Brooklyn's Baddest: A Bad Boy Fighter Romance (17 page)

He was confident about his first match until he heard a familiar voice and he glanced over his shoulder to see Corbin standing at the sidelines of the mat, watching him. His arms were crossed over his chest and he had a sneer on his face. Just as Jake turned to look back at his opponent, he was hit with a foot to his chest, and he flew backward, sprawling out on the mat beneath him. The only sounds he could hear were Corbin’s laugh and the rush of his own blood pounding in his ears.

For a moment he felt anger rise up in him, but then he pushed it back down, realizing that it was an unfamiliar and unwelcome emotion in him after training another way for so long. He turned all of his attention to the man before him, and pushed the sound of Corbin taunting him out of his thoughts. Jake gave it everything in him, and was able to defeat his opponent.

When the fight was over, he walked to his own chair and sat, looking down at the floor and keeping his mind on the next match, when he saw two feet walking up to stand right beside him. He looked up and saw Corbin standing over him. Jake rose to his feet immediately and glared at the other man.

“What do you want?” Jake asked with a sharp cold tone.

Corbin chuckled. “I heard you were going to be here. I didn’t expect you to make it to the competition today; I thought you would get your ass kicked yesterday, but look at you… getting close. You won’t be close enough, though. I saw you fight just now. I watched the whole thing. If you think you can get through the next two matches fighting like that, you have a big loss coming.” He shook his head and looked at Jake with mock sadness.

“I gotta tell you, Jake, I’m a little disappointed that you’re going to get your ass handed to you in the next match or two, because… well… I’ll be honest. I wanted to hand it to you myself. I’d have loved to beat the hell out of you today, especially in front of my girl Lisa over there, since she’s watching you so closely, but… I know you’re not good enough to make it to my mat. So, in the meantime, I’m just going to sit right there at the sidelines and watch you fight. Oh… I’ll cheer you on.”  He laughed again, “but, really I just want to see you get your ass beat. That’ll make my day, at least, until I get to my own match and win that title again.”

Jake just shook his head. “You’ve got a big surprise coming, jackass.”

Corbin lifted his chin in challenge. “Yeah? Bring it… worm. Bring it.” he said with another laugh as he turned and walked away.

It took everything that Jake had not to say anything back to him or to let himself get riled up from anything that Corbin had said. He glanced over at Koichi and Masahiro, and he saw Koichi shake his head seriously at him. He could almost hear his teacher’s voice in his head, telling him not to let Corbin get the better of him, not to let Corbin distract him, and he knew that he had to make himself stay present.

He felt prepared for his next fight, but that didn’t stop him from realizing right away that he had met someone whose martial arts training and skills surpassed his own. He was struck right away; the man came at him like a serpent, and he hadn’t seen it coming soon enough to dodge it. He landed on the floor, but he got right back up and focused with laser beam intensity on the man before him.

Jake was able to miss the next two attempts from his opponent, but then he was struck again, and struck hard. The man kicked him in his ribs and Jake knew from the crunching sound that more than one of them was cracked. He winced and fell to his knees for a moment, but then he made himself get back up and return to the fight. He could hear Corbin laughing loudly in the background, taunting him and telling him that he was not going to make it.

Nothing gave him more drive than the sound of Corbin mocking him. He turned every bit of his training into a focal point, and with all the strength in him, he battled his opponent, going fast and hard, and finally he was able to take him down. Jake won the match, but only barely, and when it was done, he didn’t return to his own seat, but went instead to the sidelines where Koichi and Lisa rushed to him.

He waved Lisa away, telling her that he was fine and that she should go back to her seat, which she did reluctantly. It was Koichi who he needed, and Koichi talked with him earnestly.

“Are you too injured to keep going? You can forfeit the next match if you don’t think you can do it,” his teacher told him seriously.

