Avenged (Altered #2)(26)
“Yeah,” he allowed. “I’ll talk to Jack. See what I can do.”
“You do that. I’ll have this phone. Call us.”
“Okay. I will.”
“And Luke?”
“Yeah?”
“Be careful.” Only Blue knew how to make a worried reminder into a demand. “And come. If you can.”
“I will.” He disconnected the call and stared at the phone. He was sure she had no idea how hard what she was asking would be.
…
“Keep your elbows in, Kitty,” Nick reminded her again. “The weight should be on the outside of your feet. Not your toes. Remember, half of a battle is psychological. You need to look confident and be ready.”
She nodded, but her jaw tightened. She readjusted her stance, her face a mask of determination.
He moved his arm, as if he was going to punch her. She dodged it even before he moved, then her palm shot up, in a perfectly placed face attack. She kept her elbow high, though, and moved through to what would have been a perfect elbow to nose connection, if she’d intended to hurt him.
“Good.” He straightened. “Much better.”
She beamed in response to his praise, and he smiled back at her, though he knew it might seem wooden.
They’d been at this all day. He’d shot off his cot when the slider at the bottom of their door had opened and two meal trays were slid inside. The movement had stirred pain in every bruise and cut he had. Talk about rude awakening.
Not that he’d been sleeping long. He’d had the hardest time falling asleep. Not only did his face and his ribs hurt, but it was difficult to relax with Kitty breathing across the room. When he did finally sleep, it had been light, fitful.
Now, he’d spent the day answering her questions. He’d focused on self-defense, on personal safety. She’d continued to direct their conversations to what he considered to be combat inquiries. It was different. In combat, personal safety was second to meeting an objective, while in self-defense, personal safety was the objective.
He wanted her to focus on her safety. If there was danger, he wanted her to think about getting away, not engaging. Yet, they kept coming back to combat strategies. It was maddening.
“Remember. You’re not big.”
She tilted her head, grinning at him. “I’m not? You don’t say.”
He ignored her snark. “One punch from a bigger guy will do serious damage, if not destroy you. So you have to make your blows count, and then get away.”
“Right. Vicious.”
“Not just vicious. Dirty. There is no fair fight if someone is trying to hurt you. There’s only survival.”
“Right.” She nodded solemnly. “Do or do not. There is no try,” she said in her best Yoda voice.
He glared at her. “You think this is a joke.” Her smile fell at his snapped reprimand. He should have apologized, but he was exhausted and stressed out, aroused and stir-crazy. After hours of being at this, of being so close to her, wanting to touch her…he lost his cool.
“You cannot get cocky, do you understand me? The guys who are chasing you are bigger than you. They are trying to contain you, to bring you in, but they’re trained to kill. Faced with one of them, you should haul ass. Run as fast as you can.” He ran his hand over his hair and then along his jaw. Even imagining her running for her life sat like a rock in his stomach. “I don’t know if I should even be teaching you this. At least if you’re afraid, you’ll try to get away. I’m afraid of what sort of foolish shit you’ll do if you get overly confident.”
She put her hands on her hips. The color lifted in her cheeks, and her eyes narrowed. Every muscle in her body was tense. He’d never seen her angry, but he imagined this might be it. “You think I’m an idiot.”
Good Lord. That’s not what he said. Hadn’t she been listening? “Absolutely not.”
“You do.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “You said I’d act foolishly, that I’d do something irrational. That I won’t make good decisions. That I’d be an idiot.”
“I never said you don’t make good decisions.”How did she get that out of what he said?
“I’ve never been able to make my own decisions. My parents didn’t let me, and after that I was changed, and I trusted Jeremy and got sent here. So, I might not be good at it.” She swallowed hard. “But I want to be able to make my own decisions. You don’t think I know that I’m small? You don’t think I know that I don’t have much of a chance against those bigger, stronger guys?” She snorted with a half laugh. “I’m a smart girl, Nick. I get it. But I’m sick of being a victim. I’m sick of lying down and letting everyone take advantage of me. When we figure out how to get out of here, I want to be ready. I want to be strong.”
“You don’t think you’re strong?” It was as if she didn’t see herself at all. “You hear people’s thoughts. You listen to everyone’s messed-up baggage, and you haven’t lost your mind. I can barely deal with my own hang-ups, let alone everyone else’s. In spite of that, you still manage to care about people. Like me. You don’t even like me, and yet you watched over me while I was tranked, worrying that I was dead. And that mountain lion. You didn’t want me to hurt her. You see the horrible stuff in everyone, and yet you still think there’s enough in us to protect. That’s the strongest fucking thing I’ve ever seen.”