Page 2 of Undying Resilience

“Come here.”

Grudgingly, I step onto the mat.

He grabs my hand and pulls me toward him. “I can handle a couple punches and kicks, Wren. But you know what I won’t be able to handle?”

“What?”

“Someone hurting you. And if I have to deal with a little pain to make sure you know how to adequately keep yourself safe, then so be it.”

“But I don’t—”

“Wren.”

I sigh. “Okay.”

He lets my hand go with a little squeeze. “Fists up.”

We spar for a while. There’s a lot of stopping and starting as he corrects my form and gives me tips to help me remember things. Then after a while we switch to takedowns. Well, one takedown, because it’s really damn hard to grasp.

“Like... like this?” I say on the fifth try.

Rhett chuckles. And then he somehow flips me around and throws me onto my back with absolutely no effort. “No. Not like that. You leave yourself open to some pretty nasty attacks.”

“How... ugh,” I groan. Then I laugh, rolling my eyes. “And I thought I had you for a second.”

Rhett gets onto his hands and knees and crawls over me, not bothering to affirm what I said. He presses a chaste kiss to my lips as a barely-there smile flickers across his features.

I let out a huff. “You only let me think I was gonna do it, didn’t you?”

He shrugs. “Was just waiting to see what you’d do. Doesn’t change the fact that you’re doing better than the other day.”

“Hmmph.” I cross my arms, trying to glare up at him, but it turns into a grin pretty fast.

With another kiss, he says, “You’re going to need to be more vigilant now, Wren. I’m teaching you how to fight in case you ever find yourself caught off guard. But the key here is to not let that happen.”

I nod. “Should I start carrying a weapon or something?”

He frowns. “Like what?”

“A knife?”

“God no. Absolutely not. You don’t know how to fight with one. And until you do, you’re more likely to end up with it stuck in your body than your opponent’s.”

Grimacing, I say, “Oh.”

“We’ll be here to watch your back, sweetheart. And when we’re not, we have friends who will help look out for you.”

My stomach sinks. “You’re talking about tomorrow.”

He nods. “You can still come with us if you’ve changed your mind.”

I shake my head.

Tomorrow—Friday—the guys are leaving town for a job. They haven’t told me where exactly they’re going, just that it’s still within the States. When they told me I could come, all I could think of was how close Tyler got to me and Oliver when we were in the hunter’s stand. It still sends a shiver through me even now.

“We’d keep you safe,” Rhett says. “You wouldn’t come with us for the kill—you’d stay at the cabin we’ll be spending a couple nights at. No one would even know where you are.”

Staying silent, I run my hands over his chest. There’s something comforting about him hovering over me like this. It’s a similar feeling to being close to the guys in general. They brought a sense of safety into my life that I haven’t had in a long time.

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