Abel (25 page)

“
Where are we going?” The driver asked as soon as his jaw was no longer hanging open.

“
Somewhere far—out of this city,” she managed to say between wheezing breaths.

“
I go as far as the state line to the Primm and Buffalo Bills—”

“
No,” she shook her head quickly. “I don’t wanna go near any casinos.”

The driver frowned before offering something else.
“I can take you to a small hotel in Henderson. That’s about a half hour away. But I’m a Vegas cabby, lady. I can’t go further than that.”

Nodding
, she agreed quickly, laying her head back on the seat as she breathed in deeply, the tears once again flowing.

~*~

As the Hispanic singer Abel’s mom loved so much finished singing the U.S. National Anthem, Abel paced around the back corridor that led into the giant stadium. According to Hector, it was a full house. He’d also mentioned some of the celebrities sitting near the girls. “Bianca said Stallone and Schwarzenegger are sitting right behind them,” Gio said, smiling. “And she heard them saying they both have their money on you.”

Without responding,
Abel did more of his jaw stretching as he continued to pace, jumping in place every few steps. He turned to Noah, who was doing something on his phone. “Has Roni heard from Nellie?”

Noah frowned
, shaking his head. “She thinks maybe Nellie is embarrassed and waiting to talk to you before she speaks with anyone else about this. She says she’s certain Nellie didn’t know—”

“
Of course she didn’t know,” Abel snapped. “There’s no way she knew. Those bastards set her up.”

“
Well, let it go, then,” Noah said firmly. “As long as you both know the truth, don’t worry about any of this until after the fight.”

Abel glanced around the rest of his entourage
, clenching his jaw now instead of stretching it like he should be. Where the
fuck
was Andy? His intro music started, and Noah lifted the hood of Abel’s satin robe over his head. “Show time.”

They all started moving with Abel
in the front, behind only the guy holding the camera in front of him and the guy guiding the cameraman from behind as he walked backwards. The two security guards at either side of him just a few steps in front of him were there to keep the crowd at a distance. The crowd was already going wild, and he hadn’t even come into view. The second he came into view, they got even louder.

Abel did what he always did as he made his way into the ring. He jabbed his arms every now and again to keep his arms warm. Concentrating on the song the mariachis in the ring were singing
, he closed his eyes momentarily at some of the lyrics.

Traigo la sangre caliente. No me la puedo apagar.

Little did his mom know, when she chose his entrance song, how right on the money she was. To say his blood was so hot he couldn’t cool it down was putting it lightly. Every step he took closer to the ring where he’d get to pummel McKinley, he could literally feel the slow boil in his blood beginning to bubble.

By the time he was in the ring
, the crowd was out of control. McKinley was the loathsome loudmouth boxer everyone loved to hate, so it didn’t surprise Abel that the entire place seemed to be cheering for him to take Hammerhead down. He had to concentrate on that—winning. At the moment he was doing the exact thing the guys had warned him not to do—raging. All he could think of was ripping McKinley’s head off.

His music came to an end
, and he nodded at the mariachi band members in appreciation. They all smiled at him proudly, but a smile was something he couldn’t bring himself to even force, not with the empty seat next to Roni where Nellie was supposed to be sitting. Taking a deep breath, he lifted his glove up to the crowd chanting his last name.

It was perfectly fitting that McKinley
’s entrance music was some obnoxious rap song with the F-bomb dropped in every other lyric. The crowd once again went crazy; only this time there was also a lot of booing. Abel continued to stretch his jaw, jumping in a place a few times and jabbing his arms in the air.

Watching McKinley and his brother enter the ring was almost more than Abel could bear.
He clenched his jaw as he turned in their direction. Sam was noticeably absent, but his other brother, the one sporting a swollen cheek, smiled at him smugly. Swallowing hard, Abel glanced away before he got the urge to charge at him and drop him again like he had the night before.

The announcer
finished with all the formalities of crediting the promoters and introducing the ringside judges. He announced the fighters, and once again the crowd went wild when Abel “Aweless” Ayala was introduced. After last night, he wasn’t so sure the name was appropriate anymore.

