NEXT UP WE HAVE THE BOSSMAN ANTHONY RIZZO WITH US HERE FOR A FIGHT. HIS OPPONENT THIAGO IS A JU JITSU CHAMPION AND MIXED MARTIAL ARTIST. PLACE YOUR BETS ON WHO YOU THINK WILL BE LEFT STANDING TONIGHT" the guy I hired to run the show was doing his job and directing the crowd. 

Bringing attention to both them and the fighters so everything moves along.

The circle of bodies surrounding the thick columns of the garage all fell away from me when I stepped forward into the fight ring. Concrete. Smears of blood half heartedly wiped by a street kid who wants a few bills as tip money for helping clean up around here. 

You don't wanna slip on another man's blood during a fight, but it does happen. Depends how depraved a fight you wanna watch.

        "GET HIM RIZZO" I heard the two female voices briefly in the background. "KNOCK EM DEAD CUZ" I heard Enzo's voice now with them. I didn't look. I was getting in the zone. Focused. Alert. That's why the voices pull away, and the voice inside my mind comes into focus.

'You got this, Rizzo. You know his favored techniques.' The voice tells me.

'Don't let him take you to the ground or you won't get up. He's a material artist. You wanna keep him using his fists not his body, Rizzo.' The voice tells me more.

'Think of all the shit you wanna forget and pour it into every hit tonight. Fight to forget, Rizzo'.

         And I do wanna forget some stuff. I wanna forget that Domani De Luca fucked my cousin raw then fucked my ex fling raw while I was still in the picture. I wanna forget that Giana was stupid enough to get herself pregnant, and that she did it with not one, but two De Luca men. 

I wanna forget the drama I've been dealing with all week while she cried in my house and ate all my food. I wanna forget about the looming mob war. I wanna forget the Russian's that'll surely bust my balls as much as they can to get what they want from the Italians. How that responsibility now falls on my plate. 

I wanna forget that I still feel something for Mia. That I felt my gut flip when she talked, laughed, or smiled at me.

I wanna forget that she used me when she was in between some bullshit toxic romance with Dom. I wanna forget that I let her come here tonight when I shouldn't be spending any time with her at all.

I wanna forget how she felt around my cock. I wanna forget what she tastes like. I wanna forget the private moments shared between us. I wanna forget.

        Thiago has thick legs and solid arms. His belly is pudgy and a little fleshy, but he's got the stance of a fighter. The eyes are like coco beans and they're fixed on me. Watching my every movement. He's assessing me as I am assessing him.

Close cropped hair and cauliflower ears. If you don't know what that is, it's a fighter's ear. Look it up. It's kinda gross. His chin is tough and his face is flat by years of being hit in it maybe.

"FIGHT" I heard the announcement. 

Cheers started around the circle of men. Voices yelling all kinds of things. 'Hit 'em!', 'kill em', 'guage his fucking eyes out', 'he's coming on your left. Swing! Swing!'. 'Go Thiago,' 'Go Rizzo'. It's all kinds of stuff and it gets crazier and crazier as the fight gets better and better.

        Thiago and I slowly started circling each other, but neither of us stepped too close so the other couldn't take them down just yet. Thiago knows how to subdue a man. I know how to knock one out. It's more so who gets to do which thing first.