Chapter 33 Jade #2
Kratos cocks a brow at me in suspicion as I move into his space, but doesn’t push me away.
He probably assumes I’m going to try some dirty trick.
It wouldn’t be the first time, and while that works just fine with him, it wouldn’t with everyone.
Besides, this is another kind of dirty trick, just not the kind he’s used to.
Planting my hand on his shoulder, I push up so that I can swing my free leg up and around him. I get the pleasure of watching his eyes widen as what I’m planning registers in his mind, but now it’s too late.
I wrap my free leg around his shoulder. At this angle, his hold on my other leg is easy enough to pull free from.
I wind both of my legs tight around him as I perch my ass on his shoulders.
His balance is thrown off momentarily from my added weight and the way I just spun around him, and I use that to my advantage as I throw my body weight backward.
Taking us both down to the mat.
I brace, but even bracing for the hit, it still knocks the wind out of me. The mat's not enough to protect me from a fall that hard from that height, especially with his added weight on me, even if it is just his head.
I hear the groan that leaves Kratos’s mouth as the wind leaves his lungs as well, and if I had air in my own, I would laugh. Instead, I wrap my legs tighter, putting him in a headlock.
His hands go right to my legs as he tries to pry them open. When that fails, he moves to my ankles in an attempt to unhook them.
“Give it up, Daddy, I’ve won this one,” I rasp, my voice husky from the hit and lack of oxygen.
He growls in response, but I’m not sure if it’s in frustration with his inability to get free or from the use of that nickname he loves.
I chuckle because either way, this is exactly what I needed, and I feel so alive even as a bloody, bruised mess.
My back aches with the motion, but I ignore it, watching as Kratos lifts his hand to my thigh.
He rests it there for a moment, and it’s almost a caress but not quite.
He’s going to tap out.
The smile that stretches across my face could probably put Zander’s unhinged looks to shame, but I don’t care.
Besting someone as good as Kratos is the ultimate high. The only thing that compares is putting down the scum, but that’s not an option right now.
He taps once, twice…
“What the fuck are you doing?”
Roderick’s voice rings out around the room, pulling my attention.
Zander’s always saying he’s the one who keeps them in line, but he usually does so without emotion. He’s a cold, calculating, unmovable force.
Usually.
Right now, that mask is gone, and I hear his anger loud and clear.
The world tips, and all at once, I’m on my stomach with Kratos’s body on my back, pressing me into the mat as he puts me in a fucking collar pin.
“Motherfucker,” I attempt to hiss, but the words come out jumbled with my face mashed into the mat.
The vibration from Kratos’s chest lets me know he heard me, or at least can guess what I said, as he chuckles.
“Looks like I actually won this one, Killer.” His lips skim along the shell of my ear, causing goosebumps to break out over my skin despite my irritation.
I put more effort into breaking his hold. Going so far as to contemplate dislocating my shoulder. Sadly, I know that would get my arm free, but now that I’m under him, I doubt I’ll be able to do much to turn this around.
“What the fuck are you doing? You understand that she almost passed out from lack of food and proper sleep just hours ago, right?” Roderick questions Kratos, but he ignores him in favor of riling me up.
“You better tap out before Rick has a meltdown, Killer,” he whispers as he nibbles at my ear, and I know he’s doing it on purpose now.
My treacherous body damn near melts into him, and I silently curse my fucking hormones.
I give everything I’ve got in an attempt to throw him off me, but he hardly budges as I pant into the mat below me. Running through a few options in my mind, I can’t come up with anything worth trying, nothing that even has a slight chance of success.
I let out a frustrated sigh as I reach my free arm up and let it fall onto the mat in one hit. I hesitate, drawing this out for as long as I can, but when he doesn’t loosen his hold, I know it won’t be so simple to trick him.
No, this time, he’s won.
I tap the mat twice more, and the moment I do, Kratos releases me. I sag onto the mat, turning my head to the side to suck in huge gasps of air. After a few deep breaths, I realized that while he released me; he hasn’t moved.
“Get off of me, behemoth.” I press back against him with a laugh. His hips move against me, cutting my laughter short when I feel the hard length of him against my ass before he braces his hands on either side of me and pushes himself up off the floor.
I lay there for a moment, trying to remember what I was doing before he scrambled my brain, but Roderick’s angry voice pulls me back.
Rolling onto my back, I look up to find Kratos standing over me, his hand outstretched in an offer to help me stand.
I slap my hand in his, and he hauls me up effortlessly, but doesn’t release me as he examines the damage I’ve done.
“Why are you bleeding?” Roderick asks, and I turn my attention to him, glaring at him in irritation, but he doesn’t even acknowledge me as he walks over to examine my hand.
Asshole.
“You should be happy you're not the one bleeding,” I hiss, but he doesn’t respond, too busy looking at my hand that Kratos is poking and prodding at. I snatch my hand out of his grasp. Kratos sighs, but I ignore him in favor of turning my full attention to Roderick.
“You made me lose!” I hiss, not even attempting to mask my bitterness, as I turn to Roderick, poking a finger hard into his chest. His eyes remain focused on my hand before he reaches up to grab it, gently turning it to once again examine my knuckles.
I growl in frustration and attempt to pull away, but he doesn’t let go.