Jake shook his head. “It hurts like hell, but I’m only one match from facing Corbin. I’m not giving this up. There’s no way. I haven’t come this far for this long and busted my ass just to leave and walk away from the whole thing when I’m one match away from fighting him. No. I’m going forward. I can heal later. We’re going to win this competition, and nothing is going to stop me from doing it.”

Koichi eyed him intently. “Alright then, that’s your decision to make. If you insist on fighting, then let’s go wrap your ribs before your next fight. That will help you, and it will give you a little protection from your next opponent.”

Jake followed Koichi into the waiting area where other fighters were gathered doing various things; training, warming up, cooling down, talking, and waiting. Koichi and Jake found a quiet corner and Jake pulled the top of his gi off. Koichi was wrapping tape around him when Corbin walked up to them and laughed. Jake shot him a dark look, and Koichi ignored him while he worked.

“So you got hurt in that last one huh, Jake? Well, if you don’t lose the next fight, I’ll be keeping that in mind. I like to know where to hit the hardest.” He laughed again. “You aren’t going to make it through the next fight though, so it’s a shame that I won’t get to break all of your ribs. If there is a miracle and by some crazy chance you do make it through, I promise you that you’re going to be taken off of the mat on a stretcher.” Corbin turned and walked away and Jake wanted to shout after him, but with Koichi directly in front of him wrapping his ribs in tape, he knew it wasn’t the best idea.

He held it in and told himself to save it for the fight. There would not be anger in him, he promised that to himself, but there would be retribution, and a reckoning. Corbin was going to go down if it was the last thing Jake ever did.

Taped and ready, at least as much as he could be, Jake pulled his top back on and thanked Koichi, following him back out to the arena.

His last match that morning came as a surprise to him. He saw as the other man walked carefully onto the mat, that he wasn’t the only one who was injured. It changed the stakes for him immediately, and he realized that his opponent didn’t know that his ribs were cracked. He had the upper hand, at least, as long as he could keep his pain to himself and not reveal the weakness to the man he was fighting.

They began and Jake watched and waited for an opening to strike. It came after more than a minute of the two of them circling one another and sizing each other up. His opponent had an injured knee, and it was obvious when he hobbled on it, though he tried to keep that from Jake.

The other man, tired and in pain, looked away for a second, but a second was all that Jake needed, and in that moment, his foot shot from him like a bullet, striking the other man in his injured knee and sending him to the floor.

It took a long moment, but he got back up and faced Jake, and once more they circled. Jake moved toward him but changed the hit that he was going to make, like a decoy, and his opponent blocked a hit that never came where he expected it, while getting hit hard in the chest. Jake’s strike made the other man sail backward and land near the edge of the mat.

He got back up and returned to the fight, and though it took them both a long time to make another move, he finally came at Jake and when he did, Jake slipped just far enough out of the man’s reach, while still using the man’s trajectory and momentum against him, and Jake struck at his back and his knee simultaneously, sending the man to the mat for the last time.

Jake was declared the winner of the match. He stood there in amazement as it was announced and a deafening roar sounded from the crowd watching the fight. He looked up into the stands for the first time and saw that there were thousands of people cheering him on and it stunned him. He had never expected anything like it, nor had he ever experienced anything like it. The sound of it washed over him and gave him a momentary high.

People around him began to leave the mat and sidelines and he saw Koichi coming toward him. It was time for a lunch break, and he already knew that they would do the same thing that they had done the day before.

Koichi walked with Jake to a quiet room again, and together they ate a little and Koichi gave him tea made with a strange looking leafy herb.

Jake frowned slightly as he looked at it and sniffed. It had a horrendous scent to it. “What in the world is that?” he asked suspiciously.

“It’s an eastern herb. It’s a pain reliever. Drink this, and your pain will subside.” Koichi told him quietly.

“If this takes pain away, why didn’t you give it to me before the last match?” Jake asked in confusion.

