by Casey Hagen
“Well, I—I thought it would be best for the baby. They had the results of my screening, and they know the sex.” With shaking hands, she pulled the envelope out of her purse.
“Read it,” his menacing voice made her shiver.
Tears welled in her eyes and ran down her face. The sharp edge of the envelope bit into her skin, leaving behind a sting. She opened the paper and for some reason, some instinct told her she didn’t want to read the words aloud.
“Read it!” he bellowed.
“It’s a girl.”
“You useless bitch!” He hit her with a closed fist, knocking her to the floor.
His first kick landed square into her slightly rounded abdomen. She knew, deep down she knew, just that blow alone had accomplished his goal. Putrid vomit bubbled up and out.
He kicked her again. She choked and sputtered.
Then she felt it.
She punched the bag. The shock of the force vibrated though to her elbow.
She hit it again.
Thwack!
Thwack!
Thwack!
Hot, thick blood pooled up between her legs.
It was the first time since he’d trained her to be a mute victim that she had dared react to his anger, to the pain he doled out. The screams weren’t for her. She was the voice for her unborn child.
She punched the bag again, imagining it was him.
He’d kicked her until her once slightly rounded belly lay almost flat, sharp pain slicing through her as blood trailed down her legs.
Thwack!
Thwack!
Thwack!
“Let’s try to get it right next time. Okay?” he said as his lungs heaved from beating her. He said the words as if he were talking to a waiter who’d brought him the wrong meal. As if it were perfectly acceptable to murder your own child, inside her mother, and then talk of the next time.
There would be no next time.
Thwack!
Thwack!
She felt the tears well up. She welcomed them. She imagined her child somewhere watching over her. Wanting justice.
Needing justice.
No next time. No next time. No next time.
Thwack!
Thwack!
Thwack!
“No next time!” She launched her body with the third hit, knocking Jake off-balance. Destiny’s sweat-slickened skin crashed into the bag and slipped right past it.
In a tangle of arms and legs, they both went down. Jake’s back landed flat on the wood floor, but he managed to curl his head forward in order to keep it from smacking into the ground.
Her lungs heaved as she tried to push herself off him, but her dead arms defied her need to break the contact.
“Shit, are you okay?” Josie asked, taking Destiny’s elbow and helping her up.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be okay again,” Destiny said as she crumpled to an exhausted heap on the floor.
“You will. Whatever it was you just tapped into, you made it work for you,” Josie said.
“What do you mean?” Destiny asked, resting her arms on her bent knees, trying desperately to get more air. There just wasn’t enough air to fill her burning lungs.
Jake dropped down next to her, his worried gaze flicking from Josie to Destiny. He started to raise his arm, stopped, then seemed to reconsider before wrapping it around her shoulders and tucking her under his arm. “You went for eighteen minutes.”
“Wait—what?” Destiny said, turning to him.
Red blotches stained his cheeks just like she knew they did hers. Sweat rained along his temple, dripped down his nose, and soaked his eyebrows so they lay in spikey clumps.
His green eyes glowed with pride, and his lips curled into a smile so big his eyes crinkled. “Eighteen minutes of constant hits. You didn’t stop. Not once. You didn’t hear a word we said, you just kept attacking.”
Heaviness set into her limbs, making it nearly impossible to clutch the towel Josie handed her.
Jake took his, scrubbed his face, and then draped it around his neck. “Here, let me help.” He took her towel and blotted it against her forehead, cheeks, and the underside of her jaw.
Destiny closed her eyes, so exhausted that she couldn’t muster a stitch of fear and instead just focused on the comfort of being cared for.
When he stopped, she opened her eyes to find his gaze on her chest.
“I’ll just let you get that part,” Jake said, handing her the towel. He hopped up and crossed to the water cooler, leaving her charmed by his manners and embarrassment.
Something unlocked inside her. A healthy curiosity. Something she’d doubted she would ever feel again, let alone so soon. What would it be like to feel a man like Jake kiss her?
Would he be passionate and lose himself to the point of a bruising kiss?
Maybe he would tease and tantalize with flirty caresses of his lips?
“I know that look,” Josie said, taking a seat next to her.
“I’m just curious,” Destiny said, taking the cup of water Josie brought over for her when Jake’s cell rang, keeping him from joining them.
“I’d say he’s curious too. You’ve made quite the impression on him,” Josie said.
“He told you that?”
“He didn’t have to. He laid it all on the line with the company in order to help you,” Josie said.
“I don’t understand.”
“Yesterday, that man over there dropped a business proposal on the founding members of his company. A state of the art facility with trainers, doctors, therapists, and investigators all dedicated to rehabilitating abuse victims. That night, he agreed to help you, putting that whole plan at risk. Putting his job with Fierce at risk,” Josie said.
Destiny’s jaw had dropped, and she snapped it shut. “I don’t want to cost him his job. He shouldn’t have said anything.”
“That’s not the way he works. I suspect everything that man is means nothing if he doesn’t have his honor. He laid it all on the line for our team today. Before he even met with us, he tried to quit, so helping you didn’t have repercussions for the company.”
