TWIN PASSIONS: (A Logan Brothers Novel) (17 page)

The minutes passed by as the
other fight was wrapped up. The clock on the wall said 7.45 PM and my
fight was due to start in 15 minutes. I knew, at any moment, that the
door would open and I'd be called to the arena.

I kept pacing from side to side
until the door opened behind me.

“
It's time,” said a voice.

"Right Cade, here we go my boy.
You know the drill. You're in perfect shape. Just go out there and do
it.”

Coach walked to the door and
held it open for me as I walked through, my head covered in a hood
and my eyes set directly in front of me. We walked forward, my
nutritionist, Steve, and other members of my team cruising along in
my wake, down a long corridor towards a set of double doors. There
were small glass windows on them through which I could see flashing
lights of various colors shooting this way and that.

We stood and waited at the end
as my opponent entered the arena from the other side. I disappeared
back into my own head, unwilling to look through the glass, unwilling
to listen to his entrance music.

In a flash I heard my own
walkout music and stepped straight forward, pushing the double doors
open and walking out into the arena. The roar was something I'd never
heard before as I paced up the corridor between the crowd, the arena
filled with staring faces, roaring and cheering my name.

I saw posters and banners out of
the corner of my eyes dotted to the left and right and high up into
the stands, but kept my eyes straight and set on the ring. I kept
moving, the high pitched shrieks of girls penetrating the deep
overall rumble of the crowd.

When I reached the ring I could
see Agulla standing there, staring straight down on me. He was known
to try to intimidate his opponents by staring at them throughout the
buildup to the fight. It didn't phase me at all. Nothing could divert
me from my goal.

I climbed slowly into the ring
as coach held down the ropes for me to slide through. Agulla looked
in prime condition, his body shorn of fat, his muscles so wiry they
hung off the bone. His skin was tanned and dark, his head shaved.
There were tattoos covering the left side of his body, all the way
down his shoulder and arm. Again, if they were intended to
intimidate, they'd chosen the wrong target.

His eyes kept on at me as the
announcer stepped through the ropes and into the middle.

“
And now,” came his booming
voice down the microphone, “the moment you've all been waiting for,
tonight's main event! In the blue corner, weighing in at 199 pounds,
Carlos '
The Killer'
Agulla!”

Agulla stepped forward as the
ring announcer lingered on his name, raising up his arms to a
smattering of applause from the crowd.

“
And in the red corner,”
continued the ring announcer, “weighing in at 195 pounds, your
local hero, the Pride of Branton, Cade '
The Crusher'
Logan!”

I stepped forward now as the
crowd erupted in applause, the ring announcer finishing his bit with
the customary “lets get ready to rumble!”

“
OK lads, come together,”
said the referee, looking at both of us. I could hardly hear him over
the roar of the crowd.

We both walked in and stood face
to face. Agulla stood at the same height as me, his eyes still
burning with hatred. I stared straight back, my eyes equally intense.

“
When I say "break",
I want a clean break,” the referee continued. “In the event of a
knock-down, you will be directed to go to a neutral corner. Are there
any questions?” We both shook our heads lightly, our eyes set on
each other.

“
You're both professionals so
I expect a good, clean fight. Protect yourself at all times. Okay,
touch gloves and come out at the bell.”

We raised our gloves and touched
them together before turning and walking back to our corners. I could
see coach nodding and squeezing his fists together by the corner
post, this gritty, passionate look in his eye.

I glanced down towards the front
row of the crowd, searching for my support. I caught eyes with Crash,
standing tall and nodding intensely. Next to him was Kyle, then
Jude., both of them shouting their support at me.

My focus was lost for a moment
as my eyes searched to the left and fight of my three brothers, but
they were alone. Next to Crash were two empty seats, spaces where I'd
expect to see Zack...and Gemma.

I looked quickly further to the
right and left of where they were seated, searching several rows
back, but I couldn't see them.

No, Zack wasn't there.

Gemma, my lucky charm, wasn't
there.

Present Day

Zack

“
Fuck it, why is there never
a cab when you need one.” I shouted, looking frantically to the
left and right up the road outside the bar.

It was 8.01 PM and Cade was
probably just stepping in to trade his first blows with Agulla. It
was the biggest fight of his life and I wasn't there, Gemma wasn't
there. That needed to change, and fast.

“
Right,” I said, “we're
going to have to run.”

“
In these shoes!”

“
There's nothing else we can
do. It's not far, come on.”

I grabbed her hand and started
jogging down the street, pulling her along. I could see the arena
looming in the background a few streets away. It wouldn't take long,
only a few minutes.
It's OK, we won't miss much of the fight.

The night air was cool against
my skin as I jogged, Gemma struggling along behind me. “Here,” I
said, grabbing her handbag, “I'll carry this. You'll run quicker
without the burden.”

We jogged without speaking, the
urgency of the situation preventing us from mentioning what had just
happened, or almost happened. Had the clock not started chiming I was
sure we'd kiss. It was something I wanted so much, but something that
would be so wrong.

I had no idea how Gemma felt,
whether she felt the same or was just caught up in the moment. We'd
been there together for two hours and it had gone by like it was two
minutes. We just clicked, it was all so natural. It was what I wanted
all those years ago.

But not her. She was happier as
friends back then, and didn't want to ruin our friendship by becoming
boyfriend and girlfriend. I guess, maybe, she still felt like that.
Maybe, even if Cade wasn't in the picture, she'd still want to stay
as we were: just good friends.

The arena grew larger in view as
we ran, people shouting “you're late” to us and laughing.
Yeah,
you don't know the half of it. This is Cade Logan's twin brother and
girlfriend right here.

