Chapter 28

By the end of the first week, Rory felt like a piñata for Marcus’s birthday. He’d gone to bed Friday night hoping Gary would take it easy on them for a day or two over the weekend. That morning, Rory had stepped into the cage and tripped, landing on his face and smacking his forehead on the mat. Hard. Oh. My. God. Apparently, asking the universe for a break had only made her angry, and she took revenge on him.

Reactions varied from Marcus asking if he was okay, to Micah’s indifference, to a newcomer actually laughing.

“I see why you asked me to come help out,” the newcomer taunted.

“Everyone, I would like to introduce you to my son Armen,” Gary said.

By the end of the day, no one was happy that Army, as he preferred to be called, had joined them. In MMA fighting, several illegal strikes are grounds for losing a fight if you’re caught doing them. Many of them are, in fact, taught in martial arts to be used in real life-or-death situations. And sadly, a few were actually allowed in the early days of MMA.

These strikes included some obvious ones like eye-gouging or striking the back of the head, kidneys, or crotch areas. Others were using your fingers to hook the mouth, and when a fighter was off his feet, you weren’t allowed to do what was called a soccer kick to the head. Rory had always wanted to make the wrestling move called ‘the pile driver,’ but in MMA, that might mean you paralyzed your opponent.

It turned out that Army was the dirtiest fighter Rory had ever met—far worse than Juana. It started with Marcus. Gary was coaching Marcus as to how to escape a particular arm hold. Being a former wrestler, Marcus was able to counter the move easily. That was until Army lost his cool and nut-punched him not once but twice. Gary had to pull his son off to stop the third punch.

Later, Army was working with Micah and did what’s described as a twelve-to-six elbow strike. You see this used in martial arts demonstrations when they break stacks of bricks. Rory imagined how much damage that would do to a human, and he understood why it had been outlawed in the sport.

Army and Micah were on their feet in a clinch, fighting for position, when Army brought his arm straight up and then slammed his elbow into Micah’s back. What Army hadn’t planned for was that Micah was a big boy, and Army was in Rory’s weight class. While that move would have worked on Rory, Micah quit ‘practicing’ and went into street-fighter mode. He hit Army so hard it knocked him out. Gary tackled Micah before he could soccer-kick his son while he was down, which might have saved Army’s life.

While Gary checked on his son, Rory and Marcus slyly gave Micah high fives for knocking the prick out.

The capper happened when Rory and Army were grappling on the mat at the end of the day. Rory was about to take control when Army headbutted him. The problem with a headbutt was that you sometimes end up on the raw end. Army gave himself a nasty cut over the right eye as he caught Rory’s forehead, probably the hardest bone in his body.

“What the fuck is your problem!” Rory bellowed as he rained down punches on the now-dazed Army.

“Stop!” Gary yelled but was held back by Micah from coming to Army’s rescue.

Rory stopped when Army tapped out but was fuming.

“I won’t continue to train with this cocksucker. Either he goes, or I do,” Rory said as he got up.

“So be it,” Gary said.

“No. Army goes,” Marcus said. “He’s shown he can’t be trusted not to try to hurt someone, including me. If he stays, you’re fired.”

“Everybody, cool down. Let me take Army to get some stitches, and then we can talk about this tomorrow,” Gary said.

“If Army’s with you, don’t bother because I’ll just find another manager. We’ve been fine all week without any illegal shit even accidentally happening. One nut punch is a mistake; two is on purpose. Army’s out,” Marcus reiterated.

Gary only nodded as he helped Army up. The look Army gave them when he left told Rory he should watch his back.

Tonight, Rory was on his own because Talar and Lori were going to see Pree Amarnath in concert. This was a warm-up for a month-long stint in Las Vegas. Tickets were only $30, a quarter of the price they’d be the next week.

Rory had planned to go, but the show by one of the hottest singers making a rare live appearance had sold out in less than an hour. The previous week’s rankings had three of her songs in the Top 100, with Teenage Secrets at number three.

