Page 151 of The Black Trilogy

That confidence had taken a knock over the past few months, but every jab, cross, hook, and uppercut stirred my inner tiger. She was wide awake as I attacked the final sparring session of the afternoon. Alex made Nick come at me with a knife first, then a gun. It was my job to disarm him and take control of the situation.

“Nick, you’re not giving it everything. You’re holding back on me.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You probably won’t, and if you do, it just means I’ve got improvements to make. If I’m fighting with somebody who’s trying to kill me, they’re not going to back off because I’m a girl or because I’ve had a rough couple of months. Now just get on with it, will you?”

I’d always done that part of my training with my husband, and he’d never given it less than a hundred percent. I once had the broken arm to prove it. But I’d learned from that mistake, and he never came close to doing it again.

“Okay, okay. I’ll push harder.”

Nick flew at me, almost, but not quite, taking me by surprise. I blocked him by the skin of my teeth, and for the next half hour, we must have looked to the outside world as if we were trying to kill each other.

“Enough!” Alex said, his Russian accent still thick despite having lived in the States for years.

I sank to my knees, sweat dripping onto the mat. A purple bruise already marred my pale thigh, skin that hadn’t seen sunlight in too long.

Nick passed me a towel and laid an arm across my shoulders. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Sorry I grumbled at you earlier.”

“Forget it. I knew you trained hard, but I never realised it was that bad.” He jerked his head at Alex. “Is he always like that?”

“Sometimes worse.”

Alex cleared his throat behind us. “I will be back in the morning.”

“I can hardly contain my excitement.”

Alex only laughed.

“I’ve got an early meeting tomorrow,” Nick said as the door closed behind Alex.

“Lucky you. I don’t get time off for good behaviour.”

“Just tell him you need a break. You’re paying him, after all.”

I sat down on a weight bench and propped my elbows on my knees. “Tempting. But the training’s good for me. My body’s the best weapon I have. If I take care of it, it’ll take care of me, and best of all, there are no problems getting it through security checks at the airport.”

“I wouldn’t want to come up against you in a dark alley,” Nick said, chuckling.

Like a switch had been flicked, memories welled up inside me. Despair overflowed as I dashed out of the gym, trying to outrun feelings I didn’t know how to cope with. Without thinking, Nick had reminded me of how I’d met my husband. The official story was that we’d got chatting in a London wine bar, but in truth, our paths had crossed in a far less civilised manner, and yes, there had been a dark alley involved.

How could I stand my ground against a mugger but not face up to my own mind?

As I sped blindly through the house, the slap of rubber soles on the tile told me Nick was following. My head told me I should stop, but something deeper inside controlled my feet.

I ran faster.

CHAPTER 5

I’D REACHED THE music room by the time Nick caught up. I tried to pull the door closed, but he put his foot in the gap to stop me.

“Please, just leave me alone.”

I didn’t want him there. I didn’t want anyone to see me in this state, let alone Nick, but I couldn’t summon up the energy to push him away. The tears were coming, and I wasn’t sure I could stop them.

“Sorry,” he murmured, putting his arms around me and pulling me back into him. “I didn’t think.”

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