The Art of Being Tony (Tony Winters Book 1) Read online

  Anthony growled a bit.

  “Like anyone in the world cares enough to pay someone to sabotage this guy?” He’d done pretty well, but Riley really had pulled out a fair win.

  Next to him Jen blew air out making her cheeks go round.

  “No doubt, right? We’re looking at people that are low enough down we won’t have that kind of thing. This is the big leagues, but low enough that we won’t see anyone pulling stuff like that. Now, we do have to keep an eye out for it later with some of our fighters. The higher up you go, the more that’s an issue. The internal politics can get tricky, too.”

  That was the last fight they had a man in that night, but it took a while for the others to get out on the floor, after their matches. Steve got there first, but Rick didn’t come out until Riley was ready. They were all in street clothes and watched the last few fights, before loading into the van to get back home. It was a bit of a drive and Rick was doing that part for them.

  Everyone inside was decently pleased, over all. Steve seemed pretty quiet, though he didn’t speak much. Riley however, was pissed about his fight.

  “I should have knock his ass out.” That refrain was spoken several times and while that was the goal in a fight, it hadn’t really happened. No one answered him, so Anthony got the idea and kept his own mouth shut.

  Anything they said might start a fight with the man. Doing that would be a bad idea, since they weren’t going to be able to escape, sitting in the white van. It had a cool gym logo on the outside, but that didn’t allow for an extra door that he could jump out if punches started flying.

  Still, the man kept going on, grousing about things and Jen finally spoke, her voice low.

  “Yeah. That guy was kind of a jerk, at the end. You clearly won. We’ll look at the tapes, but you’ll see, you dominated the last four rounds.” That sounded strange, but it got Riley to go silent.

  Rick chuckled a bit.

  “Oh, yeah. Everyone saw that. I have a copy of all the fights, for review. We’ll do that tomorrow. Right now, everyone should kick back and get a good night’s sleep. You all did well. Now we need to focus on getting even better. Trust me, the other fighters that watched what you did tonight are going to be working even harder, after that.”

  It seemed reasonable. Though Anthony didn’t know if anyone was going to be watching that kind of thing all that much. Except that, now that he thought about it, they had been, so maybe it was the kind of thing that really happened. That all the clubs would be watching everyone else like hawks, trying to find the weakness in their skills or training. In that case, then it made sense that everyone needed to try and get better, all the time.

  Everyone went silent for a while. When they got back to the gym, where people had left their cars, in the rear parking lot, Steve walked up to him and smiled.

  “Hey. Thanks.”

  Anthony tilted his head.

  “Um, for what?” He couldn’t think of anything in particular that he’d done. The man laughed a bit then.

  “For being there over the last weeks and pushing me. It’s hard to keep the momentum going, when you get tired. You saw that, in the ring? Going into round seven, Muchado lost it. I could keep going, thanks to the extra training. Because some little a-hole decided that we all had to step up our road work like he did. We all hate that, but it helps. So thanks.”

  Rick, who was standing back, near Jen, nodded, but didn’t add anything.

  They walked home, even if it was dark out, Jen and Rick going on about what they had to do next. They had another fight night the next week and then they skipped a week, having MMA bouts in different cities through the last three weeks of July.

  For that, apparently, they were going to need to get the bus out. That they had one of those, for longer trips, was news to Anthony. Apparently it was kept in a big garage somewhere, since it wasn’t behind the building they worked in each day.

  Everyone was sleeping in the next morning. At least who’d been up the night before. It wasn’t a rest day for Anthony, so he got up, grabbed the key for the gym and opened it up on time. Then he stayed on the first floor, skipping rope and doing some light training, mainly grappling, with several people that came in. There weren’t a lot of people there, but they had other fighters that needed to work. There was real staff too, so it wasn’t like he was in charge of the place.

  Dave for instance, glared at him, when he came in.

  “Where’s my running coach? WTF, Tony?”

  He grinned.

  “You’re up for that today. Push everyone that shows up. The others are sleeping, so I can’t get a run in until someone comes in to watch the place. That might be a while. We got in late. The fights went well. Steve and Riley both won.” Some of the others did too, so he mentioned their names, the things being nearly burned into his brain. He’d stared at them the whole time after all. Some of the fights even started to play out, in his head, when he thought about it.

  Dave sighed and when a few people showed up at eight, including Lewis, the man took off, trying to get everyone to actually put in some decent speed and effort on the run.

  At just before ten Jen and Rick came in and instead of yelling at him for stealing the keys to the business, his uncle just nodded and patted him on the shoulder.

  “Thanks. We’ve got this now.”

  He nodded and then shrugged.

  “Cool. I can make the last part of the church service, if I hurry.” No one even looked at him funny over that part. He tried to go every Sunday and had clothing ready for it, in his stuff on the third floor. That took running and he was half an hour late, but the Reverend smiled from the pulpit when he came in. He really did go all out on the later service and there was more singing and clapping along than in the earlier one.

