Page 67 of Southie
He nodded again.
“Liam, this will be a big boost to your career. Who are you fighting?”
A wide smile stretched across his face. “Damian Denning.”
“Oh God,” I mumbled, leaning my forehead against his bare chest. “Liam, you said you’d let it go.”
“I did let it go. Trust me, if I hadn’t, Damian wouldn’t be my opponent. You’d be reading his obituary in the Boston Globe,” he gritted out, and a shiver ran down my spine.
As much as I wanted to believe he wouldn’t harm Damian, I couldn’t deny the truth in front of me. Liam was a very protective person by nature, and the cold, blank stare in his eyes as I relayed how I got the bruise on my wrist showed me who he could be. Liam, the Enforcer, stared back at me. If I hadn’t begged him not to harm Damian, he would already be dead.
“This is your father’s doing. I had nothing to do with picking my opponent, although I couldn’t be happier with his choice. For obvious reasons. Roland said, other than me, he’s the next best fighter at Premier Boxing.” He shrugged. “So, in two weeks, I’ll beat his ass since you saved it from being buried six feet under.”
I groaned. This wouldn’t end well. “Well, I hope you two don’t try to kill each other in the ring because of me.”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about me, my love. He’ll get what’s coming to him.”
“Regardless, I’m so proud of you.”
He pecked me on the lips. “Thank you, baby. What do you have planned for today? I want to celebrate.”
“I wanted you to take me to campus after a quick shower. I have a meeting with my professor. He said an opportunity opened and wanted to know if I’d be interested. If you can’t, I can call an Uber. I don’t know where any bus stops are around here.”
“Drive the Charger.”
“No Liam, I’m not driving your car. I can ride the bus if you can’t take me.”
“Non...sense, Camilla. If you need a ride, take my car or I’ll take you. If you don’t want to take my car, I don’t care where you are, call me. I’ll take you and pick you up. I don’t like you riding the bus anyway. Have you still been seeing the black Audi?”
I didn’t want to get into that with him because I knew he’d be on edge more than he already was, but he needed to know. “Yeah. The last time was yesterday on the way to the gym.”
“Shit. Okay, you need to call me whenever you need a ride. That’s nonnegotiable. No more riding the bus.”
“But…”
“I’m not backing down from this.”
I sighed. “Okay.”
He pecked me on the lips. To be honest, his offer gave me some relief. Constantly having someone following me who could be a murderer had me scared out of my mind. Detective Rizzo informed me that the police couldn’t do anything other than send a patrol officer through my neighborhood and around campus. My safety was in my hands.
Chapter 12
Liam
Fight Night
Liam “Southie” Daugherty vs. Damian “The Killer” Denning
Everything had been perfect between me and Camilla for the last two weeks. Too perfect, really. I’d been on cloud nine while waiting for the other shoe to drop. When I wasn’t with Camilla or doing a job for Paddy, I trained for tonight.
As usual, the roar of the crowd caused tingles to course throughout my body. Normally, I pushed the outside world out of my mind, but that was hard to do tonight. Camilla, Paddy, and my grandmother’s killer took up focus when my fight should’ve been the only thing on my mind.
My relationship with Camilla and where we went from here, and the possibility of Paddy finding out about our relationship and the hit on him, weighed heavily on me. There was no way word hadn’t gotten back to Paddy about this fight. They’d plastered it across every news station and newspaper in New England, something I should’ve expected. Even my Uncle Ray had called about it. He and his bitch of a wife were trying to use my ties with one of the top trainers in the country to their benefit.
I shut that shit down quick. With all the bullshit I’d been going through with my father since I was a kid, and Ray being nowhere around until he wanted something, I wouldn’t give him a pot to piss in if he needed it. If he wanted to connect with Roland, he’d have to do it on his own.
With everything going on, Paddy still never mentioned the fight, Camilla, or Roland. He sent me on jobs like everything was normal, which let me know he had something planned, and I didn’t want it to come back on Camilla or her father. A few of Gerald’s friends had been monitoring both Roland and Camilla these past few weeks to make sure they stayed safe when I’d been unable to.
