63. Chapter 60
Chance
“ A rgh!!” I grunted, throwing the kick as hard as I could into the pads currently protecting Al’s arms. Being the main event, Randy and I’s fight was the last on the card.
Pairs of fighters left and returned. Half victorious, half already being taken to the hospital.
Training kits got packed away, bags and pads carted out one by one.
He sighed.
“Take five, Chance. I’m not holding for you unless you’re gonna concentrate.”
I kicked my water bottle over as I stalked to the bench, bursting with energy. My body had absorbed a good re-feed and some water like a sponge in a bathtub. I reached for my phone but was met with a tauntingly blank screen.
No new messages.
Fuck sake.
I huffed out a consistent stream of breaths, trying to force the frustration out of my body. I picked up the skipping rope, needing to do something about this relentless energy buzzing inside me.
Where is she?
“Relax, Rio. She’ll be here.”
I jumped at JJ’s voice, almost stumbling out of my skin at the content of what he’d said.
“Dude!” I clipped him over the ear. “Keep it down, will you?!” I whisper-yelled in his face.
Dear god, this dude really needs to lay off on the onion rings.
I peered subtly over JJ’s shoulder to Al chatting peacefully to Marilyn.
Thank god.
“Ah, I wouldn’t worry about Al. He’s totally team Chari,” JJ stated, shrugging his shoulders and downing the rest of his Mountain Dew.
“Chari?”
“Yeah. Chari. As in Chance and Mari.”
I stared at the person in front of me that I, myself, had labelled as my best friend. “The fact that things like that don’t weird me out anymore kind of concerns me,” I replied.
JJ smirked and opened his mouth to speak when I heard her.
“Let me in! I told you—I’m the owner of the goddamn gym Riordan trains at!”
I bolted to the door and swung it open, narrowly missing JJ’s face from how close behind he was.
“HEY!” I bellowed.
The three hefty security guards stopped and looked to me.
If I wasn’t so occupied by the fact that she was currently being restrained, I probably would have laughed at how it took three grown men to keep her still in the first place. “You heard her. She’s with me.”
They glanced down at her before turning back to me.
“Get your fucking hands off of her!” It was like the whole world around me had gone radio silent. I tunnelled in on the hands that were still wrapped around Sunny’s wrist and waist. The second my foot hit the ground, they dropped her roughly onto her feet.
Pricks .
“You made it.”
I heard JJ slip inside behind me.
JJ, I owe you one, mate.
“I’m sorry I got caught up after weigh-ins and then the meet and greet, and then I lost my hotel room key and then I get this call from Dad’s facility saying he’d made a jailbreak trying to come and see you fight and so I had to hustle for a last-minute ticket for him and drive out to go and fucking get the trickster himself and then I get here and they said there was already a ‘Marilyn’ inside and I tried to reason with them but those assholes couldn’t believe that two people could have the same fucking name and I—”
I cut her off and pulled her into my chest. Her gorgeous red dress was flush against me. I was probably getting sweat on it, but I didn’t care.
She was here.
My home is here.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
I pulled away, the gold on her eyelids shimmering under the low light. The shiny, golden colours on her face highlighted the honey brown her eyes were today.
She is happy.
And I was beyond whipped over this girl.
“Can you do me a favour?” I asked. “Stay with Hogs and JJ tonight, okay?”
She looked at me with that fire crackle in her eyes, like she was readying to push.
“No problem,” she replied.
~
“Better!” Al yelled. “Fuck yes, Chancey boy! Much better!”
I bumped the pad to signal a break.
“WOOOOOOOOO! RIO DE JANIOROOOOOOOOO! WOOOOOOO!” JJ’s loud cheers echoed through the room.
“Rio de Janioro?” Al asked.
“Yup!” JJ beamed, and I groaned at where this joke was going. “What’s in Rio, Al?”
“Uh … I dunno? The big j—”
“THE BIG JESUS!” JJ cheered, pointing down at me.
I glanced over to Mari sitting in the corner, bouncing between tapping away on her phone and scuffling through paperwork with a highlighter.
Her straightened hair fell over her face, and I could tell she had been stress-sweating a little before she’d managed to heist her way in here—some of her curls were starting to come back around her face.
God, she is so fucking beautiful.
“Five minutes before you’re backstage, Chance.” Marilyn reappeared with a tray of coffees and a beer. To my surprise, she handed the beer to Mari with a knowing smile.
Sunny downed half of it almost instantly.
“C’mon, mate, let’s get you ready.” Al patted me on the shoulders as JJ shrugged a jacket up my arms.
I waited for the usual rush of adrenalin to start. I waited for the typical surge in my heart rate. I looked across the room.
At Al, who had taken on one last fighter to get me here to the big stage once again.
At Marilyn, who had taken a chance on a fighter down on spirits and pushed him to thrive as a coach.
At JJ, who had saved my ass on more than one occasion, but who would always be the one whose call saved my life .
And Mari, who had shown me what it was like to be loved exactly as me —who proved to me that love was not transactional but a consistent partner dance through every twist and turn.
I couldn’t fight the smile that stretched across my face at the realisation; that survival-mode surge I’d waited for, what had used to be driven by threat and fear, was now driven by the love for the team around me. For the grit and the determination they had all taught me in their own ways.
“Well, that’s my cue.” Mari stood with an empty beer bottle in her hand. She passed it back to Marilyn and, to my surprise, wrapped her arms around my neck.
Her perfume, mixed with the sweet smell of her , flooded my senses.
“Remember to stay with Hogs and JJ,” I whispered in her ear.
Gooseflesh lit up her bare back.
“You got this, Chance,” she whispered in return. “You’ve earned this. This is yours.”
“Rio.” JJ gently patted my shoulder. “It’s time, man.”
~
“Saw your girl out there tonight, Riordan.” Randy’s sick, slow voice smashed through every fucking heightened sense.
My fingers began to tingle. Not in fear, but in absolute anticipation to drop the prick in front of me.
“She’ll look better once she’s cuffed to my headboard though.”
JJ caught me just in time.
One of his cornermen had disappeared. The biggest one, who’s name I couldn’t remember, leaving his corner down to two.
“Fuck,” I muttered. “JJ, Hogs—”
He grabbed me by the shoulders. “He’s already onto her, man,” JJ stated. I’d never heard him speak so calmly. “Dylan is sitting two rows behind her too.”
I let out a sigh of relief. Hogs would be a pain in the ass to get through, but Hogs and my brother? Surely that was enough of a nightmare to steer any bastard away from her.
“This is your time, bro.” JJ pulled his forehead down to mine. “Mari’s safe. Make sure that cunt isn’t.”