“What the fuck was that?” Jake sat up, all smugness gone.
“That was me winning the fight,” I said.
“She sure as hell did. I told you, Jake. She was going to kick your ass. You should always make nice before you spar.”
Jake jumped up and resumed his fighting stance. I stood and wiped the blood from my face with my arm. He did the same with his own arm, creating a smear of blood from his nose to his ear.
It was my turn to give a smug smile. I was more than ready to kick someone’s ass, or get mine kicked. I really didn’t care at the moment. All I wanted to do was hit something, hurt something.
“Hey, you two. I think you both need a short break.” Helix tried to intervene.
“Sorry, Helix. I’ll try not to bleed too much on your mat.” I said.
“That’s not up to you.” Jake glared at me. He was mad and I loved it.
“Oh, but it is, Jake.”
We sparred for another fifteen minutes before either of us made significant contact again. He got me with a jarring slug to my gut. I doubled over, my breath gone. But, instead of stopping to hold my stomach like most people do, I rolled with it and came up behind him. I was still out of breath, but I managed to climb up his back in just two steps. I sat on his shoulders and then flipped myself around so when I looked down I could see his face between my legs.
He was actually smiling, though he had to know what was coming next. I threw my weight back and dropped him face first onto the mat. He came up bleeding all over again.
He wiped his nose again and held up his hand. “I’m impressed and more than a little turned on.”
“I’m not done.” I continued my advance.
Someone touched me lightly on my shoulder. “It’s just me, girl,” Helix said. “Don’t hit me, but you should maybe give him a break. Ambulances in the parking lot are never good for business.”
“Helix is right. How can I give you a job if you put me in the hospital?”
I came back to my senses and realized the gym was quiet. This wasn’t the first time I’d stopped time in Helix’s gym, but this was the first time I actually sparred with someone with every intention of hurting my partner rather than just getting the best of them, and the first time the crunch of breaking bones was a welcomed sound instead of something that made me cringe.
“Sorry, Jake. Cease fire?”
“Yes, please.” He grinned.
“Next time you’ll take my word for it, won’t ya, Jake,” Helix said.
“That I will, big boy.” Jake and Helix clasped arms, both laughing. I was still angry, but I graciously accepted the wet towel that was offered by some hesitant hand. The blood I wiped from my face covered the towel. The gym doctor had made his way over to check Jake. He was shining a light into his eyes when he asked me if I ever lost consciousness.
“Nope,” I replied through the towel I now held to my nose.
“Pinch your nose,” the doctor said.
I nodded. “He going to be okay?”
“I think so.” The doctor grinned at me.
“Black’s going to be so proud,” Helix boomed.
“Helix. Please. Don’t tell Black I was here.”
“If I don’t, someone else will and then I’ll have him on my ass. Sorry, Chicky. No can do.”
“I guess I can’t hold it against you.”
The doctor came over to me with his light and started shining it in my eyes.
“You’re good, too.” He patted me on the back before he walked away.
“So. She got the job, Jake?”
“Only if she wants it,” Jake responded in a nasally voice. Both of us were still pinching our noses to stop the blood flow.
“Depends on the job,” I answered.
“Thanks for your hospitality, Helix, and sorry for the mess.” Jake indicated the bloodied mat.
“Yeah. Sorry, Helix.”
“Too bad we never hit it off. Now that you’re running with a different crowd, maybe you’ll change your mind. We still have to have our second date.”
I laughed. “I’ll call you, Helix.” I handed him my bloodied towel and Jake did the same.
“Let’s talk.” Jake touched my arm and hiked his head toward the door.
I followed Jake out the door and into his new Dodge Charger.
“Nice car. Do you have any tissues? My nose is bleeding again.” I held my head up in an attempt to divert the flow away from his upholstery.
“Mine too. I should have something in the glove compartment.” He pointed.
I opened the compartment and pulled his 9mm onto my lap so I could dig out the fast food napkins he’d shoved in there.
“Here you go.” I handed him a few napkins and kept a couple for myself before I replaced the weapon and shut the compartment door.
He smiled and shook his head as we held the paper towels to our noses.
“What?” I didn’t understand the joke.
“I’d heard a lot about you and your attitude, but I thought it was all talk. Now I know better. You’re a pistol.”
“Not always.” I didn’t know if he could see my smile under the napkin or not.
“I could use a drink or an aspirin.” He started his car and drove us away from the gym. “So, you and Helix dated?” he asked as we made our way through traffic.
“Not really. He had White line up a date for us as payment for something he did for White and Associates.”
“Really? I bet that didn’t go over well.”
“I had a good time with Helix, but you’re right. It didn’t end well for White.”
Jake asked me to fill him in on what training I had and what I thought my strengths and weaknesses were. I gave him a brief resume and told him that hand-to-hand fighting was probably my weakness.
“You’ll never get the best of me again,” he said.
“We’ll see.”
He’d driven us to a small bar not far from White and Associates’ office building.
I followed behind him once again as we entered the bar.
“Yo, Jake.”
The bartender greeted him as we stepped in.
