Page 84 of Tainted Love

I take a sip of water. “I’m five-seven, thank you very much…”

“But you can still keep the upper hand,” he continues, smiling. “Your reflexes can take you pretty far, but you have to work on your speed.”

I nod, listening carefully. He’s mentioned variations of this to me since the first day we started. I’m small, damaged, and weaker than most men. I may never be large, undamaged, or stronger, but that doesn’t mean I have to lose.

“Winning requires control,” he says. “Control over your opponent as well as yourself. The second you lose either one, the fight is over.”

I set my bottle on the floor again. “Got it.”

“And if you do, there’s no shame in running away.”

“Have you ever run away from a fight?”

“No,” he says, “but I can think of plenty of times when I should have.”

I think of the scars on his body and I can tell he’s thinking about them, too.

“Isn’t that what you’re doing now?” I ask slowly. “Running away from a fight?”

Dante inhales sharply and holds it. “No,” he answers. “Right now, I’m choosing to not get involved. There’s a difference.”

“Because he was your friend.”

He squints. “Who have you been talking to?”

“Lilah.”

He hums with annoyance and takes another sip from his bottle.

“You said you wanted to kill him,” I say.

“I did.”

“You don’t anymore?”

“That’s…” He pauses. “It’s more complicated than that.”

I raise a brow, signaling that I want to hear more, and Dante releases another sound of annoyance.

“Yes,” he says. “Fox and I were close. Or as close as you can be in a job where you can’t trust anybody.”

“Lilah said you were drinking buddies.”

He chortles. “I guess that’s accurate.” His smile fades. “A month before I met you, Mercer contacted me.”

“Your squad leader,” I recall.

“He asked if Fox had ever mentioned anything sensitive. Bits of personal information that could be used to lure him out of hiding.”

“Did he?”

Dante bites down. “There was a girl,” he says. “Someone back home in Los Angeles. He loved her but, he couldn’t have her for… whatever reason. He didn’t say why. I told Mercer that and a few weeks later, she was attacked on national TV.”

I blink twice. “The movie star?”

He nods. “They went after her to get to Fox. No one’s heard from them since.”

A chill rolls down my back. “You’re afraid of him.”

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