After about ten minutes we were
there, rushing straight towards the main entrance. There was a ticket
gate at the front, a couple of other late stragglers still rushing
through.

I ran straight up towards one of
the checkpoints and pulled my ticket out of the back of my jeans. It
was crumpled and slightly worn but still intact. Gemma came up behind
me, panting, and grabbed her handbag off me, quickly searching around
inside and pulling out her own ticket, neatly folded and in pristine
condition.

The man looked at me quizzically
as I handed him the tickets. “You're Cade Logan's twin brother,
right? And you're his girlfriend,” he said, turning to Gemma.

I nodded. “Yeah, and we're
fucking late, so could you hurry it up.”

“
Of course, of course,” he
said, glancing his eyes over the tickets. “Tell your brother well
done,” he shouted after us as we ran for the main doors, “if he
win's that is! The town's behind him!”

His voice faded into the
gathering noise as we got closer to the main doors. I could hear the
gasps and roars of the crowd, the oohs and aahs that accompanied the
connection of glove to jaw.

We ran straight through,
emerging into the main arena. The noise was deafening as the ring
came into focus in front of me, Cade and Agulla trading blows inside. Cade
looked to be in a bit of trouble, caught in the corner, defending
from a barrage of heavy punches from Agulla's pounding fists.

We ran quickly forward towards
the front row. People were all standing and roaring, shaking their
fists in the direction of the ring. I could see posters and banners
everywhere, most of them clasped between the fingers of young women,
all shrieking praise for their new hero. I tinge of envy struck at me
again, but I quickly dismissed it. I'd had enough of that.

I searched on, my eyes tracing
along the front row. There they were – Crash and Kyle and Jude –
all standing and roaring at the front.

I turned to Gemma, who's face
was screwed up slightly at the sight of Cade getting pummelled in the
corner. I grabbed her arm, dragging her attention back to me, and
shouted: “they're over there.”

She nodded and I kept moving
forward, up through the aisle and out ahead of the front row. As we
went the noise of the crowd began to increase and I looked up to see
Cade turning the tables on his opponent, rampaging into him with a
flurry of fists that would have downed a lesser fighter.

I felt a surge of energy rush
through me as I saw him and joined the roaring throng. “COME ON
CADE, COME ON,” I shouted as I kept on moving towards the spare
seats to the side of Crash.

Cade's fists kept flying like
lightning, striking hard and fast at Agulla's body and jaw, sending
him rocking this way and that as he tried to lift his fists and
protect himself.

The noise was becoming deafening
now, thousands upon thousands of people all joining in a single
voice, a voice willing for the victory of their hero. Cade kept
punching and Agulla kept defending, only to be saved by the loud
ringing that signaled the end of the round.

Saved by the fucking bell.

Cade

Agulla came out at me like a
raging bull as soon as the bell for the first round went. It was a
ferocity that I hadn't yet come up against in my young career,
forcing me onto the back foot.

As soon as I'd seen that Gemma
wasn't in the crowd I'd lost my cool for a moment, my thoughts
rushing through reasons why she wasn't there. But it wasn't the
reasons I cared about, it wasn't the reasons that mattered. All that
mattered was that without her my focus, my total inner confidence,
had begun to wane.

In boxing, even a tiny lapse in
concentration could spell your doom. All it took was one punch, one
good hit, and you could be knocked out. There was no room for error,
no second chances, no opportunity for a time-out to regather my
thoughts.

All of the focus I'd had
pre-fight had now been scattered. I'd had Agulla in my sights and
nothing more, but now my hands were shaky, my aim off. He was bearing
down on me, pushing me around the ring, my game-plan gone to shit.

When the bell for the end of the
first round went I retreated to my corner, that usual intensity I had
in my eyes completely lost. Coach was shouting words at me that
didn't register. I looked down into the crowd once more, but still
saw only my three brothers. Why the fuck wasn't she there.

I turned my sights back on
Agulla and stared at him from across the ring. He sat in his corner,
staring me down, this deep intensity just simmering below the
surface, waiting to explode out of him again at the sound of the next
bell.

When it went he came forward
again, once more dominating the round. I could hear the crowd
beginning to quieten as Agulla bullied me, pushing me around the
ring, connecting with my mid-section, jabbing straight through my
defences.

During the break at the end of
round two, coach was still trying to stir something in me. “That's
two rounds you've lost Cade! What the hell are you doing out there?!
This isn't you. You're Cade Logan, no one bullies you in the ring.”

His words were beginning to get
through to me now, my focus starting to return.
He was right. I
was Cade fucking Logan, and this is my town, my time! I've waited for
this chance my whole life, and I'm not gonna miss it!

I stepped out for the third
round and moved into the center of the ring to meet Agulla with a new
confidence.
Why the fuck did it matter if Gemma wasn't watching
me? That was fucking stupid. I was CADE FUCKING LOGAN! No one was
doing this shit for me, it was all down to me. She had nothing to do
with it.

But Agulla kept coming, kept
dominating. I caught him with a few punches, but he had me on the
ropes, jabbing and connecting with my mid-section, building a strong
points lead. Coach told me that was three rounds in a row I'd lost at
the break, that I needed to turn things around, and fast. The fight
was drifting away from me, my dreams, my chance, slipping from my
grasp.

I stood from my stool and
stepped up for the fourth round, a cut above my eye beginning to
dribble blood down the side of my nose. I felt rocked, a feeling I'd
never experienced in the ring. I was the dominator, not the
dominated. This guy was on another level to what I was used to. But
that's where I needed to be if I wanted a shot at the belt.