The Unstoppable Tony Winters Read online

  Enough to show that they were both probably in danger of head trauma. That was a real risk for Boxers. MMA fighters too, if they took a bad enough beating. Looking at Steve it seemed like his pupils were even and everything. Tony felt fine, so it looked like they’d dodged a bullet on that one. Rick had been right however.

  He’d messed up and fought way too hard. It had been his job to control things. His and Rick’s. The thing there was that his uncle had been standing there the whole time and said nothing. He’d barely even called out suggestions for Steve. No one had said anything to Tony either, even though Denny was there to be his corner man that day. At one point he jumped into the ring as Tony stood in the corner and squirted water in his mouth. He spit first, then drank some, but didn’t really recall it having happened.

  When they were done, Steve left, getting to go and rest after that little event. Rick waited, so Tony did too. He had questions after all.

  “Um… You aren’t wrong. I needed to manage that better. Why didn’t you stop the fight? Or tell us to back it down a bit?”

  That got his uncle to take a deep breath, locking eyes with him.

  “Because you both looked amazing in there, Tony. That was a waste, to be honest. Fifteen people saw that and so did the press, but it should have been in a huge arena. On television maybe? Plus, we did have press there and this way it looks like Steve is getting ready on a level that will get attention. No one trains that way. Not because it doesn’t work, but because it’s too hard on the body to sustain. On the good side, I have the video. Because I need to show it to Jen, so she knows I wasn’t just letting Steve beat up on you for twelve rounds. Or the other way around.” He looked chagrinned then and shook his head, like it was a real problem.

  Not that Jen wouldn’t mention it, but she’d get the idea. Sometimes you got hurt in practice. That was why they had safety gear.

  “Okay. Just wondering. I mean, you weren’t wrong, but I just noticed that I wasn’t the only one there at the time. It was weird. I… Really, I don’t recall doing most of that. I kind of do, but…”

  Rick nodded.

  “It’s like you were just moving? That you weren’t in control of your body the whole time?”

  Tony smiled, even if it hurt a bit across his cheeks and pointed at the man.

  “Just like that. Do you do that?”

  There was a shrug then. That and a look away.

  “Sometimes. I used to have a friend, when I was starting out that did that a lot. Except that when it happened to him, he almost always cheated. Harsh stuff too.”

  “Adam Forsythe?” It made sense, but Anthony was kind of hoping that wasn’t where the conversation was going.

  “Yeah. He… Really, he’s not a bad guy. He slept with my sister, which wasn’t a thing I loved, so we sort of didn’t hang after that, but he isn’t evil or anything. Cheats like a mother…” The man stopped then and shook his head. “Well, he always said he didn’t remember doing it. If you…”

  Tony just sat there.

  “How likely is it that he’s my father? Samantha mentioned him the other day and she seemed to think it was likely. I…” he looked his uncle dead in the eye. “Look, my mother isn’t a horrible person in a lot of ways. Not a good mother, but she isn’t mean compared to most people. One thing though… She, um, dates a lot. I mean, four or five guys a week isn’t odd for her. Not all the time, but I don’t think she ever went out with a guy for longer than six weeks. I just… I kind of figured that she was always like that, you know? So there would be no way to tell…”

  It had been a cornerstone of his life, actually. His mother was always silent about who his dad was, so it made sense. She just didn’t know and didn’t want to point the finger at the wrong man. Which was fair, to his way of thinking. Plus, she might not even recall any of them, if there had been twenty men in a month.

  Rick sucked in air and looked angry.

  “No. Not back then. She was… Not a great kid really. Kind of a spoiled brat. The kind of kid that would get into the liquor cabinet, drink all the wine and then blame her older brother with big wide eyes? She dated Adam for about three months though, then she left. I hadn’t even heard about a baby. Which is a bit weird. I mean, I can see her not telling me and even mom and dad keeping that between themselves, but man… Adam should have told me, you know?”

  Blinking, Tony just sat there, thinking.

