Page 36 of Fierce-Jonah

They ate their food in silence for a few minutes while he tried to figure out what to say. He supposed he might as well tell the truth. Or as much of it as he felt comfortable with. She’d done that.

“I went to college for two years,” he said. “Criminal justice.”

“Wow,” she said. “Did you want to go into law enforcement? I could just see you now in a uniform.” She lifted her hand and started to wave it in front of her face.

“Thanks for that. But no. I wasn’t thinking along those lines. I’m not sure what I was thinking. I just knew college wasn’t for me. Not like Trent.”

“Because you couldn’t sit still in the classroom?” she asked.

He lifted his eyes to see if she was joking, but she was serious, so he answered that way. “Yes. As my parents said, I was in a lot of competitions as a kid. I tried a bunch of different martial arts; I went to tournaments. I’ve got all the trophies in a box at my parents' house.”

“And then you got bored?” she asked.

“Yeah. Guess it didn’t stick enough, so I’d try something else. School wasn’t my thing. After two years, my father said he could get me a job as a guard at the detention center. He wasn’t running it then like now. But he was still a captain and got me hired in a unit he didn’t oversee.”

“No conflict that way,” she said.

“No. I was working nights. It didn’t bother me none. I was working out more during the day. Lifting and getting big. I met some guys at the gym, they got talking and we decided to try this MMA league. Not official. No one was trying to break the other’s teeth.”

“Like a form of exercise?” she asked.

“Exactly. They held it at the gym I was going to. I guess one thing led to another. A few people training there were fighters. They said I had potential and the next thing I know I’m actually training for a fight.”

“I bet your mother just loved that.”

The sarcasm wasn’t lost on him. “Not a good time in our house, no. But I wasn’t living at home and that helped.”

If his mother had seen the bruises on him and what he was doing to his body, she would have put a stop to it sooner. Maybe it would have been better all around.

“It helps to hide things. You’re working nights when she is home and training days when you got up from sleeping, right? Never a time where she could see you much?”

“That about sums it up. Fast forward a year and I’m moving my way up. I’m winning fights and people are interested in me. I’ve got an agent.”

“Wow,” she said. “Raina never said a word.”

“She wouldn’t. She didn’t approve of it. And don’t be all that impressed either. It’s not like I was making any kind of money. You’ve got to start somewhere.”

He wouldn’t say his girlfriend at the time was his agent and the one pushing for all of this.

“I’m sure they saw something in you,” she said.

“Many did,” he said. Which wasn’t a lie.

“What happened?” she asked. “How did you get from that to this? Something tells me you were good enough.”

“It wasn’t what I wanted,” he said. “You can’t be what others want.”

“Preaching to the choir as I told you about my family earlier.”

“Exactly,” he said. “I agreed to a fight I wasn’t ready for. My gut told me not to do it and I was going to back out but was pushed into it.”

“I don’t think I like where this is going,” she said, putting her fork down. “Good thing I’m done eating.”

“You asked, so I’ll tell you. The guy was undefeated. Me too in a fight. I had one loss from a decision, but he had more experience than me. And he was dirty and no one told me. MMA fights aren’t for the faint of heart, but there are rules. Most pertain to the head and groin areas, attacking when someone is defenseless.”

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Okay. I’m ready. Tell me what happened.”

“I took a punch to the jaw. I saw stars and turned my head for a second. Guess I stumbled and my back was partially to him. He sent a kick to the back of my head and I was out cold. Woke up in the ER. I won; he was disqualified.”

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