Chapter 17 #2
But this time felt different. This time I felt tense.
I cleared my throat as she settled. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
“So, if you end up here, don’t struggle, that’ll only make their grip tighter, which isn’t what you want.” I placed my arm over her again, leaving just enough room for her to breathe. “What do you think you’re gonna do?”
She wriggled beneath me, weighing up her options, and then her elbow flew into my side as her legs pushed away from me.
A harsh groan slipped between my gritted teeth, but my arm stayed around her, stopping her from leaving.
“Congratulations.” I panted. “You’ve just pissed off your attacker and shown them that you have no idea how to get out of this.
” Her head fell back against my chest, hers rising and falling so fast it felt like a jackhammer against my arm.
“How aren’t you on the floor right now? That hurt me. ”
“I showed you before. Abs of steel.”
She pretended to gag, but all I did was hold her tighter.
“Think, Cora. How are you getting out of this?” I watched her eyes dart over every corner of the room, her mind wandering. “What part of you isn’t mine right now?”
She breathed against me for one count, two, before I felt her sneaker collide with my shin, jolting my arm away and letting her run, turning back to face me with a grin beaming with pride.
“Good.” I panted, wiping at my shin. “That was smart.”
“Thanks,” she chirped, her hands back on her hips. “Now what?”
I re-adjusted the pads on my hands, walking until I’m a few steps away from her. “Jabs.” I prepped my stance, readying myself. “Show me what you’ve got, Holland.”
Cora stretched her neck, shaking her hair from her face as she set up her feet, bouncing a little. All those nerves from before seeming to have vanished completely. She stole a breath before throwing her right fist into my left palm.
I hissed through my teeth, impressed by her strength. “Not bad.”
She jabbed my right pad, then the left again. “That’s what growing up in Camden will do to a girl.”
My feet dug into the floor. “So you’ve always known survival?”
She shrugged, readjusting her pads. “It was either survive or get stabbed. Simple choice, really.”
Her fists were flying at my hands, and only when she was panting did I step in.
“Breathe.” I nodded at her. “It’s not a race. You’ll just tire yourself out, and what use are you if you aren’t dangerous anymore?”
She scoffed between breaths. “I’m dangerous, okay?”
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” I re-prepped my feet. “Now, strike the centre of my palm. The more controlled it is, the more focused you are, the more you’ll hurt them.”
“Okay.” She took on the tips, jumping on the spot before hauling back her right fist, as though she were aiming an arrow, her eyes trained on the centre of my palm. And only that. The outside world was irrelevant to her.
Which was exactly how I needed it to be for me to do this.
Without leaving any time for her to throw her punch, I lunged forward, using the element of surprise to hold her against me again, a mirror of how I’d captured her before. This time her breaths were panicked, ragged, meaning I’d won.
I made the arm around her chest firm, holding her closer to me. I dipped my mouth to her ear again, as her head angled on my chest, her scared eyes sinking into mine. “You got in your head again. And now you’re stuck.”
Those eyes narrowed. “Because you told me to focus. I wasn’t prepared—”
“And you think they’ll let you be prepared?
” I shook my head. “Whoever wants you is counting on you not being prepared for what they have planned, Cora. So think.” My eyes didn’t stray from hers as my arm, ever so slightly, tightened, her pulse and mine practically dancing. “How are you surviving this?”
Before she could even think about attacking my shins again, I hooked my leg between hers, fully locking her against me. I saw that annoyance glitter through her eyes, to which I raised my brows, challenging her.
I watched the cogs turning behind her eyes then, thinking of every way she could save herself.
I had no idea if she’d figure it out. But I had faith.
If Cora was anything, she was smart. Sometimes very annoying and, honest to God, stubborn, but she was smart.
And that little trait was what had me certain that if she ever wound up in this situation, she’d walk away unharmed.