  “Did he know? Does he even now? I mean, he didn’t try to do anything until after the Saka fight. Then he made an offer to fight… Which I don’t get still. Can you get DNA samples before things like that?”

  Rick shrugged.

  “Easily. Send in a doctor to make sure the other fighter isn’t doping and collect up anything you need. Even if it wasn’t for a real fight. My guess though is that he just wanted to see if we’d respond at all. I did, just sending the message you asked me to. A suggestion that he send a DNA sample for testing. I haven’t heard anything back yet. I trust you don’t mind doing the same the other way around? I know that I’d want to know for certain if it were me.”

  Anthony could see that. After all, people could say anything. Testing would free the man up though, if it wasn’t true. If it was… Well, he was nearly grown up. It wasn’t like he needed someone to teach him how to play catch or anything. Babysitting wasn’t a part of his life anymore either and hadn’t been for a long time. Nor, when he thought about it, did his diaper need to be changed.

  “That sounds about right to me. Really though… I kind of don’t care? I know that sounds bad, but I’ve lived my whole life knowing that I didn’t have a dad. Most of the kids I ever knew were in the same boat. It’s just a thing. I made my peace with the idea so long ago that I can’t even remember it.”

  That got a nod.

  “Well, it won’t be happening today. You should probably go home and rest?”

  “I have some towels to pass out. Water too. Probably floors to mop, if people are going to be here to work out? Unless I look too bad for that? I also have my BJJ lessons.”

  Rick shook his head.

  “Steve got the worst of it. We’re going to get a bad rep, beating all our fighters like this.”

  “I know. I’ll be more careful in the future. That was… Weird. I think though… That parts of it were a lot like what Clyde will really be doing.” Not all of it. No, that part had been going too far. He also needed to watch the power levels being used.

  “Good. Well, go now. Take it easy. We need to get you some solid rest, so after tonight, take a week. You can run once, every three days, but nothing else. You start training right after that.”

  He was dismissed, it seemed, so took off and started working, making the rounds to pass out water and towels, until it was time for his evening class. That went well, so at the end he walked up to the instructor, to explain what was going on.

  “Hey, um, I won’t be in for a while? I start training for a fight next week. I hear it’s going to be hard.”

  The man just smiled at him.

  “Go over everything though? Whenever you can. No need for you to not keep what you’ve earned already. When will you be back, two or three months?” The man worked at a gym that had professional fighters at it, so knew the score there.

  “Three? I’ll make a point of practicing when I can. It should come up, a little bit. It’s an MMA fight, so…”

  The man seemed pleased enough to hear it.

  “Well, do what you need to. Just know that everyone here is behind you. All your friends.”

  “Thanks. That means a lot.” It really did, since he’d only been working there for a bit over a week.

  After that he got to go home and get something to eat. Jen was making dinner and as Rick had suggested, her first words were about the state of his face.

  “What happened to you?”

  Ashley had that one, being clever like she was.

  “You, right, you were working then. Steve and Tony went twelve rounds. Steve… Didn’t
do as well. At least his face looks worse and he was hobbling around as he left. Rick, did you get vid on that?”

  The man smiled, brightly.

  “I did! I have it set up, so we can see it after we have dinner?” He seemed hopeful and Jen made a face, but nodded, a bit sullenly.

  She didn’t say much during the meal itself, which was different, since he had two portions of meat on his plate. He didn’t get it really, but Ashley did and winked at him.

  “You’re fighting at one-twenty-five. To gain enough weight, you have to eat about three hundred extra calories a day. So this is the start. Lean meat. I get to be your diet coach. Isn’t that exciting? It will mean changing your diet a bit. Watching it more closely, mainly. You tend to under eat. On the good side, we won’t have to starve you to get you down to the right weight. On the negative, you need to start building pretty quickly, if it’s going to be quality.”

  Jen smiled at that, forgetting perhaps that she was upset over something. Until she looked at his face. Then she frowned again. Like someone had been abusing her kid. He wasn’t her child, but that she bothered to care that much, or at all, was so different that Anthony was willing to take it. Smiling then, he nodded toward Ash.

