The Aftermath (The Hurricane, #2)(69)

As I helped Kier up off his arse, we both smiled. Everyone did. There was electricity in the air, like something special was coming. Right now I was the underdog. The one statistically most likely to lose. But that also made me most likely to surprise people. I didn’t need people to love me or believe me. I only needed it from those I loved. Because of Em and these guys, there was absolutely nothing that I couldn’t do.

The only thing missing in all this was my wife. She would have loved meeting Samuel and Leon, and I could almost picture her perched by the ring cuddling and petting Leonard and Dempsey. No matter what I was doing, I called her every night before I went to bed. So far she said the exams were going well. I knew in Em’s code it meant she was f*cking acing ’em. She had a gift for math like I’d never seen before. It wasn’t so much that she found it easy, it’s that she could see a beauty in the numbers where other people couldn’t. Maybe it’s why she understood my sport so well. Those of us who loved boxing saw a beauty in the art of the sport, where others only saw violence.

Every day the hole in my heart from missing her grew bigger. By Friday, the tension between wanting more time to train and missing her badly became meaningless. The fight was tomorrow whether I was I ready for it or not.





Chapter 26



Rest day was still spent at Southside. I’d have gone crazy just sitting in the hotel room, but the gym kept me centered and calm. Samuel taped fights almost religiously, and so we all spent most the day holed up in a tiny little room at the back of the gym watching Temple fight. I only hoped he hadn’t switched it up like I was going to.

“How are you feeling?” Em asked me that night. It was the last time I’d speak to her before the fight.

“Good,” I told her honestly. “Confident. There’s kind of a buzz like there is back home. You’d like it here.”

“You probably won’t want to work out after the fight but maybe I could come with you to see the place and meet a few of the guys?” she suggested.

Just the thought of having her there made me smile. “I’d like that.” I said.

How did today’s exam go?” I asked, and I could see her grin as she replied, “Good, I think. There were a couple of questions that I was nervous about but I worked through them when I got home, and I’m happier now with my answers.”

“You all set for tomorrow?” I asked about her morning flight.

“Are you kidding? My bag’s been packed for nearly a week. There’s no way that I’m not going to be on that plane, I promise.”

“Don’t say that. Anything could happen to stop you getting here. Look at all the shit with the weather.”

“Baby,” she said, and I could hear the laughter in her voice, “how many times today have you checked that my flight is still listed?”

I didn’t want to answer her because I knew she’d laugh. I mumbled into the phone.

“Cormac,” she pressed. Which kind of shocked me because she never called me that.

“Fine. Fourteen!” I admitted. She did actually laugh at me. I needed to hear that sound in person.

“I will be on that flight, O’Connell, I promise. The snow is almost completely gone here.”

“How are you getting to Heathrow?” I asked, worrying about her even now.

“Albie offered to drive me to the airport,” she said.

“I made sure there’s a car service at the airport to meet your flight. Earnshaw told me they’ll hold up one of those signs with your name on it. Show them your ID when you get here and they’ll bring you straight to the guys, okay?” Shit, I sounded so f*cking nervous.

“O’Connell” she said to me.

“Yeah,” I answered huskily.

“You’ve got this. When you get in that ring tomorrow, know that I’m on my way to you that very minute, and I want you to fight like I’m right in front of you. You’ve been training for this, so show me what my husband is made of.”

Just like that, all the nerves and bullshit fell away, and I knew this f*cking fight was mine. Now it was time to show the rest of the world that too.

*



Fight day, like every morning here, was bright and clear, and I itched to go for a run. Kieran and the rest of the guys were in Odell’s diner, stuffing down the American version of a full English fried breakfast. When I got back, I knew I was gonna sweet talk Kieran’s ma into cooking me up a full Irish breakfast, soda bread and all.

Tommy questioned why I wasn’t going along. They all knew I couldn’t eat with them but guessed I’d want the company. Kieran knew better. He tossed me his headphones and iPod on the way out and left me watching Leon and his boys sparring. The music drowned out everything, and I let my head get where it needed to be. To a place it most definitely hadn’t been during the exhibition match. Temple’s cocky scowl was burned into my brain, and I knew, based on my last performance and the shit he’d been saying about me lately, he thought had this in the bag.

As I looked around Southside, I realized just how different Temple and I were. Sure, we were from opposite sides of the world, but both of us came from poor families and boxing had elevated us. What made us different was what we did when we got to the top. Temple surrounded himself with his “crew” as he liked to call them.