Page 71 of Fighting Conviction
Ignoring her tantrum, he kept counting. “Ten seconds—”
“Stop, it’s impossible!” She swiveled and got on all fours as he counted down. He thought that was at least better than being flat on her ass, until she collapsed back on her calves and threw her hands in the air.
Un-fucking-believable.
“Five… four… three—”
“You win, dangit!”
“Two—”
“I quit, okay! Just tell me how to do it, already.”
“One.” Devil shook his head slowly, his jaw tight with the disappointment tensing every muscle. “What the hell was that, Ellie?”
When Ellie rolled her eyes and lifted her arms in question, Devil wanted to tangle her pretty golden hair in his fist and force her to see how serious he was. “What do you want from me? I did my best.”
“Yourbest?” Devil scoffed and propped his hands on his hips. “You quit a minute in!”
Ellie huffed and brushed away a phantom loose hair, a habit Devil noticed when she started pinning her hair back.
“Why would I try hard if you’re gonna tell me how to do it when the time’s up? So… you know, go ahead and tell me how so I can do it during the real thing.”
“The real thing?” Devil slammed his hand on the concrete counter, making her jump. “Goddamnit, Ellie, do you think all of this is a joke?”
Ellie straightened up and her eyes widened before she furrowed her brow and frowned. “No, of course not.”
“Then what the fuck was that?”
“I told you! Why do I need to bust my tail if you’re gonna tell me how I should’ve done it all along?”
Devil grunted and scrubbed his beard so roughly his skin hurt. “Fuck, Ellie.Fight. Have these past two months been completely pointless?”
“No!” It was only when Ellie yelled back at him that he realized how loud he’d gotten. “I’ve busted my butt for these training sessions and thisalwayshappens. You have me do something. I do it the dumb way, and then…” She pointed in one direction with her duct tape hands, before pointing in the other as she spoke. It seemed like she was trying to bring levity into the argument, but Devil wanted to turn her over his knee. “You swoop in and save me and teach me the right way. I just wanted to skip to that part.”
Devil shook his head with his eyes to the ground. “You didn’t want the right way. You wanted theeasyway.” He emptied a harsh breath from his lungs. “That’s not what you should’ve been learning at all.”
“No, I was saying I’ve learned a lot and—”
“Then save yourself, Ellie! Fuckingfight. Don’t give up when it gets hard and expect someone else to come ‘swoop in and save you.’” He said the last with finger quotes and he knew he’d hit the mark when her face turned a pretty shade of crimson.
“I didn’t mean it like that—”
“You know what? I think you did. I watched you give up a minute in. In a real situation, you might not even get that long. Every second counts. Three minutes was generous and you didn’t even try for half that.”
“I didn’t know that was part of the test,” Ellie objected while she hit her thighs with her duct-taped hands.
“It doesn’t matter. You’ve heard the saying, ‘practice like you’re playing the game,’ right?” At the downward jerk of her head, he mimicked the motion. “Well, the stuff I’ve been teaching you? What you’ve been training for? Isn’t a game. It can be real life or death situations and goddamnit, what if something happens to you and you’re not prepared because I went easy on you? And you just… give up? What if someone else’s life is on the line? If this had been the real thing, you would’ve squandered the last few seconds you had to get yourself free. In these situations, you have to always be thinking. Always be on. You can’t expect someone to come save you every time. It only takes once for that not to pan out and you’re running out of lives, baby.”
Ellie closed her eyes and rolled her shoulders back before opening them again. “Fine. I’ll do it again.”
Devil’s eyebrows ticked up but he nodded at the resolve she carried. “I’ll tell you how to get out of it, but you have to do it full force. Not theeasyway. And once you’re free, act out how you would escape from this room. Go through all the motions.”
Ellie lowered her chin once in a nod and Devil sat down beside her to show her the steps.
“Stand up this time. You were on a good path getting on all fours, but keep going.” He moved his body to do the same. “When you’re up here, cross your feet the best you can. Even when you’re duct-taped you should be able to do that within the tape. Once you’ve done that… fall straight down—” He dropped into a cross-legged sitting pose. “Like this.”
“Crisscross applesauce?” The words were ridiculous and Devil couldn’t keep from snorting even though Ellie’s face was serious.
