Unwilling to Back Down (Survival of the Fittest Book 2)

by Shawn Keys

  Soo-Yun nodded. “Good words. I want to believe you.” She shrugged, her grin mocking herself rather than him. “Problem is? I was wrong the last two times. So, seems like my opinion isn’t all that good.” She quirked an eyebrow at him. “You didn’t ask about the one person who didn’t betray me on the inside.”

  Kyle might have been curious, but he had let it slide. It hadn’t seemed all that important. He realized his mistake. This was all about proving to her that he would stand behind her. How better than by emulating the only one who had taken a proverbial punch to the chin for her. “Who was she?”

  Like so much else in Soo-Yun, there was a blend of two conflicting emotions painted on her face: a mix of something between anger and affection. “Celia, cell block C.”

  “Cell mate?”

  “Not right away.” She chose her word carefully. “I never flaunted who I was. Nothing embarrassing about it, I guess. But I didn’t want to be ‘useful’ to others. Celia found out. She came and had a heart-to-heart with me one night. She didn’t try to threaten me or anything. Walked me over and introduced me to Chelsea.” Soo-Yun chuckled. “Can’t believe I still remember that girl’s name. Maybe because she was the first inmate I helped. Had an infected cut right down the inside of her thigh. Wasn’t too far gone, but she would have been as good as dead inside of a week. The guards weren’t listening, not even when she said it started to smell. They just told her to shower a little more often and joked that all women smelled between their legs.” She related the crude joke as a way to drive home how miserable the guards had been. “Damned private jails they’re running these days. We weren’t nothing but cattle to them.”

  “You helped her?”

  Soo-Yun flushed. “Not right away. I wasn’t the same woman after I got arrested. I felt scared. Alone. The people closest to me had betrayed me. I was hurting, and maybe rightfully so. Celia knew it. She could see I wanted to help, but I was too gun-shy to take a risk like that.”

  Kyle could understand that as well. “So?”

  “So…” She flushed deeper. “… she made me.”

  “What?”

  Soo-Yun rolled her eyes. “It was my own stupid idea. It was fricking prison, alright? Celia was the boss in that block. It was stupid for me to say no in the first place. She could have had me shivved or something. But she didn’t. She kept trying to convince me like she was some sort of hospital administrator pushing me to do my normal job. I got so angry, with her lording it over me. I was full of myself. I didn’t think of myself as a real criminal. I’d bucked the system and gotten screwed by my friends. But here Celia was, acting like she had the moral high-ground.” Soo-Yun sighed. “Maybe she did. Anyway, I got so mad, I finally yelled at her. Said something like ‘prove to me that you’re the queen hot shit around here and make me do it’. Didn’t expect that she would. She was frustrated too. We wrestled around a little. Then… well, things got intense in a whole different way. She pinned me down, and I didn’t say no. After that…” She sighed. “I was hers.”

  “Hers?”

  She nodded. “At first, I acted all sulky. Celia gloated about it but threatened to do it again if I gave her too much lip.” Soo-Yun ducked her head, embarrassed. “Guess I did it a couple of times just because I knew what she’d do when I complained.” She nibbled her lip. “Sort of got a taste for her being rough with me. Felt good to let another take control. She was so confident about knowing what I could do and what I could handle. I was the only one she’d let close enough to touch her skin-to-skin, examinations or otherwise. When I got really scared that the guards were going to discover what was happening, she got me over those fears. She saw the light in my eyes whenever I helped anyone. I got that rush. Celia knew what I needed. I couldn’t get over myself, so she did it for me.” She shrugged. “I was hers. After that, I did what she wanted.”

  Kyle didn’t know quite what to think. “That’s…” Which was as far as his brain got.

  Soo-Yun growled at him. “… exactly what I needed. I did want to. She knew it. She took responsibility for what had to happen. And when they found out, she tried to take the rap for the whole thing. Stood by me, even when it cost her a few more years of her life.” Soo-Yun shivered, looking guilty at what she had cost the other woman. “She reminded me of what I was supposed to be. I didn’t let her go down alone. I think that was the only time I really pissed her off.”

