EZRA
“You needto put more power behind your hook.” I stand behind her, putting my hands on her hips and moving them the way they need to. “Move like this when you punch. Put as much power behind it as you can, then get your hands back up in front of you.”
It’s not that Jade is a bad fighter, but when it comes to facing off against Noah, she’s going to have her ass handed to her. She’s dead the next time he gets to her alone, and I can’t allow that to happen.
“Drill sergeant,” she mutters under her breath, throwing a couple of hard hooks into the punching bag before getting her hands up in front of her.
We’ve been training for two days, but she’s only half-assing it.
I grab her by the back of the neck and shove her into the wall, my body pressing against the back of hers. “It’s not the time for fucking jokes, Jade. You have to be on guard, and you have to be worried about what he’s capable of.”
“Get your fucking hands off me.”
My fingers tighten on the sides of her neck. “Not until you stop treating this like a damn joke. Do you want to die?”
She’s silent for too long. So long that I don’t know what she’s going to say, but I doubt anything she does is going to make me feel better.
I let go of her neck and grab her shoulders, turning her around to face me.
“I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours right now.” I study her, taking in the dark circles and hollow cheeks.
“Didn’t think you’d want to know. This…” She gestures between the two of us. “Isn’t exactly built on anything that would lead me to think the two of us could talk to each other about the real shit.”
I strap on a pair of mitts, holding them up to her. “Throw punches. You’re going to fight, and we’re going to deal with whatever the hell is going on in your head right now.”
Jade throws one punch and then another, putting her weight behind both of them.
Her hands don’t get up fast enough, so I cuff her upside the head.
She scowls and throws a couple more punches.
“You’re a pain in my ass,” she snarls through clenched teeth. “You drive me up a fucking wall with your need to protect me while at the same time holding me fucking hostage. I don’t understand you at all. I thought I did, but then again, you’re not the person I thought you were, and what the hell am I supposed to do with that information?”
She throws a couple more punches, spinning and landing a hard kick to the side of my ribs. I stumble back a step, nodding.
For a moment, she stops and takes a sip of her water. When she straightens back up, there’s a fire back in her eyes. “And then there’s the other issue.”
“And what’s that?” I move the mitts quick, stretching high and low, getting her to hit me as hard as she can.
Each hit is getting weaker than the previous one, though. She’s losing steam and it shows.
“Being here with you has made me feel like I’m in the most control I’ve ever been. It doesn’t feel like someone else is controlling my life, even though I know you are.”
“Am I?” I dodge out of the way, making it more difficult, forcing her to follow me.
Jade gives me a flat look. “You forced me out of the school I was going to and into a new one. You’re forcing me to live with you. You have control over everything I do and the people I see. I had to talk to you about going to see my own family.”
I toss off the mitts, motioning her forward again when she starts to slow. “Well, I don’t know about that. You’re free to suck my cock whenever you like.”
Though I’m baiting her, she falls for it, surging after me.
“Suck yourself off.” She slams her fist into my gut, forcing some of the air from my lungs. She smirks and dances out of the way when I take a swipe at her. “What’s wrong? Not able to get me? Are you getting slow in your old age?”
I smirk and roll my eyes. “You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?”
She feints to the left before diving to the right, her arms wrapping around my torso and her shoulder slamming into the same spot her fist just did. She manages to knock out the rest of the air from my lungs.
I take a couple of steps back before wrapping my arms around her waist and lifting her off the ground.
