We all jumped as we watched Frank drop to the ground with Margaret on top of him, a crimson bloodstain spreading quickly across her shoulder. I turned Em away so that she didn’t have to see any more and carried her up the stairs back to Nikki’s flat.
* * *
When we got there, Nikki sat on her bed rubbing her jaw as though she were still in pain, with Kieran beside her.
“It’s done?” he asked, and I nodded.
“What happened?” Nikki asked.
“Frank used Em’s mum to trick you into opening the door and he knocked you out,” I told her.
“I remember that bit, thanks,” Nikki replied sarcastically. “I meant, what happened after?”
“He took Em at knifepoint. Em’s mum heard Frank talking about how he’d always wanted Em. Her mum lost it and knifed him in the chest.”
“You’re very verbose, you know that, Con? And you have a real gift for storytelling.” I frowned at her fucking sarcasm. I told her what happened. What? Did she need me to describe it in Technicolor?
“I’m sorry, Con,” she said at my frown. “I’m tired, my head hurts, and I’m feeling a bit testy.” With everything Nikki had done, I had no reason to be pissed at a little sarcasm.
“It’s okay,” I told her. “I’m sorry for what Frank did to you. It wasn’t fair of me to leave Em here and assume you’d be safe. That’s on me,” I told her. She shook her head no, but I knew it was the truth. “I need to get Em out of here,” I told Kier.
“There’s no way the police will let you go without taking your statements,” Nikki warned me. I desperately wanted to get Em alone and help her process some of this shit. She hadn’t spoken to me since it happened, and I had a horrible feeling she was going into shock.
“Take Lauren’s bed,” Nikki told me pointing to the bed opposite hers. “We’ll explain to the police that you want a little time to make sure Em’s okay. Maybe they’ll let us give our statements first.”
“Thanks, Nikki. I appreciate it,” I told her as she stood up.
As I laid Em down, she started shaking. “It’s okay, baby girl. It’s all over now. You’re safe, I promise. Everything’s gonna be okay.” I gathered her in close and grabbed a throw blanket from the bottom of the bed to keep her warm. Fuck knows if I was doing the right thing for shock but I had to do something. I rubbed her arms vigorously while holding her as close as I could without crushing her. I was really starting to get worried when she finally spoke to me.
“Is he dead?” she asked me.
“I think so, love. I can’t imagine it’s that easy to recover from a knife to the heart. Assuming he had one, that is,” I said.
“Is it wrong that I hope he is dead?” she asked.
“No, baby. I’d think something was wrong if you didn’t fucking want him dead,” I reassured her.
“If he’s dead, does that mean I should forgive her? She killed him for me. But I don’t think I can forgive her.” She sounded so utterly and hopelessly lost. Like she was alone in the wilderness without a compass. Well, I’d be her motherfucking north.
I held her chin gently in my hand and tilted her face up to look at me. “You listen to me, Sunshine. Your ma is one sick fuck. By the sound of it, she ain’t been right in the head since long before your dad died. She killed Frank out of jealousy, not because she was protecting you. After what she did, there’s no evening the score—not ever. So don’t you feel like you need to forgive either of them for anything. I hope they both die and spend eternity burning in hell.”
“When this is all over and your fight and my exams are done, I want to finish our home, close the door, and keep the world out for at least a week,” she told me shakily.
“Sounds like a fucking good plan to me, love,” I said with a chuckle. Em tucked herself in closer to my body. After a while, the shivering stopped, and her warm breath evened out as it blew gently across my neck. I knew that Em was finding all this difficult to process, but for me, it was like Christmas had come early. In all likelihood, Frank was dead, the evil poison in our life that was Margaret Thomas was looking at twenty years behind bars, that’s if she made it at all, and my girl was lying safe in my arms.
* * *
After making sure that Nikki was all right, we all piled into Liam’s truck and headed home. Em didn’t protest as I carried her up the stairs to our flat. After taking my keys out of the lock, I kicked the door shut and headed straight to the bathroom with her still in my arms.