  A rush of thought stormed into Kyle’s brain. “Actually, I think I kind of understand. Honestly, I really think I do!” His mind went to Megan, and more importantly, Laura. He pictured how the red head seemed more settled and focused when Megan was keeping her on task. He would even call her more confident. It was so strange, how submission to their former teacher in the bedroom liberated the core power in Laura for the rest of the time. “So what? Am I going to have to enlist Celia’s help?”

  “You could.” Soo-Yun snorted softly. “Though she’s still behind bars. You’re right. I don’t know you one bit. Doesn’t change the fact that I got a taste for being the follower.” She shrugged, then smiled. “Came to peace with that a long time ago.”

  Kyle opened his mouth to say something, but realized he didn’t know how to voice his thoughts.

  Soo-Yun beat him to it, “I told you, Celia was the boss of that block. I was only there for two weeks, and I spent most of that time lost in a cloud feeling sorry for myself, but I still saw what she was willing to do. She looked after her girls. She risked taking beatings from the guards. I’d heard she took solitary for one of the others before I arrived. She was willing to go all the fricking way for those she cared about.” Soo-Yun glared up at him. “I pushed her into claiming me, but a part of me knew I could trust her not to fold when things got hard. I knew she had clout, and she meant what she said.”

  Kyle wasn’t sure where this was going. “Where does that leave us?”

  Soo-Yun unleashed a fierce grin. “With you proving to me you got what it takes to claim me, too.”

  Kyle gawked. “Wh… what?”

  Somewhere, like from out of his pocket, he swore he heard something else… someone else… echo the same thing at the same time. “Wh… what?”

  Soo-Yun reached up and grabbed hold of the bottom of her strappy blouse. With one smooth pull, the athletic woman pulled the shirt free and tossed it off to one side. Underneath, she had on a black sports-bra that matched. It was hugging her petite breasts in close. She pulled a black scrunchy from her pocket, and with one smooth motion she gathered her flowing green hair and pulled it back into a loop behind her head, keeping it most off her shoulders. In bra, shorts and sneakers, she pointed at the door. “You heard me. You want me as part of your big ideas? Here’s the deal. If I walk out that door before dawn, I’m saying you aren’t committed enough to do what it takes.”

  Kyle actually laughed. “That’s crazy!”

  Soo-Yun cricked her neck one way, then the other. “Call me crazy? You said I could name my terms. Trial by combat might be a little old school, but I least I’ll know you have a little alpha inside you that might not crawl under a rock to die if things get intense. You aren’t just taking me along. You’re taking responsibility for me! If you even think about stopping before this is totally finished, you’re going to remember that you pulled me out of this useful, totally important life. Which makes you responsible for ensuring I’m being put to good use.” Her own choice of words made her smile. “Maybe in more ways than one.”

  Coughing at that, Kyle rushed to say, “I… look, I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Soo-Yun chuckled. “Then don’t. That’ll tell me something else, too, won’t it? If the only way you can win is to lose control, or if you fly off in a temper if you lose… well, that’s part of the deal, isn’t it? Being strong isn’t the only way to be worthy.”

  Kyle tongued the inside of his cheek, thinking as fast as he could. “Till dawn?”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “Long time to hold a person down.”
>
  “Other ways to hold a girl in one spot.” Her eyes flickered to the skipping ropes.

  This time, Kyle’s mind froze in spot for a whole different reason as an image came to mind.

  Soo-Yun shrugged. “Or not. Your choice. There’s more than one way to make me too weak to move, you know.” She cocked her head to one side. “Well? Going to just stand there and gape like a fish? Just going to let me walk out that door?”

  This is crazy, Kyle thought. But I want to. Damn, do I want to. I mean… look at her! But this is crazy… crazy… crazy! Does she seriously want me to –

  Right then, Soo-Yun was done giving him time. She strode for the door with purpose, aiming to brush past Kyle, who was standing in her way by her own design. She had placed herself purposefully before making her challenge. They were in her workout area. He was in the middle of the wrestling mat, while she had started from right in front of the burpee sign and was even now starting to walk right by him.

