The Heart of Tony Winters

by P. S. Power

  Which if Lexi picked up on it, would mess with her performance.

  So he talked, keeping her right there with him, as they walked in. Whispering to her.

  “Go through the whole thing. What you want to do. The match you’re going to have. Get ready to win. Remember the plan.”

  It was harder than it sounded like to keep going over the same fight, without seeming boring. It was tempting to toss in some jokes, to spice things up, but the girl grabbed his hand as they got to the dressing room.

  “Stay?”

  He nodded, but waved at the door.

  “Change first? You being naked would distract me, which would be a waste of time right now.”

  That earned a nod, with a small smile. Denny stepped out with him as well, his face annoyed. Probably at him, he realized. If that was the case however, it didn’t get talked about.

  “We don’t need this now. Steve knows better. Ugh.” He looked ready to punch a wall, but didn’t, since that was a good way to get hurt. Especially since the walls in the back where they were standing seemed to be concrete. Bone lost to that kind of thing.

  After very little time they were called back in, with Tony waving at Denny.

  “Now, listen to your trainer. He might have to fix all the mistakes I made in what I said, so pay attention.” It was possible, but not the truth. He knew the plan too, after all. His job with their training team had been pretending to fight like Debra. So he understood what would be needed to win that night. In theory. The tension of it was harsh, but he figured that their fighter had a real chance.

  When Lexi was called out, Denny moved along with her. Tony didn’t, stopping near the back of the aisle, not having a seat yet. Not that he needed one. The fight would take less than twenty minutes, one way or the other. He could stand.

  Then they’d get back on the bus and head home. They only had the one fight that night, after all. Most of the time they’d stay and watch at least most of the thing, but it was only a five-hour drive. That meant they could get home that night, if they hurried.

  Jen was already at the corner of the cage, being the second for that night’s fight. Tony tried not to hold his breath, even though it was hard to do, as the whole thing started. The names were called out, but he didn’t understand them, the sound system being horrible for some reason. What he did hear was the bell, the referee who was in all black, waved them into action, yelling.

  “Let’s get it on!” Something like that was normally called out. It could be different and he had noticed that in the past.

  As they moved in, both women looked sharp. Gloves started to fly, but Lex managed to hold a better guard. She took the fight to the ground, hard. Pummeling the other lady like she’d personally wronged her. At that point, which they’d practiced many times together, Tony always tried to take control with a lock or choke most of the time. That or a sweep. Ending up on top, to do his own hitting.

  Mills tried for that second one. Which Lexi resisted perfectly, barely shifting a leg out to stop it from happening, getting her arm back by punching Debra in the arms a few times. It was a bit crude, technique wise. It also worked, since the rest of the three-minute round was spent with the other woman being treated like a punching dummy. One who was barely holding on to the floor.

  A minute later, Lexi took the fight to the ground again, trying to get a rear choke hold secured. That was a bit of a battle. Interestingly, the dark haired opponent scooted forward enough to get free, running forward. Then she spun, to fight on her feet.

  Which after the first round meant that his buddy managed to knock her down on the second exchange, following it up with a tackle that ended with a painful looking arm bar. Which ended the fight, since the other woman didn’t want a broken elbow.

  Tony sighed then, breathing again.

  “Yes.” A rush of pleasure moved through him then. It was at least as intense as he felt on his own win, the one time that had happened. In a way it was stronger than that. He felt good for a few moments, standing back instead of rushing the cage, so that no one had a reason to imagine a fight was about to start. Then, Mills just hugged Lexi a bit after her arm was raised, like you were supposed to do if you lost.

  Waiting for her to come out, he grinned. They moved right to the back, since there were no cameras or interviews for fights at this level. That meant that when Jen, Lexi and Denny got to him, a rather blonde crew now that he saw them together, Tony was met with a gloved hug.

  “I won! I didn’t think I would. This is… I did something!”

  Tony beamed, though part of Tony wondered where Steve was. When he saw him in the crowd, Anthony noticed that he was standing by Rick, looking miserable. Raul was scowling over something, as well. Nick found his eyes, shaking his head a few times. Which wasn’t a good sign.

  So Anthony faked a smile.

  “Go, get changed. We can celebrate on the way back.” Which they would be doing, if he had to strap some people to the roof of the bus to get them out of the way.

  That got him pulled along, by Jen. That was odd. She hadn’t been in the back before the fight and everyone was acting as if something very bad had taken place. Tony’s guess resonated with the worst things. Either a death or someone was having a baby. Being capable of basic math, surrounded by people that could do the same that meant the kid was probably going to be named Lopez.

  If it was Gloria’s grandmother passing, no one would be half as worked up at all. If it was chlamydia, or even AIDS, then the next trick would be getting a blood test for their man. There was no use worrying until that part was done. Everyone would, but it wouldn’t help anything.

  Well, there was also the off chance that Gloria had been raped. If that had taken place, Steve would be livid. The others would probably be about like they were, however. Though in that case, Jen would have just told them, so they could run to the bus, to get people in place as soon as possible. Then, well, they’d rally around the girl, even if she was Steve’s ex and not a very good person. So that probably wasn’t it.