“What are you doing?” she mumbled as I set her down on the toilet seat lid.
“Hot bath,” I replied. “It will make you feel better.” I knew she’d need to wash away the stink of Frank’s touch, and I needed to be close to her, to feel like I was taking care of her. She liked baths hot enough that you could boil off a layer of skin of you jumped in too quick. Being only used to ice baths I was a complete fucking pansy arse about dipping my balls into the scalding water, but I did it for Em.
Pulling her to stand up, I carefully undressed her and folded her clothes neatly in a pile. She’d kill me tomorrow when she was feeling better if I chucked them all over the floor. When she was naked, I pulled my shirt over my head and made quick work of my boots, jeans, and underwear. She was so tiny that I lifted her effortlessly into the bath and then sat behind her, pulling her back against my chest. Pouring a ton of that smelly shit she liked onto a sponge, I washed her carefully as she laid against me with her eyes closed. When I got to her chest, I had to adjust my cock so it didn’t impale her, but in all honesty, it had been at half-mast since I started undressing her.
“That thing’s got a mind of its own,” she giggled sleepily.
“It’s not my fault. There’s invisible string connecting my cock to your top. As soon as the top comes off, my cock salutes in approval.” She giggled again, and it was such a fucking beautiful sound I wished I could bottle it and take it away with me across the world. I’d call it my jar of happiness, and it would let the sun shine into the dark.
There are days when men take their woman for granted. When you come through the door tired and hungry and don’t see how tired she is or how the place is spotless and how, as you’re hoovering your meal without really tasting it, she’s spent ages in the kitchen making that just for you. There were probably days that I’d already done that to Em, and try as I might to make sure that didn’t happen, it probably would, on occasion, happen again.
Today wasn’t one of those days. My beautiful, gentle, loving wife was safe in my arms, and our bright and shining future was right in front of us. I sent a silent prayer upstairs for that. Fuck success and fuck the money ’cause everything I had right here and now was more than I ever deserved. More than I ever dared to dream. That didn’t mean though that laying the world at her feet wasn’t still on the agenda. Rico Temple’s attitude pissed me off, and I had some shit kicking to do.
“I’m supposed to be back on a flight tomorrow night,” I told her, “but I don’t want to leave you.”
“The university would probably let me bail on the exams if I asked them. They’re only internal exams, sort of mocks for the finals. But I’m going to take them anyway,” she told me.
“Why, if you can get away without doing them?” I asked as I rubbed the sponge gently up and down her arm.
“Because fuck Frank and his memory, that’s why. Today he took the last piece of normality he’s ever going to take again. The trial and worrying about Frank has messed around my final year so much, but I’ve worked hard for these exams and I’m going to sit them. And when I pass, I hope Frank gets my ‘fuck you’ message in hell.”
“Baby?” I asked.
“Hmm…” she answered.
“Remind me never to piss you off, okay?” I loved that she giggled again. “I want you at the fight with me but I’m so fucking proud that you still want to see it through.” I paused, feeling like I should cancel the fight to stay with her.
“Absolutely no way,” she said without looking around to m
e once.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“I can practically hear your brain working, O’Connell. You are not canceling this fight. I’m going to stay with Nikki as planned. My last exam finishes on Friday, and there’s a flight to the US early on Saturday morning. I probably won’t make it for the fight but at least I’ll be there to celebrate with you after.”
“Please tell me there’ll be sex. Lots and lots of sex?” I said.
“If you win, there will be,” she teased. I tickled the sponge over her ribs making her laugh, then sucked gently on the side of her neck making her moan.
“Not until after the fight,” she protested without feeling.
“Spoilsport,” I answered, but didn’t push my luck. She squirmed around a little to get comfortable, and the cheeks of her arse brushed against my already painfully hard cock, making me groan. I rested my forehead against her head and tried to remember that this was about taking care of Em, not twisting her around and bending her over the bath so I could take her wet, soapy curves from behind. Shit! No! She seemed a little less vulnerable now so sex was pretty much the only thing I could think about.
