Sparta ~Tommy Conlon

Chapter 25: The Devil You Know

Tommy's POV:

I walked into the small diner and the little bell rang which annoyed me. I shut the door as quietly as possible and made my way over to the booth where my father sat. I sat across from him with a toothpick in my mouth. I started chewing on it as I watched my father carefully. "You wanted to talk?"

"Yeah." I took the toothpick out of my mouth and started stabbing it on the table. "I'm gonna start fighting."

"Is that right?"

I rolled my eyes. "Don't play babe in the woods with me. I know that guy from the gym came to see you."

"Colt Boyd." I nodded, and my father kept talking. "Yeah. I didn't tell him anything, Tommy."

"I wouldn't be sitting here with you now if you did."

An older woman walked over to us and smiled. "Paddy, can I get you more coffee?"

"No. Thank you. I'm fine."

"Hun, would you like a cup of coffee?"

"Sure. Thank you." I smiled, and when she walked away my father cleared his throat so I turned back to look at him. "All right. There's this tournament, it's a big tournament. Top 16 middleweights in the world. Single elimination. Winner takes all. It's a lot of money."

"Okay,"

"I'm gonna do that. But if I'm doing it, then uh," I paused and knew I would regret what I was about to say. "Then I'm gonna need a trainer. Now, that much, you were good at."

He smiled, "Mmm-hmm."

"What?" I asked and my father smirked. "No, no, no. This doesn't mean anything, okay? I'm serious. We train. That's it. I don't want to hear a word about anything but training. You understand? You want to tell your war stories, you can take them down to the VFW. Or you can take it to a meeting, or to church, or whatever the hell it is that you do nowadays."

"What about Colt Boyd?"

"What about him? I told him I don't train with people that I don't know."

"The devil you know."

"Excuse me?"

"The devil you know is better than the devil you don't."

I nodded, "Yeah."

I started messing with my wedding ring and let out a sigh, "There's your coffee, hun."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." She spoke and walked away.

"Chasing Theogenes. It'll be kind of like the old times."

"I just told you, this doesn't mean anything. Now, get that through your skull right now or I'm walking."

"All right. All right. But you get something through your skull, too. You called me, so don't go threaten to walk every five minutes." I did everything in my power to not roll my eyes. "And since this is about training, you dump whatever it is you need to dump as far as those pills are concerned. I don't want to see them." I was back to chewing on my toothpick as I listened to his 'rules'. "In fact, hand them over right now." I froze and tried to play innocent. "I know they're on you, Tommy. You sounded like a goddamn maraca coming through the door." I nodded with anger filling my veins. I nodded towards my sweatshirt pocket and grabbed two bottles and flung them onto the table. I threw my toothpick out of my mouth and picked up my coffee. "That's not gonna do." He shook the two bottles and continued speaking. "When you came through that door, it was chchch." I picked my toothpick back up and glared at him. "Three." I reached my hand into my pocket and flicked the last one onto the table. "That'a boy." He put them into his pocket and my eyes narrowed. "And another thing, You don't eat crap like this. This is for losers and old men." He took a bite out of a French fry and looked at me. "And we're gonna have to bunk up." I looked up at him, "If we're gonna do this right, you're gonna stay at the house. I watch your diet. We follow the old regimen. You copy?" I nodded, "All right. Copy."

All I could do was sit there and think about Malia, her perfect smile and kind brown eyes that I loved so much. It felt like an eternity since I had last seen her. I held so much regret, if I would've just gone with her, this wouldn't be happening. I did want to get back into fighting though, I guess this was a sign to just jump in headfirst.

Malia's POV:

"Please, Jerry."

"No, why should I let you?"

"Because I'm sick of being stuck in this damn hotel room!"

"I don't trust you."

"Then send your men out there. You know I can't outrun them. Just put them out along the beach. I just want to feel the water on my feet and the sand between my toes. Besides, it's incredibly warm for this time of year. Please!"

He sighed, "Fine."

I smiled and jumped up and down. "Thank you!" I put my shoes on and walked outside of my room. I was on one of the top floors and took the stairs. I needed the exercise after being kept in that room for weeks on end reading the same damn books over and over again. When I hit the ground floor, I went out the door in a t-shirt and leggings. I took my shoes off and stepped into the cool sand. I walked to the water and watched as the waves washed onto the sand and drug particles away with each wave. I smiled and sat down, I was feeling at peace. I buried my feet in the sand and let my imagination take over. Tommy had his arm around me and his other hand was set on my stomach. He was so happy, the sun was setting and it was a beautiful sight with the sky turning pink. I set my hand on top of Tommy's and leaned my head on his shoulder. "I love you," I whispered.

His lips curved up slightly, a smile being drawn onto his face. "I love you too."

I was brought back to reality by a wave hitting my feet. It was really cold and goosebumps ran up my arms. I reached into the small pocket in my leggings and looked at the small photo. My love for this baby was so strong already. The child was the only part of Tommy I had right now besides my tattoo. I watched in the distance as the sun glowed brightly in the sky. "Times up!"

"We just got out here though,"

"Ma'am, you've been out here for 3 hours."

"Shit!" I looked at my arms that were exposed to the sun and I was a bright red, I knew Tommy would've been laughing his ass off right now if he were here. But he wasn't, and that was the problem...

Tommy's POV:

My dreams were always about Malia, I had become an incredibly light sleeper now and it's sucked, but I didn't mind.

"Oh, The duck goes quack, quack, quack, quack and the cow goes moo, moo, moo! But that rooster that rooster, he knew everything cock-a-doodle-doo! Cock-a-doodle-doo!" My eyes flew open and I was immediately annoyed. The only way I can see Malia is in my dreams and it sucked, now my father ruined it. A lamp was turned on and I groaned. "Let's go, kiddo. Let's get moving." I rubbed my eyes and desperately wanted to go back to bed. "Look what I found in that disaster of a basement." He sat down on Brendan's old bed and held a paper in his hands. "What do you say we sit down and update this? And you can fill me in on how close you got to that record." I didn't say a word, I knew what he had and I was frustrated. Did he not understand that all I want from him is to train?! "Did you continue wrestling after you left with your mother and your friend?" I was staring at the ceiling and felt like I was being mocked by all the damn wrestling trophies I had. "Come on, Tommy. Tell me something."

I was mad and couldn't keep my mouth shut. "Yeah, I'll tell you something." I pointed at the old poster my Pop had in his hands. "You can take that back to where you found it, you can leave the coffee in the pot. I can pour that myself. And I can wake myself up, too."

He stood up and sighed. "Hurt my knee coming up and so down those stairs. I'll leave the coffee pot on until 0500, then I dump it." He walked away and my arms were draped over my eyes. I was not looking forward to the next 3 months with him...