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and Luca was scouting for someone worthy and hungry enough to share the ring with the great Wright Hook.
     
    Tyler Culver showed up early for his meeting. Rose had tried calling in sick, but Luca had insisted he needed her today, unless she was on death’s door. So she’d relented, partly because he sounded desperate, partly because she didn’t want to risk losing this job, this opportunity. Culver was younger than Rose remembered, early forties, and in terrific shape. He wore jeans and a white polo shirt. His long hair and unshaven face made him look a little like Nicolas Cage in Con Air , except he wore glasses. Luca shook his hand, but he wasn’t his usual affable self. Avery joined them in the office a few minutes later.
     
    Meanwhile, Rose checked the cleaning rota and made herself busy wiping and polishing the exercise bikes and rowing machines. She ached all over after last night’s weight training and was stiffer than she’d been in a long time. She barely managed to hold her end when Marlon Washington asked her to help him hang one of the kickboxing bags. It was the first time they’d interacted, so she took the opportunity to ask him a question. “Did you know Gunny?”
     
    “Yeah. He was here when I first started. We sparred together. I got my ass handed to me so many times until he showed me how to block. But I never got close to putting him down, not even when Avery cross-trained me in Jiu-Jitsu. Some guys are just born mean and unstoppable. But he’s a sweet dude outside the ring when you get to know him. I’d never thought it could happen, him taking a dive like that.”
     
    “What about the other guys? Rico and Marshall. Did you ever get to speak to them after it happened to them?”
     
    He shook his head. “You don’t get involved in that shit. When it’s done, it’s done. They disappear and you move on. You don’t wanna get tarred with that brush, believe me.”
     
    “I wish there was more I could do,” she said, “to find out who’s behind it, who’s turning decent guys like that. Fighting’s tough enough as it is. I think we owe it to you guys to figure it out.”
     
    “Listen, don’t take this the wrong way—I’m not against you like those other pricks are—but you’ve got this all wrong, Richie.”
     
    “Ross.”
     
    “Ross, yeah.” Still clinging to his bag and inching round it so he could keep an eye on the office, Marlon lowered his voice to a whisper. “Here’s the thing: it’s not about fighting or training or bad management or any of that stuff. Avery’s a good guy, a helluva coach, but he’d be nowhere without his brother. He’s got this laser focus, but he can’t see the big picture. He needs his brother to take care of the politics. And this is all about politics. It ain’t got nothing to do with boxing or MMA. It ain’t sports at all. It’s done by guys who think bigger than sports. It’s the same people who rig elections and bribe cops, or break kneecaps when you miss a payment. Luca and Avery won’t get near them until they can step back from the sport. The IMMAF and those idiots are useless because they’re hung up on rules and regulations. If you wanna figure who’s behind it all, you can either get in with the police, find out what they know, or find yourself a local leg-breaker and work your way up the pyramid from him. Either way, you’re gonna end up on somebody’s radar, somebody you wouldn’t wanna fuck with. Jus’ saying. You don’t wanna get tarred with that brush.”
     
    “And if I did?” The wheels were already spinning in Rose’s mind. One person she knew for certain was connected with unpleasant guys further “up the pyramid”; he was also someone she could easily picture breaking kneecaps when someone didn’t pay. Maybe not the bribing cops or rigging elections part—he was too dumb and small-time for that. Mike, her stepdad, fit the profile to perfection. He might have thrown her out of his house and left her