  “That’s a bit different. All right. I can do that. Eat what I’m told.”

  She nodded then, seeming happy.

  “Darned straight. Good then. See that you follow the plan.” She seemed shocked for some reason, as if he wouldn’t buy that he needed to have more food.

  Most days he was a bit hungry. All the time, except right after meals. It had been what everyone wanted though, so he’d followed along with the idea. Now they wanted him to have more food. He could deal with that. In fact, for the first time in a while he felt full. Not stuffed or anything, but like he didn’t want to eat more, the extra bit making enough of a difference for him.

  Then, instead of getting off to bed, which he kind of felt like doing, even if he’d slept late, he had to watch the sparring with Steve again. It wasn’t until it was over that anyone spoke and that was Ashley.

  “Holy fudge. What did I just see? I… That wasn’t normal, was it?”

  Rick smiled and shrugged.

  “No. We can’t have that level of force being used. Steve followed the plan perfectly. Tony…”

  He nodded.

  “I made a bunch of mistakes. Adding things mostly. I mean, they wouldn’t be errors if Clyde did them, but he won’t. I made the fight too hard for Steve and in the wrong way. I should have hit harder, but the truth is, I pretty much topped out there. That was what I have right now.”

  Jen rolled her eyes at him.

  “Your mistake was that you pushed a professional boxer too hard, doing a better job than his opponent will do?”

  Said that way, it sounded all kinds of egotistical, he realized, so he smiled.

  “Um… Yeah? I was there to present a specific fight and I only partially did it. On the good side, Steve still won.” It was close, but that probably would have been the judges’ decision in the end.

  Rick looked at the screen, which showed them moving back at the last bell and slowly nodded.

  “Agreed. Still, that standing game is part way to what you need to be trained for. What else do you need to get?” He asked, as if Anthony would have an answer already. He did, in a generic way.

  “First I need to review all of Hodder’s fights I can find. Then, I probably need to learn kicks and a much better ground game. I hear that he’s good. Honestly, it will probably come down to strength and I can’t match him in the time I have. Still, I need to go in and show everyone that he isn’t just picking on a little kid, even if I can’t win. That would hurt him more than it’s worth to him, I bet.” Career suicide came to mind.

  Ashly pushed his arm, moving closer to him. Leaning in, like they were friends, which was more or less true.

  “That’s different, you know that right? Most people don’t worry about making their opponent look good. Kind of the opposite, most of the time.”

  “Well, I mean, I want to win, but it isn’t the only thing on the table, is it? I’ll do the very best I can toward that, but if I can’t, then I still have to do the best job possible.” It made sense to him. Well, to his act. Tony.

  To him being that kind of person seemed right. On the great side, Anthony didn’t expect anyone to agree with him. Oddly, Jenny smiled.

  “That’s… Probably a pretty healthy mindset. Most of the time we’d try to get you to think that you were the ultimate champion and were going to rip him apart. Honestly, going in to do the best you possibly can so that everyone watching has a chance to feel good about it…” She stopped, almost stuck then. As if it was just too alien a concept for her mind to deliver. Not uncontested.

  Tony just blew his cheeks up, with his tongue sticking out a bit. It was a funny face and hurt too much to hold for long, but it got a smile, since it was so out of place.

  “I’m supposed to be taking time off soon. I don’t know what to do. I… Help out at the gym? Or…” He thought for a bit then shrugged. “I could start school stuff early? Read some books. I don’t know how to set that up. Do I need a tutor or something?” The idea was almost insane to him. He’d had times when he hadn’t gone to school, but that was most often measured in weeks. The rest of the time it was free babysitting during the day, so Deirdre wasn’t going to miss out on that.

  At least he’d always thought of it that way. She’d insisted he go when he could. Not hard, or well, but it really had taken place. Then she’d left him to his own devices, as if it wasn’t even a real thing in her world. Now he had to wonder if she’d actually just thought of that kind of thing, going to school, as being what kids did. A sign that she was on some level trying to be there for him. It hadn’t really seemed that way at the time.