  She has to be testing me. That’s it. Right? She breezed by him without stopping. Unless she really means it. I mean, if you trust a person, you trust what they say without having to ask it over and over. Maybe that’s the test! Why am I trying so hard to tell myself what she does or doesn’t want? She told me, flat out, and how am I being righteous by insisting I know better? Because she has to want it my way?

  By then, she was halfway to the door.

  And when it gets right down to it, Kyle realized, I want this, too.

  Before he really knew what he was doing, his palm was closing over her upper arm, halting her mid-stride.

  Rather than get lurched to a full stop, Soo-Yun reversed her stride and turned into the grab. Her opposite hand clasped onto his, trapping it against her arm. Her grabbed arm rose up and rotated under his, forcing Kyle’s into a rotation at the shoulder, trying to lock him into an arm-bar.

  It was a skilled move. It momentarily surprised him. His delay was nearly long enough for her to immobilize him. Only his well-trained instincts kept him out of the lock. He surrendered control of his wrist instead of fighting it. He kept turning, letting his forearm get pulled into the small of his back, rendering it into a floppy connection without any leverage or pain. The end result was that they were right-side-to-right-side, facing opposite directions with their hands interwoven. He grabbed hold of her other arm, twisted his hips, and used the momentum to toss her back toward the burpee sign. He took the extra care to aim at the mat, ensuring she didn’t smash into the hardwood.

  Soo-Yun took the fall well, breaking her fall with a loud swat of her free arm. She rolled over her shoulder and came up into a crouch. One of her eyebrows quirked up. “Well, didn’t really expect that.”

  That gave Kyle a little pause. Did she fully expect to win? If she didn’t think I had a chance, then she wasn’t opening the door. Not really. “Only getting warmed up, Soo-Yun. You wanted to know how much I need you to be part of this. I don’t want to end up dying because there wasn’t anyone around to stop the bleeding. Not to mention the others! I swore I’d protect them, and you’re a part of that. If you’re going to make this a competition, then you gotta know I play to win. And this game? This game… I’m good at. You sure you want to keep playing? Because you’re going to end up pinned.”

  Soo-Yun smirked at him, challenging. “Talk’s cheap.”

  Kyle took that as a sort of terms of agreement. He smirked right back at her. With one brisk motion, he pulled his t-shirt up and over his head, not letting her out of his sight. He pulled his pistol from his jeans, wrapped it up in the shirt, then tossed it just off the mat.

  Seeing why he had stopped, Soo-Yun waited. Discarding the gun was a good thing, keeping this from getting unexpectedly deadly. Once he was finished, she didn’t waste any time. And this time, she didn’t walk. She darted to one side. Even as she made an honest effort to slip by him, Kyle noticed that she didn’t veer off the mat. The loft was huge. She could go wide and force Kyle to play a narrow defense. It would limit his option once they got onto the hardwood, so long as he was committed to not hurting her.

  He realized, She’s playing the game. She was going to make him work for it, but she’s also not trying to make it impossible. That understanding let him relax a little. It’s a game. And if wants to play, then let’s play. She wants to know if I have any grit? Well, she’s going to out the hard way I’m not afraid to claim what I want. Megan taught me too well, for that.

  He cut her off, dipping down and slapping a hand against her shin. He swept upward, catching enough of a hold to trip her.

  Rather than get all awkward, Soo-Yun dove forward, rolling forward over her shoulder and trying to keep her momentum going toward the door. It was a fluid move, and Kyle was impressed she could execute it so well.

  But he was already crouched to spring. Launching himself after her, he grabbed onto her leg again as she uncoiled from her roll. This time, it was not a glancing grasp. His large hands wrapped around her ankle and heaved her back toward him. More importantly, he was dragged up toward her a little in return.

  She kicked at him, trying to dislodge him. Apparently, she was willing to believe he could take a hit or two. She didn’t hold back as she slammed her heel down at him. He deflected her first attempt, then grabbed hold on the second. Locking her ankles together, he swept inward, trying to further brace her legs together at the knees.

