He wanted to spar with me?Now? When he’d alreadytold me he’d only managed five hours of sleep in seventy-two hours?
“Now?”
“Yeah, now. C’mon. The gym’s free.”
I glanced back at Liana, who had stopped just ahead of me and was waiting against the wall. “Um, okay. Lia, I’ll see you later?”
She flashed me a brief smile. “Go have some sibling bonding time. I’ll arrange everything with Vesper and let you know the plan.”
I hugged her quickly and then left with my brother. I tried not to think about the fact that Daniel and Jay were on his heels.
After a quick stop to change into my gym clothes, I met Ryker in the gym. He was pacing up and down by the punching bags, sipping from a can of energy drink.
I came to a stop in front of him. “Is this really a good time? You need to rest.”
“I’m fine.” Placing the can on the floor next to the wall, he grabbed a boxing pad from the rack of equipment next to the bags. “We haven’t done this for a while, and I want to make sure you’re prepared.”
Unease twisted my stomach as I pulled on the gloves he handed to me. “Prepared for what?”
“Don’t look so worried. I just want you to be prepared for anything. You know our family has enemies, and I can’t be there all the time.” His expression gave nothing away as he held up the pad. “Let’s go.”
Huffing out a frustrated breath, I began to circle him. “I don’t need you to protect me all the time. I don’t want you to have any extra burdens. You’ve taught me well, and I can handle myself.”
“You’re not a burden,” he said. When I jabbed the pad,he mustered up a grin. “I know you can handle yourself. Hit me harder. Let’s try the jab-cross-uppercut combo we were working on before.”
I fell into a rhythm, starting off with punches and moving on to kicks. When we stopped for a breather, my twin looking more exhausted than usual, I heard slow clapping from behind me.
Great. We had an audience, and one of them was the boy I couldn’t get out of my mind.
“Nice moves,” Daniel said when I spun around. “Banks thought so too, didn’t you?” He elbowed Jay, who shot him a warning look, nodding towards Ryker. Luckily for us, my twin was sprawled out on the floor with his back to us, downing the remainder of his energy drink.
“What are you doing here?” I was addressing Daniel, but I could feel Jay’s eyes on mine, dark and intense.
“Watching a hot woman fighting gets me hard.” He wiggled his brows, and I rolled my eyes. Dropping the teasing look, he stepped closer, lowering his voice. “Okay. We’re here to keep an eye on your brother. He’s not himself.”
“Do you think he’s in trouble?” I murmured.
“Nah, he’s alright. He just takes on too much, doesn’t he? He needs us to rein him in a bit. I mean, he’s studying for his degree, he’s the hockey captain, and your dad’s got him running all over the fucking Cotswolds dealing with syndicate shit. It’s…a lot, and you know what he’s like.”
Unfortunately, I did. “He feels responsible for too much.”
“Yep.” Daniel nodded. “So here’s my plan. I’ll take him back to his room and force him to rest, and you can carry on sparring with Jay.”
“That’s not a good idea,” Jay said immediately, and Inodded in agreement. It was far too public here in the uni gym. “I’ll take King back to his room.”
Daniel gave me a bright smile. “Then I guess it’s you and me, ice prin—uh, Supernova. Starry sky. Ready to learn moves you didn’t even think were possible?”
I sighed. “If I must.”
“You must. I’ll go and tell King and give you two a minute.” With a completely unsubtle wink, he bounded away towards my brother, leaving Jay and me alone.
Jay opened his mouth to speak but then stopped, taking a purposeful step back away from me.
I followed his gaze. Ryker was watching us with his brows pulled together.
26
NOVA
