“Yes, you did. I’ve been running around trying to find this room. Do you think it’s funny to trick me?”
“No one is tricking you,” North told her. “We gave you good directions. You just got lost.”
Jared shook his head. “Has your sense of direction gotten worse?”
“It has not! You guys are just teasing me.”
“We’re not,” Jared told her, reciting the instructions they’d given her.
She seemed to think about that for a moment, then her shoulders dropped. “Oh monkey-farts.”
North shook his head. What was she even saying? “It’s all right if you’re having second thoughts. I won’t think less of you. Much, anyway.”
“No, I’m not chickening out,” she said. “Let’s do this.”
She went into a half crouch, moving her weight back and forth from foot to foot.
“What are you doing?” North asked, eyeing her skeptically.
Jared bitthe inside of his lip to stop himself from laughing. He didn’t want her to think that he was laughing at her.
Even though inwardly he was.
“This is my fighting stance,” she explained.
“How many fights have you been in?” North asked.
“A few.”
All right, all of his interest in laughing was gone. A few?
“Who?” Jared barked out.
She startled and straightened, staring at him. “What?”
“Who did you get into a fight with? Who hurt you?” Jared demanded.
“Um, why do you want to know?”
She had to be kidding him, right?
“So that I can make them pay, of course.”
She waved her hand in the air. “It was years ago when I was a kid. If those people are still alive it would be a miracle. Let’s do this.” She stretched out her arms and tilted her head from side to side. “I’m warmed up.” She crooked her fingers at North. “Come on. Come at me.”
North shook his head. “We’re going to have to work on some things. If I came at you right now, you’d be dead.”
Angie made a scoffing noise but Jared nodded. “North is right, you’re leaving yourself open to attack.”
“Ahh, yeah, Ammo was always talking about that. He also said that I needed to listen more and talk less.”
“Smart man,” North said drolly.
She shot him a look that would have felled a lesser man. But North was immune to such things.
Jared watched as North took her through the knives he’d laid out and how to hold them properly. Then he moved on to stabbing techniques, critiquing Angie as she tried to mimic his movements.
Jared could feel himself growing increasingly more tense as time went on.