  So he stayed in the hallway and pounded Lexi on the back when she came back out. She was pretty much untouched. There was a single red mark on her left cheek, just below her eye, but it probably wouldn’t even turn in to a bruise. That was almost perfect, for after a fight like that. Not that she wouldn’t be sore the next day. You tended to be, no matter what kind of fight you were in. Or if you won. It was just part of the sport. A lot of people forgot about that, but all of fighting held at least the chance of discomfort, no matter how good you were.

  At the bus they were met with the whole group, having already loaded. Steve didn’t even bother to go to his girlfriend and tell her that she’d done a good job, which got a hurt look from Lex. It was clear that someone had distracted her well enough that she hadn’t worked out the most likely scenarios. Which was why she made a face and spoke a bit too loudly, worked up already.

  “Are you leaving me for that…” She didn’t say the next work, biting it off. “It should take more than one phone call. I guess…”

  There was an angry sound then, with no one else filling in the gaps.

  Denny looked ready to throw down right there and oddly enough Raul was the one that moved up and sat across from the other two. Not Rick or Jen. That was interesting. Rick was with Steve and Jen was next to Ashley, whispering something. Probably about the situation of the moment. The man from Brazil seemed upset still.

  “There was some news. Hloria…” He glanced over at Tony, who shook his head once. It a Portuguese thing, he thought. The Gs became H sounds. Sometimes.

  “Gloria. Steve’s ex-girlfriend. Is she pregnant?” Tony didn’t want to be the one to mention that kind of thing, but there was a terse nod in response.

  “Indeed, Tony. Exactly as you say. The… She is in the hospital, having just given birth. A baby girl. I think, perhaps, the goal had been to hide it from Steven, but then reality set in. So, this is… Not a good thing.”

  It really wasn’
t. Steve could marry her, or stand back and send money to Gloria and the kid, but there was no easy solution like abortion at that point. Really, it was probably what had been in the works all along. Women didn’t hide things like that unless they were planning to either trap a guy or keep him out of the kid’s life totally. The call right after the birth meant it probably wasn’t that second one in this case.

  Instead of seeming angry, Lexi looked panicked, then she got up and ran to the back of the bus, where Steve was sitting.

  “God. That… Oh…” She started to cry, but also hugged the fighter.

  That meant they got hours of talking about the situation, not knowing nearly enough to make plans. There really wasn’t a lot to suggest, since saying that he should go on the lam and hide from the government collection people wasn’t going to work. Tony didn’t have anything to add at all. Anthony either. Regardless of what Gloria had meant to happen, hiding the pregnancy when they’d broken up, the trap was sprung now.

  It did make sense after a fashion, what she’d done back then. The woman had told Steve that he either had to stop boxing or she was leaving. At the time Anthony had figured that her point was all about controlling his new friend. That had been his second or third day there, personally. So he hadn’t seen the woman around or anything. There had been no information about her, other than that she was kind of a waste of space.

  That didn’t mean she wasn’t a clever enough person to do that kind of thing. If it were him, Tony would have insisted on a paternity test. Then, in his life, most people were kind of casual as far as sex went. Saying that would probably start a fight right then, however.

  Especially if it was the truth and Gloria had been sleeping around.

  Hopefully that was the case, otherwise, his friend was about to have his entire world crash down around his ears. No matter what he did.

  No matter what any of them did.

  Chapter nine

  Interestingly, no one actually seemed to think that Tony Winters was the one to go to in regards to fixing an unwanted, or at least unexpected, pregnancy. Steve swore up and down that they’d been using birth control, but also admitted that Gloria had been on the pill. That meant it was under her control almost the entire time.

  When they got back to the gym it was about three in the morning. Still, he didn’t go home, heading inside first, to look some things up. It was going to be hard to rest anyway, even if he was starting out pretty tired. What he found out was interesting. The pill, in laboratory conditions, was incredibly effective as birth control. About a third of the women on it ended up getting pregnant anyway. His thought was that if a woman missed a day, that would mean she wasn’t protected.

  The facts on that one were very different however. It seemed that it gave ample protection for about seven days and some protection out to twelve. Then it was gone from the system totally, of course. Up to that point a woman wasn’t going to easily become pregnant as long as she’d been taking it for a while, which Gloria was supposed to have been.

  What that meant, at least to Anthony, was that the woman had done it on purpose. Indeed, most women that got pregnant on the pill had to be doing much the same thing. Then most of them lied about doing it, to trap a man into caring for the unwanted kid. It was pretty clear what was going on to medical professionals, but the fact of the matter was that he, or even Steve, had no recourse in the current situation.

  His choices had become almost nil.

  After that piece of wonderful fact finding, Tony went back home, walking with Jen and Rick, not talking about anything in particular. Steve had driven home, which wasn’t a brilliant plan. That meant everyone else had as well. Even if they probably shouldn’t have left him alone for a while.

