Page 31 of Rescue Me (Forget the Past 1)

This girl is hiding some major strength.

She stares down at me, face drawn tight, eyes serious.

“If someone attacks me, I’ll use every weapon at my disposal. Teeth. Elbows. Knees. Nails. I’ll gouge a man’s eyes out with my thumbs if he gives me a reason to.” To emphasize the point, she cups the side of my face and brushes her thumbs along the curve of my eyebrows. The gesture is a strange combination of tenderness and threat.

I hope she doesn’t notice how aroused I am.

As Paige hovers above me, straddling my chest, I see her as something more than an awkward rich girl with a soft spot for animals.

I see a weapon.

“Who taught you how to do all that?”

The secret ninja pushes off me, and I immediately regret the loss of her body against mine. With the day so hot, I shouldn’t want to press myself against her warm softness. But I do.

“My parents had me take a bunch of self-defense classes growing up. And boxing. And sparring. I was also on the boy’s wrestling team my freshman and sophomore years of high school.”

Trying to come to terms with this new version of Paige, I ask the first question that pops into my mind. “Why’d you stop?”

Paige tosses a ball across the yard, and Pumpkin sprints after it. “I’m not that competitive, and the dieting to make weight was miserable. I figured, I could grapple with people at a gym and not worry so much about the medals.”

“So, your parents are into you fighting or something?”

Paige settles on the patio steps, and I move to join her. We both stretch our legs out, hers in baggy sweatpants again and mine in shorts. Now that I think about it, every time I’ve seen Paige, she’s been wearing pants, despite the high temperatures. I wonder if it’s a modesty thing. Or, maybe her body runs cold. The second option doesn’t seem likely after experiencing the heat rolling off her when we were tangled together moments ago.

“I told you my dad is a judge.”

When Paige glances at me for confirmation, I nod and try not to grimace. I don’t like being reminded about all the different reasons she’s off-limits to me.

“He’s overseen some big cases throughout the years. Every so often, my parents would get death threats, mainly aimed at me. Freaked them out. Whenever it would happen there’d be some kind of protection detail, like a Marshall. But they thought it would be a good idea if I also knew how to protect myself, just in case.”

“Wow. That’s pretty heavy to put on a kid.”

“Oh, I didn’t know about it until high school. For most of my life, I thought they were nuts. I never understood why they were so much more protective of me than other parents were with my friends. Other kids got to ride their bikes to different neighborhoods. Other kids got to hang out after school with their friends. Other kids got to go to weekend parties. Other kids got to go on dates.” She snorts after that last one. “Not that a lot of guys were asking out the only girl on the wrestling team, but still. I felt so suffocated. And sometimes, I lashed out.

“I would do dangerous things that were technically within their rules. Like if they said I couldn’t leave the house, I’d climb out on the roof.” She points up to the steeply angled tiles two stories above us. “One time, when they refused to let me go to a party, I broke into my Dad’s liquor cabinet and drank half a bottle of whiskey. Spent that night bent over a toilet.” Her smile is rueful.

“So, what? They told you only to run in the safe areas and you decided to do the opposite?” The stories from her childhood are interesting, but they just annoyed me in the end. Teenagers behaving stupid is no big news, but she’s a grown woman now. She should know better.

Paige stands up from her seat, glaring down at me, fists on her hips. The pose is fierce and adorable. “No. I’m not running in less reputable parts of town to stick it to my parents. I learned my lesson. I know how shitty things can turn out when I make my decisions out of spite.”

I bet that whiskey burned pretty bad on its way back up. I can see how it would make a lasting impression.

“So why then?”

“I already told you! I’m keeping an eye out for other dogs like Pumpkin.”

“But why were you running there in the first place? Before you found her? You looking for a real mugger to practice your skills on? Because let me dissuade you of that fantasy now. No matter how good you are in a gym or a ring, real life is different. There’s no referee. There’s no tapping out. And when you get hit for real, it comes out of nowhere.” At some point, I stood up too, and now I’m the one glaring down at Paige. I’m torn between reaching out to shake some sense into her and pulling her to my chest to hold her so tightly that she won’t ever run off again.

Paige huffs out a frustrated breath. “I wasn’t looking for a fight! I’m not an idiot. Half the reason I run so much is because I’d like to err on the side of flight over fight if the choice ever came up.”

“Well then, why were you there?”

“I got lost!” She throws her hands up in defeat and stalks away from me.

I follow after her. “Lost?”

“Yes. Lost. One minute I knew where I was, the next I didn’t. So I kept going. Then I found Pumpkin. When the police officer came to pick her up, he gave me directions back toward my house.” She turns on me, eyes guarded. “I didn’t know where I was. Honestly, I don’t know where most things are in this city.”

---