Wynter chuckled. “Yeah, that’s true,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Did you get along with Lauren’s family?” Remington asked curiously.
“Oh…” Wynter said, shaking her head, “her family was a nightmare, she avoided them if she could.”
“That bad?” Remington asked, not sure why she was surprised.
“They were… well… they were really white trash,” Wynter said. “I know that sounds unkind, but they were just bloodsucking leeches, always looking for a handout.”
Remington looked disappointed at that. “So it’s really just been you and your mother for a long time?”
“Yeah,” Wynter said, “we haven’t seen my dad since I was like two, and even then, I guess he was never really part of our lives.”
Remington shook her head. “I can’t even imagine that,” she said. “I’ve always had so much family underfoot. I wouldn’t know that to do without them.”
“Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about that,” Wynter said, smiling, “and I have to say, that I felt very privileged being a part of your Thanksgiving.” She laid her hand on Remington’s cheek then. “Thank you so much for bringing me here with you, it really means a lot to me.”
Remington searched Wynter’s eyes looking pensive.
“What is it?” Wynter asked.
“Something my aunt said earlier today,” Remington said.
“That doesn’t really narrow it down, Remi,” Wynter said, grinning. “You have like eight or so…”
Remington laughed softly. “True, but this was about you loving my culture,” she said.
“Oh, that was your aunt Wilamena,” Wynter said. “I really liked her, she was so sweet.”
Remington shook her head, her look wondrous.
“What now?” Wynter asked, smiling.
“The fact that you remember names, that you remember the Creole I’ve taught you… it’s just… amazing.” Remington said.
“Of course I remember, Remi, it’s important,” Wynter said softly. “And Wilamena was right, I do love your culture, because it’s who you are,” she said, her eyes gleaming with emotion. “It’s how you talk, it’s how you think and how you act, it’s you.”
Remington looked back at her for a long moment. “No one’s ever said that before,” she told Wynter.
“That doesn’t mean they didn’t think it, Remi,” Wynter said. “Expression isn’t something everyone is good at.”
“Or maybe they didn’t think the way you do,” Remington said. “Maybe they didn’t see me the way you do.”
“Maybe you didn’t save their life a couple weeks ago,” Wynter said, smiling softly, “and maybe they didn’t get to see everything you’ve shown me. I mean, there seems to have been a million of them, but…” she said, grinning as her voice trailed off.
Remington narrowed her eyes in mock anger. “There weren’t millions,” she said pointedly. Then her look softened, as she pulled Wynter into her arms, sighing deeply. “And no one has ever felt this good in my arms.”
Wynter pressed her face against Remington’s neck, enjoying the thrill that went through her at hearing that.
“No one has ever felt so right,” Remington said, leaning down to kiss Wynter’s temple. She kept her lips near Wynter’s ear as she whispered, “I love you. I know it may seem too soon to say, but—”
Her words were stilled when Wynter raised her head and kissed her lips deeply.
“If you just want me to shut up…” Remington murmured against her lips.
“Shut up,” Wynter said, pressing closer to Remington and deepening the kiss.
They were making love moments later, doing their best to be quiet this time, even though they’d stacked pillows and a suitcase on the air vent.
Afterwards, as they lay trying to catch their breath, Wynter levered herself up on one elbow, looking down at Remington.
“I love you too,” she said softly.
Remington reached out her hand, smoothing it over Wynter’s cheek, her eyes staring up into hers. “You do?”
“How could I not?” Wynter asked. “You are the most amazing person I’ve ever met.”
Remington pulled her close then, kissing her lips once more. Her phone pinged at that moment. She reached over to pick it up and looked at the message.
“What is it?” Wynter asked.
“Salio’s got the fight set… for Christmas Eve,” she said, shaking her head ruefully.
“Seriously?” Wynter asked.
Remington chuckled. “Yeah, I think he’s seen Rocky IV too many times,” she said, shaking her head. “And it looks like the trainer will be here tomorrow at ten.”
