Chapter 32

Rory went down for breakfast, focused on the day’s fight. Chris had arrived the previous day for the weigh-in, and they’d spent the afternoon strategizing. Marcus had called with some tips because he’d observed Army working out at their gym.

Rory walked in to find Paula cooking.

“Morning,” he said.

“I talked to Chris, and he told me you need to fill up before the big fight.”

She handed him a plate of scrambled eggs, hash browns, and sausage links.

“I’ve also made you some prefight snacks to take with you,” Paula added.

“Are you coming to my fight?” Rory asked.

“Sorry, but I’d be too nervous, worrying you might get hurt.”

She sounded exactly like his mom, which had him suddenly feeling emotional. He said a quick, silent prayer for his mother and felt the tightness in his chest and throat begin to ease.

The doorbell rang, and Sophie called out that she had it. In walked Summer and the rest of the crew. Over the last couple of days, they’d all swung by since Summer had lifted the ban.

“What are you guys doing here?” Rory asked.

“I heard there’d be food,” Sean said.

“We wanted to wish you luck before you left,” Summer said.

Rory took his plate to the main dining room, where Chris, Crystal, and Tyler joined them. Someone must have given Paula a heads-up because there was plenty of food for everyone, and she even joined them after everyone was served.

When Rory finished eating, he took a moment to look around the table at the laughter and animated conversations going on. Sean and Jace were entertaining Chris and Tyler with a story about some epic dirt-bike trail they’d discovered. Meanwhile, Alice told the girls she was doing a charcoal drawing of Rory in his MMA gear.

Summer noticed that he wasn’t engaged in either conversation.

“What are you thinking?”

“All of this,” he said and indicated everyone at the table. “Just how lucky I am to have all these people in my life.”

“Are you feeling tense about the fight?” Summer asked.

Rory chuckled because she’d been wearing him out ever since she’d lost her V-card.

“I could probably use a ‘nap’ before I leave.”

“No, you won’t. You’ll need all your energy for the fight,” Chris said.

Everyone at the table turned to look at Rory and Summer. He decided, right then, that she wasn’t going with him the next time he knocked off a liquor store because she turned bright red at being caught.

To their credit, everyone went back to their conversations.

After everyone had finished eating, Chris announced they should go to the UFC Apex. They required all fighters to be at the arena at least two hours before the fight. That would allow Rory time to warm up, have the referee check his gear, get the doctor check, and have an interview with the fight announcers.

UFC Apex was a new 130,000-square-foot building designed to host live fights. It had a major difference from other fight venues: the cage itself was about 30% smaller than standard—twenty-five feet across instead of thirty. Chris had told him the rumor was they wanted to increase the action. This change in size had led to many more fights ending by knockout or submission.

The arena was also much smaller than most, holding only 300 people. That would mean that a quarter of the people there for his fight would be either from the studio or his friends. His dad had closed down for the day so all the employees could come if they wanted to.

Chris and Rory had discussed the smaller cage and strategies. Rory was a dangerous fighter when he was on top because he had a good submission arsenal and a vicious ground-and-pound. He would be at a strategic disadvantage because his fighting style had always been to take his opponents down in the middle of the cage.

Growing up, he’d been younger than most of the people he sparred with, so he relied on his quickness and martial-arts skills to get his bigger opponents off their feet. He’d never been one to trade punches.

The smaller cage would negate some of that because it meant Army would be closer to the fence, which he could use to stand back up.

In a stand-up fight, if it turned into a grappling match, the small cage might not be a problem because if backed up, Rory could use it for leverage. Being stuck against the cage was a real problem in a punching and kicking fight because you could only go left or right and not backward. It also meant you would absorb many more strikes, which explained the increased number of knockouts.

Jace had driven his mother’s van so all of them could go together. Summer led everyone inside and found the line to get in to where the fight was held. The venue had one woman to check everyone in, and she looked overwhelmed.

“Who is not with the Rory Walsh group?”

A gorgeous woman and her two equally stunning daughters raised their hands.

“Okay, you three come here, and the rest of you go on in.”

The floor-level seats were filling up, so they went up to the stands and claimed the front row.

“I heard Rory has a personal beef with the guy he’s fighting. Rory said he came to his hotel room and started something,” Sean shared.

“What about?” Summer asked.

“He thought Rory was messing with his sisters,” Sean said.

Alice leaned close and asked, “Do you think?”

Summer knew what she was asking. Was it the gorgeous girls checking in?

“If I were a guy, I’d do them,” Julie said.

For Summer, it was one more reminder of how she’d messed up. Rory had no idea how attractive women found him. He wasn’t just the classically good-looking guy like JP and Gordon; he was the whole package. On top of being cute, Rory was a great guy. Of course those two would have been all over him.

The fanfare began, and Rory and Army entered the ring. Rory was five inches taller than his opponent, but Army looked like a hairy ape.

When the referee told them to fight, they both rushed to the center of the ring and began to throw punches. Summer gasped at the brutality of what she saw as each of them would grunt in pain when a particularly wicked punch got through.

Then Rory made this move with his leg where he kneed Army in the chest. Army grasped for where Rory kneed him as he stumbled back and fell.

Both of Rory’s eyes were swelling, and his nose and lip were bleeding. Army was in similar shape. The knee to the chest had knocked Army down, and usually, Rory would have jumped on his opponent and ended the fight.

“Get up, pussy! I’m not done kicking your ass!” Rory shouted.

Army’s mouth had started running as soon as he got into the cage. Somehow, he’d found out that Rory’s mother had recently died and made some rude comments about her. All of Rory’s strategy for the fight went out the window, and both he and Army had squared off like two untrained boys trying to kill each other.