  Tired, she stood up then and stretched.

  “I guess I can find that out in the morning? I need to sleep soon. I just drug myself through today. I don’t really know what’s wrong.” It felt like he’d taken downers, but he knew better than to describe it that way.

  Ashley just snorted at him.

  “Over work. You got here and started working like you were in training, then pushed everyone else to do even more. The difference is that our trainers know when to tell us to back off. You’ve been going almost flat out the whole time. I’d make fun of you, but the fact is that I should have mentioned it before. Even after you were attacked, you barely took a real break. Most fighters get a few days a week while in training and only work out two or three times a week when they aren’t. Even then it isn’t like what you’ve been doing.”

  Rick nodded.

  “We had that talk earlier, more or less. He’s on a break for the next week, with minimal running. Every three days or so. Since you’re leaving in the morning to go to Leverage for a few days, that means you can run when you get back. Once. Then… I don’t know what to do with you, but that’s for your team to work out. Right now, just kick back. You can do your sparring with Sally, but don’t stress yourself too hard. They’ll understand.”

  Next to him, Ashley laughed. One single time. It made her body jump a bit.

  “Just make sure to send the video of him and Steve along, so they know that we aren’t personally beating him?” She reached up, nearly touched his face and winced.

  It didn’t hurt that much.

  Even the next day, when he got up, it wasn’t bad. He could see the lines in the mirror, but he didn’t look truly beaten. Tony didn’t know what the plan was really, but when he got down the stairs, Jen met him with a hug. It was a quick thing, but nice. Familial, he thought.

  “Hey! I have a bag you can use. Three days, most of it basically in a gym. As we tell you not to work out at all… Come on. I think Dan Sweet is due in here at nine? He’ll come to the gym, since he knows where it is.”

  Tony smiled, then went with her for the brown canvas back pack she was lending him and had everything he needed for two weeks set up
before Rick was out for breakfast. It was late, being almost eight when that happened. Meaning everyone else was probably going to be all lazy if he wasn’t there. At least on the road work.

  The thing was, he didn’t really care at the moment. He wanted to, but couldn’t make himself. That part felt a bit dismal, actually. Before he sat down, his uncle pulled a tube out that held a long cotton swab on a wooden stick.

  “Before you eat. Cheek swab. For DNA? I got a kit, just in case I hear anything.”

  He just did it, almost wondering what would happen if he simply told the guy no. Probably nothing. It didn’t matter much, he didn’t think. Instead he tried to get into Tony mode. That meant smiling, even if he couldn’t feel it at the moment.

  “Neat. I should have everything I need. As long as I can get food there?” He didn’t know if that was included in the deal.

  Rick just passed him a wad of cash and then shrugged.

  “They don’t starve people there as far as I’ve heard. Try to stick to your diet plan. It shouldn’t be that hard. Also, you’re resting, other than sparring with Sally. Even that you need to moderate. Make sure not to hurt her.” He sounded like that was going to be hard for him to manage or something.

  Anthony had copies of all Diego’s fights and some of the woman he was going to meet. She was moving up toward pro level and Dan was clearly looking for some publicity, putting her against a man like he was. On the way out, Rick patted him on the shoulder. That was sore, from the day before.

  “Be good. Remember that you can call us at any time. Day or night. For any reason. Dan is a good guy, but fighters are fighters and vary as much as any group. It shouldn’t be a problem, but if anything starts, try to make sure you aren’t in it.”

  “Got it.” It was a bit of a lecture, as if he were stupid, but Tony knew that the man meant well. Also that he probably thought of him as a bit of an idiot. He wasn’t, he didn’t think, but adults not getting that instantly, or even consistently, was probably about what he should expect for the next five years or so.

  They walked to the gym and he expected Rick and Jen to leave him outside to wait, but apparently, if the man wanted to take away a whole Tony, he was expected to walk all the way inside. It wasn’t that they didn’t trust the guy or anything either. Just that they expected things to be done a certain way.