Total pages in book: 156
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
“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 bit the 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.
“I don’t know if this is a good idea,” Jared said as North corrected her stance, talking to her about the best places to stab a person if you wanted to kill them versus just injure them.
“Why? Do you think I’ll use my new skills on you?” she said with a grin.
He scoffed. “No. But I don’t want you getting hurt. If you pull a knife on someone, then you need to be prepared to use it.”
“I know that,” she said.
“Do you?” North asked. “Could you actually stab someone?”
Something came over her. A hard look filled her face. “If they threatened someone I cared about, yes.”
Jared moved closer. He didn’t care that she was still holding a knife. He was certain she wouldn’t use that knife on him.
In fact, he had his doubts that she actually could use it on anyone.
North moved in to crowd her from behind and he could see her swallow.
Was she nervous?
Scared?
Or turned on?
“Could you really stab it through skin?” Jared asked her, taking hold of the knife and pressing it against his stomach. “Could you jab it into me?”
“Stop that! I don’t want to hurt you!”
He raised his eyebrows.
“Unless you hurt me. Then I’d do it.”
Jared studied her for a long time. “All right. But you have to be careful. If you pull a knife, you must be able to hold onto it. Otherwise it could be used on you.”
“I know.”
“Good girl. I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”
He could see that she had questions she wanted to ask, but his phone started buzzing. Fucking hell.
It never ended.
“I have to take this. North, show Angie how to get back to her room.”
Angie watched as Jared left the room.
Her mind was still spinning from having him so close. He’d been staring down at her like he wanted to . . . like he wanted to eat her alive.
And she would have given him anything he wanted. And then she would have turned around and kissed North.
Holy heck.
What was she thinking?
This was crazy.
She forced herself to focus as she watched North pack up his knives. “Can I have one?”
“No,” he said.
No?
“I mean, not one of yours,” she said, feeling embarrassed. Like he was going to just give you a knife.
“I’ll buy my own.”
North shot her a look. “You will not. Come, follow me.”
“What do you mean I will not? If I want to buy a knife, I can. I have money.”
Well, she had Zander’s credit card. She'd normally feel bad about using his money, but it might be quite amusing to see his reaction to her using it to buy a knife.