CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Butch watched as his sister worked with one of the young gymnasts they were training. He knew every move, every bend, every leap. Watching her with the athlete brought pains in his chest. He absently rubbed beneath his shirt, the hint of the end of a scar showing.
“Looks like that hurt,” frowned Rory.
Butch practically jumped out of his skin.
He pulled his shirt over the flesh and looked up at the big man next to him.
Usually he wasn’t afraid of anyone. No one except his father and he was dead.
For some strange reason he still feared him, still feared that he would leap from behind a wall or door and scream at him.
“Oh, it was nothing,” he said looking at Rory. “Something from when I was a kid. What’s up?”
“Can we get some direction about this kid we’re working with? I’m used to kids getting discouraged when they can’t do a particular weight or exercise but this kid is literally having a breakdown.” Butch frowned, looking over his shoulder.
“What do mean a breakdown?”
“I mean the kid is melting. He’s crying, says he’s hurting in his stomach, I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do with him,” said Rory.
Butch walked toward the young man who was lying on his side on the weight bench. Bull was kneeling beside him.
“Tell me where it hurts,” he said softly.
“Fuck where it hurts! Get your ass up you big fucking pussy! Get up!”
“Coach, I can’t,” cried the boy. “I’m hurting. I’m hurting bad. Something is wrong.”
“The only thing wrong is that you can’t comprehend that this is your last chance. You either want this or you don’t but stop fucking wasting my time and money. Get up or leave. Those are your options.”
Bull was at his limit. Enough was enough. He positioned his body in front of the young man and glared at Butch.
“The kid is hurting. Legit. I think we need to get him home and let him rest for today.”
“Well. I. Don’t,” growled Butch.
“Well. I. Don’t give a fuck what you think,” Bull growled back, his neck seemingly thickening as he spoke. Rory smirked to himself that it looked the poisonous little dinosaur from that Jurassic movie. He was cute, until he wasn’t.
“You must not need this job,” said Butch.
“I don’t need a job bad enough to kill a kid,” said Bull. He spotted the sister eyeing them and she walked toward them. Bull saw the look in Rory’s eyes, it was the same as his own.
They’d seen Helen once or twice before from a distance but as she moved closer, the resemblance to her brother became clearer. She was extremely muscular for a woman, and Rory knew female muscularity. His wife, Piper, was one of the leanest, most beautifully sculpted athletes he’d ever known.
This. This was on another level. It was clear that she was taking some of her own medicine.
With every step the details of the woman’s features became harsher.
Her hairline was receding, thinning and pushed back from her forehead.
She showed acne on her cleavage, the deep valley caused by breasts too large for her chest.
“Butch? What’s going on?” she asked in a husky voice.
“These bastards think they know better than me. Steven here is whining because he has a tummy ache,” he snapped.
“I’m not w-whining,” he cried. “I’m hurting. I’m in pain.”
“That’s it,” said Rory. “I’m taking him home. His parents can make the decision about what to do with him. You don’t get to have control over the kids’ medical care.”
“You leave with that kid, you lose your damn job,” growled Helen. Bull stepped forward, looking down at the woman’s face.
“I don’t think we have a problem with that,” said Bull. “This isn’t a job. It’s torturing kids.”
The entire gym turned to stare at the two men who’d become their confidantes. In just a few short days, the regulars recognized that these men were different and might be able to help them more than Butch and Helen together.
“Hey, a-are you guys forming your own gym?” asked a young man. Before Butch or Helen could respond, Rory got a big grin on his face and nodded.
“Actually, yeah. That’s exactly what we’re doing.
We’re starting our own training facility.
” The truth was, they’d had their own training facility for years, helping young athletes to prepare for next level opportunities, what they might be.
Sometimes it was training them for military service, sometimes it was preparing them for collegiate athletics.
Sometimes, he was just about getting healthier.
Rory and Bull often helped at the gym but Razor, Gunner, and Zulu were the primary trainers.
“Can I join your facility?” asked the kid.
“You fucking weasel!” yelled Helen. “You won’t get your money back. If you leave, your money is gone! No one will get their money back. Your parents are out all that money and you won’t be able to pay these two.”
“We’ll do it for free,” smirked Rory.
“I will destroy you,” growled Helen. Rory raised an eyebrow at the woman and took a step forward.
“Don’t mistake my gentlemanly behavior. I don’t like hitting women but I’ll make an exception for you. Back the fuck away from me.”
Helen knew enough to not challenge the big man. She stepped backward, standing beside her brother and watched as Rory and Bull left the gym, eleven of the fifteen people inside following them.
The only ones left? Archie, Tahlako, and Tony, along with one other young man.
“What are you staring at?” he yelled toward the four young men. “Get back to your fucking exercises.”
He turned on his heels and headed into his office, his sister right behind him.
“What the hell, Butch? What the fuck just happened out there?” she bellowed.
“I don’t know. That little asshole was whining about his stomach and those two wouldn’t let it go. It just got out of hand.”
“Out of hand? We’ve lost eleven people, Butch. Eleven! What are we going to do when the buyers arrive next week?”
“We’ll do what we always do,” said Butch. “We’ll make it up as we go along.”