Lady and the Champ Read online

  Lady and the Champ

  Mia Madison

  Contents

  1. Lauren

  2. Onyx

  3. Lauren

  4. Onyx

  5. Lauren

  6. Onyx

  7. Lauren

  8. Onyx

  9. Lauren

  10. Onyx

  11. Lauren

  Lauren’s Epilogue

  Onyx’s Epilogue

  About the Author

  Lauren

  “Come on guys, the limo is waiting outside. I’m ready to take this party to the club, or back to the hotel, or something.”

  Anything to get out of the cramped, dingy dressing room behind the boxing ring, where there were at least twenty loud, excited people way too far up into my personal space.

  My brother inclined his head in my direction. “Chill for a minute, Lauren. Onyx just won his fifteenth straight bout. Fifteen. At least give the man a minute to soak up the love here.”

  I struggled not to roll my eyes, instead looking over and giving what I’d hoped would be a convincing smile to the man of the hour, Onyx.

  “Congratulations, I said, raising the glass of champagne that someone had shoved into my hand a few minutes before. “That is impressive.”

  “It’s all down to this man right here.” He threw an arm around my brother and smiled back at me. “You’re lucky to have a brother like Fabian, you know. This man takes care of you, just like he takes care of me.”

  Oh, God.

  If I made it through the night without straining my eyes from rolling them too much, it was going to be a miracle.

  “He’s right, you know,” Fabian said, throwing me a knowing wink. He understood how much it annoyed me that everyone thought of him as my caretaker just because he was a couple of years older than me, just because I was barely twenty-one. He turned back to Onyx. “But she’s right, too. Let’s get this party going. All the clubs in Vegas, and we’re crammed in this dressing room like sardines.” He moved toward the door. “I’ll go make sure the car is ready so you’re not stuck signing autographs on the way out.”

  Onyx gave him a thumbs-up and went back to the half-dozen conversations going on around him.

  I sat on the arm of the scratched, torn, imitation leather sofa and took a sip of my champagne. At least someone had spent good money on that.

  As I looked around at the other people there—most of them strangers to me, even though, thanks to my brother, I spent more time around a boxing ring than most athletes—I wondered how different our lives would’ve been if our parents had been around to have a say in things.

  They hadn’t been thrilled when Fabian started hanging out with Onyx—a man ten years older and a lot rougher around the edges—and even less thrilled when Fabian started managing him.

  But then they had died in a plane crash—a plane that Fabian and I were supposed to be on with them, if it hadn’t been for one of Onyx’s matches—and then Fabian had no choice. He needed his cut of Onyx’s prize money to support the two of us.

  He needed it even more now, with a one-year-old daughter to raise.

  I glanced over at the door, waiting for Fabian to get back. Onyx was looking at me. Even without making eye contact, I could feel the boxer’s eyes on me, roaming over my body as boldly as if he’d been using his hands.

  It made me a little uncomfortable, with all the other people around, but it also sent a shiver up my spine that I couldn’t deny.

  “Yo, where’s your brother?” Onyx’s voice rang out over all the other conversations in the small room. “He’s been gone for a minute.”

  I shrugged and finally looked over to meet his stare, his deep, dark eyes seemed to flicker and spark in the dingy fluorescent lighting, and I had to stand up to hide another one of those full-body chills.

  “He’ll be back soon.” With another shrug, I downed the rest of my champagne. What else did he expect me to say? The place wasn’t that big, and it shouldn’t have taken Fabian more than a couple of minutes to make it to the front parking lot and back.

  He was probably flirting with some girl along the way. His easy smile and baby face were like catnip for every single—and not-so-single—woman who crossed his path.

  Too bad he can’t find one that’s worth a damn.

  The last thing he needed was another deadbeat baby mama, to leave him with a kid to raise and then disappear. At least the last deadbeat had been good for something—she’d left town a year ago, and left us with my little niece, Faye.

  That baby girl was worth a whole lifetime of baby mama drama. A good thing, too, since that’s exactly what Fabian was likely to get out of the deal.

  A blood-curdling scream made me drop my glass. It shattered at my feet, but I barely noticed. I was already moving toward the door, but a strong arm and solid body stopped me.

  “Wait, Lauren.” Onyx moved me aside as if I’d been a rag-doll, but I wasn’t giving up that easily. My movement was fueled by adrenaline and fear, and a feeling in the pit of my stomach that I just couldn’t shake.

  “Let go of me,” I said—or yelled, maybe, I’m not sure. I was struggling against him, but there was no point. He inclined his head and there were a dozen other hands on me, holding me back as he put himself between me and the door.

  “I’ll go first. If there’s some shit going down out there, you don’t need to be a part of it.”

  “He’s my brother,” I shouted, but Onyx was already gone.

  I don’t know how or why I knew that something was wrong with Fabian. The scream I’d heard had come from a woman. But whatever it was—that sibling intuition or whatever—let me know that something had happened. Something was very, very wrong.

  There was yelling in the distance and I could hear people running around. The hands that had been holding me back loosened their grip as the other people in the dressing room edged toward the door, trying to figure out what was going on.

