by P. S. Power
They did it a dozen times, but it worked all but once, when Kris pulled his hand back in flight and punched twice. Even then he was taken to the mat. It was just a bit more painful to make happen.
Still, it was a good thing, so he was smiling when Dan got back. Hours later and just before the afternoon session was over. He didn’t seem all that happy.
Walking over to Tony he sighed.
“I called Rick, to let him know what happened? He’s a bit upset. I think that was what the string of foul language he was using means anyway. You might want to give him a call? I think the plan is for me to return you, tonight.”
Which made some sense… but wasn’t what he had planned at all.
Chapter eight
Anthony nearly called to lie to his uncle and his girlfriend. The phone was dialed and at his ear, before he realized that doing that wasn’t worth it. Not for him.
They could have him go home right then and there was nothing that was going to stop that from happening really. Especially if they felt like he was trying to trick them. People could almost always tell when other people were doing things like that. Not always on the surface, but deep down, they knew that something wasn’t right. If he tried that with these people, who were basically honest and trustworthy, they’d get the idea.
Then the bit of trust that he’d built with them would be gone.
Eroded and worn away much faster than it had been built up. They’d trusted him, even to the point of letting him go off alone like they had. Even with Sally, who’d seemed a bit trampy to the women at least. This wouldn’t help that perception. Then, the woman wasn’t his girlfriend. In fact, the whole situation had little or nothing to do with him in particular.
So when the phone picked up and Rick spoke, Tony was pretty much ready.
To be totally honest. His uncle sounded a bit tense.
“Rick Winters, how may I help you?”
“Hey, Rick. This is Tony. Calling to check on some things? Did everyone get out on their roadwork this morning? I need to call Lexi personally for that.” He’d said he would, even though he doubted she expected him to really do it.
“Tony! Dan called and said that one of his trainers attacked you… Are you all right? I didn’t get a lot. He said he was at the hospital and the doctor was coming? Who did it?”
Anthony shrugged, then spoke, keeping his voice calm.
“Okay, that would sound wrong, wouldn’t it? One of the trainers here was sleeping with Sally. She, compelled by my stunning multiple hour lecture on the way here, decided to break that off so she could focus on training. I think he heard that as the new guy replacing him, so he kind of lost it. Ralph Simpson? I don’t know if you’ve heard of him?”
There was a hiss then.
“Well… Yes. He was the former heavyweight champ back in the Strike Union days. That was a fighting league. Early MMA. Damn. How messed up are you? Can you leave the hospital? We’ll come to you, what’s the name of it? Dan didn’t tell me all of this. We’re going to have some words over it.”
Taking a breath, he made himself smile.
“See, I told you it sounded wrong. I have a bump on my head, from where he sucker punched me, but nothing else happened. Not to me. He was the one that had to go to the hospital. He would have been fine, but he got up and tried to attack again after the first time. I’d choked him out, but… I sort of broke his arm. I swear though, he was flopping around and was the one that did the actual breaking. I was trying to get him to calm down. We have all of that. It was in the gym, so I can send that over to you? Not that I know how to do that. Just…” He paused, winced, meaning it and then went on. “Can we keep it off the web? I don’t think the world needs to see it.”
There was a pause.
“You’re all right? Really? I told Dan you needed to come home immediately…”
He nodded, hearing hesitancy in his uncle’s voice.
“Which I don’t. I have another round of sparring with Sally in two days. She… needs the help. If she doesn’t get kicked out of here. She’s been sleeping her way through the fighters and the staff, which seems to have just come out. Then, telling adults not to have sex is a bit like telling teens the same thing. It isn’t going to work and they’ll just hide it from you. So, things on the ground might change here, but until they do, I have a job to get done.”
Anthony sounded rather firm on the issue. Like an adult. Rick wasn’t going to buy it he didn’t think. He could tell that was the case, because of what he said next.
“I see. All right, is Dan around? I need to talk to him. Possibly at him. I haven’t decided yet.”