“Did you get the one you wanted?” Wynter asked.
“Yeah, he managed to get Kai. She’s probably the toughest trainer out there. She will literally kick my ass, but if I’m going to be ready in a month, I need it.”
“I can’t believe you think you’re out of shape, Remi,” Wynter said, sliding her hand over Remington’s leanly muscled abs, abs many women would kill for. “There isn’t an ounce of fat on you.”
Remington grinned. “It isn’t about fat, babe,” she said. “It’s about muscle memory and reaction time. Not reacting fast enough in the ring is what gets people knocked out.”
Wynter nodded, alarmed by what Remington had just said. “She’s going to travel with the tour too?”
“Yep,” Remington said, nodding. “So I’m likely to have no free time for the next month.”
Wynter nodded, looking unhappy at that thought, but knowing that it was what Remington needed to do.
They fell asleep a little while later.
The night of the fight in Madison Square Garden arrived. Wynter accompanied Remington into the arena, to the screaming of thousands of fans. Akasha Salt entered from another side of the arena with a woman on either arm. Wynter thought that Akasha looked like she’d been taking steroids, she seemed almost twice the size she had been before.
“Is that for real?” Wynter asked Remington. “She’s huge all of a sudden!”
Remington moved her neck around, looking over at Akasha with barely veiled contempt.
“She’s probably been doping,” Quinn said from Remington’s side.
“Well that’s illegal isn’t it?” Wynter asked.
“Yeah, but you gotta prove it,” Remington said, her lips curled in displeasure.
They went to the center of the ring. Akasha stood a foot taller than Remington and seemed to dwarf her. Wynter watched from the sidelines, having a really bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“Are you guys sure she’s ready?” Wynter asked Quinn.
Quinn nodded. “Yeah, she’s ready,” she said, looking at Wynter like she’d lost her mind. “Don’t be negative, she don’t need that shit right now.”
Wynter was shocked by Quinn’s sharp words and shook her head as she looked back to the ring. The referee was giving instructions, and then had Akasha and Remington touch gloves, which they did. They then backed up as the referee made the gesture to start. Akasha charged Remington, punching her in the face twice. Remington fell back and Akasha advanced and hit her again. Remington stumbled. Akasha continued to advance, punching her again and again.
Wynter screamed, looking over at Quinn. “Do something!” she told Quinn.
Quinn shook her head, shrugging. “Nothing we can do.”
“What the hell do you mean! Stop this!” Wynter screamed as she saw Remington go down.
Akasha jumped on her, punching her over and over again. There was so much blood!
Wynter screamed as she saw Akasha’s fist come up again. Remington wasn’t moving.
“No!” Wynter screamed as Akasha’s fist drove home.
Akasha was quickly pronounced the winner by Total Knock Out. Wynter scrambled through the ropes to get to Remington but Quinn got there first. Quinn was on her knees next to Remington’s head. She looked up at Wynter ran up.
“She’s gone,” Quinn tol
d her.
“What!” Wynter screeched.
“She’s dead,” Quinn said.
“Too bad,” Akasha said with a sneer on her face, “guess she wasn’t as good as she thought.”
“No!” Wynter screamed.
“Whoa! Wynter!” Remington yelled, as Wynter started awake screaming.
Wynter was breathing heavily, shaking her head, tears streaming down her face.
“Wynter, what is it?” Remington asked, touching her face looking worried.
“Oh my God, oh my God…” Wynter said over and over again, as she started realizing that she’d been dreaming.
“Babe, what is it?” Remington asked, her eyes searching Wynter’s.
Wynter dropped back against the pillows as she tried to calm her pounding heart. There was a knock on the bedroom door then.
“Is everything okay?” called Andre.
“Yeah, Dad, we’re okay, I think she just had a nightmare,” Remington said, looking down at Wynter. “Babe, are you okay?”
