“Love you, Mrs. O’Connell,” I told her.
“Love you too, Mr. O’Connell.” she replied and clutched the letter to her as I left. Waving Nikki good-bye on my way out, I climbed into Liam’s truck, and we drove away. She couldn’t see me looking back so I didn’t. “Here, I forgot to give you this. Some guy from Balaam Leisure Center dropped it off for you, said the kids made it,” Kieran said. Liam had picked him and Tommy up on the way to mine. I opened up the large white envelope and smiled broadly. Each kid had drawn a picture of themselves and cut them out to place around a hand-drawn picture of a boxing ring. Inside I was fighting Temple. I could tell which one was me because of the shorts, though Temple appeared to be a dwarf in the picture.
Inside they had written: “Good luck, Hurricane! We hope you knock his block off. Love…” They all signed the card that I knew I’d have framed as soon as I got home. Aside from my cross, this was the best present I’d ever had. I looked up to see Kieran watching me. I knew he worried I wouldn’t handle it without Em. Knowing him he probably even held back on the card deliberately, just for this moment. The longer we drove, the whiter the scenery became. Winter had arrived, and although a heavy frost was predicted overnight, snow fell thick and fast.
“I don’t like the look of this,” Liam said, looking up at the sky. He pulled into a space in the long-term parking lot and switched off the engine. When Liam had a bad feeling about something, he was usually right.
As soon as he said it, I felt it too. We waited for six hours in the airport for conditions to improve before finally finding out that our flight had been canceled. Weather permitting, the airline had rescheduled us on another flight tomorrow. Even with all that sorted, and the joy of knowing I’d have one more night with Em, something was still wrong. It was like the weather was a bad omen, and I could see by the look on everyone’s faces that they felt it too.
We drove slowly down the motorway on the way back into city. Cars backed up as the snow worsened, and the weight on my chest grew heavier and heavier. We were fifteen minutes from Nikki’s flat when something just felt wrong.
“Kier, can you call Nikki? Make sure Em’s okay?” I asked him.
“You don’t want to wait and surprise her?” he asked me.
“No. I just want to know she’s okay,” I told him. Nodding, Kieran dialed the number, and it rang and rang.
“Don’t worry. They’ll be expecting us to be on a plane right now so they’ve probably gone for food or something,” he reassured me. It didn’t work. Despite what he said, I knew something was wrong. Liam drove faster as soon as the traffic started thinning out. We skidded to a stop outside Nikki’s place, and I jumped out, slammed the door, and raced upstairs. I can’t describe how I felt seeing the flat door slightly ajar. Fuck! I was a fucking idiot to think Em would be safe as long as she wasn’t alone. Looking at Nikki’s prostrate form lying on the carpet unconscious, I knew Frank had Em. If he’d hurt her again after I had the opportunity to kill him and I let him go, I was gonna drive a motherfucking knife straight through his heart.
Tommy and Liam were hot on my heels. Kier checked on Nikki while Tom and I searched the flat unsuccessfully. Em wasn’t there.
“I’ve called the police and an ambulance. I think she’ll be fine but he must have given her a fair smack to the head,” Kier said.
“Shit, Kier. I’m too late again” I said, pacing as I ran my hands through my hair.
“Hey, ain’t that them down there?” Tommy said, looking out of the window into the flat’s parking lot at the back of the building. Sure enough, Frank had an arm around Em’s neck, a knife in his hand, and he was dragging her toward the cars. My girl wasn’t going down without a fight though. She was biting, kicking, scratching, anything she could do to get away. If I wasn’t careful, he’d knife her before I got there out of sheer desperation.
Kieran stayed with Nikki while Tommy and I raced down to the parking lot. By the time we burst through the door, the sound of sirens was wailing in the distance. As soon as Frank caught sight of us, the knife went up under Em’s chin, and she froze. We all did.
“The police are nearly here, Frank. Run while you still have the chance,” I said. I didn’t give a shit about him. I just wanted my wife back alive. I’ve never been so scared in my whole life. She looked like an angel, with the snow settling on her beautiful blond hair, but one quick jerk of the knife and she’d be gone forever. If anything happened to her, he might as well stick a knife in my motherfucking black heart. I was done.