“But—”
“Shhh. He’s coming back. I didn’t tell you that.”
“What are you two getting all chummy about?”
“Just girl talk,” Josie said, smiling sweetly.
“Sure it is,” Jake said with a grunt. “Are you okay to keep going? No more hitting, but dodging swings.”
Destiny scrambled to her feet, knowing that there was no way she was going to say no. After knowing what he’d done for her, she’d work until he declared it time to stop. She’d give everything she had. “I’m ready.”
“Mmmm, hmmm,” he hummed. “But first,” he took her hand in his and peeled back the Velcro. With a series of gentle tugs, he worked the glove off her hand and revealed her bloody, broken knuckles.
“I didn’t even feel it,” she said quietly, staring at her hand.
“That’s a good thing, and a bad one. Enduring pain will help you go on, but you need to listen to your body. You have to be aware of the toll each hit takes so you can change tactics when you’re becoming less effective.”
He slid off the other glove, the one on her left hand, and found the damage to be almost as severe as her right. “Let’s get these wrapped up before we go any further.”
“Okay,” Destiny said, no longer seeing the cuts, but instead noticing the way his huge hands cradled hers.
Choices.
It all came down to choices.
Power and strength graced his body from head to toe, but he chose to use his strength responsibly. It was almost as if he were hyperaware of what kind of damage he could do.
“If you guys don’t mind, while you’re doing that, I’m going to give Cole a quick call,” Josie said.
Destiny glanced up to Jake and smiled. “I’ll be okay. Go ahead.”
She followed him into his office and watched him toss her gloves in the trash along the way.
He held out a chair for her and grabbed a first aid kit off the top of his metal filing cabinet. “I buy them in bulk. I rather you have a fresh pair each time.”
She dropped into the chair. “I want you to take the money I offered. At the very least, it can go toward that kind of thing. It’s not your job to pay for me.”
He sat facing her and scooted in until his knees bumped hers. “I’m not taking your money.”
“Jake.”
“Destiny.”
“Then consider it a donation to the facility you’re building,” Destiny said.
His gaze snapped up to hers, and his mouth thinned. “Josie has a big mouth.” He soaked cotton balls in hydrogen peroxide and with gentle glides over and over, he worked the dried blood from her shallow cuts and from where it had dried in the cracks of her skin.
“Josie just wanted to reassure me that you’re one of the good guys,” Destiny assured him. He went over the area with witch hazel next, cooling her knuckles and soothing the ache.
“The woman who walked in here last night didn’t really believe in good guys,” he said without glancing up at her. He coated her knuckles with ointment and wrapped them with gauze before starting in on the other. Gentle and sure, he wound the cotton around her hand.
With the bite of his straight, white teeth, he tore off two pieces of tape and pressed them into place in the palm of her hand.
“No, but she might be coming around,” Destiny said, in no rush to take her hands back. His heat seeped into her bones, banishing the shadows with sweeping light.
His fingers flexed on her hands, and he glanced down. With a shake of his head and a sigh, he lifted her open palms and pressed a lingering, sweet kiss into the center of each.
“There are so many ways this is about the worst idea I’ve ever had,” he whispered over her sensitive skin.
His warm breath stroked over her skin, the act more intimate than if they had been standing before one another naked.
She pressed the crown of her head to his, their breath mingling between them. “I’ll be right there with you when you fall.”
Chapter 8
Jake and Destiny worked night after night with Josie there to keep things comfortable, although, after the first night with Josie, Destiny seemed to settle into working with him even if Josie wasn’t right in the room with them.
He focused on teaching her to dodge hits since she showed unparalleled skill at delivering powerful blows. To start, he stuck Josie in the ring with her, boxing gloves on both of their hands and boxing helmets secured.
The first night, out of a hundred attempts, Josie landed about forty.
Destiny dropped her gloved hands to her hips, her chin to her chest, and blew out a breath. “Are you disappointed?” she asked with a wince.
“Never,” he said, lifting her chin with his finger. “Care to guess what my percentages were when I first started?”
She bit her lip and remained silent, her luminescent blue eyes watching him.
“Seventy-four percent of the hits got through,” he said. “You’re doing great. Take ten, get a drink, and we’re going to do a few exercises to see if we can trim you down to thirty percent before the end of the night.”
She did everything he told her for the next three hours. By the time they walked out at almost one in the morning, she’d knocked her number down to twenty-six percent.
Four nights later, their last night in the gym before they moved to Diamond’s commercial space, she had it down to twelve percent.
Still too much. At least for his own comfort. Any trainer would have been celebrating the seemingly impossible success under ordinary circumstances.
But any hit landing anywhere on her body, had Jake’s gut in knots and the blood boiling under his skin.
All it took was one. One hard enough hit could take a person out permanently. Carter would know that. Leaving Jake with nothing other than the sick hope that Carter liked to play. Where was the fun in taking Destiny out in one shot when he could slowly break her down and torture her before dealing the final blow?
