Chapter 9 - Cody Asked Me To Hit Him
Cody found me in the parking lot after everybody else left.
Maya had gone with Dana.
Noah stayed inside.
Keller had locked himself in his office again.
Cody stood beside my truck.
“You got a minute?”
“Depends.”
He looked at my arms.
Then at my face.
“You hate me.”
“At the moment.”
He nodded.
“You want to hit me?”
“No.”
He looked almost offended.
“No?”
“You want me to?”
His jaw tightened.
Then I understood.
A fight would be easier for him.
If I hit him, he could answer.
If I beat him, he could turn shame into injury.
If he beat me, he could recover his pride.
Two men leaving bruised would feel cleaner than one man admitting he had hurt a woman because another man told him she'd disrespected him.
I opened my truck.
Cody said:
“I deserve something.”
“You're getting something.”
“What?”
“You get to remember you heard her.”
He looked at me.
“She said stop.”
“Yes.”
“And you decided your anger outranked it.”
His expression changed.
I continued:
“I don't need to help you turn that into a fight story.”
He stared at the pavement.
After a while he said:
“I've had coaches wind me up before.”
“I assume so.”
“Sometimes it works.”
“Apparently.”
He almost smiled.
Didn't.
“Keller knows what gets under everybody's skin.”
“Why stay?”
“Same reason everybody stays somewhere too long.”
I waited.
“He got me my first real contract.”
There it was again.
Gratitude turning slowly into debt.
Cody continued.
“When I was nineteen, nobody wanted me. He put me on cards. Drove me to fights. Paid for a hotel once because I was broke.”
“That can all be true.”
“I know.”
He looked toward the gym.
“I thought loyalty meant I believed him.”
“And now?”
“I don't know what it means.”
Good answer.
Then he said:
“There’s something Maya doesn't know.”
I looked at him.
“Tell her.”
“I will.”
He hesitated.
“What?”
“Keller called me from the hospital parking lot yesterday.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“After she got taken in.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me not to answer anybody.”
“Why?”
“Said Maya's family would try to destroy my career.”
“That all?”
“No.”
Cody looked embarrassed.
“He told me she had already filed a complaint saying I attacked her after practice.”
Maya had filed nothing.
I knew that much.
“When did he say that?”
“Before you got here.”
That explained Cody's first reaction to me.
He hadn't just seen an angry father.
He thought I represented a complaint already moving against him.
Keller had put Maya and Cody against each other before the round.
Then did it again afterward.
“Did you see the complaint?”
“No.”
“You just believed him.”
“Yes.”
I closed my truck door again.
“Go tell Maya.”
He nodded.
Then:
“Hale.”
“What?”
“Yesterday, after she went down, Keller told everybody it was my fault.”
I waited.
Cody looked toward the building.
“I let him.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew part of it was.”
That was probably the first respectable decision he'd made since this started.
Then he added:
“But now he's telling people I ignored his order to stop.”
I looked at him.
“He wants you guilty enough to absorb him.”
Cody's jaw tightened.
May you like
I didn't need to explain further.
He understood.
