Page 8 of Dirty Big Sins

With every new word from Nina, I could feel the headache coming on stronger. If she was about to drop another bomb on me, I wasn’t ready. Not even close.

“Whatever it is maybe I don’t need to know. I think I’ve had more than enough scandal for one day. I deserve a break.”

As if I hadn’t said another word, Nina turned her tablet around and slid it across the counter in my direction.

“That’s just it,” she said as a crafty smile crossed her face. “For you, there is no scandal. No one knows it’s you. I mean there’s a lot of speculation, but so far, they aren’t even close. No one knows who the now infamous mystery goddaughter to Romeo Rossi is.”

Chapter Four

VINCENT

I pacedacross the ring as my latest training opponent backed up. My decision to come to the gym to work out my anger had proven both fruitful and dangerous as hell.

“Have you had enough yet?” Bennie called out. “You’ve already put two of them down. Is it really necessary to hurt a third?” He stepped into the ring and came towards me. “Wish we could bottle this shit up and save it for fight day. Maybe then there would be nothing to worry about.”

Anger pulsed through my blood. I was sick to death of those around me having so many doubts about my ability to win this fight. I pulled the guard from my mouth and rounded on Bennie.

“I’ve about had it with you too, old man. If you don’t have any faith left in me, then it’s time for a new trainer.”

The old man threw back his head and laughed. “As if. You think a better one exists out there than me? Or that anyone with half a brain wants to take you on now?”

I growled at him. “Right now I’m not sure I care. This bullshit with the media is bringing out the worst in everyone. You and Brian have no faith in my ability to win this fight, and worse, Brian is missing while the FBI has questions for him and probably me too, now that my parentage has been revealed. With everything circling the fucking drain, this fight is more important than ever. And right now I need to take this out on someone.”

“You should have gotten rid of that asshole years ago. I never trusted him. He didn’t care about the sport. Only the money.”

“That was his job. I don’t need him to care about the fighting. Although lately, I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve made him a lot of money over the years. But if he’s gotten us involved in something illegal without my knowledge… It might be him I have to take down in addition to Callum ‘the Berserker’ Murphy.”

Bennie grabbed my right glove and began removing it. “I think you need to call it a day. You haven’t given me all the details, but I’ve got eyes and can read. Isn’t there a woman you need to talk to?”

I scoffed at that. “You’re getting quite nosy in your old age. Since when do you pay attention to anything the rags have to say?”

“I’m not that old, you disrespectful little shit. Plus, it’s impossible to run any kind of business these days without social media. You sure seem to understand that if the way you preen and prance around on there says anything.”

I erupted with laughter before I could stop it. I swear to Christ, I couldn’t believe what just came out of his mouth. Now I was concerned that hell had indeed just frozen over and the world might be coming to an end.

“I don’t know how you do it, Bennie, but you just shocked the hell out of me.”

The old man grunted. “Good. Someone needs to. If you care at all about that woman in the picture, and you’d better to put her through something like that, then she needs to be a priority as much as this fight. Whoever she is she deserves it.”

“What do you meanwhoever? I thought the news of who she was and the torrid details of our first encounter were splashed across every news outlet.”

The old man shook his head. “Time to get your head out of your ass boy and do your research. The point is they don’t know who she is and it seems to be the million-dollar question that everyone is trying to answer. Although if she is truly connected to that crime family like everyone suggests, I assume it’s only a matter of time before she is identified. Which means if you care about her at all, you need to get her locked down before then.”

His wisdom about my situation took me aback. For a man who seemed to know little about my personal life, he’d managed to get fucking deep pretty damn quick.

“We’re both too high profile with her having a lot more to lose. It’s going to be a fucking circus.”

My trainer laughed. “It already is. The berserker jackass is already spinning this fight so that he’s the up-and-coming hero and you are the villain. And we both know as the fight date approaches that’s only going to get worse. It’s all part of the show.”

He wasn’t wrong about that. The amount of dirt and bullshit that would fly between me and him would get intense. And that mafia mouthpiece seemed to have a real hard-on when it came to beating me. Maybe it was all about wanting the championship belt, but maybe there was more to it than the obvious.

“All the more reason for us to ramp up the training instead of backing down like I can’t win. There are a lot of reasons I have to win this one.”

Bennie shook his head again. “You are missing the point, boy. As long as you hold that belt, this shit doesn’t end. You know that. Until someone beats you, this is your life. You don’t just retire and pass it down to some other fighter. It has to be won.”

Again his logic astounded me. And he was right. I didn’t care about the belt. Not anymore. But I did care about winning. Especially this one. I had too much to prove on all fronts. Being asked to “lose” on command had been the ultimate challenge to make sure I did win.

Maybe that was the point.

---