A spectacle.
“I wasn’t a professional fighter,” I said. “And I’m not pretending I was.”
Carlos nodded immediately.
“Different skill set.”
“Very.”
Ethan studied me.
The cockiness had disappeared.
But something else replaced it.
Interest.
Real interest.
“You could have mentioned that.”
“You could have asked.”
That earned a few laughs.
Ethan looked toward the crowd and shook his head.
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“All right.”
He rolled his shoulders once.
“Now I really want to do this.”
His father stepped forward.
“Ethan.”
There was warning in Richard Caldwell’s voice.
Ethan glanced at him.
“What?”
Richard’s eyes flicked toward the phones surrounding the mat.
“This has gone far enough.”
Three minutes earlier he had been smiling.
I noticed Ethan noticed too.
“You didn’t think so before,” he said quietly.
Richard’s jaw tightened.
“That was before this became ridiculous.”
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Ethan gave a short humorless laugh.
“Right.”
There was something in that exchange I didn’t understand.
Something older than the challenge.
Carlos stepped between us.
“We either grapple under the rules we agreed to, or nobody grapples.”
I nodded.
Ethan did too.
Carlos looked at me.
“You comfortable?”
“Yes.”
Then he looked at Ethan.
“You?”
Ethan exhaled.
