Shadowboxer Read Free Page A

you doing?’ Eva hissed.
    I turned up the sound on camera one.
    ‘Yeah, his face was a mess. Looks like Khari Nkondo clocked him. Might have been a fight over this ring girl... what’s her name? Eva Skye?’
    Eva gasped when she heard this.
    ‘Armando? Get me whatever you got on Khari Nkondo. Not just his fights, I want to know if he has a criminal record, any drug history, past issues of violence involving women... you name it.’ The guy hung up and gestured to his cameraman to follow him inside.
    Another reporter, standing close to the microphone pickup, whispered, ‘Skye’s real name is Kowalski. Leonard, check her out under that name.’
    I grinned at Eva, who turned pink.
    ‘Kowalski?’ My voice cracked with laughter. ‘Why’d you change it? It’s so much more romantic than Skye.’
    She looked away. Her foot started tapping.
    ‘I can go over to Mattress World and interview the staff. Somebody might have gone outside for a smoke and witnessed it. And I’ll try to get the CCTV.’
    Mr. B’s voice cut through them all. He appeared in shot, making grand gestures with his arms.
    ‘Thank you all for coming, we are so honored to have you all here today. As you may have heard, Mr. Zhang had to leave on an urgent matter. You can call his press officer. Meanwhile, I have to ask you all to go home. Mr. Zhang’s people will be clearing the building.’
    Chip the Viking started herding everybody, grabbing cameras and phones as he went . ‘Right, everybody, let’s all be cool. Nothing to see here, nothing to see. Sorry, was that your camera? Here you go.’
    ‘Where’s my memory card?’
    ‘I don’t know where the memory card is, man, you must not have loaded one before you came.’
    ‘Hey! Hey, that guy stole my pictures!’
    ‘I’m not a thief,’ said Chip in a rehearsed voice. ‘I’m a security consultant. Do you wish to consult with me?’
    ‘You’ll hear from our legal department,’ said the smaller man, backing away in a hurry. ‘It’s already all over Twitter, anyway. Ha!’
    Me and Eva looked at each other. She was excited.
    ‘You think they want to interview me?’ she said. ‘They think I’m playing Khari and Tommy Zhang at the same time. Wow. I could get in People for that.’
    ‘Not so great for Khari,’ I said. ‘They all think he beat up Tommy Zhang, and he didn’t.’
    ‘I know.’ She fixed me with pale green eyes. ‘You did. What is wrong with you? Why you act like such a freak? Khari says you had some kind of bad childhood. Get over it.’
    I felt my nostrils widen. I was about to unleash when Mr. B swaggered in.
    ‘Girls, girls,’ he said. ‘This place is like Ringling Brothers circus.’
    He reached out and patted Eva on the shoulder.
    ‘You don’t talk to nobody,’ he said. ‘Understand? Not one word.’
    Her face fell.
    ‘But Mr. B, they all want to interview me—’
    Mr. B let out a grunt and held up one commanding finger. Eva seemed to shrink before his daddy act.
    ‘Not. One. Word. One phone call from me and you never work again in this business.’
    ‘But I didn’t do nothing!’ Eva protested.
    ‘You keep your mouth shut. Simple. You come out ahead. They offer you work, fine. They interview you for Cage ? Fine. OK. But you say nothing about today. Nothing. Get it?’
    ‘I get it.’ Eva looked at me pointedly.
    ‘You can go, Eva. And tell Monika. No talking. To nobody.’
    Looking grouchy, Eva started to go out. In the doorway she paused. Looking at me as she addressed Mr. B, she said, ‘Why you give this girl so many chances? She is not so special. And by the way, Jade, I am not ashamed of my name or my homeland.’
    She shut the door. Mr. B turned to me. I gave him my detention-center stare. He shook his head, sighing.
    ‘Don’t you get it, Jade? You know I want to change image of fighters as thugs. I’m trying to go upmarket so I invite a high class, A-list celebrity to our gym to raise our profile on Battle of the Bitches , and—hello,