Every day, before he put in his hours at Lou’s, he poured over Carter Pierce’s record again and again. He studied the man’s pictures, including the ones from Facebook Tex had pulled for them.
The guy was big, but Jake was a whole lot bigger. Not that it mattered. Destiny wouldn’t let him step in for her.
Not that she could stop him. At least not physically.
But the idea of disappointing her or breaking her trust cut him to the core, and as much as it cost him to stand to the side while she faced her demons, he’d do it.
That acceptance took a toll on him in ways he never intended for her to know. He struggled for sleep. Nightmares plagued him every time he closed his eyes. The cries in his mind belonged to his mother, but it was Destiny that he saw, raw and bleeding.
He sure as hell had every intention of trying to get her to at least accept his team as witness to whatever might go down. If he could get her to agree and things went bad, they could take control before Carter had a chance to snuff out her life for good.
His heart ached. And it had nothing to do with the specifics of his history or hers, but everything to do with how every minute he’d spent with her, their broken pieces tangled together as they both tried to heal their tattered pasts.
He glanced down at Destiny and Carter’s wedding photo. She smiled up at him, her hair lighter than it was now and in big waves cascading down her bare back.
What kind of dumb son of a bitch did you have to be to fuck that up? The love, the adoration in her eyes, like she’d found her Prince Charming in the most epic of fairytales, and he’d twisted and scarred parts of her, and for what?
Did he figure if he mutilated her a piece at a time, no one would want her, and she would have no choice but to stay locked in the hell he made for her?
Was the goal to watch her spirit die bit by bit for his own amusement?
Well, fuck him and fuck that.
She’d figured out how to guard herself while seeking the help she needed. And in a short amount of time, she’d learned she could trust people again.
Now she just needed to learn to trust herself.
And they’d start tonight. He took the picture and slid it in the slot of his shredder, taking great pleasure in watching Carter’s face disappear only to be turned into compost.
He dialed Josie’s number and waited for her to pick up.
“Hey, we still on for tonight?” she asked.
“Yeah. About that though, can you do me a favor?” he said, biting his lip, wondering if he was making a colossal mistake.
“Sure.”
“Can you bring in the team?” he asked.
“If you want, but I’m not sure Destiny will appreciate it,” she pointed out.
He’d considered that. “She probably won’t. That’s why I’m hoping they can bring their wives, too.”
“Hmmm, nice touch. I’ll see what I can do. Is everything else in place and ready to go?”
“All the obstacles are set,” Jake said. He’d had a few of the guys from Lou’s help him set up. It wasn’t much. Barriers, foam risers, padded stands, and a few other pieces, all scattered about the warehouse space.
He’d gone dark and checked it himself. Each direction, his voice traveled in different ways indicating obstacles and how far away they stood.
He could teach her that. It wouldn’t be perfect, but he needed to know that she could minimize her chances of being hurt further if Carter caught her by surprise.
He needed to know that she could tune in to her other senses, giving her an edge.
“She’s not going to like going dark,” Josie said.
His foot bounced on the floor under his desk, trying to burn off the nerves that had him on edge. Before he had reassured himself this might not go down for a month, or at least a few weeks, but with the first week having already passed, he had to face the fact that every day brought them one day closer. Soon, he’d wake up and ask, ‘Is today the day?’
He sighed. “No, but then, who does? It’s necessary, and she’s ready.”
“Agreed. So we’ll see you at six?”
“We’ll be there,” he said and hung up. They’d get started earlier tonight since this kind of training took longer. Plus, he’d hoped that meeting the crew might change her mind about them being there.
He hated this all being out of his control. If he could get her to agree, she could draw Carter to her. She could control the time, the place, all of it, and she’d have the advantage of people watching, waiting to spring into action.
“What is this place?” Destiny asked, climbing out of her car.
“It started out as a textiles mill, but by summer it’s slated to be the hottest drag club in Long Beach,” Josie said with a laugh.
“You guys know some interesting people, I’ll give you that,” Destiny said. She nudged him with her elbow. “Hey, why so quiet?”
“We need to talk,” he said. Did he have to sound so damn ominous? Just his tone was making a bigger deal out of this than it had to be.
She slowed her pace and stopped. “What is it?”
He cupped his neck and rubbed in vain at the knot that had taken up residence there. “I had Josie ask our team to join us tonight.”
Her face went neutral. Unreadable. “Why?”
“To help, mainly. But I’d be lying if I didn’t want them to help me convince you to let them help,” Jake said.
“We talked about this,” Destiny started.
“And I want to discuss it again,” Jake said.
“This doesn’t affect you. It’s my situation. My decision,” Destiny said, the tone of her voice rising with her anger.
Josie shot her hands in the air between them, forming a T with her arms. “I’m going to give you guys a minute. But first, I suggest you have this discussion inside,” Josie said.
He held the door for Josie and Destiny and counted to five while Josie hightailed it to the other side of the room before he spoke, hoping he’d managed to dispel some of the anger that had bubbled up inside him.
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