Tony looked up, to see where the man was standing across the room, looking vaguely in Tony’s direction.
“Dan? Rick on the phone for you? Um, please don’t take too long? I need to get a call into Lexi.” That didn’t get explained. Rick had been right there for the conversation after all.
Still, he’d probably assume that Tony was calling for a date. Which he could see. She was too old for him, but not so much that he couldn’t find her attractive. That was a trap though, at the moment. He really needed to get his head in the game. Just then it was about Donaldson, Valdis and Sumner. Well and of course, Erlander Hodder. Even if he couldn’t win that fight, he wanted to do the best he could at it.
Dan listened at the phone, the cordless land line thing pressed to the side of his head. There was a bit of loud talking coming from the other end. Finally, the Viking seeming man let his breath out.
“I know, it’s all kinds of screwed up. That is pretty much what Ralph told us in the car. The video? It… I agree then, with Tony. I’ll send it, but it wouldn’t be kind to let anyone put it on the web. Not unless there are problems over this later. Even then… I can have that for you in about ten minutes?”
The phone was held out for him again after that, but instead of Rick making demands it was Jen talking.
“Tony? Oh, my, god. Are you all right? I knew we shouldn’t let you leave, that whole situation just felt wrong. Rick and I can come get you, if you want?” She said it all in a rush, sounding almost manic.
“I’m fine. It isn’t that big of a deal. A knock to the head, but it didn’t do too much to me. You’ll see, on the vid. Anyway, I asked Rick if everyone got their runs in and he dodged the question. I have to think that might be a bad sign. They all heard I wasn’t going to be there and played hooky, didn’t they? Hmm? I know it’s that. I just do.”
Jen cleared her throat, her voice wry after that.
“Well, there might have been some shorter than expected runs taken… Not that I can confirm that. I saw Lexi out running before work, so it looks like she did her part that way.” She stopped then, for a long time. Enough that he started to wonder if the line had dropped or something.
“Um, Jen?”
She sounded a little sad for some reason, but started up again.
“You’re really all right? You don’t have to say that just to make us feel better, you know that, don’t you? If this isn’t a good situation, we will come for you. Just say the word.”
Anthony smiled. Not because he needed to be coddled that much. No, it was that he knew they really would come for him. A six to eight hour drive each way or not. If he had needed their help, it would have been coming. No matter what.
That felt different than anything he’d ever really experienced before.
Safe. He thought.
Like he had real backup, if he needed it.
“I’ll keep that in mind? I should be fine here. Probably even if Simpson comes back. I’m sure that if we get a chance to explain things he’ll let it go. Stuff happens. You can’t take it all personally. Not and still have any fun in life.” It was probably true, at any rate.
There was a light chuckle then.
“Okay. We’re really here for you. I’ll let you go. Call tomorrow, too?”
“Sure thing. Now… I need to get with Lex, or she’ll think that I was kidding about watching
her like a hawk. We can’t have that.”
“Bye, Tony. Talk to you soon.”
“Bye, Jen!”
He hung up first, as Curtis and one of the other fighters, Wilcox, came into the room. They didn’t speak, getting that he was calling someone, even if it was the living room.
“Lexi here. What’s up?” She didn’t sound professional at all. Which was fine with him. It was her phone and he wasn’t her boss.
“Hey! It’s Tony. You got your run in? How did it go?”
She actually groaned then.
“Slooow. I did five miles though, like you said. How are things there? Did you get with that woman in the see through clothing yet?” She was teasing at least.
Tony was nearly certain of it from her tone.
“Nope! I’m not going to either. That ended up being a thing, for other people. Drama, you know? Anyway, it’s fine here. I have no clue what I’m supposed to do tomorrow. I’ll think of something. Research maybe?”
She made a sound that was probably pretty rude.
“You are allowed to do things other than work all the time. I’m almost positive of it. Get a hobby or something, will you?”
He blinked, then nodded.
