Page 40 of Provoke You

She relaxed in my arms. “You believe the one cancels the other?”

“I do. We can’t let the bad guys win.”

“I woke up this morning wishing I knew who’d done this to me so I could kill them. I want to hate them back. That’s the worst feeling.” Tears ran down her cheeks when she faced me.

This was so hard on her. To find out someone hated her enough to want to kill her had to be near impossible to comprehend. From what I’d seen, though, the attempt on her wasn’t driven by hate. It was driven by greed and lack of regard for human life.

“What can I do?”

“Teach me how to fight. Is that even possible?”

“We can try.”

“Really? I thought for sure you’d say no.”

“After what happened in New York, we need all the help we can get.” And that was the truth. The second crew that came looking for Ela at Ben’s lake house was relentless. If I hadn’t had an escape plan already planned out, we never would’ve made it out of there alive. “When do we start?”

“Now.” She wiped her hands on her apron and then pulled it over her head.

“Okay, I’m ready for the next batch of scones.” Kitt walked into the kitchen with a plate full of crumbs.

“How many of those have you had?” I asked.

“Half dozen maybe.” He shrugged.

“Have at it.” Ela grabbed the tray off the counter and placed it on the kitchen island. “Enjoy it because that’s the last one. Matt’s teaching me how to fight.”

“Is that so? Can I watch?” Kitt gave me a look that said he didn’t think this was a good idea. Not because Ela was a civilian but because he knew I had a thing for her. I had to be less obvious about that.

“Sure. You can help us move the furniture out of the way.”

Kitt filled his plate with more pastries and followed Ela into the living room. In a matter of minutes, we had the sofa and coffee tables lined up against the wall. I went upstairs and changed into a pair of shorts and a muscle tank. Since we were indoors, I opted to skip the CrossFit sneakers.

“This is a really good look on you.” Ela grinned at me when I met her and Kitt in the center of the fairly empty room. Maybe a few punches in the face would make me stop thinking about what else we could be doing while hiding from the assholes looking for her.

“Chase, get in here,” Kitt shouted over his shoulder. “This should be good.” He perched himself on the sofa arm with his plate of goodies, as if he were getting ready to watch some cheesy reality show.

“Fuck, what now?” Chase rushed into the living room and came to a halt when he saw us.

“The boss is teaching Ela a few moves.”

“For real?”

“What? I can learn.” Ela’s gaze shifted from me to Chase and Kitt.

“Ignore them. Come on.” I gestured for her to face me. “The main thing to remember is not to hesitate. Assume your opponent wants to hurt you and won’t back down.”

Ela glanced down at her hands. “Yeah, I learned that the hard way.”

“Hey. That’s over. Okay?”

“Okay. So don’t hesitate. What else?”

“Please don’t go out and pick a fight just because you learned how to throw a punch. The goal is to incapacitate your attacker quickly so you can escape. Make sense?”

“Yes. Can we get to the punching part now?” Ela squared off against me with a fairly accurate stance. For all the times she’d made fun of my marine training, she was taking her own training more seriously than I thought she would. She was scared and angry. Not a good state to be in when trying to keep a low profile.

“Make a fist, hands up.” I brought my hands up to protect my face and stayed that way until Ela figured out how to do it herself. “Place your thumb on the outside of your fist. You want to punch with your second and middle knuckle.” I grabbed her fisted hand and repositioned her thumb. She nodded and let out a breath. Shit. This was going to hurt. “Your attacker will be expecting a jab-cross to the face, like in the movies.”

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