Going The Distance (Ringside #2)

by Jennifer Fusco

  “But you were a member of a street gang?” she pressed.

  “Yes.”

  “And you sold drugs?”

  “I did not sell them. Everyone has a past they’re not proud of.” Air blew from his nostrils.

  His eyes darted to Daniella. She was on the phone. Again. His heart rate increased. Sweat rolled down his back, but he wasn’t breaking. Not for this mousy reporter. Not for anyone.

  “Now that your past has gotten out, are you afraid that the children you coach at Stamina will find out what kind of person you are?”

  Fire shot through him. “I’m a good person,” he snapped. He swore, if there weren’t cameras in the room, he’d . . .

  His temper spiked. Fuse shortened. There always had to be one. One person in the room that couldn’t see the truth staring her in the face. Tiffany Longoria lied. He never emotionally abused her. He never purposefully hid his past. It was always there. Not talking about it didn’t mean it didn’t exist, and he’d do anything to rewrite history. But if that was possible, everyone would do it.

  “Mr. Perez, one final question, if I may.” The mousy brunette was really hamming up her time in the spotlight. “If you believe that your past isn’t relevant to the person you are today, and you aren’t an abuser, and the parents who entrust the care of their children to you shouldn’t worry, and every claim Ms. Longoria made is false, then answer this.”

  He waited.

  “Why did EverStrong Products drop your endorsement deal? Why did they pull out from sponsoring this fight?”

  He allowed his eyes to slice across the room and fix on Daniella. Her mouth dropped open wide and her cell phone slipped from her hand, landing on the floor at her feet.

  ***

  Mike stood up. “This interview is over.” He pushed back from his chair and walked from the front of the room toward his manager. The presence behind him told him Jack and Shakes quickly followed.

  “What’s going on? Did I get dropped? Did EverStrong really pull out?”

  The room erupted, and more reporters started to close in on him.

  “Not here,” Daniella said. “Let’s talk about this upstairs.”

  Mike bent down and picked up his trainer’s phone. “After you.” He followed Daniella out of the room. Men in the hallway booed him. Littleton’s fans adding insult to injury, he supposed.

  “Are you saying they took Tiffany’s article seriously?” Mike said, panic gripping his chest.

  Daniella stepped into the elevator. He followed. Shakes and Jack made sure the four of them got into the car. By the look on Jack’s face, he knew major shit was going down.

  The corners of Daniella’s mouth turned down. “I’ve been trying to work it out. Enticing them to reconsider, but there’s no talking to them. You’re not the squeaky-clean poster boy they want as the face of the sports line.”

  Mike sneered.

  “If they want wholesome and clean, maybe they should hire Tim Tebow,” Jack growled. “That asshole squeaks when he walks.”

  “They referenced Ava’s article. With a past like yours, and the image they want for the line, it would’ve been better if we’d have denied all interview requests and moved forward without saying a word.”

  Mike’s body stilled.

  Jack swore, then slipped his arm around his wife’s waist. “So you’re saying, honey, that they wanted Mr. Pure here as long as he kept his mouth shut and his past a secret.”

  “Image is everything, Jack. It doesn’t necessarily have to be true, just as long as you can keep it up, I’m afraid.”

  Jack pounded his fist on the elevator wall. “This sucks ass.”

  Mike, still frozen, glanced from Daniella to Jack. His boxing brother looked like he was ready to take on the marketing department at EverStrong all by himself. Inwardly he slapped himself. If he’d just listened to his gut, all of this could’ve been avoided. From the moment he heard Ava wanted to visit Stamina, his first reaction had been to stay away. His intuition was right. The woman caused damage wherever she went. He was in denial before. She’d set her sights on him, and she brought this kind of attention straight to his front door.

  “If they pulled their sponsorship of the fight, what’s going to happen?” Mike asked.

  A hush filled the elevator car.

  Daniella let out a breath. “Well, they were a big sponsor of having the fight televised. They paid for the commercial blocks on ESPN. All that’s gone, they pulled out, and the network will probably not televise the fight.”

