Page 72 of Silver Secrets

“I’m pretty sure I’m going to wipe the floor with you, but on the off-chance you take me down, I’ll be able to practice getting out of your hold.”

“What’s your safe word if it gets to be too much?”

Sloane rolled her eyes. “Red.”

“Right. Shouldn’t be hard for you to remember.” God, she was glad Stone was smirking at her. It made her want to see him fall on his ass even more. “Let’s go.”

Sloane grounded her stance, waiting for Stone to lunge towards her. As soon as she saw his first foot leave the ground, she dropped into a crouch, sweeping her right leg out so it made contact with Stone’s left knee. He went down with a hard thud, but the smile on his face was almost as loud as his laughter.

The lights changed the color of the room to an eerie green, smoke filling in the edges of the room.

“Shit.” Stone grumbled, looking behind Sloane.

“What?”

“Gage’s scenario has smoke as part of the setup, but I don’t think he meant for it to go off while we were down here training.”

“Is it part of the code that’s glitching?”

“Wasn’t before.” Stone shrugged as he got to his feet. “But I’m an absolute idiot when it comes to that stuff. Give me a gunshot wound or a broken bone, I’m your guy. Broken code? I have no idea…”

“I guess this is probably a sign we should call it on the training for today.”

“Yep. That was a good tactic, by the way. My knee is going to be throbbing for the rest of the week.”

“Sorry. I’ve been wanting to try it for a while, but Gunner and Hawk haven’t fallen for it yet.”

“What about Nash?”

“Can’t hurt our resident Grandpa. I’d never forgive myself.”

Stone paused, staring at Sloane for a second before he burst out laughing. “I hope you know I’m telling him you said that.”

“I kind of hope you do. He’s like Gage. He holds back in our sessions because he doesn’t want to hurt me.”

“None of us want to hurt you, Sloane. Not after what you’ve been through.”

“I know that, but I need practice. You’re not hurting me.” Sloane bent over and grabbed her water bottle, standing back upright before popping the top open to take a sip. “You’re making me stronger. You’re helping me get through?—”

The arena went dark.

For a split second, Sloane thought she blacked out. It sometimes happened when she stood up too fast and her blood pressure didn’t have a chance to keep up with the movement. But her heart wasn’t racing, and her rapid breathing wasn’t muffled like her hearing would be if she was about to faint.

“No, no, no, no,” she whispered. She could feel it. The second her mind switched back into the memory. The instant she was back there. In the cold. Alone. Disoriented.

“Why the fuck aren’t the emergency lights kicking on?” Stone grumbled from somewhere next to her.

Stone was there.

Because she wasn’t actually in the cave, was she?

That was before…

Her eyes blinked rapidly, begging the lights to turn back on. A wave of dizziness hit her hard, the air stuck in her unmoving lungs.

The next thing she knew, a hand reached out and wrapped around her arm. Everything in her mind went blank except for the drive to survive. She needed to get away. She couldn’t let him take her again.

“DON’T TOUCH ME!” Her leg kicked out in the direction she thought he was standing in. She landed a blow against something and yanked her arm away while he was distracted.

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