TWIN PASSIONS: (A Logan Brothers Novel) (9 page)

I hated when people did that
shit. “I dunno coach, bad I guess.”

“
All right. I can't come down
to the gym this afternoon, got held up with some nonsense with my
little girl. Just take an easy session, hit some bags, do some
circuits and fitness. We'll pick it up down in the ring tomorrow with
some sparring. I've lined up some good sparring partners for you.”

“
Was that last bit the good
news coach?”

He laughed. “Fuck no, not even
close.”

“
Sooo, what've you got for
me?”

“
Are you sitting down?”

“
Yes coach.” I wasn't.
“Enough with the suspense already.”
This better be fucking
good
.

“
I've sorted your next fight.
It's big.”

“
How big?”

“
Well as big as you're gonna
get right now!”

“
Who?

“
Agulla.”

“
No fucking way! Agulla. He's,
like, number two isn't he?!”

“
Yes he is.”

“
Well how the hell did you
swing that?!”

“
His next opponent fell out,
got an injury in training. He's fucked for about 6 months, poor
bastard. It's left a slot open and I got you in my boy. It's in 2
weeks time.”

I probably should have been
sitting because my legs were turning to jelly right now. Agulla was
2
^nd
in line for a shot at the cruiserweight belt. If I
could take him down people would really fucking take notice of me,
and not just in that clapped out arena down at the
Cave
. Hell no,
we'd be talking about a potential shot at the number 1 and then, the
fucking title itself!

“
All right Cade, I've gotta
rush off but I'll see you tomorrow at 6am down at the boxing club.
Get yourself off to the gym but keep it light. And for the next two
weeks we're gonna go strict on your nutrition, get you primed for
battle and fighting fit. So no snacks, no drink. And Cade, no damned sex, all right. None, for the next two weeks. Eye on the prize my
boy, eye on the prize.”

“
Yes coach. All noted. I've
got motherfucking tunnel vision.”

“
Good lad. I'll see you
tomorrow at 6.”

Now I was in the gym, feeling
more alive than I ever had outside of an actual fight. This was a
real chance for me to get some proper attention. Not fucking
attention from girls in the crowd and lifestyle magazines, but proper
boxing journalists and promoters. If a boxing journo came to me and
wanted to do a story, hell yeah would I say yes. Talking to trashy
magazines, though, fuck that.

I'd told Gemma that I'd give her
an exclusive, though, and was really regretting it. OK, so she was my
lucky charm and was supporting me but, really, it was me putting in
all the effort. I did want her career to go well and everything but
now that I had this fight set up, I had no time for anything else.
Not even her.

She'll understand when I tell
her I think. She's a good girl, she gets how important all of this is
to me.

Gemma sat across the table from
me, sipping on a glass of wine. She looked great, but I had other
things on my mind.

We were sat in my apartment,
eating some pre-prepared food I'd got sent over from this health food
delivery service I used. When I first started dating Gem she thought
I prepared the food myself, and I'd never told her the truth that I
was a fucking atrocious cook and only ever ordered in or ate out.

Of course, with my fitness and
nutrition regime the way it was, everything needed to be carefully
calculated for my body. Coach had gotten my sports nutritionist to
create a special take-away menu that I could use, so whenever I
called up, I'd know that I was putting the right stuff into my body.

Mercifully, it all tasted great,
and Gem was now sitting there extolling my fabricated cooking skills.

“
This is amazing Cade, what's
in this sauce?”

Oh fuck. I had no idea.

“
Trade secret baby,” I said
with a smile. She'd gotten used to me side-stepping such questions so
didn't push it.

“
So babe,” I said, moving
the subject onto more pressing concerns, “I've got my next fight
lined up.”

“
Oh great,” she exclaimed. I
sensed a hint of false excitement in her voice. “When?”

“
Two weeks tonight. It's a big
one Gem.”

“
Oh?”

I could feel my heart beating
faster once more at the prospect. “Yeah, it's what I've been
waiting for baby. Things are finally starting to take off.”

“
Oh that's great Cade,” she
said, “I'm so happy for you.”

“
For us,” I said fast,
without thinking. “You're in this with me Gem. I don't know if I'd
have got here without you.”

She shook her head lightly and
turned to look out the large window to the side of the table. The
bright city lights were beaming outside against the black night, a
smattering of rain tapping against the glass.

“
I've done nothing Cade. I'm
sure you'd have done the same without me, or with anyone in my
place.”

“
No Gem, you're special. I
want you watching me every time I fight.”

She turned back to me and smiled
with pursed lips. “I'll be there. Of course I'll be there.”

We continued to eat in silence
as the rain grew heavier outside. I felt a slight weight begin to
build in me. I needed to tell her that I couldn't give her an
interview. I needed to tell her that I couldn't sleep with her, even
see her for the next two weeks.

An awkwardness was building that
I'd never really felt with her. We'd been seeing each other for 6
months or more by now and I'd never had this feeling before. Her mind
seemed preoccupied, her face smothered in concern, a frown set
constantly over her eyes.

“
So Gem, this fight is the
biggest I've had and the guy is fucking awesome. Coach says I need to
focus on it 100%, with no other distractions at all.”

She was nodding somewhat
absentmindedly.

“
So that basically means that,
well, I can't really see you for the next couple of weeks.”

The words barely seemed to
register with her. I thought she'd be understanding and yet upset.
Surely the idea of not seeing me at all for two weeks would be hard?!
But no, she kept the same impassive, worried look on the face that
she'd had all evening.

“
Oh OK, I guess that makes
sense.”

I don't know why but I kinda
wanted more of a reaction than that.