Nathanial
“Hammerhead” McKinley was introduced, and the cheers turned into a mixture of cheers and boos. Abel continued to jab in place until the ref brought them both to the center of the ring and explained the rules. Gio placed Abel’s mouthpiece in as the ref spoke, and after tapping gloves with McKinley, who he’d stared down the entire time, they were both excused back to their corners.

“
You got this,” Noah said as he helped Abel out of his robe. “Just stick to what we’ve been working on all this time. Clear your mind of everything else.”

Abel turned to see the empty seat next to Roni again and bit down on his mouthpiece. Noah tapped his chin as Gio spread petroleum jelly on his
upper face. “Are you listening to me? Don’t worry about that now, man. There’s nothing you can do about any of that until this is over. Don’t blow this, Abel.”

Nodding, Abel jumped to his feet as the bell rang. The guys all got out
of the ring. The buzzing in Abel’s head drowned out the crowd. The fact that Nellie still wasn’t there and this guy standing in the ring with him had everything to do with that blurred everything around him until his entire surroundings were now black. There was no more sound or anything else. All he saw was his fury’s prize right in front of him, and he was going for it. The only thing he heard from that moment on was the bell, and he went for it with a vengeance.

Landing the first one
, he missed the next couple of jabs, which were literally air jabs. McKinley got a few in on him, and he stumbled back. Then the images in his head started up: the ones of Nellie and Sam entering his hotel room then the one of his lips on hers. They’d set her up and he fucking knew it. He swung hard with everything he had, and if he’d landed it, he was sure he would’ve taken McKinley’s head off. But he missed and he stumbled, nearly going down since he’d swung with so much force.

When
the round was over, everything else began coming back into view, and he heard others talking, but not until Noah grabbed his shoulders with both hands and shook him. “Are you listening to me!” Abel finally heard what Noah was saying and he nodded. “You are gonna blow this thing if you keep going out there swinging like that. This is
exactly
what they wanted. Are you gonna let them win? That’s their only hope, that you lose your fucking mind and go out there and keep doing that.” Noah pointed behind him in the direction of McKinley’s corner. “He ain’t got shit on you and he knows it. Even with you turning into a madman like you just did, swinging without even thinking, I still think you got that round, but you
cannot
keep doing that!”

“
Yeah, Abel,” Hector said. “That was ugly. You nearly knocked yourself out in there. If you’d landed it, it would’ve been beautiful.”

“
No shit,” Gio agreed immediately. “This fight would be over if you’d landed it, but you’re not gonna land anything going at it that way. And what’s worse is if you keep that up by round three you’re gonna be worn out. You got twelve rounds to go, man. Pace yourself.”

“
Slow and steady,” Noah said as the bell rang, and they all jumped out of the ring. “Get your head together!” Noah yelled as Abel stood up again and once again tuned everything and everyone out.

~*~

More than a half hour after leaving Abel’s suite, Nellie arrived at a small unassuming hotel somewhere in the outskirts of Henderson. She didn’t even care where she was, as long as she was away from the big city where Andy had assured her she’d be mobbed.

Her breathing had finally steadied
, but Andy’s words kept the tears flowing.
I’ve never seen him so disgusted. He doesn’t really want you there, Nellie
. She paid the driver and walked into the hotel lobby, still feeling numb. Even though it was significantly smaller than the giant hotels in Vegas, it still had a small bar off to the side where, of course, the fight was being aired, and they had a good-sized crowd watching.

Nellie didn
’t take her dark glasses off and hoped to God that no one would recognize her. She’d pay for her room and go lock herself up for the rest of the night. She could only pray that Abel would actually be calling her after the fight.

“
He’s totally off tonight,” another hotel attendant said to the clerk helping Nellie as he joined him behind the counter.

The clerk looked away from the computer screen and back to one of the monitors
at the bar that the other attendant was staring at. “You think it’s the scandal that has him fighting so sloppily? I’ve seen him in other fights, and he’s always so damn good.”

“
I dunno.” The guy took a seat on a stool behind the counter but still stared in the direction of the fight. “I thought that was all just a publicity stunt, but something’s off, that’s for sure.” He suddenly stood up as the crowd in the bar got loud. “You see! That’s the second time he’s almost gone down.”