Rory didn’t feel like sitting in his room on a Saturday night, so he made a reservation at a restaurant Tyler had suggested. Even with his reservation, he had a thirty-minute wait, so he went to the bar to get something to drink while he waited. He got lucky and was able to snag a bar table when the group occupying it was called to eat.

“Mind if we join you?”

Rory looked up and saw two women in their late twenties or early thirties.

“That would be nice.”

Introductions were made; the women were Amanda and Brittany.

“We had no idea this would be so crowded. I just hope it’s worth the wait. They told us it might be over an hour,” Amanda shared.

“I was told a half hour. If you want, you could share my table,” Rory offered.

“What do you think, Amanda? Do you think we’ll be safe with him?” Brittany asked with a knowing smile.

They were from Dallas on a ‘girls’ weekend. Amanda was recently married, while Brittany was single. According to Amanda, her friend needed to find a guy in the worst way. Rory noted that her looks weren’t the issue because she was attractive enough.

Rory asked their waitress to change his reservation to a party of three. Those seemed to be the magic words because a few minutes later, they were seated. That was when Amanda took it upon herself to find out if Rory would be suitable for her friend.

“Are you married, or do you have a girlfriend?”

“No, I’m currently single.”

“Why is that? You clean up nice enough,” Amanda pressed.

“Between work and preparing for my next fight, I don’t have time,” Rory shared.

“What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a talent agent.”

Amanda called bullshit, so Rory gave her his business card, which she then showed to Brittany.

“This has a Las Vegas address. What are you doing in Reno?” Brittany asked.

“Helping a friend train for his next fight.”

Brittany gave Rory the sort of appraising look that women get when they aren’t sure.

“How old are you?” she asked.

“I’d guess I’m younger than the men you normally date, but this is a vacation. After tonight, you’ll never see me again,” Rory said, sounding more confident than he felt as he deflected her question.

Amanda had a huge smile come over her face as Brittany scowled at her friend.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this. If you tell anyone...”

Amanda made motions to lock her lips shut and throw away the key.

Over dinner, Rory began to relax as the women drank two bottles of wine. He found them funny, and he could tell they’d been friends since childhood. He explained that he didn’t drink during training.

The restaurant was even better than his dad had claimed.

After he paid for their meals, Rory put Amanda in a cab back to her hotel while he and Brittany walked to his and went up to his room.

It didn’t take long for Rory to discover that some things got better with age. First, there was no mystery as to what was going to happen—she’d started to undress as soon as she walked through the door. When Rory told her he was going down on her and it didn’t matter how long it took her to cum, her response was, “Damn right you are.” She then gave him instructions on how she liked to be eaten.

When Rory’s dick finally came into play, Brittany was no hesitant teen. She knew how to please a cock and wasn’t afraid to rock his world. When they began to fuck, Brittany was appreciative of his porn training. She seemed determined to make up for all the sex she’d missed over the last year.

Rory had finally met his match; he had to admit she out-fucked him. She almost had him sold on looking exclusively for lonely cougars who were starved for some attention.

Come morning, there was a pounding on the door. Rory quickly looked around and realized Brittany must have snuck out after he fell asleep to avoid the walk of shame this morning.

“Open up!” a male voice called out, followed by more pounding.

Rory swung the door open to find Army looking pissed off. He wrinkled his nose when he smelled sex coming from Rory’s room. Army pushed past Rory.

“Where are they? Where are my sisters?” he demanded.

“Get the fuck out.”

“I know they were here, and you ... you ... did stuff to them.”

“If I did, it would be none of your fucking business. But for your information, they went to a concert last night, and I never saw them,” Rory said.

“Then who was here?”

“Let me make it clear. It. Is. None. Of. Your. Fucking. Business,” Rory enunciated as if talking to someone brain-damaged.

“Well, I am making it my business,” Army said as he lunged at Rory.

