Chapter 6 - Rachel Had Been Waiting for Someone to Ask
Rachel did not begin with her ex-boyfriend.
She began with Pierce.
“He always makes himself the reasonable one.”
Hannah put the call on speaker with Rachel’s permission.
Two years earlier, Rachel dated a lightweight named Cody Mercer.
Cody never seriously assaulted her, Rachel said.
But he punched walls, grabbed her phone, blocked doors, and once shoved her against a locker.
After that incident Rachel told Pierce.
Pierce promised to handle it.
Instead he convinced her not to “wreck Cody's contract year.”
The language sounded almost identical to what Hannah heard in Nashville.
Pressure.
Future.
One mistake.
Career.
Rachel left Cody three weeks later.
She also left Virginia.
“Did Pierce threaten you?” Hannah asked.
“Not directly.”
That answer mattered.
Rachel didn't turn the story into something bigger than it was.
Pierce had not blackmailed her.
He had minimized what happened until she began doubting her own judgment.
Then he offered her five thousand dollars from a “fighter family assistance fund” to help with moving expenses.
Hannah frowned.
“Did you sign anything?”
“Yes.”
Rachel emailed the agreement.
The payment required confidentiality about “internal athlete welfare matters.”
That phrase stopped Hannah.
The document was not necessarily illegal.
It was still revealing.
Pierce had an established method for making damaging domestic incidents disappear quietly.
Not because he enjoyed violence.
Because fighters were inventory.
Contracts.
Reputation.
Revenue.
I had spent years around young men trained to use controlled violence professionally.
Good instructors taught them restraint first.
Pierce seemed to teach restraint only when it protected the gym.
Rachel then mentioned something unexpected.
“Pierce isn't the one you should be most afraid of financially.”
Hannah looked at me.
“Who is?”
“Dustin.”
Rachel knew because Cody once borrowed money from him.
Dustin had started privately financing fighters' camps.
Small loans.
High pressure.
Repayment through future purses.
Pierce tolerated it because Dustin kept talented fighters training when they otherwise couldn't afford to.
Suddenly the money moving through Pierce Performance Management looked different.
Maybe Pierce wasn't simply taking Hannah’s inheritance.
Maybe Dustin had used Pierce's company as a clearinghouse for a side business.
That did not make either man innocent.
It made the structure more complicated.
When the call ended, Hannah looked exhausted.
“I thought Dustin was reckless.”
“He may be.”
“He planned this.”
That was harder.
Violence could be blamed on anger.
Unauthorized transfers over seven months required decisions.
Repeated ones.
The next surprise came from Evan.
Pierce had found out he met us.
Evan had been removed from the gym's upcoming fight card.
Not fired.
Not banned.
Just told he was “not ready.”
A punishment subtle enough to defend.
Hannah read the message.
Then she stood.
“No.”
I asked what she meant.
“I've spent a year being scared that if I said anything, Dustin would lose opportunities.”
May you like
She picked up her phone.
“I'm not letting Pierce use opportunities to scare Evan now.”
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