Wynter nodded, still breathing heavily, closing her eyes slowly and then opening them again when the image of a bloody, broken Remington flashed in her head again.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Remington asked solicitously.
Wynter’s lips trembled as tears appeared in her eyes again.
“Oh honey…” Remington murmured as she took Wynter in her arms again, holding her and stroking her back soothingly.
It took a full ten minutes for Wynter to calm down long enough to tell Remington about the dream.
“It felt so real,” Wynter said, looking pained.
“It wasn’t real, babe. I’m right here,” Remington said softly.
Wynter shook her head, still looking very haunted. “I can’t lose you Remi…”
“You aren’t going to lose me, Wynter.” Remington said.
“I love you…” Wynter said, reaching for Remington’s face. “Nothing is worth losing you for.”
“Babe, there’s been four whole deaths in the history of MMA and it’s been around for more than two decades. Nothing is going to happen to me, okay?” Remington said, her tone sure.
Wynter put her head to Remington’s shoulder, trying to push the vision of Remington from her dream out of her head. She shook her head. “I’m never going to forget that picture of you…” she said tearfully.
“I’m sorry, honey…” Remington said. “It was probably the reference to Rocky IV that did it.”
Wynter nodded. “Probably, that part where Apollo Creed gets killed… It did have the kind of feel to it.”
Remington kissed her forehead, closing her eyes slowly. “I’m sorry, honey.”
They lay together for the next hour until Wynter could finally go back to sleep. Fortunately, she didn’t dream again.
The first thing they heard about the next morning was that the picture of them on the stairs at the Thanksgiving celebration the night before had managed to go viral.
“Apparently someone in the family sent it to someone else in the family and they posted it on Facebook…” Wynter said, grinning as she looked at her phone. “You’re famous again, babe,” she said, winking at Remington.
“Great…” Remington said, not sounding thrilled in the slightest.
Later that morning, Kai Temple stood keenly watching Remington do sprints, her muscled arms folded over her chest.
“Knees up!” she yelled and saw Remington respond instantly. “Okay, bring it in,” Kai called.
Remington moved back to stand in front of the trainer, breathing heavily.
“Let’s do some body work,” Kai said.
Wynter walked out to where Remington and the trainer were working. They were in a small building separate from the house. Remington had put it in for training when she was home, which was usually before every fight. There were bars of varied heights and poles, and various weight and workout equipment. There wasn’t a machine in sight, however. When Remington trained, it was all manual work. She stood back so she wouldn’t distract Remington. She looked Kai over; the woman was solid muscle, but still not even as tall as Remington. Remington had told her that this woman was the best though. Wynter began to see it as she put Remington through her paces. She had her doing body lifts from a sitting position, then laying down, then she moved Remington to the bars, having her lift her body, bend from the waist to one side, then straighten and then to the other. Remington’s entire body was shaking as she moved, but to Wynter’s complete amazement, Remington did everything she was told without fail.
That night, Remington was paying for the ultra-hard work out. She could barely move without wincing. Wynter ran her a bath, doing as Kai had told her and putting Epsom salts into the water.
“What the hell was I thinking?” Remington muttered as she slid into the tub.
“You were thinking that defending my honor would be easy?” Wynter suggested.
“Everything hurts…” Remington said.
Wynter grimaced. “I’m sorry babe…” she said, wishing she could do more.
There was a knock on the bedroom door then and Wynter went to answer it. It was one of Remington’s cousins, Semina.
“Hi,” Wynter said smiling at the girl who was just about her age.
“Hello,” Semina said, smiling, “I heard that Remington is training again.” She held up a basket. “I brought this for her, it should help with the soreness.”
“Oh you are just in time.” Wynter said, smiling brightly.
“Give her a kiss for me and tell her to take it easy,” Semina said, hugging Wynter.
“Thank you, I will,” Wynter said.
“Who was that?” Remington asked from the tub.