  There went his fan base. Straight in the gutter. His first televised fight. Over before it started.

  “But that’s not all,” his trainer said.

  Mike’s mouth dropped open. “You mean there’s more?”

  “I’m afraid so,” Daniella continued. “EverStrong was the venue sponsor as well. That’s two hundred and fifty thousand dollars that needs to be paid to the Garden, or they’re canceling.”

  “How can they do that?” Shakes interjected. “How can they drop us cold?”

  The color of Daniella’s face paled. “Contracts. Legalese. There are so many lawyers involved, I can’t even tell you how many, but I’ve learned one thing. Corporate America does whatever it wants.”

  “Fuck.” Jack placed his hands on his hips. “What are we going to do?”

  The elevator came to a stop on their floor and everyone walked into the hallway. They formed a small circle.

  Daniella placed her hand on Mike’s shoulder. “Look. You’re fighting tonight. I’m handling it with Littleton’s people.”

  “How?” He looked into her determined eyes.

  Her hand slid from his shoulder. She looked at everyone, addressing the group. “Can I have a few moments with Mike, please?”

  Jack kissed Daniella on the cheek and left the circle.

  “Let’s go.” Shakes patted Mike on the back, then joined Jack at the elevator and pushed the button to go downstairs and, knowing Jack, into the bar. After a few moments passed, the elevator doors opened, and both men disappeared inside.

  The hallway was as quiet and as still as Mike’s heart.

  “Stamina’s absorbing the sponsorship costs. You need this fight on your record more than anything right now. And I’m willing to use Stamina to see that you realize your dream.”

  A sudden coldness filled his core. “Daniella, you can’t. That’s two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The gym can’t bear it.”

  The features of her face solidified. “We’ll figure it out.”

  “Stamina just stabilized. The team busted ass to get us out of the red, and now, we’re going back into debt again. For me?”

  Her gaze planted firm on his. “We’re a family. That’s how family works.”

  His skin tingled. A heavy feeling settled in his stomach.

  “You’ve worked so hard to get here. You’ve sacrificed. This fight has been your dream.”

  He knew she believed in him. She always had, ever since taking over the gym. He knew his trainer was made of the strongest stuff.

  He bowed his head. Still he didn’t feel as if he warranted her faith. He was still that kid from the streets of Miami. The same boy who tried to protect his brother and failed. And now, he was the one who had to be protected.

  Knowing Stamina was going to jeopardize itself so he could live out a dream didn’t make him feel proud. It made him feel weak. Fragile. Like a victim of circumstance. He hated the feeling, the notion that his gym would have to pick up the pieces to go forward because he was unable to do it for himself. His worst nightmare realized, everything was out of his control. His hand closed in a fist. One simple fact circled through his brain.

  The way things were going, his life was just going to get worse far before he ever felt better again.

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Ava’s phone buzzed. She looked down and read the text message. The three-word text was from Ed: EverStrong dropped Perez.

  It was all her fault. If she hadn’t handed
in that article—if she’d just told Ed what she wanted to do, rather than giving him any material . . . How did this happen? A wave of emotion poured through Ava’s body. Heaviness overcame her. Like a weight. Sinking her. Pushing her down to the place she thought she’d escaped, the space waiting for her in the back of her brain. She’d found love. She knew it. But could she keep it?

  No.

  She sank into the bed, lay back, and stared up at the ceiling. Taking in the smooth painted surface, the ceiling above her was just like her future and her past: blank. Tears rolled and she let them fall. Everything in her life had been about finding what she lost, and what she lost was happiness the day her father walked out the front door. Back then, she thought she’d never be happy again. And she wasn’t, not for a long time. Not until the day she met Mike Perez.

  Mike opened her eyes. Their relationship wasn’t about spending amazing nights together; it was about enjoying the moment and truly appreciating each other, both inside and out. He boxed, and she respected it. And he had learned to respect her as a reporter—until now.

  Her mind swirled in a myriad of thoughts. When the topsy-turvy memories stopped circling and surfaced, pain struck her heart. Her chest ached as if an open wound oozed down the middle of her body.

