Page 71 of Silver Secrets

“Right now? Stone. He’s up in the control room. Come on. We’ll go see him after we stop in the inventory room.”

“Oh, is that where we’re getting our guns from?”

“Easy, tiger.”

* * *

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” The worry in Gage’s eyes was sweet, but Sloane was so excited she couldn’t help but bounce on her toes.

“Up for sparring with Stone down in the arena? Where I get to run around and actually practice something other than a right hook standing still? Gage, I am so ready for this.”

He turned to Stone, who was laughing as he slipped his training mitt on. “You watch over her? Got it?”

“Clark! I don’t want him to take it easy on me. I want to prove that I’m capable of protecting myself and find any weaknesses that we need to strengthen.”

Stone’s eyebrow quirked up. “What the hell did you just call him?”

“Clark. Like?—”

“Red.” Gage growled. “That nickname is only for you and me.”

“Interesting.” Stone laughed.

“Well, that’s not fair,” she stuck her bottom lip out playfully. “You get to call me ‘Red’ around everyone else.”

“Oh, you can call me ‘Clark’ around them as much as you want. I just want the meaning to stay between us.”

She couldn’t help but fold when he flashed his dimples and pulled her in to kiss the tip of her nose.

“Alright. I’ll be a good girl and keep it between us. But I won’t back down from kicking Stone’s butt in the arena.”

“Yeah, Track. Would you listen to your girlfriend and stop making her seem weak? She kicked my ass last time in the ring. I have no doubt I’ll be having my ass handed to me again today.” Stone lifted his hand into the air and smiled at Sloane. She laughed as she slapped her own hand against his, giving him a high five that had Gage scowling.

“You know that’s not what I meant. I just don’t want anything to?—”

“Nothing is going to happen. You work up here fixing that code like the computer genius that you are and I’m going to kick Stone’s butt around this multi-million dollar complex. Then we can all get lunch.”

“This is why I know you don’t have to worry about her.”

“Whatever,” he mumbled. Sloane placed her gloved hands around his chest and pressed a kiss to his lips.

“I wouldn’t mind if you kept the cameras up and watched me. Might be fun to reenact some of the moves tonight.” Both men’s eyebrows flew into their hairlines as she laughed, walking out of the room.

Half an hour on the floor training with Stone and she wasn’t laughing any more. Sparring in the arena was completely different from sparring in the ring at Montgomery Defense. Hell, it was a million miles away from anything she’d done in self-defense class. And although she could see how beneficial it was, she wasn’t enjoying realizing just how much more she needed to be practicing.

“You good?” Stone asked, taking a swipe at her. She’d completely let her arm drift down, failing to block the move which ended with her taking a not so gentle tap to her noggin.

“Oh, shit. I’m sorry, Sloane. I didn’t mean to land that.”

She shook her head. Most of the blow had landed against the protective gear she was wearing, so it wasn’t as awful as it could have been.

“That was all on me,” she panted. “I shouldn’t have let my guard down.”

“You know Tracker is going to kick my ass for that.”

“I’ll distract him when we get back up there.” There wasn’t much she could do, but she did turn to the nearest camera she’d spotted and smiled. Hopefully that would be enough to stop Gage from storming down there and interrupting their training if he’d been watching. “Can we try for a takedown this time?”

“Are you sure you’re up for that?”

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