“And you’re going to pray to whatever God you believe in that Commander Hayes doesn’t decide to press charges of his own.”

—

**Chapter 3: The Lesson That Outlasted the Black Belt**

The fluorescent lights of the Oak Creek Memorial Hospital emergency room buzzed with a sickly pale hum.

Trent Lawson lay on a stiff gurney, his right wrist handcuffed to the metal bed rail.

The adrenaline had long since burned out of his system, replaced by a nauseating throbbing agony that radiated from his right arm to his jaw.

His elbow was swollen to the size of a grapefruit, locked at a grotesque angle.

Down the hall, he could faintly hear Cody groaning as the orthopedic surgeon explained the devastating reality of a shattered patella and torn ligaments.

Cody’s fighting career was over before it had even truly begun.

Deputy Mike Carlson stood by the door, a cup of terrible hospital coffee in his hand, watching Trent with a mixture of pity and disgust.

“You know, Lawson,” Carlson said, taking a slow sip. “In a weird way, you should be thanking the man.

If he wanted to, he could have driven that strike through your trachea instead of your vagus nerve. You wouldn’t be sitting here icing a hyperextended elbow. You’d be in the morgue on a metal slab.”

Trent stared at the ceiling, his jaw clenched tight. His pride—the core foundation of his entire existence—was fractured far worse than his arm.

“I want a lawyer,” he muttered through gritted teeth. “I’m going to sue the city. I’m going to sue the transit authority. That old freak used excessive force.”

Carlson actually laughed, a dry, humorless sound. “Kid, we have statements from 12 passengers, including Chloe Sanders, the girl you decided to corner and terrorize. We have the bus’s internal security footage. It’s high definition.

It shows you ignoring verbal commands, advancing on a municipal employee, and throwing the first punch. You aren’t suing anyone. You’re looking at assault, battery, and public endangerment.”

Three days later, the security footage from Route 42 leaked to the local press. It didn’t have audio, but the visual was damning enough.