  Crying out with the effort, Soo-Yun turned onto her back, sucking her legs up against her chest. Her clever twist and change of position got her enough leverage to push Kyle up and away. Wanting to end up between her and the door, Kyle let himself get thrown but aimed his momentum up and over her head. She got rid of him, but he landed still blocking her exit.

  He swirled up to his feet, arms out in a ready stance. “Not going to be as easy as that!” This time, he didn’t wait. If he kept letting her try and run past him, eventually they would be dueling right by the door. He rushed in while she was still springing to her feet. Planting his shoulder into her torso, he swept her right off her feet and dropped her right back to the ground again.

  Once again, she surprised him. His head was up near hers and under her arm, but she swung her closer leg up and curled it under his chin! He hadn’t seen that sort of flexibility, especially not when combined with serious strength. Her upswing motion got her incredible leg around him. She curled her back, ready to unleash some potential energy. Riding that urge, her leg peeled him away from her side and barrel-rolled him across the mat until she straddled him over his back.

  She tried to leap up and off him, but Kyle was done being shy. He latched onto her thighs, stopping her from getting any separation from him. Generating a spin in the ‘v’ between her legs, he was suddenly looking up at her. He grinned. He wasn’t as flexible as her, but she’s not the only one who can use legs to their advantage!

  Still holding her legs, he jutted his left knee up and jostled her in the middle of her back. It wasn’t a true strike, not even meant to knock the breath out of her. It was meant to make her react instinctively, and it worked. Her back arched, trying to gain separation from his legs so he couldn’t pummel her again.

  As she rolled her hips to pop higher up his chest and did her best to worm free of his grasp on her legs, Kyle also won the space he needed. His legs curled in and slipped deftly under her armpits, hooking into place. Using the significant power resident in well-toned legs, he grasped hold of her upper body and tugged her down toward the ground, straightening himself out. One someone else, he might fear he would hurt them. But he was using her well-demonstrated flexibility against her. With her legs still positioned as if straddling his chest, he had no fear that he could bring her back down against his abdominals and pin her shoulders under his knees like she was forming a bridge position.

  She spit like an enraged feline, trying to twist and bend to get loose. “Going to hold me like this for ten hours?”

  Kyle grunted as she nearly managed to get one of her legs unfolded from its spot a
long his side. Damn, is she ever bendy! She’s also got a point. I’m confident I can hold her until she gets tired this first time around. She’s burning more energy trying to escape than I am holding her. But after an hour? Two? If I lose focus at the wrong second, she could be out of his hold before he knew what was happening.

  He remembered her sexually charged challenge, not sure if she was just trying to make him blush or… well, if she really meant it. Her story about Celia had been clear enough. Maybe she had given herself up with a lot less conflict, but it was clear she had given herself to the bossy prison woman both body and soul. Her sexy body wriggled against him, supercharging his need. He was sure she would be able to feel his shaft hardening against her back.

  Deciding to push things to the edge and test her reactions, Kyle slid his arms inward. His hands had been controlling her thighs, but he used his forearms now to trap them in against his sides. That left both his hands free. It was a weaker sort of control, but he didn’t need to do it for long. His fingers slipped in along the hem of her jeans and started prying at the button just below her navel.

  For a split second, when she felt his touch, Soo-Yun went completely still. Then, she bucked sideways with twice the effort, erratic and half-crazy, evading his questing fingers. Echoing his earlier words, she blurted out, “Not going to be as easy as that!”

  Easy? Kyle wondered. Nothing was easy about this at all! He answered back with a worked-up laugh, focusing against her random, jerking movement. He got the button, and the zipper slid down more from her own gyrations than because of anything he did.

  Now the fun part. And the most difficult. Abs, don’t fail me now!

  Positioned as she was, there was no way he could get her shorts down. There wasn’t anything sharp within reach, and he wouldn’t have risked cutting them off while she was thrashing about. That was part of the ‘not hurting her’ side of the challenge.

  Instead, he hooked his thumbs into the crook of her knees between calf and thighs, then shoved upward and folded Soo-Yun in half. The motion took away some of his leverage, risking freeing her legs. But even as he bent her legs up toward her own face, he also pressed down. His legs still had her shoulders, and now he was lightly crushing her legs down against her breasts.