“Your savior,” Wynter said, as she walked back into the bathroom with the basket. “Semina brought some essential oils over.”
Remington sighed. “I do love her,” she said, smiling.
Wynter looked through the basket and at the handy labels on the bottles. She opened one and smelled it, closing her eyes.
“Okay, this one is for soaking so…” Wynter said, putting the amount of drops into the water as the label instructed. “It says it’s wintergreen and peppermint oils.”
Remington leaned back, closing her eyes and sinking lower in the tub, inhaling deeply through her nose.
“Mmmm…” she murmured.
“Is that helping?” Wynter asked, moving to sit on the floor next to the tub, still looking at the items in the basket.
“Feels like it.” Remington said her voice languorous.
“Oh, she loves you,” Wynter said, grinning. “There’s a body wash, a lotion and there’s even a massage oil, oh and a salve too. It says it’s for tougher spots.”
“Yeah, is there enough for my entire body? ’Cause that’s what I need right now…” Remington said, grinning.
Wynter laughed softly. “Well, no, but I’m sure we can request more.”
After twenty minutes, Remington moved to sit forward, stretching her back. She gasped as she rolled her right shoulder.
“Uh-oh,” Wynter said. “That’s the bad one isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Remington said, nodding.
“Okay, give me your arm,” Wynter said, holding out her hand.
Remington looked back at her questioningly.
“Come on, Kai showed me a couple of things, plus I have this stuff,” she said holding up a jar from the basket.
Remington moved her arm carefully, lifting it out of the water and toward Wynter. Wynter slid her hand on Remington’s arm, feeling for the knot in her muscles and finding more than one.
“Oh babe…” Wynter said, grimacing, as she opened the jar with one hand.
She got some of the salve on her hand, rubbed her hands together and then slid her hand over Remington’s bicep, moving her other hand at the same time over her shoulder. Remington hissed a couple of times in pain, but Wynter could feel the muscles relaxing under her hands.
“Just hold on babe…” Wynter e
ncouraged. “I can feel things easing up… just hold on…”
A few minutes later, Remington relaxed again, sighing.
“Where’d you learn that?” she asked.
“Well, Kai showed me a couple of things; she knew you were going to be hating life tonight. But I also looked at some stuff on online.”
Remington laughed softly, shaking her head. “Never stop learning things, do you?”
“Well, this whole training thing is new for me, so…” Wynter said, smiling.
“But you’re not doing the training,” Remington said.
“No, but the woman I love is, so I’m going to know what she’s doing so I know how to help when she needs it,” Wynter said, her tone matter of fact.
Remington smiled warmly. “ Byen oke Lè sa a,” she said.
“Meaning…” Wynter asked, her tone leading.
“Well okay then,” Remington said, smiling.
An hour later, Remington was sitting up on the bed. She was icing her shoulder and her knee that had started aching wildly. Wynter had gone downstairs to retrieve some dinner for her and went back with two unexpected visitors.
“There she is…” Quinn said, grinning as she walked into the room.
“What’re you doing here?” Remington asked, as she started to stand when she saw Xandy walk in behind Quinn.
“No, no, no!” Xandy said, putting her hands out at Remington to halt her movement. “You stay down, Wynter told us how hard you trained today.”
Wynter sat on the bed handing Remington the plate she’d brought up. “All protein, no carbs, as promised,” she said, winking at Remington.
“God, I’m gonna miss carbs for the next month,” Remington said, shaking her head ruefully.
“After you beat Akasha’s ass, I’ll buy you the biggest plate of pasta you’ve ever seen,” Wynter said, smiling.
“What if I lose?” Remington asked, as she cut up the fish Wynter had brought.
“Not gonna happen,” Wynter said, her look sure.
“No it’s not,” Quinn said with a narrowed look.
“Nope, no way,” Xandy said, smiling.
Remington looked at the three of them, shaking her head. “My own personal cheering section.”
Lightning Strykes Page 24
