“You sure you want to do this?” I stepped back in a defensive position, both of us starting to circle and gauge each other. He remembered how I fought, but I had no memory of his moves. “Your ego is already pretty fragile. Hate to make you cry in the corner for your mommy.”
He snorted. “I haven’t cried for my mommy since I was eight when she walked out on my father and me and became the prime minister’s whore.”
Leon’s young wife had died only a few years into their marriage, and all I knew was he took a loververysoon after. That woman was Lukas’s mom? Shock stilled me with his blunt and honest revelation, my guard going down for a second.
Luk pounced on the opportunity, his fist jabbing for my stomach. Curving, I barely got out of the way, his knuckles clipping my hipbone as I twisted. Flinching from the hit, I instantly threw up my defenses, chastising myself for a stupid rookie mistake. My mind and body seemed to be groggy and slow still.
As we rounded each other, I couldn’t help but ask, “That true?”
His lips pinched in a bitter smile; his silence made me believe it was.
“And you’re here?” I didn’t know if I was really asking a question. “On the side that wants to take Prime Minister Leon down?”
“Even more so.” He swiped out for me. I dodged it, but barely. Frustration creased my forehead. I fought in Halálház when I was sleep-deprived, starved, beaten, and tortured, and still moved faster than I was this morning. My comrades at HDF used to tease I was like a ghost. I moved so fast they could barely see me.
This morning I resembled a sloth. The sensation of heaviness I felt yesterday, of being sucked of energy, still hung over me.
“The first thing I did when my dad died was join Povstat.” He sidestepped my attack. “When we do take them down, I want to look in Sonya’s eyes, for her to know her son was part of the group who ended them.”
He lunged for me; this time, I could tell talking time was over.
Ducking, my leg swung out, kicking at his knee as I socked him in the kidney. His large body stumbled back, but he quickly leaped for me, and I tripped him. As he fell over me, I grasped his arms. Using the momentum, I flipped him over on his back with a loud thud, his breath catching. Scrambling, it only took him a moment to leap up. He crouched low and barreled into me, his arm looping around my waist, slamming my spine onto the mat. Straddling me, he pinned my arms to the mat. The guy was fit and six inches taller than me, but I had fought against a legend and killed three in the Games. How had he taken me down so easily?
Luk grinned smugly at me, but out of the corner of my eye I saw another figure strolling into the room, a beefcake of a man who stripped off his T-shirt. He made his way over to some bars to do pull-ups on the far wall.
Luk’s attention went to him, breaking off of me. It was all I needed.
Sliding one arm up and over to the other side of my head, the move twisted his body off center. Ramming up my legs, I used every drop of caffeine pumping in my veins and swung my hips over. Luk flipped like a pancake, a huff coughing from his lungs as I leaped on top of him. I sunk my elbow into his neck, his Adam’s apple bobbing underneath the sharp bone digging into his throat.
“How’s that ego now?” My lips puckered with self-satisfaction.
Grabbing my hips, he tossed me over as if I weighed nothing, my ass hitting with a smack, making him howl with laughter.
“About as bruised as your tailbone.”
“Asshole.”
He let out another chuckle, groaning as he got up, rubbing at his side where I hit him. “Damn, you’ve got a mean punch.”
“I wasn’t raised to play with dolls.” I smirked.
He reached down for me, pulling me up to my feet.
“Good way to get the blood moving in the morning,” he replied, rolling his shoulders and stepping back. It was so subtle I almost missed it, but I saw his gaze dart to the guy working out, then back down. Looking over my shoulder at the ripped man, I realized it was Tracker, the one who led the group to retrieve me. The one I kicked in the face.
My attention returned to Luk, and I was expecting to see male testosterone. Maybe a hint of jealousy or rivalry between them. But the way Luk shot quick glances didn’t feel like hatred.
I stared at Luk for a while, my arms folding.
“Why do I feel no pair of tits in the world would trip you up?” I looked at Tracker doing pull-ups, his back muscles flexing under his bronze skin. He was young, hot, and had a body most would want to worship. “He’s really hot.”
Luk snorted. “Surprised?”
“A little,” I replied honestly. It was not just because of how I grew up. We knew there were gay people in Leopold. I had caught a few in compromising positions over time in HDF, soldiers and nobles, but we never talked about it there. Never bought into the gossip papers. It didn’t exist. The skeletons stayed in the closet.
It was also because Lukas didn’t fit the “norm” of what you thought. He was the sexy, manly superhero. Every girl’s fantasy.
“Well, let’s say I’m the worst of the worst. Not only am I gay, butI’m also a half-breed.” Luk swiped two towels off the shelf, tossing me one as he rubbed the cloth over his neck and face. “I’m what thepure human nationalistscall the trifecta of depravity. Gay, half-breed, and a progressive radical.” He held out his arms, defensiveness in his stance.
