Fighting Dirty - Sidney Halston Page 0,2

laugh and ducked as Cain threw a front kick.

“Come on, Tony. Sign me up,” Enzo said. He’d been asking for months now. It seemed he wasn’t getting anywhere with anything in Tarpon Springs. Asking Jamie Lynn out was the equivalent of hitting his head against a brick wall, and getting Tony to agree to let him shift from amateur fighter to professional was even worse, because Tony didn’t even bother to answer—he just laughed as if it was the funniest, most absurd thing ever. Luckily, Enzo had been able to establish himself quickly on the business side of things. Work was the only thing he could count on, and he was proud at how successful he’d been since arriving in Florida. He was so close to finally getting his investors to agree to do his bidding, he could almost taste the payday. Finally his father would be proud. It was the biggest deal he’d ever brokered without his father’s help. He’d run lead on it, and it was going to make millions for Silva Conglomerate LLC. The bonus was that it would get his father off his back about returning to Brazil.

Tony dodged a blow as he said, “I already told you, you’re not ready. You’ll get yourself killed.” He threw a punch, which didn’t connect with Cain’s jaw. “You get your ass here every day for a month and I’ll think about letting you fight in the amateur bout that’s coming up.”

Slade, the other owner of the Academy, walked by and joined the conversation. “As long as you treat this as a hobby, you stay amateur. You want to go pro, you start taking it seriously.”

“I can win against anyone right here, right now,” Enzo said cockily, pushing off the fence. Unlike most of the guys who trained at WtF Academy, he had another job and hadn’t been able to dedicate as much time as he wanted to training. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t ready. He was a completely different man from the one who’d walked into the Academy nearly a year ago. He had gained almost twenty pounds of muscle and had never felt as lean and physically able as he did at the moment. He just needed a chance to prove it.

Tony signaled for Cain to stop sparring and smirked at Enzo. “You’re fucking crazy, you know that?” Then he whistled to Travis, Enzo’s closest friend in Tarpon Springs and Jamie Lynn’s brother, who sat on a bench, doing biceps curls with one arm while eating a banana with the other.

“Yo, Tex, gear up and get your ass inside the cage,” Tony called. “Your buddy needs to learn that we don’t make idle threats in here.”

Travis, also known as “Texas” because of his southern drawl and because, well, he was from Texas, stopped what he was doing, sauntered casually over to the cage, and began to get ready. Travis never seemed to care about much. He was as laid-back as they came. How the two had become such great friends was surprising, since Enzo was the complete opposite.

“This is the deal. Your buddy here”—Tony pointed at Enzo—“says he can kick your ass.” Enzo rolled his eyes but didn’t bother correcting him. “What do you think about that?”

As Cain chuckled and hopped out of the cage to watch the spectacle, Travis put his mouthguard in place and stepped inside. Enzo finished lacing up his gloves and followed. “What do I get out of this little bet?” Travis said, his words muffled by the mouthguard.

“What do you want?” Slade asked, amused.

Travis looked up, thinking, for a moment. Then a sly smile spread across his face. Immediately Enzo knew it would be payback for flirting endlessly with his sister. “It’ll be a surprise,” Travis said.

“Fine. Whatever,” Tony said. He turned his attention to Enzo. “If you win, I’ll sign you up for the pro fight and dedicate my time to training you myself. If you lose, you settle for the amateur circuit.”

Enzo nodded, and Slade shut the cage. The clanging of metal against metal and the sudden silence set Enzo’s adrenaline pumping.

“Okay, guys, rules are simple,” Tony announced. “First guy to tap out loses.”

Enzo had a weight, height, and reach advantage over Travis, but Travis had speed. Enzo quickly figured this out, as Travis’s fist connected with his jaw just moments after Tony rang the bell. Enzo’s ear rang from the impact, and he couldn’t make out what the men on the other side of the cage were yelling.