Page 62 of Last Round

“Everyone is loving Luke.” He says that as though I haven’t been rooting for the kid since the first time I saw him fight in the pits and told him to come train with us. “Can you imagine if we had two big names in this gym? Especially a local that we molded.”

“Declan and me,” I correct him, his comment striking a cord.

“What?”

“Declan and I have been working with Luke the past year. Honestly, I give most of the credit to Declan. He’s the one who’s really put the time in.”

“Perfect, then Declan can take the lead while you focus on Tony.” Before I can argue, he continues. “Oh, and I talked to Dani. We’re cutting your shifts at the bar. Figured it’s about time you started limiting it to just guest appearances anyway.”

My protest is cut off when the front door opens. I turn, hoping that Molly is here and can help talk sense into her brother, who’s swallowed a whole dose of crazy. Instead, it’s some young guy.

“Tony.” Sean walks over and greets him.

I study the new fighter more carefully. He’s tall, lean, muscular, as you’d expect any young fighter in his weight class to be. His dark hair is slicked back and glistening with product. He’s wearing a thin V-neck shirt and a gold chain with some ink peeking out. To top it all off, he’s got on tight jeans and black shiny boots. He looks ready for a night at the club, not a day of training at the gym. I hate judging someone without knowing them. But this kid has this air of arrogance about him. He seems like a total douche. Hopefully I’m wrong. My annoyance with the situation, Sean and his head being so far up his ass lately he doesn’t recognize we have everything here to make our goals a reality, and missing Molly are all clouding my senses. I shouldn’t lash out at the kid.

Putting on my game face, I walk over and join their conversation.

“Killian, this is TonyIl DuceMancini,” Sean introduces us formally.

“Nice to meet you, Tony.” I extend a hand in greeting. His palm is slick as he shakes mine. I casually wipe the oil off on my athletic shorts.

“This is the gym?” Tony glances around. “I thought it would be bigger.”

Sean laughs. “We’re in talks of expanding. But everything here is state-of-the-art. Let me give you a tour.”

I follow behind as Sean goes over the facilities with Tony. The kid seems overall very unimpressed and like this is the last place he wants to be. That sick feeling in the pit of my stomach rears its ugly head. The only time Tony shows any interest is when he glances to the front to see who’s arrived. He perks up slightly when Declan walks through the door. Honestly, he seems way more excited about meeting him than when he was introduced to me. Not that I’m jealous. It’s just that with the way Gideon went on and on about how this kid is a big fan of mine and wants to be trained by me, he hardly seemed to even recognize who I was.

“The Devil,” Tony greets Declan by his old fighting name.

“Hey, Tony, it’s been a while.” Declan’s being nice, but I can tell he’s reserved.

“I couldn’t believe it when I heard you retired and relocated to this hellhole,” Tony comments.

“Okay, tour over,” I say as I fight my urge to deck the kid. “Get changed. We’ve got training to do.” At least if we spar, I can get away with knocking him around a little bit.

Tony looks me up and down. “Sure you can keep up, old man?”

“I’ll show you to the lockers. I’ve got to change too,” Declan intervenes.

The second they’re out of earshot, I turn to Sean. “What the fuck?”

“Keep it down,” Sean scolds. “Let’s talk in the office.”

I follow him inside and slam the door shut. “This isn’t going to work.” I gesture to the gym. “Why is this kid even here?”

“He wanted to train with you—”

“Cut the bullshit, Sean. He has no interest in this gym or training with me. So why the fuck is he here?”

“Give the kid a chance. You have to warm up to him. He seems rude, but it’s an east coast thing.”

“No, it’s a douche thing—it has nothing to do with geography. Get Gideon on the phone. Tell him to book a flight for his client and to find him a new trainer.”

“We can’t.”

“We can, and we will.”

“We’ll go bankrupt.”

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