“You okay?” he asked after Jake and I sat at the end of the bar. “Did you have an accident?”
“Nah, Merle. We’re good. Just don’t piss her off.”
I looked at Jake. His eyes were starting to blacken. I wondered if mine were, too.
“You sure you don’t need me to call Posner for you?” Merle asked.
“Yep. Just give me something strong. What are you drinking?” Jake asked me.
“Jack on the rocks, to start, please.”
Merle grinned at my request. “Need some painkiller?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Merle set our drinks in front of us and left us alone to chat.
“So, what’s the real story? Why’d you quit White and Associates and why did they let you go?”
“First of all, they had no choice, and I quit for personal reasons.”
“I want to know those personal reasons.”
“Well, you’re not going to hear them.”
“You have a fling with Black that didn’t work out?”
“No. Black was my mentor.”
“He’s a big son of a bitch. He comes in here from time to time.”
“Great.”
“You left on bad terms?”
“Kind of. White has asked me to come back, but the rest of the men haven’t said anything.”
“So, what made you pursue this line of work?”
“I don’t know. I’m a good shot?”
“That you are.”
The conversation switched over to what kinds of jobs I might find myself doing.
“We’ll start you out slow,” Jake said.
“When’s my first job?”
“That’s up to Posner and your past affiliation with White and Associates is a bigger bother for him than it is for me. He wants me to offer you an instructor’s job to begin with. It’d help i
f you moved into a company facility so he could keep an eye on you.”
“Keep an eye on me? Nah. That ain’t happening.”
“You gotta give a little to get a little,” he said.
I downed my Jack. “I’m sick of hearing that.” I knew I’d have done better recently if I’d had a babysitter, but I didn’t want Jake or this Posner to take on that role. I waved at Merle to refill my glass even though I was already feeling the effects of the first one I’d been nursing.
“It’ll be easier for you to stay at the facility while you’re an instructor. I stay there.” Jake grinned.
“Is that supposed to entice me?” I laughed.
Jake just shrugged, grinned, and took a sip of his whiskey.
I downed my second Jack in two gulps. The ice had melted and the booze was a little watered down. “Sorry, Jake. Not working for me.”
“You plan on taking Helix up on that second date?”
Again I laughed. “That doesn’t work for me either.”
I waved Merle over again. “One more, Merle?”
Merle refilled the booze, but not my ice so the Jack was just that, Jack. He stood in front of us with the bottle in hand, waiting to refill Jake’s glass. Jake downed his own drink and motioned for another. In two gulps I finished off the drink. It took my breath away.
“Coffee?” I half squeaked and half whispered as I held my hand over my empty glass.
“Not a big drinker?” Jake threw back his own drink and asked for another after my cup of coffee arrived.
“I’m a little drinker,” I joked.
Chapter Seven
I woke up in a panic. As far as I could tell, the place was unfamiliar to me, but I couldn’t open my eyes all the way.
I bolted up to a sitting position and was hit with a wave of nausea and a sharp headache. Moaning, I held my head with both hands for two seconds.
I felt movement on the bed next to me and was able to make out Jake. He’d rolled over to face me. I did a quick check to make sure I wasn’t naked. Thankfully, I was fully clothed. Blood from my nose and Jake’s still coated my shirt and pants.
“Man, I feel like crap,” he complained as he sat up slowly.
“Where are we?”
“My room at Mesa.”
“Your room?” I didn’t know it was possible, but I felt even more sick.
Jake was decidedly a good-looking man, with all the attitude I liked in a man, but I didn’t want to turn into a whore as well as a murderer. The night came back in blurry snippets. I remembered drinking two cups of coffee while we chatted and then going back to the booze. I also remembered talking with more people than just Jake.
“Don’t worry. I’m certain, if something happened between us, I’d remember it, and so would you.” He forced a smile. “I need food.”
I hadn’t eaten for days but the mention of food made me shiver in disgust.
“You look like hell, by the way.” Jake’s eyes were swollen almost shut.
“How can you tell? Can you even see?”
“I’m used to looking through swollen eyes. This isn’t my first broken nose.”
A pounding on Jake’s door about sent me running to the bathroom.
Jake groaned again and rolled off the bed. “I’m coming.”
He opened the door to a man who looked familiar, but I couldn’t remember his name.
“You two look terrible. I brought you some ice packs and breakfast.” The man entered the suite with a food trolley.
“Thanks, Joe.” Jake took an ice pack from him and flopped into a chair at his table.
“I know I told you this last night, but I love that you kicked his ass,” Joe said to me while putting the plates out on the table.
“I’m sorry, Joe. I don’t remember much from last night.”
“You were both already ten sheets to the wind by the time the fight broke out. Next time you pick a fight with Black, I’m staying home.”
“We picked a fight with Black?” I pressed the ice pack he handed to me on my face.
“Not we. You,” Jake said.
“Things just get better and better.” A new wave of nausea flowed over me as it came back to me.
“That’s one mean son of a bitch.” Joe added.