  The throbbing sensation couldn’t compare to the empty feeling in her stomach after Mike walked out. Abandonment settled around her like an old friend, drawing her back in as if she’d never left. The tiny space in her brain awoke, and then the deceiver started talking.

  He never loved you, it said. Because you’re not worthy of love. Your own father left you because you weren’t good enough, smart enough, and you didn’t love him enough to make him stay.

  Ava rolled onto her side and curled her body into a ball. She’d spent many days and nights in the fetal position. Depressed. Wondering why no one loved her for her. Unable to fathom what it was about her that caused the men she’d loved to walk away.

  She remembered the day her father moved out. Her mother held her on the big brown sofa. At seven years old, she’d cried her eyes out in Holly’s arms. She’d pleaded with her father and watched her mother beg. Stay. She’d heard her mother’s words as Ava tightly wrapped herself in a blanket. Don’t go. We love you.

  Ava had said, I’ll miss you, Daddy. I’ll never see you again. Fear rose up inside her, reminiscent of how much the day had changed her and how nothing she or her mother had said changed her father’s mind.

  He’d had to go. He hadn’t even kissed her before he walked out the door. He’d just stood before her, holding his oversized suitcase in his hands, and told her, It’s not you, baby. It’s just the way life is. As the door closed behind him, Holly squeezed her tight. Crying and heartbroken, her mother whispered in her ear, He’s left us, Ava. He left us and he’s never coming back.

  It was just the way life was.

  Ava had accepted her fate.

  She thought Mike had changed that fate for her. Rewritten history, she supposed. He wasn’t the type of athlete she was used to. He wasn’t motivated by ego or greed. Mike Perez was different. Filled with passion for the sport, he fought not only for himself, but against the ghosts that roamed inside him. If she’d learned one thing about being with Mike, it was that he had lived with unwanted memories as she had, and he never let them beat him down.

  There was one similarity between Mike and her father. A common denominator she’d had chosen to ignore. Like her father, the sport he loved controlled him. No matter how controlled he thought he was, the athletic world owned him. He was not only judged by his performance, but by his personal life, his sponsorships, and the number of endorsement deals his manager could secure. He was judged by money. Was he an earner? Did he fill seats, sell tickets? Was he worth the price of admission? The answers to those questions sometimes forced bad decisions. Both her father and Mike had made them, but Mike’s had been because he loved her, not out of selfishness.

  Losing endorsements and sponsorship could wreck an athletic career. This time she was to blame. She understood what she’d done. Like dominoes, she set up the chain that pushed one heartbreak to come crashing down on the next. Her article. Her words put the first piece in motion. What she wrote laid the groundwork for Tiffany to claim the spotlight, and one after the other, Mike’s dreams continued to collapse until they vanished.

  Mike didn’t deserve this. Honorable didn’t begin to describe how she saw him. Honest. Repentant. Talented and driven. Mike made boxing great. He wasn’t abusive or rude, or emotionally damaging. Those words sold papers and grabbed viewers, she knew that—had used it. But Mike Perez was more than a headline. He was human.

  She had to fix this mess. There had to be some way to reinstate his sponsors without putting Stamina at risk. He may not love her anymore, but she carried a love for him that would never die. She’d repair the damage she caused. She had to. Ava sat up from the bed. She’d fix it, she vowed. She’d change EverStrong’s mind and bring their sponsorship back. She could do it. She knew she had to. But how?

  ***

  Mike rode the elevator downstairs and went into the bar. The place Daniella had ordered him out of. Focus or not, he didn’t want to be alone. He thought maybe he could talk to Jack and Shakes about Daniella’s decision. He’d rather cancel the fight than put the gym back in the hole.

  Lucky for him, he quickly found Shakes sitting at the end of the bar, alone, drinking a glass of water. Mike walked up behind him.

  “There’s a booth in the corner.”

  Shakes craned his neck, spying the empty booth. Then he got up and carried his glass over to the vacant space.

  “Did you know about EverStrong?” Mike asked, climbing in the booth across from Shakes.