The seconds ebbed by and she was still locked against me. And if she needed all the time in the world to figure it out, then I'd give her that. The more time we spent on this now, the more prepared she'll be should this actually— “This is useless.”
My thoughts stopped to focus on her, how she let her head sink to my shoulder, heavy with defeat. "What is?" My voice was breathy, every bit confused.
Her round pupils flickered up to me, long lashes hitting her eyelids. “If I ever end up like this, I might as well just give in.”
My brows pulled together, head shaking. “No, no. You can do this. Just think.”
Her arms flailed as best as they could against the cage mine made around her.
“Let's be serious, if this were real I’d be dead by now. Do you really think this creep will give me five minutes to figure out how to escape?” She released a sigh as her eyes drifted forward.
“This was probably why he chose me to conquer. He saw how weak I was.”
My mouth moved before my mind could catch up. “Radcliffe was an asshole, Cora. And an asshole like him would have attempted what he did, whether it was you or another one of my clients he was assigned to.” Her eyes were back on me.
Neither of us had spoken about who it might be, but some part of me thought we didn't needed to. Of course Oscar and his team were chasing every lead, regardless of who it lead to, but something in my head was screaming at me to focus on Jamie.
It wasn't that it just made sense, it was the picture of him as he left my office, wearing a smile that felt like he knew that wasn't the last time we'd see each other.
And from the look in Cora's stare, the slight panic woven between the shades of brown, something told me she thought the same.
My mouth slipped open. “Just because he got through to you doesn’t mean you’re weak, it just means he knew what he was doing. He was a snake.”
She shook her head in a way that felt helpless, her eyes earning a glisten. “But I knew that. Towards the end I saw that side of him and what did I do?—”
“You did nothing wrong—”
“I let him creep in.” She shrugged. “I let him worm his way into my mind, and now he won’t leave. Because I was stupid.” Her arms flailed again. “I’m so stupid that I’m making you spend your morning training me because I’m defenceless without you.”
“You’re not defenceless.” I swallowed as her shiny eyes pierced mine. “You have every weapon in your arsenal. You just need to learn how to use them.”
Her head tilted, those foxy eyes glinting. “Do you mean that?”
I nodded. “Of course I do.”
Those brows pulled inwards, the way they did before she cried. But there was something different about it this time. It wasn’t sadness. Instead, it felt like… curiosity.
From this close I could perfectly trace the outline of her lips, and I’d never noticed, because I’d never looked before, but her cupid's bow was perfect.
Like whichever God was carving it spent an entire day making it seamless.
She had freckles on her cheeks, pale things, but they were there, sprinkled over the sheer rosiness that lived on them.
Her lashes were naturally long, getting longer the further outwards they went, and the same midnight shade as her hair.
I had no time to pull back before I realised our faces were the closest they’d ever been.
No time to stop that pull I swore I’d felt before.
But as that thought nearly materialised, pain bloomed in my rib cage, and my chest felt empty as she slipped from under my hold.
I hunched over and held my side, easing the pain that felt like a broken rib.
It all happened so quickly, I wasn’t sure if it was real or not. One second I was counting the freckles on her cheeks, the next I was holding in my groan, arched over and trying to stop the stars from sniping in my vision.
After a few seconds, I stretched up, my hands still gripped at my side, as I found Cora, wearing that shit-eating grin just as well as she wore that lilac set.
I shook my head at her. “What the fuck just happened?”
She shrugged, as casual as ever. “I just used a part of me that wasn’t yours,” she said, smirking like it was the most natural thing in the world.
I recalled the past thirty seconds, things getting clearer the longer I thought back to what she was saying.
Her mind.
I didn’t have her mind. She was using that against me.
Smart girl.
I shook my head. “Huh.” I stumbled towards her, the pain easing as I stood over her. “I take it back, you’re as dangerous as they come.”
I watched her spin around, slipping on the mitts once more, while I stood and watched, thinking back to how easily she’d slipped inside my mind.
And how easily I’d let her walk in.