“I have a hobby. I just need to get back to it. Anyway, that was the first call from me of many that you’ll be getting. Just because I’m far away won’t give you any relief from me. Talk to you soon. Day after tomorrow most likely. Bye!”
“Bye. See ya!” She sounded bright and cheery at least, so the run couldn’t have been all that hard.
Getting off the phone, he absently rubbed at the back of his head. It hurt to the touch and was a burning ache otherwise, but the headache he’d had was gone, which he figured was a good sign. Curtis and the other guy were on the sofa, but hadn’t turned the television on yet, waiting for him to get off the phone.
The instant he did the thing flicked to life and Wilcox turned to him.
“We’re going to do some research, too. Fight Night Review. You watch it?”
He never had, so shook his head.
“Never even heard of it. Is it good?” They were watching it, but neither man called him on the idea. In fact, Curtis kind of shook his head a bit.
“Not so much. It’s mainly hype for upcoming fights. Still, if you want to get ahead, you have to keep up with what’s going on.”
That sounded true, so he settled in one of the chairs and watched the whole thing. Interestingly, several people that he knew were mentioned by name. Which was fine, on the first one, since it was Ashley. The presenters were going over the coming Fox Rends rematch. That meant that Nick Fields got a mention as well. For being gay.
Anthony shook his head.
“I think we misjudged that one. He needs press, but he’s a fighter, not a gay icon.”
Wilcox snorted and turned to look at him squarely.
“Not any more. Now when he fights and wins every gay fight fan will be getting tingly in the pants. When he loses they’re going to cry. You know him?”
The words were a little course, but a lot better than what Tony had grown up with. Even on the same topic. Anthony figured he was actually trying not to seem like a jerk about it all. That had to count, somewhere in there.
“Yeah. He trains at Winters Gym. I worked with him a bit before his last fight. He has a good ground game.” Anthony waited for the dig then, the instant the words were out.
Curtis laughed once.
“Yeah, he does. I saw him fight Lars’ brother. That was a tough match. They both looked good on their feet. It surprised me. I mean, they both have solid ground games, but were barely there at all during the matchup.”
Anthony wasn’t the smartest person in the world, but he could see the resemblance, now that it was pointed out. The last name was kind of a giveaway, too. The man glanced over at him, searching his face for something. What that was took Tony a while to figure out.
The man spoke anyway.
“Brian was so bummed after that. Curt isn’t wrong. He got beat, but it was a close fight. I told him he didn’t have anything to feel ashamed of, but it wasn’t about that. People feel better when they win. That’s all.”
That was probably just the truth.
A distraction came then, in that he heard his own name come from the screen in front of him. The interesting part there wasn’t that it wasn’t about the Hodder fight coming up in three months. That would have been too normal.
Instead it was an accusation, from Ralph Simpson, that Tony had attacked him. Over Sally, as it turned out. From the other man’s report, Tony was jealous of his good looks and charm, so had ambushed him with a pipe or baseball bat.
The person reading the story off seemed concerned. Anthony got that part.
“Yeah. What kind of tool would just run up and start attacking someone? Good thing you guys were there to pull me off of him.” He could have been pissed off, but wasn’t, in particular. The hope had been that the other man would just let things go.
That he wasn’t planning on it didn’t really hurt Tony at all.
Curtis made a face and then shook his head.
“Like I said earlier… Moron. Ralph must not know about the footage. Then, this isn’t actually about you, Tony. You get that, right?”
Oddly enough, he did.
“Yeah. I hear that some people have a problem with adult women having sex with teen boys? Most don’t however. Really, I can clear Sally by just telling the truth. If I say we haven’t done it, then everyone will believe that. I mean, isn’t the tradition there claiming you did things you didn’t?”
Lars stood up then.
“Yup. That would work. Still, I think that we should make sure our pals aren’t going to get in trouble. Grab your cape Mighty-Man, it’s time for us to fight crime!”
Curtis stood up, his face set.
“Looks like. Keep an eye on things here, Tony? Lars and I have the rest of this.”