“Think about the national anthem,” she said, tapping my leg.
“How come you’re not as frustrated as I am?” I complained.
“Because I get to watch you all hot and sweaty in training then come home and touch myself,” she admitted, and I swear to God I dropped the motherfucking sponge. The image of Em lying in our bed, maybe wearing my wraps and touching herself was burned on my retinas. After dropping that little bombshell, she started humming my go-to song for telling my cock to stand down.
“You know, one day I’m gonna fuck you to that song,” I warned her.
“Promises, promises,” she said and I smacked her arse as she climbed out of the bath. When she was safely covered from head to toe in my navy bathrobe and I had thrown a white towel around my hips, I pulled on her lapels to turn her around to face me.
“Seriously, Sunshine. I don’t want you putting a brave face on this. What happened tonight was all kinds of fucked up and, I’ll be honest, going to America and leaving your here feels wrong,” I admitted to her.
“I won’t tell you I’m fine,” she told me. “It’s probably going to take years of counseling before I can ever get to the stage where I’m not messed up about what happened. But I’ll get there. Knowing that he’s dead, though, feels like I’ve been let out of prison. I’ve wasted the last six months on Frank, but the next six belong to us.” I smiled, because I knew that there was nothing about being a fighter that this strong woman couldn’t teach me.
Chapter 25
I was the last of our group to mount the stairs leading up to the plane. The sudden snow that covered half of London was slowly melting, and we were finally on our way to America, much to Earnshaw’s relief. He’d worked hard to get me this fight, and I’m not sure that his stress levels could have taken it if I’d gone through with canceling it.
My hands were buried deep in my jacket pockets, and despite that fact that I had the fight of my life ahead of me, I still hated the idea of leaving Em behind. The night before a test, when she was going through her notes, I always made her tea and toast with chocolate spread. It was kind of becoming a tradition, but who would do that for her with me gone? I swear I worried about the stupidest shit whenever she was away from me. But that stupid shit was marriage. Always worrying about the other before yourself.
I nodded to the flight attendant as I ducked to walk in through the door. We dominated the space as they directed us toward our seats, and all of us looked cocky and confident, as we tried to hide the fact that none of us had been on a long-haul flight before. Hell, most of us hadn’t ever been on a plane before. Even Danny went back to Ireland by ferry. Earnshaw had that relaxed, bored look about him that said he’d flown a thousand times. Tommy managed to hit practically every passenger down the aisle with his duty-free bag, then argued with Liam when he went to put it in the overhead locker.
“What is all this shit anyway?” Liam asked, opening the bag.
“Stuff to do on the flight,” he answered.
“Like what?” Liam replied. He opened the bag, and we all peered in. Inside was Tom’s weight in chocolate bars and a hardback copy of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
“What the fuck is this?” Liam asked, pulling out the book.
“Em read it and told me it was really good,” Tommy explained. We all looked at each other wondering what it was about chick lit Tommy thought he’d enjoy.
“Jesus, Tom, I think you’re actually becoming a bird by osmosis. You’ve shagged so many women that estrogen is actually being absorbed into your skin,” Liam told him.
“At least it’s got words instead of pictures. Be thankful it isn’t a coloring book,” Kieran added with a smirk as we settled into our seats.
“Oh, I have one of those,” a pretty girl in the seat behind Tommy said, holding up an adult coloring book. Her friend leaned over the seat in front of her and pointed to the book Liam was holding.
“I love that book. Have you seen the film?” she purred sexily at Liam as she spoke and leaned farther forward, giving him an eyeful of her rack. I chuckled as I sat back on my seat and closed my eyes. She was in for a long flight if she was hoping to seduce Liam. Tommy grinned and wiggled his eyebrows at us all. Apparently the female attention he was getting totally vindicated his choice of reading material. If he flashed about that chocolate later, he’d be attracting women like magnets.