  Somehow I broke free. My mind was racing, but my body was on autopilot, just carrying me out into the dark corridor that led past the boxing ring to the front of the building—the route Fabian should’ve taken.

  I could see movement ahead of me, and people crouched down, huddled around something on the ground.

  It took my eyes a few moments to adjust, but my legs kept carrying me forward, toward the people. I needed to know what was happening.

  Someone shouted for an ambulance, and a couple of people broke off from the group, leaving a gap where I could sort of see.

  There was a body on the floor, and I could see two legs sticking out. Two white sneakers that looked too much like Fabian’s.

  No.

  No.

  The huddled people shifted again, and Onyx looked up at me, his eyes wide. “Lauren, you shouldn’t be here. Get back to the dressing room. Now.”

  I shook my head as I looked past him. “No,” I whispered, but I wasn’t talking to him. “No.” My voice cracked as I finally saw his ashen face, eyes closed and mouth hanging slack.

  Onyx was on his feet and moving toward me, but all I could focus on was that body lying on the floor. My brother’s body.

  “Fabian,” I screamed, my voice echoing through the corridor so loudly it reverberated in my head. “No.”

  Onyx’s arms were around me and he was saying something, shouting something, but I couldn’t make out the words. My vision was blurring and my body suddenly felt too heavy, too slow. There were sirens and more yelling.

  And then there was darkness.

  Onyx

  Everything was wrong.

  It had all happened so fast that I was still trying to figure out what the fuck was going on.

  The limo that was supposed to take us to the club was instead flying thr
ough the streets of Las Vegas on the way to the hospital.

  Lauren was lying across the seat next to me, her head in my lap. There hadn’t been room for her and her brother in the ambulance, and I wasn’t about to wait for another one.

  She was safe with me, at least.

  Lauren stirred against me, and I gently squeezed her shoulder. “Are you okay? Lauren?”

  She bolted upright, her eyes wide as she moved frantically toward the door of the limo. Jesus, she’s probably in shock.

  “Fabian? Where’s Fabian?” She scrambled to get to the door, but I threw my arms around her and pulled her close.

  “We’re on our way to the hospital to see him, Lauren. We’re in the car.” I tried to keep my voice calm, but it was probably coming out louder and harsher than I intended. But there was no way I was letting her go until I knew she was coherent enough to not try anything crazy—like opening the car door at sixty miles per hour. “You’ve gotta calm down. I’ve got you.”

  She looked up at me and blinked, as if she was seeing me for the first time. “Where are we? Onyx, what happened? I saw Fabian and he—” She swallowed hard, and shook her head. “Is he… dead?”

  The last word came out as barely more than a whisper, and my heart broke to see her like that. I knew that Fabian was her whole world, and that they had been there for each other through too much traumatic shit already. This wasn’t how things were supposed to be for them.

  “He’s alive,” I said. Barely. Hopefully. “He was stabbed. A lot. It’s… bad.” Her body had relaxed a little at the news that he was still alive, but went tense again once I’d started to tell her what had happened. No more details until we get to the hospital. “He’s in the ambulance in front of us, though.” I tried to sound optimistic, or at least give her some kind of reassurance that everything was going to be okay. “They’re taking care of him, Lauren.”

  “He’s gotta make it. He has to.” Her eyes were fixed straight ahead, as if she was trying to look through the tinted glass partition to the road in front of us. I didn’t want to lower it, though. Seeing that ambulance wouldn’t make things better for either of us. She looked at me again. “Tell me he’s going to make it. Tell me, Onyx.”

  My throat was tight and my mouth was dry. I’d seen some scary shit in my day, but Fabian’s crumpled body, covered in blood?

  Yeah, that had been the worst thing I’d ever experienced.

  “Your brother is a fighter,” I said. “He has a better chance of making it through this shit than anyone else I know.”

  It wasn’t a lie, at least. The man was tough. I just had to pray that he was tough enough.

  “Who did it?” Her voice was quiet again, but I knew her well enough to know that there was an underlying anger in her tone. “Did you catch him?”

  I shook my head and clenched my fists. My grip on her had loosened, and she turned in her seat to look at me directly. She was fully coherent now, and she wanted answers. I didn’t know what to say, except for the truth.

  “Whoever did it got away, I think. It all happened so fast. I left the dressing room and there were already people screaming and running. Your brother was lying there on the ground, bleeding. He wasn’t moving.” I shuddered as the memory hit me. I could see it so clearly in my mind’s eye, like a nightmare, but so much more vivid. “He was breathing, but barely. I wanted to go find the son of a bitch who did it, Lauren. If I ever do, I’ll kill them with my bare hands.” I shook my head again. “But I couldn’t leave him there like that. Not even for a minute. Not until I knew that he was in the ambulance and had people working on him.”

  She nodded. “Thank you for that.” After a moment of silence, she added, “We’ll catch the fucker who did this. We’ll make them pay.” Tears started streaming down her face, and I pulled her back to me. “He’s all I’ve got, Onyx. He has to be okay.”