  “I overheard Daniella on the phone. I thought she’d be able to save them. She did, too, until ESPN rolled a segment on boxers with violent pasts, and your story opened the show.”

  “Christ.” Mike growled.

  The old man scratched his head. “They must sit around and plan for bad things to happen.”

  “You know the press, Shakes,” Mike said, unamused. “They build us up only to take us down. How’s Daniella holding up?”

  Shakes wiped a hand across his forehead. “You know Dani. When she decides the fight’s on, the fight is on. She’s already laid money down. The fight is a go.”

  “Shit.” His insides cramped. The last thing he wanted was his trainer taking Stamina’s money and throwing it away on sponsoring his fight. Though none of the cash was his, he had big plans for that money. Once he returned to Vegas he’d wanted to make a request that Daniella buy the kids new sets of headgear, and some of the mouthpieces needed to be replaced. He’d front it out of his own pocket, he decided. The kids wouldn’t suffer because of him.

  They wouldn’t have suffered if not for Ava, either. A cold feeling crept over him. The woman that had once made him feel so alive left him feeling like a corpse.

  “Time for you to get your head straight,” Shakes told him. “You need to go back upstairs and be alone. If somebody sees you down here, Daniella will have both our asses.”

  It didn’t matter. Mike couldn’t feel any more alone than he did now. He didn’t know when it happened, but in the time they’d been together Ava had stolen his heart. He hated letting her go, but he couldn’t bear to look at her. Angry and vengeful, he’d wanted to get back at her for her story, and he had. He’d delivered her her worst nightmare on a plate. He’d walked out, like her father did, abandoning her.

  Part of him wondered why he did something so cruel. Was it because she’d used his past and it hurt him, so he fought back in kind? Or did he run from her, like he had his family and his brother’s memory? Thoughts fired through his brain, and his hand curled in a fist.

  What would José have thought of all this? His big brother fighting at the Garden. He’d have given anything to have him by his side. Why did the memories of his past haunt him? Why couldn’t he move on?

  Shakes looked
on as Mike bowed his head. The sounds of the television, laughter, and people in deep conversations muted because of his focus. His eyes closed and his mind brought back José. He pictured his brother. His eyes, like Mike’s own, filled with determination. José looked so similar to him. Small mouth, dark features, and skin the color of coffee with a hint of cream. He focused on his brother’s face. His heart opened, and sorrow poured out.

  I’m sorry, he prayed. I’m sorry I wasn’t there and you had to die alone. It was all my fault.

  Filled with sadness the pace of his heartbeat slowed.

  I failed you. I’ve lived without you. I’ve never forgotten you and you’ve never forgiven me because I’ve never wanted your forgiveness.

  He paused. Silent. Until now.

  Numbness traveled through his body. His shoulders slumped forward, and his clenched fist opened. He resigned his body over to its impulses. He knew he couldn’t move on until he relinquished the pain he carried for his brother. There in that space and time, he felt closer to José than he ever had. Suddenly he felt as if a presence crept up behind him. He knew nothing was really there but José’s memory haunting him. In the distance, his brother’s voice sounded far away at first, then grew incredibly clear.

  I’ve never let you forgive yourself, brother, because you never needed to. My choices led to my death, and there was nothing you could’ve done. You’ve lived with pain for far too long. Pain meant for me, not you. Free yourself. Live as I would have: risk your heart and be loved.

  Mike’s eyes peeled open. Tears formed, and he quickly brushed them away. A hand clamped down on his shoulder. Shakes. Mike smiled.

  “I’m going to let you have some time alone.” Shakes’s hand released his grip. And he slid out of the booth and left the noisy bar.

  Mike faced the biggest choice of his life. He could absorb more guilt, more sorrow, and more blame, or he could heed his brother’s advice. He could free himself and let José go. The choice was his. Pain seared his heart. After a beat, the heaviness in his chest relaxed, and he decided. Right then, right there. He rose up from the booth. With the pad of his finger, he wiped the rest of his tears from his face and left the bar and the guilt over losing his brother behind him.