They walked out quickly, followed by sounds of running. What they were planning to do he didn’t know, but he was willing to bet that it had something to do with internet chat rooms. That was a thing he knew very little about, but there were a lot of them dedicated to fighting.
He watched, feeling a bit bored for the remainder of the half hour. The rest of the show was about other people and out of all of them only Missy Holms had a name he recognized. They had video of her, which showed her training. None of it was fighting. Just the other stuff, including running.
The question of course, was when, or if, she was getting back in the ring. No one knew if it was going to be happening, which was kind of sad. Then, there were other things to do in life. Fighting wasn’t even close to being the best of them. It was a thing he realized as soon as he switched to some other channels.
Not instantly, to be fair. It took about half an hour for him to find it. Then it was on a twenty-four-hour news station. Wincing, Anthony closed his eyes, hoping the clip of him being hit in the head was just his imagination. It wasn’t. In fact, the whole fight played out, clipped only when the first bit was over and the man lay on the ground moaning and crying.
Which was subtitled, as soon as his arm was broken. So they had the whole thing. Probably from either Curtis and Lars, saving the day, Rick and Jen, or Dan. Maybe even Sally had done it. The man had kind of accused her of sleeping with an underage boy. One that she hadn’t.
They played the whole thing, from before the first hit, where he’d been sitting and focusing on the fighters, to him suggesting they hide the evidence, to protect the guy. In all… He looked all right in it. Ralph Simpson looked like a jerk at every point. Bad enough that Tony wondered if he was going to have any kind of a career left after that.
“Well, as if we didn’t have enough drama in our lives.” No one was there to hear him, but he sighed and felt put upon anyway. The worst part of it, for him at least, was that he couldn’t see any way at all to save Simpson from his own big mouth. Not now.
Sally came into t
he room with a medium sized bowl of popcorn, which smelled really good. He was on a training diet though and unless he wanted to raid her room, didn’t have any nifty drugs to turn to if he gained weight too fast. Still, she seemed happy, which had to end. It either meant that she didn’t know what was happening, or did and was gleeful about it.
“What’s up?” She didn’t seem to really be asking, but there was going to be an answer.
Tony looked at her as she sat and shrugged.
“Update time. Simpson leaked to the press that we’re an item now and that being jealous of him I ambushed him with a pipe. Possibly a bat? I mean, where would I get a lead pipe from around here anyway? Really, you’d think that I’d use a dumbbell, from the weight room? Or one of those bars…. Anyway, someone put out the video of him ambushing me, probably in retaliation for what he’d been saying. Right now, I think that we’re in a lull. People are still reacting to the video and probably will be for a while.” He stopped, as she watched the screen.
It was clearly taking her a bit to catch up with everything.
“Fudge. That isn’t good. I’m sorry about all of this. I…” She stood up, looking ready to cry, as if that would help anything.
Tony, for his part, just smiled.
“No worries. This isn’t going to hurt you or I all that much. Oh, sure, you look a bit… Um, too friendly? Having been with all those guys, but I hear a rumor that it’s not the nineteen-fifties anymore? I kind of seem okay too. I went from felon in the making that attacks innocent men over his jealousy, to…” He didn’t know what to say next.
Dan, who came into the room with Lenny, did.
“To innocent bystander caught up in other people’s mess?”
Anthony smiled, then pointed at the man. It was a good enough way to put it.
He grimaced.
“That… The footage is hard to watch. Which one of you put it up?”
Dan shook his head then and made a face that seemed too innocent.
“I don’t know. I sent it to Rick, but I don’t think he could have gotten it out that fast. That probably means that one of us here did it. Does it really matter though? We can’t call it in now and I’m not certain we should. It just shows what happened. Even covering up the crime part of it won’t come back on us here, I bet. The only one that will suffer is Ralph.” He stopped then, nodding. “Well, him and Sally. You’re out, of course. We can’t have people starting this kind of stuff. Not in the press. It’s a bit too professional wrestling for my taste. You can stay the night, but I expect you to be gone by noon. Understood?”