“You know I’ve got this right?” he told me, cockily.

“I know, baby.” I smiled, truly believing he did.

“I wish you were with me,” he admitted.

“I will be,” I replied. “Now put your big girl pants on and go get a title. The flat’s looking kind of bare, and we could use a big, gaudy looking belt to brighten up the place.”

“I love you, Mrs. O’Connell,” he told me.

“Love you, too, O’Connell,” I replied, and after kissing me the way that every woman should be kissed at least once in her life, he was out of the door.

NINE HOURS LATER, he walked back in again with an eye so black he could barely see out of it, a split lip, and a very serious face.

“Well?” I asked impatiently, frustrated that I’d been on tenterhooks for hours and that no one had been answering my calls.

Suddenly, his face lit up like the morning sun and the heart-stopping smile that I loved so much spread across his face.

“Winner by knockout in the seventh round and new IBF Heavyweight Champion,” he announced.

“That’s my boy,” I said leaning back against my pillow.

JAB, JAB, CROSS. JAB, JAB, CROSS.

“If Tommy doesn’t get his hands off my wife, I’m gonna fuck him up.”

Jab, jab, cross. Jab, jab, cross.

“He’s fucking with you, Con. Now concentrate. My Nan could hit harder than you are.”

Kieran took the piss as he held the heavy bag steady.

“Your Nan is hard as nails. Even Danny’s scared of her,” I joked, but threw an extra bit of weight behind the combination, which made him grunt.

“Besides, you owe him for taking care of your girl while you trained,” he reminded me. I looked over at Tommy and reminded myself why he was getting a free pass. There were only a few men in this world who I would trust my wife’s safety to, and all kidding aside, Tommy was one of them. Today was the first day I’d let her out of the apartment, and I was not entirely comfortable with her being anywhere but resting in bed. It’d been two months since that bastard took her and my life nearly ended. That was the truth of it because, without Em, there was nothing else. My hollow, meaningless, life had been filled by this woman. I didn’t deserve her, but there was nothing I wouldn’t do, no line I wouldn’t cross, to keep her safe.

There was a festering hate burning inside me for the bastard who took what was mine. Believe me, there was a day of reckoning coming when Frank was going to get what was coming to him. For now, I kept my rage contained. Em needed me to grow a pair of balls and deal with my shit, and I’d be whatever she needed me to be so she could heal from this. Of all of us, she seemed the least fucked up. Danny, me, Kieran, we all had guilt. If we’d done things differently, protected her better, she would never have been taken. That was on us, and we had to live with it. Em didn’t see it that way, though. She felt free, like she’d gotten a new lease on life because Frank was behind bars. She made me promise I wouldn’t do anything while he was in there. I never made any promises about when he gets out.

“Seriously, Con. Focus. Danny sees you punching like an old lady, he’s gonna think you’re out of shape.”

“Fuck you.” I grinned.

He wasn’t entirely wrong. I hadn’t put on the gloves since I’d won the IBF belt, but as usual, my wife had been kicking my arse. She announced this morning that she was coming to Danny’s and that I could join her, or leave my lazy, overprotective, arse at home. Turns out, she was more of a hardarse when it came to training than Danny. I wasn’t in fighting shape, but with my muscle memory and hard work, I soon would be. Besides, I was hungry for it. I’d had a taste of winning, and I wanted more. With everyone behind me, there was no reason I couldn’t have it, too. I never used to think like that, but Em changed me. She still thought that breakfast at Daisy’s was the first time we met. It was true, but I first saw her months before that.

My hangover had been raging, and I’d had bad news to break to Danny. He’d arranged a fight between Mac and a local guy from another gym. The cocky little shit had been mouthing off in Brady’s the night before. It was amusing till the gobshite turned on me. I couldn’t be arsed mouthing back, so I floored him and broke his jaw. Pretty safe to say that Friday’s fight was cancelled after that.

“Danny’s gonna put my balls in a blender when he finds out,” I told Kieran, who looked highly amused.

“Tell him now while he’s having his breakfast.”

“We haven’t been home yet. I stink of booze and birds,” I reminded him.

“Listen. Mac told me he’s friendly with some waitress down at Daisy’s. The old fucker’s happiest when he’s eating, and if you’re in a public place, he can’t bollock you so bad.”

The man had a point, so I decided to risk it. Danny wasn’t there when I’d arrived, so I waited across the street. I needed Danny to get comfy before I spilled the beans. Round the corner, came a gorgeous pair of legs and an arse fine enough to make a grown man beg. She was pretty, in a wholesome good girl sort of way, but good girls weren’t really my type. There was nothing wrong with the legs of the bad girl who’d been wrapped around me last night. No, it wasn’t her looks or her body that caught my attention. It was what she did next. This girl didn’t look like she had a quid to her name. Her jacket was threadbare, and she had it wrapped around her like it was the most expensive possession she had. A few yards away from me, a guy was sleeping rough in a doorway. It was a pretty common sight in this part of London, especially this early in the morning. I barely noticed the homeless anymore. This girl saw him and stopped. It wasn’t like she was embarrassed at having to walk past him. She literally had to cross the street to get to him. But when she did, she laid her hand on his arm and asked if there was anything she could do to help. He smiled and thanked her but told her he was fine. Then she emptied her pockets and gave him everything she had. In this day and age, who did that? That’s what made this girl so special. Twenty minutes later, she came back over, shivering in her waitress uniform, and handed the guy a hot cup of coffee as he was packing up his sleeping bag. That act of kindness probably made his day, because it sure as hell made mine. It was the first bit of faith in humanity I’d had since Kieran’s ma stepped up for me.