Page 103 of Hide and Seek
I nod and pull on a pair of underwear.
“Those are the opening mechanisms. This one is the flipper.” He points to the top one. “All you have to do is push down on it,and the blade will flip out.” He holds the knife up and flips the blade out with the tab.
“The other one is the wave mechanism. It self-deploys the blade when you draw it from your pocket.” He closes the knife and slips it into his pocket. “You just secure it with the clip on your dominant side. Then your index finger goes through the ring.” He demonstrates. “And make sure your other fingers are out of the way so you don’t risk cutting yourself. Then you put your thumb on top of the ring to keep it steady and draw forward.” He pulls it free of his pocket, and the blade flips out with a soft click.
“Then you wrap your hand around it like this.” He settles the handle against his palm so the blade is coming out from the bottom of his hand instead of holding it so the blade is pointed up. “And you don’t stab with this blade, you slash. And make sure to keep your finger in the ring so you don’t risk losing it or someone knocking it out of your grip.”
He does a few twists and slashes that are as impressive as they are terrifying, then flips the knife around his finger in a complicated pattern that makes my heart skip a few beats, and not just from how hot he looks.
I figured he knew how to handle a knife after what I saw the night I was attacked, but the ease with which he uses it and the fluidity of his movements are as beautiful as they are scary.
“Yeah, I get why you gave me the training wheels version,” I say. “I’d one hundred percent lose a finger or slice off a piece of my leg doing any of that with the real version.”
He flips the knife around by the handle, then snaps it closed. “They’re good for combat, and they’re scary as fuck, so they give you an advantage, even if you’re not great with it.”
“That’s a bonus.” I smooth down the front of my shirt. “I’m not sure anyone has ever described me as scary before. But if Ican learn to do half of what you just did, then I’ll at least have a fighting chance.”
He puts the knife back in the box. “The other one is a tsunami dagger. The wounds it creates are devastating. The main issue with it is that it can be taken from you more easily, and it can be clunky and hard to handle if you’re not used to the size. The biggest advantage is that because it’s a dagger, you can display it in plain sight and keep it accessible without raising suspicions if people see it.”
“No one but you and the cleaners comes into my room, but I do like the idea of having it out and looking all badass in case someone who isn’t you breaks into my room.”
He shoots me a smirk and walks over to the chessboard. He studies it for about ten seconds, then moves his rook. “Check.”
“The hell it is,” I rush over to the board. There’s no way he got me in check.
“How did I miss that?” I mutter when I see what he did. It’s not a traditional countermove, and I was so focused on gettinghiminto check that I didn’t notice his rook was in the perfect spot to get me first.
Still smarting from my obvious oversight, I move my king out of check.
“Ready to go?” he asks.
I nod. “This is going to sound really random, but how do you get in and out of my room when you sneak in?”
“The door.” He slings one arm over my shoulder.
“Thanks,” I deadpan. “I never would have figured that one out on my own.”
“The security in this place is terrible,” he tells me as he leads me out of my room. “The swipe log can be tripped up with a dummy card, and there are enough blind spots in the cameras that I can easily slip in and out without any of them catching me. And your door locks are ridiculously easy to tumble.” He waitsas I lock the door behind us. “What’s the dorm policy on adding your own locks? I don’t like how vulnerable it leaves you when I’m not around.”
“I don’t know. I never looked it up.”
“I’ll take care of it,” he says and steers me down the hallway toward the main stairs. “And I’ll deal with anyone who might take issue with upgrading your security.”
“We’re not going out the back?” I ask. This way will lead us right through the main foyer.
“Nope.”
“You don’t mind if people see us together?”
He pushes open the door to the stairs and holds it for me. “Of course not. I want everyone to see us.”
I toss him a confused look over my shoulder and head down the first flight of stairs.
“You’re mine, Myles. That doesn’t just mean in your room or when we’re in private. The sooner it gets out, the better it is because I want everyone to know that anyone who fucks with you is fucking with me, and they’ll be dealt with accordingly.”
I try to hide my smile at not just his words, but the dead serious way he said them. It means a lot that he doesn’t want to hide me away or keep things on the DL.
My smile disappears the moment we step through the doors to the foyer. It’s way more crowded than usual, and every head snaps toward us when Jax puts his arm over my shoulder in a possessive hold.
