Dead of Winter (Charlie Cooper Thrillers Book 4) by Mark Dawson

Author:Mark Dawson [Dawson, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unputdownable Thrillers
Published: 2024-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

15

The bell rang for the third round. Cooper stepped forward, breathing heavily, his eyes blinking. He used a boxing glove to wipe the sweat from his brow and at that moment felt Marius’s fist sink into his stomach. Cooper doubled over, stepping back and away from his opponent, putting a hand on the ropes to steady himself.

There was laughter from the young men watching.

“Come on, Johnny Boy,” said Marius. “You can do better than that. At least try to put up a fight.”

Cooper had come to the gym looking for Pavel. The moment he set foot inside, he’d realised that Marius was in a bad mood and looking for an opportunity to take it out on someone. Cooper presented an easy target. Marius had started goading him to get into the ring despite Cooper’s protests that he didn’t know how to fight.

Marius stepped towards Cooper, firing a left jab at his jaw. Cooper’s head rocked back. He stole a glance at the clock. They’d agreed on three rounds, which meant that Cooper had to endure another two minutes and thirty-five seconds of Marius’s increasingly hard punches without breaking cover and simply knocking him out. He’d evaluated Marius’s boxing technique in seconds, assessing that he relied on his height, reach and athleticism to dominate his opponents, but that he didn’t have any real sophistication or skill. In a fair fight, Cooper would have finished him off within seconds of the opening bell.

It was at moments like this, he thought, that he really earned his nickname, but being a ‘chameleon’ often required patience and the willingness to endure irritating deprivations like this.

Marius swung a haymaker with his right fist, and Cooper ducked. It looked as though Marius was going to try to knock him out and wasn’t going to settle for a victory on points. Cooper put up his gloves to protect his head as Marius launched another volley. It was getting increasingly hard to adopt a purely defensive posture, so Cooper had to do something. He stepped forward and to the side and swung two short jabs into Marius’s kidneys. Marius grunted and stepped back, wincing with pain. Once he’d caught his breath, he stepped towards Cooper again, bouncing on his toes, sending a left jab that glanced off Cooper’s temple and then followed up with a right hook that Cooper leaned back to avoid. Marius was evidently frustrated and surprised by how long it was taking to finish off someone who’d never boxed before; he stepped in, lowered his head and swung it like a battering ram into Cooper’s brow, opening up a cut.

Under ninety seconds to go.

Cooper used his forearm to wipe the flow of blood from his eyes. He could see that Marius was flagging and so quickened his footwork, shuffling to the side and away so that Marius was forced to come after him. Cooper felt the ropes at his back. Marius swung a left and then a right, leaving himself wide open to a counterattack that Cooper wished more than anything he could make.

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