  Her whole body was shaking, and I knew there was nothing I could say that would make things better, so I just held her close and let her cry, let her take that anger and pain out on me as her small fists beat against my chest.

  I was used to being a punching bag, though. I could deal with that.

  What I didn’t know how to deal with was the beautiful, broken girl in my arms. The girl who expected me to have all the answers.

  The girl who expected me to make things right.

  My eyes were blurry from staring at the clock on the bright, white hospital wall. We’d been there for four hours, and even though Lauren and I had both been to the nurse’s station so many times they knew us by our first names, we still hadn’t heard anything about Fabian.

  They’d told us that he’d been rushed into surgery, but that was all they could—or would—say.

  Maybe in this case, though, no news was good news.

  “Not knowing is killing me,” Lauren said, as if she’d read my thoughts. “I wish they’d just tell us something.”

  “If he’s still in surgery, that means he’s still fighting,” I said, as much for my own peace of mind as for hers.

  She nodded, but I could tell that she wasn’t satisfied with that answer. Not that I really expected her to be. She was at least as stubborn and headstrong as I was, and I knew that if I was needing answers, she was damn sure on the same page.

  I’d watched over the years as my best friend’s little sister had grown from a spoiled teenager into a beautiful, fiercely independent woman. And while there were still hints of that “my-way-or-the-highway” spoiled attitude that reared up every once in a while, she’d come through her parents’ deaths stronger and more sure of herself than anyone could’ve expected.

  I might not ever actually say it to her, but I admired that toughness in her. She was a fighter, just like me—just like her brother—and I respected that.

  The door in front of us swung open, and Lauren was on her feet the moment the doctor walked through.

  “How is he? Can we see him?” Her voice was strained, and I could tell without even looking at her face that she was barely holding back tears.

  I felt the same damn way as I waited for the doctor to speak.

  “He’s still in surgery,” she said, the doctor’s gaze flicking from Lauren’s eyes to mine. “And still in very critical condition. Fabian had multiple stab wounds—at least twenty—to his upper body.”

  “Oh my God,” Lauren swayed in front of me, and I instantly moved to her, putting my arm around her waist to make sure she stayed upright. At least we were in the right place if she had another fainting spell.

  “The wounds to his head and neck are the most troubling,” the doctor continued. She paused, and her eyes were full of sympathy as her voice softened a little. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to give you any false hope. If he does make it through the next few hours, he’ll be in a medically induced coma. He’ll be in surgery and then a recovery room for some time, if there’s somewhere nearby you’d like to go and rest or—”

  “No,” Lauren said firmly, shaking her head as she pushed away from me. “We’ll wait here until we know something else. Until you tell us he’s going to be okay.”

  The doctor nodded once, as if she’d been expecting that answer. “I’ll do my best to keep you updated, but you should be prepared to wait through the night.”

  “We’ll wait,” Lauren and I said in unison.

  Lauren looked at me as the doctor disappeared back through the doorway. “He’s gonna make it,” she said. “He has to… right?”

  I nodded, knowing there was only one way I could answer. “He has to.”

  It was the only option.

  Lauren

  It broke my heart to look into my niece’s eyes and tell her that her daddy would be gone for a while. Of course, she was too young to understand—she was barely starting to form words—but there was no mistaking the “da-da” name she had for Fabian, and it was the first thing she’d said when we’d gone home to get her.

  Thank God Onyx had been there.

  Just like he’d been th
ere for me to lean on when we had finally—finally—been able to see Fabian at the hospital, bandaged and broken and still but not peaceful in that small, dark room.

  The sun had been up for a few hours by the time we were able to leave the hospital and take over for the babysitter. It felt so strange to be there with the baby and Onyx in the apartment I shared with Fabian.

  Without him.

  How would I ever be able to explain it to little Faye if he never woke up? How would I raise her by myself?

  “What are you thinking about?” Onyx’s deep voice rumbled next to me as I held the baby.

  He was standing so close behind me that I could feel his voice more than I could hear it, and it sent an unexpected shiver through my body.

  Maybe it was just the exhaustion of the previous twelve hours catching up to me, or maybe it was… I don’t even know what it was. But in that moment, all I wanted was for Onyx to put his arms around me, to tell me everything was going to be okay.

  “I’ve got you,” he said, putting a big, firm hand on my shoulder. I instantly felt some of the tension leave my body as he leaned in and pressed his lips against my temple. “Just tell me what you need.”

  “I don’t know… I—” I looked down at little Faye in my arms. “We need to get out of here. At least until we know what’s going on—until the police find who did that to Fabian, or what sort of motive someone might have had, or… something.” Another thought occurred to me as I was talking. “Was Fabian in some kind of trouble? Drugs? Gambling?”

  Onyx snorted. “Nothing that I knew of. Your brother is too straight-laced for that shit. But I agree that you need to get out of here for a while. Both of you.”

  I exhaled slowly, grateful for the news that Fabian hadn’t been doing anything stupid behind my back. Still, that didn’t make the decisions I had to make any easier. I needed him here. He’s always been the one I’ve looked to when times were hard. He was the one who got me through the weeks and months after our parents died.