Koichi shook his head. “If I had given it to you before, the potency of it would have worn off too much by the time you faced Corbin. I would have given it to you after your match anyway, win or lose, but this way, it will be strongest when you need it most; during your fight with Corbin.”

“Thank you, Master Koichi.” Jake smiled a little, gratefully. He took the terrible smelling tea and drank it all down, and then had a second cup of it.

“Now, we meditate. You’re going to need all of your senses and your concentration if you intend to win this fight. He will try to anger you. He will try to distract you. He will try to hit you where he knows that you are hurt. You must understand that the reason he will use these various tactics is because he is not the fighter that you are. He uses everything he can to draw your attention away so that he can make his karate more effective, but what he will never learn is that his karate is his main weapon, not his ability to make you forget your focus.

If you stay centered and balanced, if you watch him and wait for him, he will make the mistakes that you need him to make in order to get at him when he isn’t expecting it.  You must use that against him. His karate is not as strong as yours. He will fail, if you let him. You just have to be patient and wait for him to make the wrong move. He will make it, and you will be able to hit him. Then he will be more on guard, and you must wait again and he will make another mistake, and then you may strike once more, and if you continue that pattern of waiting for him to fail, waiting for the weakness in his armor and his skill, you could win.”

Koichi stopped talking then, and they both meditated until the break was over. They walked back to the arena together and Jake thanked Koichi again before walking to the mat. Corbin was already there, warming up. Jake felt the pain in him subside until he was nearly gone and he turned to look at Koichi, touching his ribs lightly with a look of surprise on his face. Koichi gave him a smile  and a nod, and then the smile faded and Jake knew that it was time.

He went to the mat and Corbin stood a short distance from him. The buzzer sounded and they bowed to one another. The circling began. Each of them moving carefully; each of them watching and waiting. Jake’s mind suddenly slipped back to his first sparring match with Koichi the day that Lisa had brought him to the dojo for the first time to try out as a fighter there.

Koichi had circled with him for what seemed like an eternity before he made a move. He was patient, and fluid, centered and focused, and now that same patience and concentration was at the center of Jake. He moved and waited, a step at a time, never taking his eyes from Corbin.

He saw Corbin begin to grow restless; his hands and fingers twitching now and then, and he knew that Corbin was going to become too impatient, and he waited for it. There was a hush in the huge room around them as everyone watched and waited, and Jake breathed in slowly and let his breath out slowly, patiently, moving as he did in the water after so much training; without making a single splash. Deliberate, carefully timed, fluid movements. He never took his eyes off Corbin.

Corbin gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes, and in that moment, Jake knew that it was coming. Corbin had reached the end of his waiting. He jumped toward Jake, launching himself toward Jake’s midsection where his injured ribs were. Jake turned and Corbin missed him, but rather than going past him, Corbin pulled back quickly; too quickly for Jake to hit him.

Jake watched and waited again, and their timeless dance continued. They moved and stared and circled, and Jake kept his patience, amazed that there was a deep peace in it, while he was still completely present in the tension of the moment.

In a swift move, Corbin struck out at him with lightning speed, and Jake moved again, like water. He was there one moment and gone the next, almost like vapor, and Corbin growled in frustration as Jake’s arm snapped out and hit him across the back, making him stumble.

Taking his place opposite Jake once more, Corbin lifted his chin and grinned evilly. “Did you tell Lisa to be waiting for me after I beat your ass? She’s going to want to come home with me after this, because there won’t be anything left of you at all. You’ll be taken out of here in pieces, and I’m going to lay her back in my bed tonight, all night, and show her what a real man feels like.” Another throaty laugh, but his eyes were piercing Jake, waiting to see just what the response would be to his verbal taunting.

Jake didn’t let the words into his mind. He let them sail right past him as if they were nothing more than hot air. He wasn’t thinking of Lisa or anything else at that moment; nothing but Corbin standing in front of him; nothing but waiting for Corbin’s next move, anticipating it, and using it to bring his opponent down.