His opponent wore a grim expression as he got up. Rory rushed in, kicked him in the ribs with his right leg, and punched him with a brutal left hook to the ribs that made Army squeal.

“Don’t you quit on me,” Rory growled.

Army surprised him with an uppercut that caught Rory square on the chin. He staggered back as his head got all fuzzy. He was in trouble. Rory tried to dance back to get out of range, but his legs were rubbery. He had to hang on, or Army would knock him out.

If Army had been in good shape, the fight would have been over. He lumbered forward, and Rory managed to grab hold of him and hang on. It took some time before his head began to clear, but his years of training saved him. When Rory came out of the fog, he found that he had Army where he wanted him. Army had his head up under Rory’s chin, just like Rory had been taught to control an opponent’s head. Rory simultaneously grabbed Army’s arm, twisted his hips, threw his other arm around Army’s head, and did a headlock throw. He could hear the air rush out of Army’s lungs as he was pounded into the mat.

With his arm wrapped around his opponent’s head, Rory had side control and began to use his forearm to club Army’s face. The referee was about to jump in and stop it when the bell rang to end the round.

Rory went to his corner and looked back before Army could pull himself to his feet.

“Get that swelling down,” Chris ordered the cut man. Then he turned on Rory. “Enough messing around. You almost lost this fight because you didn’t finish him off when you had him down.”

“I know. That uppercut caught me off guard,” Rory admitted.

The minute between rounds went faster than he wanted.

The second round started with Rory rushing out and pressing Army, who tried to dance away. Rory walked right into an overhand right, and his knee buckled. Army rushed forward and tried to get on Rory. But while lying on his back, Rory brought his legs up to fend Army off so he could collect himself.

Army tried to lean over and punch Rory and got a few through, but Rory came back to himself. When Army stepped back to move to his side, Rory had room to kick straight up and catch Army on the chin, which sent him flopping straight back onto the mat.

Rory pounced and began to tomahawk-punch Army in the face.

Rory screamed his frustration when the bell ended the round.

“Calm the fuck down,” Chris yelled.

That made Rory laugh because Chris was more worked up than he was.

Chris took some deep breaths before continuing.

“He’s dead on his feet. Take his legs out and then finish this,” Chris ordered.

Rory now understood why Gary had worked so hard on their conditioning. Like Army, Rory was tired. They’d also both been knocked down, which made Rory think this fight was probably even right now.

Rory and Army met in the center of the cage and touched gloves. There were no taunts, just grim determination on both their faces. Army had to come to him because Rory’s reach was longer, so when Army made his move, Rory kicked him as hard as he could in the side of the leg.

One of the unwritten no-nos was to kick someone on the side of the knee like that because it took surprisingly little pressure to take a knee out. Rory kicked Army on the side of the calf, and he saw the knee joint bend unnaturally.

Army hopped back. Rory rushed him and took him to the mat. Army used Rory’s same technique by raising his legs to hold Rory off. Rory went straight into ground-and-pound mode. To be effective, it wasn’t just a matter of getting around his legs; Rory needed to inflict the most damage possible as many times as possible.

With his reach, Rory began to throw punches. To defend against that, Army put his feet on Rory’s hips and then bridged, making it impossible for Rory to reach his head. The problem for Army was that he was using Rory’s body to hold him up, so Rory twisted his hips to collapse the bridge and attacked by throwing a punch.

The key for that punch was throwing it straight down the line of Army’s spine because that almost guaranteed hitting his face. If Rory threw a wild haymaker, Army could raise his head and sort of curl up, and Rory could miss. Rory tagged him good, but Army scrambled to get his legs between them.

Rory went between his legs and went chest-to-chest with his opponent. Army wrapped his legs around Rory’s hips. Being this close, Rory didn’t have the power needed to knock out his nemesis, but he had other plans. He began to throw little punches to the side of Army’s head.

To defend against that, Army grabbed Rory’s bicep and extended his arm so that Rory could no longer reach his head. Rory countered that by moving his arm toward their hips and pinning Army’s hand to his leg. Rory came up and over Army’s hand and used all of his weight, all his dislike, and all his inner anger to smash his elbow square in the center of Army’s undefended face.

Rory began to throw another elbow but held back when Army went limp, and the referee called it.

Rory wearily stood up and was tackled from behind by Chris, who hoisted him into the air as the crowd cheered.

The doctor came into the ring to check Army. Rory got concerned when the doctor frantically waved more people in. He felt sick when they strapped him to a backboard and carted him. Gary went with his son to the hospital.

At that moment, all the fun went out of fighting, and Rory knew he would never step into the ring again. He looked into the crowd and spotted Nain, Talar, and Lori looking scared and confused. Rory went to the edge of the cage and found his dad.

“That’s Army’s mom and sisters,” he said, pointing them out. “Can you take them to the hospital?”

Tyler and Crystal gathered Army’s family and rushed them out while the referee announced his win.

They had to wait for the doctor to return from the hospital so Rory could be cleared to leave.

“How’s Army?” Rory asked as soon as he saw him.

“He came around on the ride to the hospital. They’re going to do a full round of tests because the doctors there are worried about head trauma and possible cerebral hemorrhages. That’s the number one cause of death in combat sports. The hopeful news is that there have been very few deaths in MMA.”

“Let’s get Rory checked out so we can go to the hospital,” Chris said.

They found everyone in the emergency room waiting area.

“Any news?” Chris asked.

“His hard head saved him. The doctor came out and said that they’re going to move him soon and keep him overnight for observation,” Nain said.

“I didn’t mean to...” Rory began to apologize, but Nain stopped him.