“What the hell happened, anyway?” Jake asked Joe. “All I remember is you telling me to get Alex the hell out of there while the rest of the guys ran the gauntlet so we could leave.”
“It happened fast.” Joe said. “I didn’t realize a guy could get his nose broken twice in the same day.” He laughed at Jake.
I sat on the bed with my head in my hands. I remembered everything now. Black had come into the bar. I was sitting at the corner table with Jake, Joe and six other men. By that time I’d had enough drinks that I’d have been comfortable sitting in the middle of a fire. Black’s appearance at the door worked to focus all of my attention.
The look of disapproval on his face at seeing me with those men was satisfying. It was as if I was finally proving to him what I really was.
All he did was point a finger at me and then pointed it out the door. I’d started to comply but when I reached him, he took a hold of me by my arm.
I wrenched myself away from him and growled, “Don’t touch me.”
“Enough,” he said.
By then, the men at the table had moved to encircle us. Black maneuvered me out the door and placed himself between me and the men I’d been sitting with.
“The lady told you not to touch her,” I heard one of them say.
“Stay out of this.” Black’s deep voice would have intimidated most men.
“You,” he directed at me. “Car. Now!”
I would have followed his orders just like I always did but I heard another man say, “Who the hell are you? Her keeper?”
“Jake,” Black said. “Rein in your crew. I’m taking Grey home. Let’s not make more of this than we have to.”
“No. Black. I’m not going.” I tried to walk past him back into the bar. He scooped me up by my waist as if I weighed nothing and started to back away from the men now advancing on us.
“Drop the girl, Black.” This statement was met with laughter.
“Black. Put her down.” Jake approached us and hit the ground as soon as he was within Black’s reach.
Before he could recover, the rest of the men swarmed Black. Most of them were on the ground before they reached me, but eventually they overwhelmed him, wrestled me away from him, and kept Black busy while Jake and Joe escorted me away.
“You better be worth the trouble,” Joe brought me back. “I just got back from bailing the guys out of jail. Chris is the one you really need to make nice with though. He got a broken arm for his trouble.”
Just then White’s phone vibrated in my back pocket, making me jump. I pulled it out and turned it over in my hands until it quit vibrating.
“Who was that?” Jake leaned forward in his chair.
“No one I want to talk to.” I put the phone back in my pocket. “Is Black okay?” I asked.
“Ha. Is Black okay?” Joe scoffed. “He’s probably the only one, besides me, who walked away without a scratch. Is Black okay?” Again, he laughed.
Joe looked at Jake. “You’re lucky this happened during a recruit or Posner would make you work with that face. But, he asked me to tell you to take the week to recover, then you can start training Alex to be an instructor. Until then, you can take the time to get her acquainted with the facility. Just don’t let the paying customers see you like this.”
Within a week I knew that particular Mesa facility inside and out. I could have worked the desk, fixed the elevator, or cooked the daily meals if I needed to. Jake and I still had black eyes, but the swelling was gone and I was allowed to shadow him for another week before I was given my own class.
I always started my class by showing the participants my ability. I’m sure a lot of the men didn’t even consider my sex but I knew there was at least one in each crowd who would
have jumped at the chance to give me grief just because I was a woman and outside my range of perceived expertise. Showing each group that I knew what I was doing before the issue cropped up seemed to work best for me.
After what happened in the bar I decided hanging out at the facility might not be a bad idea. White’s phone still rang at regular intervals every day. I was tempted, more than once, to answer it to find out what White had to say. I wanted to apologize for not leaving the bar with Black, apologize for getting him involved with that mess. But, then I was constantly reminded of how I’d screwed up so many times, and I couldn’t bear to hear what White might say. It was over. My dad had even cut me off because of my ineptitude.
Jake and I had gotten into a routine. We’d each teach our classes, meet for lunch, finish off the day with more classes and meet for dinner. Then we’d meet in either his suite or mine and spend the night watching television, chatting or both. I kept my distance from the rest of the men who stayed at the facility. No one attempted to approach me either. Eventually, Jake started going back out on real jobs and I ached to get back out there, too. Instead, I kept teaching classes for what seemed like forever. But, having no end in sight was starting to rub on me.
Finally, I cornered Jake one night after dinner.
“Jake. I can’t keep teaching these classes. It’s the same thing every day, and I’m not into repetition.”
“I can’t help you, Alex. You have to wait until Posner gives the okay for you to do something else.”
“I’m not going to wait any more. I haven’t complained yet. It’s been two months of nothing but classes and hanging out in my suite or yours.”
“I’m sure he’ll get around to it one of these days. Be patient.”
“No. I’m done. I really appreciate all you’ve done for me, but I’m done. I need to get outta here. The only thing I have to look forward to is getting with you after work in your suite or mine. How sad is that?”
“Pretty sad.” He smiled as if he’d accomplished something.
“I’ll stay till the end of the week.”
“Promise you’ll finish out the week?”
“Yeah. It’s only two more days. I think I can handle it.”
“What are you going to do?”
Fragments of Grey [Book Five of The Alexis Stanton Chronicles] Page 5
