“You mean if I’m still alive.”
He’s not amused, likely not taking kindly to me pointing out his particular line of work, but I’m not kidding, nor am I asking it like a question. In all the years I’ve been boxing at one of Seamus’s warehouses, he’s never sent any of his men for me. Not once.
But it seems I don’t exactly have a choice.
I shove off from the wall and walk toward the car. He opens the back door for me, and I slide inside to find I’m not alone back here. Seamus is seated by the other window, his face all but invisible in the darkness. He doesn’t say anything, and I don’t bother greeting him or asking him what this is all about. I assume he’ll get there.
Liam climbs in and starts the car, pulling out of the alleyway behind Uppercut and off into Southie. He’s driving us in the general direction of the warehouse, but I haven’t removed my gaze from the windshield, which gives me a good peripheral shot of Seamus.
“Do you know why I have you here?”
“No,” I tell him truthfully.
“I got a visit from someone a couple of weeks ago about you. I’d seen you with him in the past. It’s your new girl’s ex. The television guy.”
“Adam,” I supply, and he nods.
“Yes. He came to me and asked to make a deal. I have one of my guys rough ye up a bit before your fight, crack a few ribs or fuck up a kidney, something not so visible, and we place heavy bets on you losing.”
Wow. That’s so incredibly sick and fucked up I hardly have words.
“I brushed him off. I had no problem with ye, and if he did that was on him. But then he came back again the other day, offering me the same deal and sweetening it with a bonus for me. A hundred grand if I do it, plus whatever I win on betting against ye.”
“Jesus,” slips out, and I lean back against the seat. “Sounds like quite the offer.”
“He said you stole his girl.”
I almost crack a smile at that. Maybe I would if my heart weren’t pounding so hard, shooting ice-cold blood through mylimbs and ears. “I didn’t steal anything from him. He cheated on her, and I’ve been in love with Braelyn for years. Things between her and me just happened.”
“Do you believe in loyalty?” he asks, and I rub a hand over the top of my head, angry and annoyed all over again.
“Yes. I believe in loyalty to those who deserve it and have shown loyalty in return. Adam threw my past in my face and tried to use it against me for his advantage after he ruthlessly cheated and hurt his fiancée, who is my best friend. Maybe me making a move on Braelyn breaks some guy code, but from where I’m sitting, especially right now, he can go fuck himself.”
“I believe in loyalty,” he continues as if I didn’t say any of that and I’m regretting my outburst. It’s not who I am, and I need to get my shit back in control. “That said, I did consider his offer because I also believe in money.”
That’s fair and nothing less than I would have expected.
“You don’t do this for the money,” he follows that up. A statement and not a question, but I answer him all the same.
“No.”
“Ye give it all away. Even yer betting money.”
“Yes.” And now Adam’s words about me going down make sense. He went to the freaking Irish mob to do it.
“A man who fights like that isn’t fighting to win. He’s fighting to get rid of his demons.”
I twist to look at his profile. “You know this about me, Seamus. You did your research on me. I know you did. What fucking difference does it make if that’s why I’m fighting or not? I still fight to win. So if you’re going to take Adam’s money and rough me up and force me to fight so I lose and you and Adam win, so be it. But if it goes beyond that, if you try to hurt my wife or my family, I have no qualms about responding to that.”
A smile cracks his lips. “He’s having the police arrest ye after the match. That’s his angle.”
“So not only am I to be broken and lose, but then arrested?”
“He doesn’t know I’m aware of that part. He’s arranged things with the chief of police and the DA.”
Holy shit. I bark out a laugh. “They come to my matches.”
“Your old friend Adam doesn’t very often, so he never saw them there. He used his connections through the network and his daddy for this. His plan is to have them arrest ye outside the warehouse, but not have them enter.”