“
But that's not all of it. I...I'm not going to be able to do that interview. I'm really
sorry baby, it's just not the right timing for me anymore...and coach
says that if I'm going to give an exclusive it needs to be with a
sports or boxing specific magazine, not a lifestyle one. Baby, I'm
really sorry, I'll make it up to you.”

I felt bad letting her down but
I knew it was the right thing to do. I was a serious boxer now and I
didn't want to devalue myself by chatting about what brand of boxer
shorts I wore or where I liked to get my hair cut. I guess that's
what some gossipy lifestyle magazine would want to print. They'd have
no interest in my actual career, just my personal life.

“
It's OK, I wasn't sure I was
gonna do the piece anyway,” she said. “It didn't feel quite
right, with you being my boyfriend and everything.”

I was slightly taken aback by
how calm she was being about it all. “Oh, OK,” I said, breathing
a sigh of relief, “so we're cool then?”

“
Oh, yeah, we're cool,” she
said, completely unconvincingly, “I get it Cade.”

Her manner was really starting
to become quite disconcerting. I mean, she just came off like she was
depressed or something, like she didn't give a shit that her career
wasn't going to get the boost she wanted, that I was going to step
completely out of her life for the next couple of weeks. I thought,
at the very least, she'd be a little upset.

“
So are you really all right
with this? You know, not seeing me for two weeks?”

“
Oh yeah, that's fine.”

“
I just think it's best if we don't see each other at all.
I need to keep my focus, you know. When I'm around you, other things
can sometimes take priority.”

I smiled suggestively at her and
raised my eyebrows to her chest, trying to get a reaction, a laugh,
something. She smiled and huffed lightly, but nothing more.

“
Well, I'm sure we'll be fine
for two weeks,” she said. “Anyway, I've got a lot of work on so
I'll probably be working late anyway most of the time.”

“
But you'll definitely be at the fight?
Two weeks tonight? It's not at the
Cave
this time, it's in Stadmore
Arena.” I spoke with a hint of pride in my voice. The arena was
much nicer, much bigger, and far more suitable for a fighter of my
quality.

“
Oh wow, that's cool. Yeah,
I'll be there.”

She didn't give me much
confidence the way she spoke. I was getting the distinct impression
that things weren't all great on her side, like she wanted to break
up with me or something. Maybe she was still reeling from the stupid
fight we had. Maybe she was getting more worried about the added
attention I was getting, especially from all these girls. That might
be why she'd given up on the idea of doing a piece on me? It would
only lead to more attention on me, and she was clearly struggling
with that.

We continued our dour dinner for
the next half hour. As much as anything it was difficult for me to
watch her drink a couple of glasses of wine while I had to stick with
the water. I'd always had a taste for alcohol, but now that things
were getting more serious in the ring, I'd need to be ultimately
strict there.

For me, there was nothing else
but the fight right now. Nothing would stop me from taking Agulla
down.

By 9 PM I needed to kick Gem
out. Frankly, it looked like she'd be happy to leave. She apologized
for being so moody all night as I kissed her goodbye at the door. It
was the first time she'd actually acknowledged that fact the entire
night.

She told me that things at work
had been hard recently, that she wasn't really enjoying the job much
anymore. It stung at me a little bit, knowing that retracting my
offer of an exclusive interview will only have made things worse.
When I apologized again for that, however, she brushed it off once
more.

I felt my loins begin to throb
as I kissed her long and deep on my doorstep. The idea of two weeks
without sex was a real killer for me. I can't remember the last time
I'd gone that long without feeling the warmth of a woman's thighs.
Probably not since my late teens.

She clearly didn't have sex in
mind anyway. Even if I'd been raring to go, I don't think she'd have
reciprocated my advances. In fact, she'd become more and more
sexually closed off over the last few months. I guess the honeymoon
period that I'd heard people rattle on about was a real thing. I
always thought it was bullshit. If I had it my way we'd have been
screwing every night.

She turned off down the hall and
walked away from me with a promise that she'd be there, ringside, in
two weeks time. I watched the curve of her ass closely as she walked
away. It was the last time I'd see it in a while.

I turned back into my apartment
and closed the door. Now I needed to set my mind to the one goal
currently dominating my thoughts.

Agulla. The fight. I had to win.
There was nothing else now.

Present Day

Gemma

I sat in the bright sunshine
nursing a cappuccino. Annie sat opposite me, her red hair tied up
into an impressive bun. She wore an outfit that I would never dream
of considering, a multi-colored striped dress and red tights that
made her look like she'd just been thrown out of Santa's grotto.

As a fashion journalist she
often came into work wearing clothing that you'd only ever see on the
catwalk, and seemed oblivious to the added attention it gave her
whenever she was in public.

Now was one of those times, with
people staring over at us as they walked past. How I noticed just
about every glance, and she didn't seem to see any, I would never
work out. I suppose over her lifetime she'd grown accustomed to it
all. It was all new to me.

Of course, some of the stares
might have been directed at me. People now knew that I was Cade
Logan's girlfriend and I was beginning to notice people looking in my
direction more than I ever had. It was disconcerting and something I
really wasn't comfortable with.

It had been a few days since I'd
last seen Cade now. We'd had some sort of farewell dinner over at
his, to which he seemed to have put a good deal of effort into. The
food was great, but the conversation and mood not so much. To be
fair, that was more to do with me than anything else.

I had been battling with this
whole thing with Cade for a week now, and hadn't shared it with
anyone. Mrs Banks was adamant that I dig into his past and find some
sort of skeleton that we could put to print. OK, so it could be
printed under another name, moving the spotlight away from me, but
still, how could I possibly do that to him?