Army was a little fireplug, only five-six, but he weighed as much as Rory. He threw a hard left and then right, which Rory deflected with his arms. Rory took advantage of Army leaning in after the combination and grabbed the back of his head with both hands and kneed him in the chin.

Army staggered back to gather himself. He let his hands drop and took a deep breath to clear his head. Rory did a spinning kick, and his heel landed on Army’s chin. The older boy fell backward into the hall, obviously dazed. Rory simply closed the door and called Gary.

“Your son pushed his way into my room and attacked me. You might want to come and get him. I laid him out in the hall,” Rory said and hung up.

A minute later, there was all kinds of excitement in the hall in a foreign language that Rory assumed was Armenian.

Rory predicted that today’s practice would be fun.

On the run to the gym, Rory filled Marcus in on the morning events with Army and Gary.

“I was afraid of that. Have you been messing with Talar and Lori?”

“A little, but nothing serious,” Rory admitted.

“Fuck, Dude. Gary would have your balls if he knew. You need to find other outlets than those two,” Marcus warned.

“I see your point,” Rory admitted.

He’d known he had to be careful. That was part of the reason he hadn’t agreed to full-on sex with them. Each on their own and together had been very convincing that they wanted him to relieve them of their virginity. What stopped him was thinking of his mother. She had wanted him to marry a virgin. Rory suspected that in the Armenian culture, they would want the same.

He did it more for the girls’ sake, not wanting them to have to explain why they weren’t ‘pure’ when they went to their marriage beds.

But that didn’t mean he wasn’t human. They were both smoking hot and willing to give him head. He wasn’t about to turn that down when the alternative was his left hand. He was also glad to return the favor.

“I need to talk to Gary this morning. Promise me you’ll stop seeing the girls, and I’ll make sure Army’s no longer a threat,” Marcus promised.

“I came here to learn and help you. I’ll do as you ask,” Rory agreed.

Gary apologized for his son’s behavior and was clearly distracted during the morning session. At lunch, he let them go for the day. Rory didn’t think twice as he quickly packed up and left the gym.

When he got back to his room, he decided it was time to call Summer and figure out what had really happened. But before he did that, he wanted to touch base with his stepsister.

“I’ve been dreading having to talk to you,” Sophie said as she picked up.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“Gigi had a party last night. I think you helped her start a business because she went all out and charged at the door.”

“Well, good for her, I guess,” Rory said.

“The only problem is, I don’t think she deposited your money from Lake Mead. You might want to check into that,” Sophie warned.

“I will, but I doubt she’d try something like that,” Rory hoped. “I’ll call Gigi later and see what’s going on.”

He hadn’t added his bank app to his temporary phone. He would do that after he rang off and before he called his neighbor.

“I doubt she did anything wrong, but better safe than sorry.”

“So, was that the bad news you didn’t want to tell me?” Rory asked.

“I didn’t go to the party, but I saw on social media that your friends all went. There are pictures of Summer and Chad dancing and more.”

“More?”

“That’s all I’m going to say. You can check out the pictures for yourself. All I’ll tell you is it looks like she’s moved on,” Sophie said.

“Why didn’t you go?”

“Nick and I had the house to ourselves. Tyler and Crystal went out because he’s been nominated for induction into the AVN Hall of Fame.”

AVN had an award show for adult entertainment each January, coinciding with the AVN Expo that had drawn over thirty-thousand people the previous year. Both were held in Las Vegas. Rory was aware of the show and expo because the office received their magazine, which was geared toward the industry.

“He has to be stoked about that. Should we tell him that if he wins, it makes him old?”

Sophie chuckled.

“I’ll let you do that since you’re the favorite son. My time in juvie is still fresh in everyone’s mind, and I probably shouldn’t go there,” Sophie said to be responsible.

“Back to Summer,” Rory said, suddenly bringing the conversation back to what he really cared about. “Just bottom-line it for me.”