  When it was done, Reverend Keene came out to talk to people, half of whom were leaving directly, the rest heading to the side room. When he got to Anthony, he smiled hugely and shook his hand.

  “And here I thought you were going to be skipping out on us! Good to see you. Ethyl was looking for her hymnal buddy earlier.”

  He nodded.

  “I had to get the gym open and stay with it. I should be back on schedule eventually. There’s a string of fights coming up though. Go team gym, right?” He didn’t know what the man in his funny robe dress thing knew about that kind of matter, but the guy nodded.

  “I hear you there, Tony. It’s good to be there to support those that support you. Remember, we’re here for you, too. So is Jesus.”

  “Thanks.” He didn’t really know how to respond to that, but it was how the man always was. More than that, Reverend Keene really lived it. He was always there for everyone that needed him. Really, Rick and Jen were like that, too. It was strange and kind of felt fake to him still.

  Like a trick.

  Except that he couldn’t really see what they were going to get out of it. What the payoff for them was going to be, for all their hard work. With the fighters it made sense, given that Rick and Jen made money off of them, if they won. So propping them up was a good idea.

  What he couldn’t figure out was how being kind to him helped anyone really. Sure, he was trying to be what they wanted, playing his little Tony act for them all, but that didn’t even pay for the food he ate, most days. Certainly the Reverend wasn’t getting anything from him being there. He didn’t even have money to slip into the collection plate. As far as he could tell, the man never even thought about that part of things.

  Like it was important for him to be there, just because he was himself.

  It was confusing. People only did what felt good to them in the moment. Even working out hard was about gaining something. The fighters did it to win matches and money. Some of them were doing it just to prove they could do it. Anthony was putting a lot of hard time in each day so that people would like him and see that he was useful.

  Still, everyone was acting like he was valuable, even without that.

  It wasn’t a thing t
hat he’d ever had before.

  People that were… Actually there for him. Over a time that was longer than what was convenient for them.

  Getting back to the gym, in time to help make lunch, he started right into that. The big difference that day was that Rick announced that they had a meeting that night, at the house.

  “Review time. Everyone show up. The core people here.”

  That was at eight, meaning that the last of the Cardio-Boxing classes would be done and the janitorial crew would be coming in to clean up. That meant he had time for a run in the afternoon, which was when Jen went out, with a larger group of people than he normally got to work with.

  They were all slow and kind of pitiful. Jen at least tried hard, but the rest of them, including her MMA people, hung back, even on their shorter runs. They waited at the end, for everyone to get to the door, but there were people that had only gone three miles, dogging it in after nearly an hour of slowly jogging.

  He winced and shook his head.

  Jen shrugged at him, smiling.

  “Most of these people aren’t pros.”

  Which he could see. There was a big difference between the people there in the afternoon compared to the morning crowd. These people looked pretty normal, instead of lean and hard. Still, if they wanted to get in a ring and fight, they kind of needed to work a bit harder. Sighing, he tried to figure out what Tony would be doing in that situation.

  Which, for once, was smiling, nodding and not saying much.

  “Good point! Well, I’m looking for sparring partners, anyone want to go?”

  Jen actually looked away and smiled, but didn’t say anything. He could get that. A lot of the people there were huge, compared to him. Most were MMA fighters too and would probably force him to submit in seconds.

  A couple were willing anyway and one of them wanted to box, to work on his standing skills. They did that on the first floor, since what Tim meant was that he needed to work punches, kicks and standing locks, instead of rolling. That was hard to make happen all the time, but Tony had done it before with Dave and Ashley.

  Tim was, hands down, better than Anthony. He also got beaten all around the mat, because he just couldn’t keep going after the first few minutes. He tried, having heart, but his conditioning failed him early on. After a bit the larger man, who had nearly sixty pounds on Anthony, found himself in a standing guillotine. It wasn’t the best choke ever, but the man struggled to get out of it and tapped after a minute of trying.

  Then, without a break, Jen had him face off with the others and finally took a turn herself. She had him locked out into a complicated leg lock that he wasn’t even certain he could have managed if someone were physically guiding his legs into place. That took her about half a minute. She was good and didn’t get too far out of breath while they worked, going on without rounds.

  Tim, who’d stood there the whole time watching, just shook his head.

  “Tough. I do get the idea, I need to work on the exercise portion a little more.”

  Jen just smiled, her face looking bright and happy. She didn’t say anything, which was about the fact that pushing these people before they were ready would probably have them quitting, instead of adapting. That was what Anthony was going with anyway. It was why he hadn’t said anything about it in the first place, just going in for some work with them.

  The skill level was still in everyone else’s favor, for the most part. Especially on the grappling portion of things. To that end he worked with Jen, for the first time, trying to actually push as hard as he could to learn, so that she wouldn’t be wasting her efforts. She had a match coming up and there was no way he was really helping her that much. After half an hour, seeing that, he had to shrug.

  “We need a better person for you to work with. I’m holding you back right now. Who’s up for that?”