  Tony slept, but got up after only a few hours, since it was Sunday. That meant going to church. His preferred sermon was the first one of the day. That mainly had older people at it, but was also shorter, since Reverend Keene thought that anyone willing to be up that early in the day didn’t need him to insist on hours of his voice yammering at them.

  That kind of thing was why Tony liked him. The man did his church thing well of course, but also worked hard to understand what everyone really needed from him at the same time.

  He showered, then dragged himself first into clothing, then over to the church, which was about three blocks away. Keene, a dark skinned man in a white robe was standing out front, his face beaming.

  “Tony! There you are. I caught that fight last week. A bit of a hard thing there. Are you doing all right?”

  It took a second for him to get that he meant the Hodder loss.

  “Oh, sure. I was always going to lose that. The stuff with Ashley… The fight after mine?” He didn’t know if that would be a thing for Reverend Keene. He might have just read something online about it, after all. That man never spoke against his sports related violence, but he was a man of God, so that could be an issue for him.

  Still, the man nodded, seeming concerned.

  “I saw that one as well. She took a beating there. I heard that drugs were involved? It was rather a stir in the news for a few days.”

  Tony nodded at that part.

  “No doubt. She’s all right, now. Ash won and everything. Fox… The other fighter? She’s in hot water. I doubt that she gets to have a career anymore.” His voice was a bit sad on that part of things. After all, he didn’t hate the former man. Her life had to be hard in ways that Anthony couldn’t even imagine.

  Keene seemed to be thinking much the same way.

  “We should add her to our prayers, then. It can be hard to be kind to those our friends have to fight. In your case that might be a little more literal than with most of us. We should get inside, I need to start soon. Good to see you, Tony.”

  He nodded.

  “You too. Thanks.”

  The service was kind of similar to most of them. There was a sermon, which wasn’t long, followed by singing and clapping. It was a Baptist church and they were far enough south for it to be the interesting kind. Not that he knew a lot about that sort of thing. Most of his knowledge actually came from what people attending there had told him over the last months. He didn’t get to go every week, but he tried to be there at least half the time. It was peaceful and regular. A thing that gave him a sense of belonging outside of the gym.

  He shook hands with a few people on the way out getting a hug from his buddy Ethyl, who was the grandmother of one of the guys that worked out at the gym. One that he’d managed to miss for a while now. The guy was around still, but they didn’t hang out or anything. Weirdly, that meant Tony was spending more time with his grandmother than the boxer was doing.

  When he got in, Tony tried to think about what was needed that day. He was on a break, as far as heavy training, though that was actually over, starting that day. He’d had a full week off. Not that he’d done nothing that whole time. Each day had a bit of exercise involved. More, the week was planned to be a little messed up, since it was a holiday. The gym actually closed on that Thursday, which meant that even people in training had to find ways to do their own work.

  It was a bit late for the earliest run, but Tony decided to get out and do that part alone. That meant a long run, which was done with no company, though he did see Mark and Riley on his second trip past the building. They were going inside and waved at him. They were all bundled up, since it was cold out that morning. Not enough for snow or anything, but it was clearly near freezing.

  His feet hit the pavement smoothly, as he moved through twelve miles. Not that fast, to be honest. Running was, unlike almost everyone else there, his favorite part of things. Like going to church, it was calming. Hard enough to feel like he was getting something done as well.

  After that, he got inside and ran through his normal morning routine. Jumping rope, sit-ups, push-ups, then working the heavy bag for a while. There was more than that, naturally. He wasn’t in training though, so while he pushed himself, it still lacked a sense of urge
ncy. It was probably a bad plan, letting himself become complacent like that. Most people did.

  Before lunch he showered, then made food for everyone. It was a fairly ordinary and plain meal that way. Interestingly, Lexi came to the meal, while Steve didn’t. He normally did. Lex on the other hand never had prior to that. She worked there, teaching yoga classes, so could have before, but now she just sat, seeming miserable.

  Rick tried to ignore that she was there, going over what everyone else had been doing that morning.

  “Mark, what did you do today?”

  That got a nod, since the man was actively in training for a fight. He’d been busy.

  “Ran, which was all right, but not fast enough. We need Tony back for that, to push us.” He glanced at him, his face sneering a bit. “Not that I love that part, but we do better trying to follow your scrawny, butt. You were out today, we meet at seven tomorrow?” The large man took a bite of plain salad, having skipped the dressing on it. Not that he didn’t look hard. He was just prone to gaining weight if he wasn’t careful.

  “A fast six? Riley, you’ve been doing that, too.” He knew that, having been out most mornings to talk to them before the run. Not that they needed their hands held.

  The other guy nodded, then Mark spoke his voice even sounding.

  “I did the morning set, like always. I’m a bit sore through the shoulders from yesterday. I need to find a sparring partner that can work on outfighting for the Ebert fight.”

  Tony could see that one. They didn’t really have anyone that could do that either. Basically they needed a tall heavy-weight that could stand well back and fire off punches from out of Mark’s range. Rick looked up, his eyes a bit tired seeming that day.