The clerk shook
his head as Nellie felt the tightening in her chest again. Her wheezing had never completely gone away, but it’d calmed. Now it was getting bad again.

“
Name please?” The clerk asked her.

“
Nellie,” she whispered. “Nellie Godinez.”

Thankful that she still had an old I.D with her married name on it
, she began digging for it in her purse as the crowd in the bar got even louder.

“
Holy shit.” The other attendant hurried around the counter to get a better look at the fight again. “Ayala’s gonna go down.”

Deciding to forget about the ID for a moment
, Nellie pulled out her inhaler instead. She was unable to stand it anymore, so she finally turned to watch the monitor. Abel was still up, but he did look sloppy, swinging way too fast and missing a lot while McKinley kept landing his punches. Almost everyone at the bar was on their feet now.

She didn
’t even realize how bad she was wheezing, until the clerk behind the counter asked her if she was okay. Her inhaler may as well have been empty for all it was helping. Shaking her head, she managed to get across that, no, she wasn’t okay, not at all. Her inability to catch her breath now was so bad that it was really beginning to scare her.

T
hen it happened. Abel went down with an enormous thud, his head bouncing off the canvas. She stared wide-eyed as she clutched her chest gasping for air, but even the straw like trickle of air she’d been able to inhale earlier was gone now. The clerk’s alarmed face was the last thing she saw before everything went black.

C
hapter 20

“
Snap the fuck out of it, Ayala, or you’re gonna lose this shit!” Noah barked from the sidelines as Abel got back on his feet. “You’re better than this. Damn it!”

Staring at McKinley
, Abel shook his head, desperately trying to clear it, and worked on his footwork until he got his rhythm back.
Focus, God damn it!
Being dropped for the first time in his career really snapped Abel out of it, and he was almost grateful because he hadn’t been thinking straight at all. He was close to losing the fight of his life against this guy—the guy he wanted nothing more than to bury. But he had to be smart because Noah was right: McKinley didn’t have a thing on him.

With steady
, well-thought-out jabs, he finally landed a couple of good ones. For the first time since he’d left Nellie’s side, he actually smirked. The fear he saw in McKinley’s eyes suddenly was all it took. No wonder they’d gone to such lengths to get in his head. It was all they could count on.

“
Do it again!” McKinley’s brother was yelling from the sidelines, sounding a bit too frantic now. “Finish him!”

Nellie had gone out with Sam weeks ago
, and they waited to release the photos until the day of the fight? It all made sense now. Their dirty work had almost paid off, but McKinley finishing Abel? Not happening.

Slow
ly and steadily, Abel worked in a few more jabs, rattling McKinley and his stupid brother, who for once had gone quiet. The bell rang, and they each went back to their corners.

“
All right,” Noah said, pulling out Abel’s mouth piece and spraying some water in his mouth. “So that’s what it took to knock some sense into you? Fine, I’ll take it. Just don’t let it happen again, and keep up what you’re doing now. It’s just a matter of time, Abel.”

“
Any word on Nellie?”

Noah frowned
, shaking his head. “Maybe, I don’t know. I haven’t had a chance to ask anyone, and I haven’t seen Andy.”

Abel looked over at McKinley
’s corner. His brother wasn’t smiling so smugly anymore. The guy had witnessed the power behind Abel’s punch firsthand.
Yeah. Be worried, you little pussy, because it’s coming.

The bell rang and both fighters were on their feet again.
Slow and steady
. Just like he’d always fought and won. This time it was McKinley who was swinging and missing the sloppy jabs. Abel easily dodged them, landing a few in between.

McKinley was slowing down—getting tired. Abel was bi
ding his time. Patiently, he waited as McKinley began to wear himself out. Then Abel let him have it with a couple of combinations back to back. The crowd went wild, adding to the adrenaline already pumping through Abel, and then he saw his moment. Abel wailed on him like he’d wanted to all night, landing punch after punch until the perfect one knocked McKinley’s lights out. He fell back, both gloves in the air. His eyes rolled back and it was over.

The place got so loud
that he couldn’t even hear the ref counting down, but McKinley was
out
. There was no doubt about it. Within seconds, Abel was surrounded by the guys, and two of his bigger security guys picked him up. The entire place was going crazy as Abel was handed the belt. He lifted it over his head, overwhelmed with emotion.