  There were a few people there that had the ability already and they were game enough, though only one of the men actually had that fit look that said he was serious about things. Her trainer, Raul. The man smiled when he heard Anthony saying what he had, for some reason. It was a big and happy thing.

  He spoke with a decently thick accent, that sounded different than what he was used to.

  “Good call, Tony. Nick, you should work with him. Go over locks and just drill until you’re going to dream about them tonight. Jen, with me. Let’s roll.”

  The work with the new guy, Nick, was harder than he would have expected. Especially since it was kind of clear that the man wasn’t planning on taking it easy on him at all. They drilled in a flowing pattern, moving from one move to the next, escaping from what was done and discussing how to improve things while they did it. The work was constant, but relaxed at the same time.

  They went on for over an hour though, until Raul slapped Nick on the shoulder.

  “Not bad. Good work, Tony. We get you in the afternoons? Who’s your trainer?”

  That got him to stop, since he didn’t really have one, Jen however spoke from the mat, where she was working with one of the other men. One that was being too easy on her. That was, clearly, the whole girl thing again.

  “He works with Denny West. It’s not official.”

  The man nodded.

  “I’ll get with him then. Thanks for helping today.”

  Looking around he nodded.

  “No problem. Um… that guy…” He pointed at the man working with Jen, as Ashley nodded, getting it already.

  Raul seemed questioning, but didn’t speak. That meant Anthony had to do it.

  “He needs to work harder. He’s coddling Jen and that…”

  Instead of being upset, the dark tan man nodded.

  “You got that, Brian? I was just going to mention that. She has a fight coming up, against The Griffin, that’s the big leagues for women. Stop treating her like your date to the dance.”

  If it made any difference, Anthony couldn’t tell. It just looked different when the men worked with each other. Harder and like they actually wanted to win. When they worked with the girls it was always just a little softer. Not just in the power used, but like things were being left out. Only, no one could learn well if that was happening. If that Griffin person had people that weren’t doing that, then Jen was going to lose.

  Worse, all the women there seemed to know that as a fact. It was just so hard for the guys to see past their internal blocks. Even the pros were soft on them, not wanting to be a bully. Except their job was to make certain that the people they were working with had a chance to get better. That meant pushing them, constantly.

  It was a real problem and he, the newest and worst person there, wasn’t going to be able to really repair that part of things for them. Not that day. All he could do was try his best and do his part. Which, at the moment, was all about getting the cleaning gear out and providing soft towels for people. The evening classes were about to start, so he jogged off, to make sure he did that part of things in a timely fashion.

  Sure, it might be boring, most days, but for the first time the evening class had something interesting happen, since one of the women in the class, who had short blue hair, a nose ring and a tribal face tattoo, started yelling that the man in front of her was looking at her butt. Leslie looked freaked and the man, who had to be at least fifty and was a bit over weight, turned to stare at the woman.

  “I’m in front of you, facing the other way… That isn’t even physically possible…”

  The woman stopped then, but acted like she was being watched constantly. Anthony got the idea and went to find Rick.

  “Hey, um, do we have cameras in the gym?”

  The man gave him a funny look, but nodded.

  “Sure. So we can tape fight practice. We do that when we have people in from other gyms to spar, too. Why?”

  “Can you get the cardio class? Right now? The woman with blue hair has to be going for a fake lawsuit. She was trying to accuse the man in front of her of staring at her behind. Which he wasn’t. It isn’
t even physically possible. He pointed that out and she started pretending not to understand. That isn’t normal.”

  That got a few buttons pushed, in the upper office, on the third floor. It showed the whole class all at once, but it was better than nothing.

  It was a way that some people made money. They’d make up a problem and then sue a random company over it. He’d seen it a few times in his own life, from the bad guy side of things, since Deirdre had friends who supplemented their incomes that way. In this case it sounded different, since the blue haired woman wasn’t going to pretend to fall down, screaming whiplash.

  Whatever she was going for had to do with something else.

  Hopefully, Anthony was just wrong.

  Chapter seven

  Things were a lot more hectic when they had a fight almost every week. Even for Tony, which was different. Not everyone went off to other cities for things like that, but the training team did. So even though Mark was the only one of their fighters going off to Detroit, Jen and Rick both loaded on to the bus, along with Doc Hampshire and a few other people. Not Steve or Ashley, but Denny was there, acting as the backup corner man, since he was on Mark’s training team.

  For some reason, Anthony was going along, too.

  No one even blinked at that. Not even Mark. The big guy, who could be a jerk every now and then, especially if he was hungry and cutting weight, just waved him onto the large bus when they were all getting on board.

  “Hey, kid. I didn’t know I got the whole team. You come to go over the fight strategy with me?” He was being a pill, but Anthony nodded.

  “Of course. You know all this, but we can go over it, if you want?” Rick moved in, sitting on the isle, with Jenny on the other side of him, as the driver got them on the road. They had to hire a man for that, specially. This time the guy was named Patrick and had a nice grey beard on his face. He wasn’t exactly cut, which showed in the group they had there, but he was tidy and seemed to actually know where they were going, putting him several steps above Anthony that way.