I offered both of my hands to the girl, and she gasped as she nodded. I picked her up and hoisted her on my right shoulder while I held her steady by her legs. She let out a squeal that had half the room looking in our direction.
“I’m so tall. I’m so tall.” Her giggle was contagious.
Lina’s hands covered her mouth as she watched the girl on my shoulder waving her arms.
After a few seconds I set her back to her ballerina tipped feet and squatted before her. “So you’ll have to work hard and eat well to be big like me, okay?”
She reached up for me. “Again. Again.”
“Come on, Baily, let’s keep moving,” the guy said, looking at me. “Thank you. She’s…usually so shy.”
I stood to my full height and nodded.
He focused back on Lina and smiled, then guided the little girl toward the next station. I was glad he was gone. I didn’t like how he was ogling Lina. Not that I had any rights to her, but it still pissed me off.
“You were good with her,” Lina said watching after the kid. I was just thankful she wasn’t noticing the guys were still in the room. She was doing so well, and I didn’t want anything to change that.
“Yeah, well, little girls dressed as princesses get to me every time.” I shook my head and turned toward Lina.
“Yes. I knew it!” The guys that’d come in were hustling toward us with their arms raised in the air and yelled out, “It is you!”
The nearly bald leader that had been talking to them followed behind, an apologetic smile curving his thin lips. “They said they knew you and wanted to say hi.”
Lina flinched and swung her focus toward them. I stepped toward her, thinking she’d freak, but I didn’t see any major signs of panic yet. She did analyze them closely, but other than that, she seemed fine. Maybe a little tension in the jaw there, and her hands were fisted.
Progress noted.
“Itisyou. I saw you online. Dude, you’re the shit.” The scrawny kid’s voice cracked. He couldn’t be more than thirteen years old and barely a buck twenty soaking wet. “The way you pounded Hethrow in that ring? That was fucking art, you know?”
The boys fanned out, so they formed a half-circle around me as I stepped in front of Lina more. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.” Even though I did. I just wanted them to leave. I’d left that part of my life back in Arizona. How the hell did they find me here?
“Thor’s Hammer! Holy shit! I can’t believe it. I almost didn’t recognize you with hair.”
Great. That stupid nickname rears its ugly head again. Yeah, I had a right hook that’d knock just about anyone down, butThor’s Hammer?Lame.
“Yeah!” the second kid shouted. “You got a fight here?”
“Dude,” I said a little louder than I’d hoped, but the fact that they recognized me when I’d been bald for a lot of my fights back in Arizona was not a good thing. “It’s private Halloween party and this is a costume.”
“Yeah. Yeah. We’re leaving. But we had to come and see you.”
“You got me mixed up with someone else. You should bolt.”
“Is this your girl?” The third one leaned to the side. “Lara Croft. Excellent.” He stepped forward. “You can kick my ass any time.”
I grabbed the kid’s arm and pushed him back. “That’s enough.”
“All right, boys. It’s time to leave,” the leader said.
“Watch out, Erik, he might break out Thor’s Hammer and pound on your scrawny ass.” He laughed as he dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “I’m so going to get a picture of you. When’s your next fight?”
His hat had been on backwards, but now that he turned it around, I saw the symbol for Ultimate Fighting. And here I thought growing out my normal-colored hair and staying off the underground circuit would change things.
Hell, I’d never fought with my natural-colored hair. I’d either shaved my head or spiked it a different color for each fight. And I had about six fewer tattoos, back then, too.
“Dude, can you sign this?” The main guy held out a marker and his cap.
Shit. Shit.I did not need this. I’d kicked one guy’s ass in the ring and thenbam, I was all over the internet. I was just letting some anger out. I hadn’t known the guy I’d knocked out was some phenom on his way up the ranks.