CHAPTER TWO
Chapter 1
Owing a favor
MAX
“Max! Get your ass in here!”
I look over at Mike from my spot on the floor right in the middle of my sit-ups. He’s heading into his office and apparently I’m being summoned. I roll my eyes and drop back down on the mat. Shit. It’s not even seven o’clock in the morning and already he’s in a pissy mood.
Shaking my head I grab my bottle of water and my sweat towel off the bench before I make my way across the main floor of the gym to Mike’s office.
Mike’s Gym is something Mike built when he got back from being overseas. He said he needed something constructive to do for a living and being a mall security guard wasn’t going to cut it. It started out as a makeshift warehouse with some mats and lights, but now this place is massive. There are three separate boxing rings, a whole gymnastics room built to fucking Olympics standards, two weight rooms and not to mention the two open rooms with mats on the floor for various classes from yoga to self-defense to mixed martial arts training. This place is a lot more than a gym. To most people here it’s a sanctuary, an outlet or sometimes even an escape. Lots of people come here simply because there is something for everyone.
Mike has his back turned to me looking at some file on his desk by the time I get to his office.
I drop down onto the couch against the wall and wait for him to finish. After a few minutes he glances over at me before he grabs the file and drops down into his chair behind his desk. Its then that I notice the tension in his face. Mike isn’t the kind of guy to let shit get to him so if he’s here and stressed usually that means something bad is going on. I lean forward in my seat on the couch trying to see what file he was looking at, but he has it flipped over.
“Whats going on Mike”?
He blows out a long breath before he says, “Max I have a favor to ask”.
“Okay. What is it?”
“I need you to take on a private self defense client.”
“When?”
“I’m not firm on the date but I would want you to meet her this week.”
Shaking my head I grab my water bottle and get up to lean against the door.
“Look Mike you know I would help you out, but this month is a bad month. I’m trying to get that new MMA training class off the ground and I still don’t have an MMA expert to run it. I’m working here, helping mom at the Diner and trying to keep Char out of trouble till she goes to A&M in the Spring. I can’t do it. Sorry.”
“I’m asking as a favor to me Max.”
I take a good look at him and it hits me that in all the time I have known Max he has never asked me for anything. He helped me out plenty but never asked me for anything in return, which makes me wonder why now. Who is this client that he wants me to help? Why ask me?
In high school my dad died and just like any teenager I decided to be pissed at the world. Got into fights, drinking and doing a lot of shit I shouldn’t have. I got arrested and put my mom through more than she should have had to deal with after losing my dad, running our family diner and taking care of my little sister.
One of the things that got me back on track in high school was Mike bringing me in to help at the gym. Mike was a friend of my dads and after I got arrested my mom called him and asked him to see if he could keep me out of trouble. He brought me to this gym and has been training me to fight since I was 15 years old.
When I turned 18 he let me help out on some self-defense classes. Over the past couple of years working here I volunteered to help train victims of domestic violence on how to defend themselves against people who were bigger and stronger than they were privately. It’s something that I developed a passion for after my little sister ended up in the hospital. She had been going out with this asshole for a year and half and nobody knew anything until he put her in the hospital with a concussion, three cracked ribs and a broken arm.
A lot of victims of abuse/violence have a problem in a classroom environment so I offer private lessons whenever my schedule allows me to, but lately that hasn’t really been an option. Although, considering Mike saved my life and has never asked anything of me in return, I know I’m not going to be able to turn this down. Shaking my head I walk into his office and close the door. I make my way over to the chair across his desk and sit down again.
“What happened to her?”
Raising an eyebrow and giving me that signature smirk of his, “How do you know its a ‘her’”?
Shaking my head I lean back in my chair with a smirk of my own, “You have a penchant for helping women who remind you of your girls Mike. Your the biggest softy I have ever met.”
That smirk falls off his face and he narrows his eyes at me before muttering “asshole” under his breath, which just makes me laugh.
“I can’t tell you what happened to her. I promised that she would be the one to share that with you.”
I look up at him surprised. Anytime I have done this I got the information on my client before we even met. They would come to Mike through his work with the local hospital or his wife and he would refer them to me if he was too busy to take them on or they were too uncomfortable with him, but always after getting their story. His wife Sasha is a psychologist who works with various groups that focus on helping women who have been victims of violence. Usually, her clients want someone trust worthy and she gives them Mike’s name and number. She leaves it up to them to call and share their story with him. The fact that he hasn’t gotten the story or at least can’t tell it to me means that this isn’t a normal case.