As it happened, he was barely in his seat for most of the journey. Like some kid with ADHD, Tommy could never sit still for long. Kieran kept me company for a few hours, watching movies on the screen in front of us, until a kid started kicking the back of his seat. He gave me a look that said he was about to murder him before addressing the mother. “Excuse me,” he said in his politest, most charming voice. “Your son is kicking the back of my seat, and it’s getting really annoying. Do you mind stopping him?”
The bitch looked completely pissed off at been interrupted in the middle of whatever she was reading on her Kindle. “This is a family flight, and if you wanted more distance between the seating, you should have paid for a first-class seat.” Even I turned around to look then.
“You’re seriously going to let that little shit keep doing it?” Kier asked. She didn’t get a chance to respond before he started talking directly to the kid. If this had been any of the gym kids, I knew what I’d do. Then again, I like to think they were too respectful for that. This little shit, who must have been about nine or ten, wore the smirk of a brat who always got what he wanted.
“Next time you kick my seat, kid, I’m gonna take my bottle of water and splash it all over your crotch. Then when you go to the bathroom to clean up, I’m gonna ask everyone to clear a path because my kid brother’s had a little ‘accident.’ For the rest of the flight, you’ll be the kid who pissed himself. You want that?”
“Really,” said the mother, outraged.
“Yeah! Really,” promised Kieran. The kid shook his head no and I closed my eyes again, smiling. Kieran really was something else.
A few hours later, the sun set and most of the passengers were quiet. The boys, having all gotten bored, had disappeared to the back of the plane. I sat listening to Kier’s iPod as I ran through all Temple’s previous fights in my mind, working out what my strategy was. It was the strong cloud of perfume filling my nose that made me open my eyes as a good-looking girl with long dark hair, perfectly manicured nails, and lots of makeup sat down next to me.
“Hi, I hope you don’t think I’m being too forward. Your friends back there didn’t think you’d want to join us but I didn’t want you to feel left out.”
I pulled off my headphones, not wanting to seem rude. “That’s kind of you. But I’ve got a big week coming up, and I’m happy just sitting in my seat and relaxing until the plane lands,” I told her politely.
“Maybe I could relax with you?
” she suggested with a tilt of her head. She bit her shiny lip. Why girls did that I had no idea; it had zero effect on me. Actually that was a lie. Em always bit her lip—when she was working out math problems. She had absolutely no idea she was doing it, and it was sexy as fuck.
“Look, I don’t want to seem rude, and you’re welcome to sit here if you’re after a bit of peace and quiet, but I’m probably going to listen to music and try and get some sleep.” I told her. Maybe I was being rude, not wanting to make idle chitchat with a stranger but being rude was pretty much what I was famous for. At least it used to be.
As soon as I went to put my headphones back on, she started talking again. “The guys told me all about your fight. They said that when you win you’re going to be really famous. You must be totally pumped.” Her perfect manicure was waving around excitedly as she talked about the fight.
“Yeah, I guess,” I replied, trying to replace my headphones again.
“Listen, call it fate,” she said, “but I’m in town for two weeks when your fight is on. Maybe we could hook up sometime?” She tucked her hair behind her ear and bit her lip again.
I looked at her and couldn’t help but mentally compare her with Em. My girl hardly ever wore makeup, not because she didn’t need it, which she didn’t, but because I think it never occurred to her to wear any if she wasn’t going out. She told me that waitressing made her nails all dirty so she kept them short and unpolished. Em was all natural, nothing false about her. There was no comparison. It wasn’t this girl’s fault. It was just that I gave my heart away the day I first clapped eyes on Sunshine, and I never wanted it back.
“Look, it’s really nice of you to offer, but I’m married,” I explained, holding up my ring finger. Leaning toward me, her weight on the armrest next to me, she looked down her shirt at her own cleavage, then raised her eyes to me to see if I’d caught the show and whispered, “I won’t tell if you won’t.”
The Aftermath Page 20