It was a bittersweet moment for Abel
. As much as he wanted to revel in it, thoughts of Nellie inundated him. Luckily, with Felix doing the ringside commentary on the fight for HBO and doing the in-ring after-fight interview, Abel had made sure to tell him to keep it short.

Halfway through the interview
, Abel noticed that Andy was back, so the moment he was done with the interview, he went straight to him. “Did you find her?”

“
Yeah, but I got there just in time to see her jump in a cab,” Andy shook his head. “I tried calling her, but it went straight to her voicemail. My guess is she’s probably hiding out somewhere from the paparazzi. If they got a hold of her number, and you know how easy that can be, she probably turned it off.”

Abel frowned
. His only consolation now for the shit McKinley was putting Nellie through was the image of him going down the way he did. For a minute there it looked as if he may have had to be taken out of the ring on a stretcher.

The first thing he checked was his phone when he got back to the locker room
, and his heart flipped when he saw a text from her. He clicked on it, instantly hoping she’d tell him where she was and that she wasn’t too upset.

I love you
, and I’m
so
sorry about all of this. You have to believe me when I say I had no idea. I really didn’t. Call me as soon as you can!

Checking the time on the text
, he knew that she’d sent it just before the fight started. He hit speed dial immediately, feeling even more irritated with fucking McKinley. Of course, he hadn’t questioned it even for a second. But Andy had been right about one thing. His call had gone directly to voicemail, which meant her phone was either dead or she’d turned it off. His money was on the latter, so he left a message, hoping she was checking them periodically.

“
Baby, don’t worry about all that shit they’re saying. You don’t need to hide if that’s what you’re doing, not from me anyway. I don’t care about any of it, and I promise you that I didn’t believe it. Not even for a moment when I saw the story did I think you knew who he was. Call me as soon as possible. I’ll come get you wherever you are.”

The celebration in the locker room went on a bit longer than Abel wanted it to. He was itching to get back to the suite
to look for any clues. Maybe she’d left a note or something that might hint to where she’d be.

He got a moment alone with Roni
and Noah to ask Roni about something that was really beginning to worry him. “How often does Nellie have asthma attacks?”

Roni
’s forehead pinched. “She hasn’t had one in a while, not that I know of anyway. Wait. The day she got back from that brunch she did wheeze a little and asked me to bring her inhaler into the bathroom. But it was nothing compared to some of the attacks she’s had in the past. Why?” she began digging in her purse, looking a little worried herself now. “You
still
haven’t heard from her?”

“
Just a text she sent before the fight, saying she was sorry.”

He kept the I-love-you
part to himself because like Nellie that was all his, but he waited anxiously for Roni to go through her phone. “I hope you and Noah are not upset with me.” Roni covered her mouth after reading the text out loud. “She really thinks we’re all mad at her about this. Anxiety triggers her attacks. The last attack she had that was so bad she ended up in the hospital was when she freaked out about something. I was with her. It was
awful
.”

Feeling the icy fear race through his veins, Abel remembered her attack that morning.
“She had one this morning in my suite. It scared the hell outta me.”

Roni
’s eyes went wide. “Was it because of the scandal?”

Abel began to shake his head then stopped
, remembering something. “It was right after she’d read a text from her assistant, Emily.”

“
Did she say what it was about?” Roni asked, her fingers already tapping on her phone.

“
No. I forgot all about it once she started hyperventilating, and she didn’t say why, just said her asthma had been acting up.”

“
You have Emily’s number?” Noah asked Roni.

Roni nodded
, the phone already at her ear. “Emily, hi, this is Roni, Nellie’s friend.”

Andy came over just then and began to ask Abel something. Abel
slammed a hard hand against Andy’s chest to shut him up as he continued to listen to Roni.”

“
No, no, honey. No one is upset with you. We don’t even know if was your text that triggered the attack. She’s sort of missing right now. No one’s heard from her, and she missed Abel’s fight, so we’re trying to figure out what’s going on. Can you forward me the message you sent her.” Roni closed her eyes, pressing her lips together. “I see.” She nodded then looked up at Abel with an expression that said she had bad news. “Well, forward it to me anyway, please.”

