Page 144 of Justice II

“Put their asses where their tickets say.”

“Already did.”

He had a radio clipped near his shoulder and kept glancing across the room while we spoke. I appreciated that he was paying attention. Tonight was too big for him to spend his shift enjoying the fight.

“I gotta go check out the security guys at the money room. Let me know if you need anything,” he announced.

“Aight, bet,” I replied.

He headed away while I continued toward my brothers.

Me and Prime locked eyes first.

“Look who decided to come to his own event.”

“I had shit to do,” I replied.

“Yeah, I bet you did.” He smirked.

“I was worried you were gonna stay home,” Quest interrupted.

“Nah, man. Where’s the wifeys?” I asked.

“Mehar said she hates MMA. Doesn’t like the violence,” Quest answered.

“She don’t like violence after what she did to Thad,” I laughed.

“Right.” Quest shook his head.

“Yusef has a piano competition tomorrow and Zainab wanted to be rested for that. Plus she’s like six months now. She’s always exhausted. So she is with the kids. But Rita wanted to come,” Prime laughed.

“You should’ve brought her.” I grinned thinking of Rita here watching these men pummel each other.

“She’d enjoy it, but an hour in she’ll be approaching Deacon talkin’ about, ‘You owe me. Pay your tab, Slick Eddie.’ I can’t have her jumping in the cage trying to collect,” Prime chuckled.

“Right. It’ll be that or her tryna take one of the fighters home,” I laughed.

“Rita is wild,” Quest chimed in. “But did you see that lobby? Look at what we’ve done to this place!”

Just as he said that, Creed, Riot and Cannon made their way in. They dapped us and we chatted a bit about business.

“Y’all did your thing,” Riot said, looking around.

“Yeah it’s been a hell of a journey. But y’all have had our backs,” I replied.

I sat down beside Quest, still watching people make their way to their seats. Every few minutes somebody stopped near us to speak. There were athletes, business owners and people who had bought the good seats simply because they wanted to be seen in them.

I didn’t give a fuck why they came as long as they enjoyed themselves and came back.

The undercard fighter finally got his opponent down. Riot leaned forward, talking to the cage like the man could hear him.

“Get your leg out. Damn, get your leg out!”

“He listening to his coach or you?” Cannon asked.

“His coach ain’t coachin’ him right,” Riot barked.

We erupted in laughter because the coach definitely heard his loud ass.