Page 18 of Last Resort

How had things gone so wrong between them?

How could he make them right again?

How was he going to survive two and a half more days of being this close to her?

After the break she walked back over. She was looking a little tired, not that he could blame her. Maybe they’d take it easier this afternoon. They ran quickly through what they’d already worked on. The more it could become muscle memory for her, the better it would be.

Then it was time to move on to frontal attacks. “Alright, next up we’ll go over what to do for a choke hold. In this case, you’ll have eyes on your assailant and—”

He reached for her throat, but before he could connect, Maci flinched. Her whole body shifted away from him and her eyes closed. The furrow of her brow and the tight set of her mouth told him that it wasn’t a voluntary response—it was some sort of unexpected reaction.

And he had no idea why she’d had it.

Instantly, he dropped his hands and stepped back. Maci had never flinched from him before. Not in the time when they’d been lovers and not when they sniped and snarled at one another.

He couldn’t recall a single moment where she’d looked scared or fearful of her physical safety with him. Seeing this flinch, even though it wasn’t an extreme reaction, shattered something inside him.

“Maci? Are you okay?”

Those blue eyes popped open, and she seemed to realize what had happened. “I—I’m sorry.”

“Are you scared of me?”

He hated that he had to ask, but he needed to know.

“No.”

“Are you sure?” Had he been misreading her all morning long, thinking she was doing okay when really she’d been hiding fear? “I don’t want you trying to push through some mental block. If this training is triggering for you then—”

“It’s not. I’m not scared of you.”

Her voice was firm and it sent a wave of relief rushing through him, one that was almost immediately taken over by confusion. If she wasn’t afraid of him, then why did she flinch? Had someone hurt her in the past?

And why the hell didn’t he know the answer to that question? He barely knew anything about her past at all.

He wanted to ask. Wanted to demand to know what that flinch had been about, but knew it would lead to a fight. The real kind with them yelling at each other, not the self-defense training kind.

“I think we’ve done enough for today,” he finally said. “Let’s call it quits.”

“No.”

“Can you tell me what caused you to flinch like that?”

He expected her to shut him down or joke around the question. When she remained silent, he thought maybe she wouldn’t answer at all.

“My parents would sometimes get violent with each other. Both ways. I guess choking was part of it, although I didn’t actively remember that until you came at me.”

Chance was stunned. He’d never heard her talk about her parents. Had no idea she’d had a less than ideal home life.

He didn’t talk much about his parents either. Maci had met Clinton and Sheila and knew what great people they were. But Chance had never really known his biological parents at all, so there wasn’t much to say about them.

“Mace, I—”

She held out a hand to stop him. He wasn’t sure what he was going to say anyway. “We’re on the clock. A woman’s life is at stake. I flinched but I’m fine now. Let’s keep working.”

“Are you sure?”

“There’s a lot of things I’m not sure about, but this isn’t one of them.”

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