She hung up
, frowning. “Emily did message her this morning to let her know that she was watching the coverage of her and Sam and to let her know she could call her if she needed to vent.”

Feeling the blow to his bottomed
-out stomach, Abel remembered something else that gave him hope that she might not be too upset about this—upset enough to end up in the hospital. “But she was fine after,” Abel said, trying to make sense of it all. “Later in the day she was even laughing.”

Roni stared at him
, looking as lost as he felt. He checked his phone for the millionth time, but there was nothing.

“
She was, uh,” Andy cleared his throat, “wheezing pretty badly when I talked to her earlier.

Abel narrowed his eyes on Andy
, feeling his insides heat. “I thought you said you didn’t get a chance to talk to her.”

“
Shit,” Roni said, reading something on her phone, then showed Abel.

He read the text
that Emily had forwarded to Roni, and he knew why Roni would be even more worried now. The text didn’t make it clear what the story was about, only that it was about her and Sam and all over the news. If that had been enough to trigger such an attack, Abel could only imagine what happened when she saw the real story—when she found out Sam was McKinley’s brother.

Grabbing Andy by the shirt
, Abel glared at him. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me you talked to her?”

“
Because I hardly got to,” Andy’s eyes bulged wildly as his hand tried hopelessly to undo Abel’s tightening grasp on his shirt. “She just said she had to go, but didn’t say where. I didn’t want to upset you before the fight!”

“
You should’ve said something, Andy!” Roni yelled at him now. “Especially if she didn’t look well. Her asthma can get really bad.”

“
I didn’t know!” Andy’s voice went high-pitched as Abel’s grasp on him moved up closer to his throat. “I figured there was nothing Abel could do at that point, so I didn’t want to upset him.”

With his other hand
, Abel squeezed Andy’s throat. “I swear to God, you worthless piece of shit—”

“
Abel, calm down!” Noah tugged at Abel’s hand, but he only squeezed harder, and then Hector was his other side.

“
Dude, you’re gonna fucking kill him!” Hector pulled at his hand now, and Abel finally let go, leaving Andy gasping and coughing.

“
Where is she!” Abel demanded.

“
I don—” Andy coughed, shaking his head. “I don’t know. She didn’t say. All she said was that she had to go.”

Abel pointed to
one of his security guys. “Get him the fuck out of here before I do kill him. Call the hospitals,” he said to Roni who was already on her phone, looking as frantic as he felt.

“
I’m going back to the suite,” he said, rushing past everyone.

“
I’ll go with you,” Hector said.

“
Take security with you,” he heard Noah urge.

Visions of Nellie lying unconscious
somewhere assaulted him, and he practically sprinted. His mom’s words came to him as he ran down the corridor toward the opening that went out into the casino. With his heart nearly punching at his chest, he cursed his mother’s words now. When all of this started happening for him: taking over the gym; winning fight after fight; then ultimately his ultimate dream come true, a chance at the title, she’d sat him down and told him to always remember that the most important things in life couldn’t be bought. She told him that while she didn’t believe as some people did that money was the root of all evil, she knew it couldn’t fix everything either. There were some things that even money couldn’t fix.

Did she always have to be right? Feeling the knot at his throat and his eyes begin to blur
, he hated that Hector was right behind him. If got bad news about Nellie, he already knew he was going to fucking lose it. She’d nearly gone white that morning. He should’ve never left her. Damn it! He should’ve gone with his gut and forced her to leave with him earlier when he’d wanted to.

Kicking
the door open, he pushed through the crowd even as some of them called out his name or stared at him, stunned. Within seconds, he was surrounded by his entourage, which he barked at to move faster. He broke out into a sprint again when they got to the private corridor that led to his elevator.

“
Wait up,” Hector called out, and Abel could hear his brother running behind him.

The damn elevator didn
’t move fast enough. He explained briefly to Hector what was going on and how he was hoping to find a clue to where she’d gone in his suite. Then he ran out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened. Rushing through every room in his suite, he began to feel like maybe he, too, was going to start hyperventilating any minute now.