“Why are you bleeding?” he asks again, and this time his tone is different. He’s no longer yelling, and when he finally looks away from my hand to meet my eyes, I swear I see concern there.
The intensity of his gaze makes me want to look away, but I can’t.
Roderick never shows his emotions, always carefully blank, so for him to do so right now lets me know he’s not just trying to demand answers.
He really is concerned. I fight the need to fidget under the weight of that realization and his gaze that bores into me.
“Come on, Sweetness, let’s get you cleaned up,” Trent says, coming up behind Rodrick.
I hadn’t even realized he was here.
I make no move toward him, but I don’t have to. Trent moves to take my hand from Roderick, but he doesn’t relent.
“Rick. She needs it cleaned up, so she doesn’t risk infection,” Trent says to Roderick, and that seems to get through to him.
He huffs out a breath, making his nostrils flare, and I know he’s not thrilled about it, but he lets Trent take my hand to lead me back to one of the benches near the wall of mirrors.
“Here.” Roderick thrusts a first aid kit into Trent’s arms before he walks away, back to where Kratos still stands on the mats.
I watch him go for a moment before my eyes drop to the floor, taking in the blood that paints a pretty gruesome picture before I look at the bag and see that it’s a mess as well.
Damn, I’ll have to clean this up.
Not looking forward to that.
I cringe at the idea, and Trent apologizes as he wipes at a cut with disinfectant, mistaking my cringe for pain. I don’t correct him. I’m not sure how to tell him I don’t mind the sting without sounding crazier than they already think I am.
I watch as Roderick and Kratos have some kind of hushed argument across the gym. They keep their voices low enough that I can’t make out their words, but judging by their body language, they aren’t happy.
“Why is Roderick so upset?” I ask Trent after a few minutes of puzzling over ideas and coming up blank.
“You really don’t get it, do you?” Trent says with a huff of disbelief. I turn my attention to him as he shakes his head, still cleaning my hand. I watch him for a second before he turns his attention away from my hand to look at me.
“He’s upset you're hurt,” he sighs, dropping one hand to start cleaning the other.
“I’m pretty sure he’s upset with Kratos about it more than he is with you.
I mean, I am. You were damn near falling over less than twelve hours ago.
You don’t need to be over-exerting yourself like this right now.
Not to mention the fact that you're a bloody mess probably has him on edge,” he explains, and I nod even though I don’t really understand.
I’ve had much worse. How can something like this have him so on edge?
Roderick’s shouting pulls my attention back to him as he loses his cool. Kratos is taking it amazingly well, but I can tell by the tense set of his shoulders that it won’t last much longer.
“One second.” I pull my hand from Trent’s before he has a chance to respond, and make my way toward Rick and Kratos.
“Why would you let her do that? Not to mention partake in it, you say you want her safe, but I’m not sure you know what that means. Safe isn’t bleeding all over the gym floor at four o'clock in the morning,” Roderick fumes, stepping closer to Kratos so that they’re almost chest to chest.
“Watch it, Rick. I like you well enough, and I know Jade does too, so I don’t want to hurt you, but I will.” His tone is flat, but I know he means it. Roderick doesn’t look like he’s about to back down, though.
“You don’t know Jade like I do. Yes, she needs to be safe, but she needed this.
You don’t understand the way she grew up, the things she’s seen.
Of course, I don’t want her in this condition, but it was this, or she was going to shut down, or go out on her own, and I promise you that would’ve been a whole lot worse. ”
Roderick pulls in a sharp breath, and I know he’s going to keep pushing.
Kratos is right, though. Roderick doesn’t know.
He has no way of understanding what it’s like to feel like your life isn’t your own, like you have no control, and I’m grateful for that, but it also makes this a losing argument.
I reach them before Roderick can say anything else, placing myself between them with my back to him as I face Kratos.
“Let me handle this,” I tell him, and when he looks down at me, I see the fight in his eyes. He doesn’t want to walk away from this. Too bad for him, I won’t either. Finally, he relents, giving me a stiff nod before he drops a kiss on the top of my head and walks away.
I’m not sure where he’s off to, but I know he won’t go far, so I turn my attention back to Roderick for now.
His posture is stiff as he watches Kratos leave, and I get the feeling he wants to go after him. Neither of them is the type to let something go that they feel strongly about.
I place my hand on his chest to stop him, and his head snaps down to meet my gaze. Blinking a few times as if he hadn’t even realized I was there. His features harden again as he drops his gaze to my hands.
They're clean now, with not a trace of blood in sight, but the cuts and bruises are on full display, and I watch his brow crease as he takes in the damage I’ve done.
“Trent,” he bellows, turning to look at him where he still sits on the bench with the first aid kit. “I thought you were going to get her patched up.”
The accusation in his tone makes me bristle.
“Stop it,” I snap, my voice hard and demanding, causing him to turn back to me.
“You don’t get to come in here and yell at everyone because you're upset with something I did,” I tell him. “Trent was cleaning me up, hence the lack of blood.” I hold up my hands again, watching as his lips purse in an obvious show of disapproval.
“If you want to yell at someone, yell at me,” I say, and I watch his eyes harden. He looks over at Trent before looking back at me, and I can see that he’s thinking about it.
Instead, he shakes his head and turns around, leaving me standing in the middle of the mats, more confused than ever.