“How am I supposed to take on a client that I know nothing about?”
“I haven’t gotten permission from her to share any of her information with you. I’m asking you to help her as a favor. You work very well with victims. You know how to make yourself smaller in their presence, keep your voice neutral as to not cause alarm and are able to build up their trust in you enough for them to allow you to teach them hand to hand combat. Which is huge considering a lot of them cannot stand to be touched. Your good at helping these women. This girl is the daughter of an old army buddy of mine. He saved my life on my first tour. Sasha got assigned her case at Hilcreast. His daughter needed help close to a year ago so he called me and I talked to Sasha. Now I’m asking you to help her. “
This was important to him and I owed this man a lot. I didn’t want to turn him down after everything he had done for me, especially since he was asking me this as a favor to him. Although, I would be taking on a client I knew nothing about. That is a hard thing to do because then you’re flying blind in terms of their triggers. Someone who has experienced domestic violence will react negatively to loud sounds, raised voices and quick hand movements. That’s why you teach in one of the private mat rooms, often after hours, always keep your voice calm and your movements precise. Going in blind like this I could make a mistake and do more harm to the poor girl than good.
This was for Mike though, so I take a deep breath and nod my head.
“I’ll do it, but I have conditions. I need some info here Mike. I have to know what I’m dealing with. I will only have time for sessions early in the morning or late at night so I’ll need access to the gym after hours. Plus Char is going to be coming with me more often than not depending on schedules so that needs to be ok.”
“I will see if she is open to me divulging information to you when I see her next. As far as everything else goes you can have my spare set of keys to the gym and if Charlotte needs to come she can as long as she behaves and doesn’t get into anything she shouldn’t. Plus, it might help having another girl around during training sessions. How is Charolette doing?”
While my sister currently was not in trouble she had been having quite a few scrapes lately. After she ended up in the hospital and that douche Clarke was arrested she pretty much just kept to herself. She ended up taking a year off after high school because she had ended up in the hospital right before she was supposed to start at A&M in College Station. Between healing up, the trial and therapy she needed time off, but sometimes I think that might not have been the best idea.
Lately, the past few months, she had been partying and getting into trouble. I didn’t know what the hell was going on with her, but I knew spending the next few months with me taking up all her free time getting her to help out at the gym was going to be a much better alternative than letting her run around like a crazy person all summer. I could keep an eye on her.
My mother was a single parent, she worked long hours at Susan’s Diner, our family’s diner. She didn’t have the time to dedicate to watching Char and making sure she stayed out of trouble 24/7. She thought she would just grow out of it like I did. I wasn’t so sure. I think underneath it all something broke inside my sister and now I needed to find a way to help her fix it.
“I’m keeping her out of trouble. I’m worried but I can’t do anything unless she tells me what the hell is going on.”
“Do you want me to talk to her?”
That made me laugh.
“You’re not much better than me on the list of people she is willing to open up to.”
For the first time that morning he cracked a smile. He knew it was true. She saw him as the annoying surrogate uncle and me as the overbearing and over protective big brother. Neither one of us was high on her list of confidants. That’s not what bothered me. What bothered me is that I didn’t think ANYONE was on that list anymore.
“See what you can find out about the client. I’ll touch base with you tomorrow and we will figure something out.”
“Sounds good. How close are we to setting up that MMA training class?”
I leaned back in my chair and released a sigh.
“It’s not right around the corner, but I’m thinking first of the year for sure. I can’t find anyone who has the time needed to teach the class or is willing to teach a co-ed group. A lot of them are thrown off by women being in the class, but I’m hoping I can get Blaine to do it. After his fight in Las Vegas in July he’s retiring. He seemed interested when I mentioned it to him so we might be able to get it on the fall calendar if everything works out the way it should, but I think that might be pushing it.”
“You think he’ll take that big of a cut in pay and move across the country to boot?”
“He’s done well with his endorsements and saved almost all of his money. After getting into the stock market game he is pretty much set for the rest of his life. Plus, the money isn’t what drives him. It’s the sport. The rush. You know?”
Nodding his head Mike leaned back in his chair.
“It’s a rush defiantly. Until you get knocked down so hard you can’t get back up. Sooner or later it happens to all of us. Good for him getting out on a high note.”
