Hook and Shoot (29 page)

He passed out again before I could tell him about his hair.

Best for everybody.

Argo called that night. “How's your face?”

“Tolerable.”

“Listen, your two biggest fans, the ones that paid you a visit after the fight.”

Lou Gerrone and Brandenberg. “Yeah.”

“My clients visited them in the hospital. Nasty accident they were in. Point is, nobody's happy about them going freelance. They're going to behave.”

“Good.”

He paused. “Any word from our friend?”

Shuko was the Yakuza's monster; let them clean up his mess. I sure as hell didn't want to. “I know where he's staying. Your clients want him?”

“I think they'd appreciate that. Closure is healthy.”

I replayed the lid slamming shut. “I love closure.” Told him where the freezer was. “My prints aren't on any of it.”

“Who cares?” He hung up.

Gil stopped by with food and whatever Denny needed. He dabbed his finger into the mush Denny kept smearing over my eyebrow and thigh, sniffed it. One time was enough.

Saturday morning, a week after the Zombi fight,
Burch and Vanessa were gone.

Denny shrugged. “He asked if they were safe for travel. I said yes.”

“Where?”

“Where memories can't follow.”

“Hope they sell guns there.”

Eddie was a shambling pile of whine. Denny and I agreed this was normal behavior for him, no cause for concern. It was Sunday before he could string together two related sentences. I was busy pushing chunks of banana into his cheeks and not smiling when his eyes opened.

“Woody.”

“Don't talk with your mouth full.”

“Hey, you hear from your girl?”

“Every day.”

“What's she think?”

“About what? I didn't tell her about this and don't plan to. Just the fight. She was happy for me.” Happy I'd won, called me an idiot for the way I'd done it.

“No, the event.”

“Eddie, shut up.”

“The big deal I been working on. Shit, must have dreamed I told you. Warrior's going international. We're storming Brazil. You're on the card.”

Brazil.

Marcela.

SUCKERPUNCH

JEREMY
BROWN

No head butts, groin strikes, eye gouges, or fishhooks. He'd go along with it, but heavyweight mixed martial artist Aaron “Woodshed” Wallace thinks they're taking all the fun out of fighting.

Stuck on no-name cards for tiny organizations, Woody is trying to put his shady past behind him with help from his trainer and mentor, Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Gil Hobbes.

When Banzai Eddie Takanori—president of MMA's largest organization, Warrior Inc.—offers Woody a short-notice fight against a highly favored poster boy, Woody sees his shot at salvation.

By the time Woody figures out he's just a pawn in a high-stakes game between psychopaths, he's in way too deep.

Good thing he knows how to take a punch.

And give a few back …

Book 1 in the Woodshed Wallace Series

Thriller

Trade Paperback

US $14.95 / CDN $16.95

ISBN# 978-160542225-1