“Yeah he said he was done with the whole scene. I think he tossed around the idea of opening up his own gym here in Houston, but decided he didn’t want that much on his plate. I’ll talk to him next weekend, he is supposed to be in town to visit his mom. We’re getting together.”
“I’m surprised you can find time with your fan club fawning all over you 24/7.”
I roll my eyes at the smirk on his face and almost let my groan of annoyance out before reigning it determined not to give hime the satisfaction of knowing he is getting to me. Ever since Mike saw me at a bar with three women he has been on my case. What can I say?I like to get laid. Every single girl I hook up with knows the score. It’s a one time deal. No spending the night and we never hook up again. I’m not a complete dick. I make sure they know what I’m looking for and that they are on the same page.
“You sound like my sister. What can I say a guy has to let off some stream. They all know the deal before we hook up. I’m a one and done kind of guy. They have all been good with that. Why is it such an issue?”
Mike’s eyes narrow at me and I know I'm about to get a lecture. Considering he has 3 daughters at home, all teenagers, he thinks it's his job to educate all men on how to treat women. The difference being his girls are like my little sisters and no way in hell would I let them hook up with anyone even remotely like me. The girls I hook up with aren't good girls who are looking for love and respect. They want a good time, same as me, so I don’t really see the issue.
“Did you ever think about what it shows your sister when you do that shit. Women are only good for one thing, fucked and tossed to the side? She looks up to you and thats how you treat women. What is she supposed to think? Maybe that’s what men should expect from her? Thats how she should act?”
Well that wiped that smirk right off my fucking face.
“Charlotte better know that any fucking swinging dick that comes near her is going to have to go through me and I don’t plan on letting anything get through until she is at least 40, if she’s lucky. Otherwise, 50 seems like a good number. “
Mike snorts and shakes his head back and forth. He starts laughing so hard that I’m pretty sure he is going to fall out of his chair. At one point he seemed to stop fucking breathing. This shit was not funny. My sister did not need another douche to deal with in this lifetime. The best way to see that didn’t happen was to make sure anyone with a dick stayed far fucking away.
Charlotte or Char as I always called her, was 19 years old. She wasn’t naive because she had already experienced more in her life than most people twice her age. She knew the score with the girls I hooked up with. I never brought that shit around my sister. She never saw or met any of the girls I hooked up with. Don't get me wrong, show knows I'm no damn virgin but I don't think she realized how much I got around until she over -heard some girls in the locker room at the gym talking about me.
Frowning I thought back to when she started acting out. It was around that same time when she confronted me. Telling me that I was using women and I need to treat them better. I told her it was none of her business, but all the girls I hooked up with wanted the same thing I did. No taking advantage. Just a mutually good time. She didn’t talk to me for a week after that. I just assumed it was because I told her to mind her own damn business. Maybe it was something else. Shaking it off I stand up.
“I’ll take care of my sister. Let me know about the client as soon as you can.”
I turn around and walk out his office without looking back. I head straight for the locker room. Opening up my locker and I pull out my phone. Char texted me letting me know that she was going to be at the library studying for the online course was taking this semester at the local community college. Then proceeded to send me a picture of herself in various parts of the library every 15 or 20 minutes to prove she was there.
Laughing I check my other text messages and see three of the girls that I gave my number to at the bar this past weekend texted to see if I was free tonight. Smiling I’m just about to text a girl whose contact name in my phone was “Blond Brittany” with a picture of a blond with a huge rack. The other contact was “Brunette Brittany” same kind of picture but a girl with brown hair and a smaller rack. Just as I was going to check my other texts another text from Char popped up with a picture attached. It was a picture of her smiling while holding a book entitled Ways to Make him Love You: The Ten Step Guide from Hook-up to Wife. She captioned the picture, “What would you do if I handed out copies of this to your fan club?”
Sobering I stared at the picture and thought about what Mike said. For the first time I thought about my sister and wondered what she must think of me. She was joking. I could tell, but at the same time I felt dirty. If anyone treated Char as some random one and done hook-up I would be pissed. Then again my sister had higher expectations after dealing with that fuck-head ex of hers. She was old enough to know better than to look at me as an example of a good relationship model.
Hopefully.
Shaking that thought off I click out of the picture and go back to Blond Brittany’s text. After staring at it for a few seconds I just text her that I’m busy. Maybe some other time. I throw my phone back in my locker, strip and head for the showers. Fucking Mike and his psychobabble bullshit. I had a sinking feeling me and cold showers were about to get real familiar with one another.