CHAPTER 37 ALFIE
ALFIE
“Last training session before the big night, you ready for this?”
“No.”
I chuckle, putting my arm around Elodie as we get to the gym.
Fiz is in there – shirtless body dripping with sweat – doing butterfly pull-ups, curls pushed back by a thick headband.
He doesn’t notice us coming in; he wouldn’t, not once he’s in the zone.
Rap music pumps through the speakers, vibrating the floor.
Elodie freezes at the sight of him, eyes popping as he drops from the bar and heads straight into burpees.
It takes me a moment to realise, then I just chuckle and let her ogle for a moment, going over to the mats and rolling one out.
Elodie hasn’t seen Fiz in the gym yet, doesn’t know what that madman can do.
I’m not entirely sure she’s seen his body either.
He’s giving her an eyeful in his loose grey joggers, just barely hanging on below his narrow hips.
Sweat trickling down his chiselled torso as he lifts and drops his body, thick muscles in his arms rippling.
He gets underestimated a lot because he’s so trigger-happy but really, he’s the secret weapon.
Everyone knows I’m the muscle. I can take out any threat with my bare hands.
That’s what I train for. Caden’s the cool and calculated one with the ability to lead armies, but Fiz…
He’s known for being reckless, sure, but that’s why he’s so good at having the element of surprise.
You disarm that man and he could still take you down.
He’s always ready for anything. He trains to be ready for anything.
I’m built for strength, Caden’s built for speed and stealth. Fiz is a combination of it all.
His body is honed for survival, his mind carved into a discipline that me and Caden could only hope to reach.
He pushes his body to limits I’d never get to.
That’s why it took four guys to hold him back while the other hurt Caden.
And he still managed to fight them off. Just not quick enough.
But it’s not his fault. Four against one and beating them off is still insane.
I know he can’t see it that way. I know he blames himself.
Once the burpees are done, he heads over to the wall and flips up into a handstand, then starts doing handstand push-ups.
“Holy shit,” Elodie breathes.
This time, I bark a laugh. “Yeah, he’s full of surprises, right?”
“I didn’t even know the body could do something like that.”
I wave her over. She drags her eyes away from him and walks to me. “Fiz can do a lot of things you wouldn’t expect a body to do.”
“How? Why?”
I point to the mat. “Squats.” She gets into position and does as she’s told. “Fiz grew up in a way that you and I will never understand.”
She frowns. “Didn’t he grow up with you?”
“Not for the first twelve years of his life.”
“So, how did he grow up?”
I swallow, not sure how much of Fiz’s life I should expose.
There are certainly some things I could never tell this girl.
Choosing carefully, I say, “He grew up never knowing when his next meal would be. He had to fend for himself a lot.” I look over at him as he drops his feet down, goes straight back to the pull-up bars and restarts the circuit.
Turning back to Elodie, I say, “You ever heard of parkour?”
She nods, breathing steadily through her squats.
“Fiz learned that unwittingly. Always running away from trouble, scaling buildings and shit so he didn’t get killed or arrested. He learned he was pretty good at it. That’s how we met him, actually.”
“How?”
I feel a ghost of a smile on my lips at the fleeting memory.
“He had just robbed one of Russell’s cars.
Caden spotted him and went after him. He nearly outrun us, but Cade’s always been like a damn cheetah.
They fought, Fiz started getting the upper hand, so I stepped in and, strangely enough, Caden wasn’t mad at him.
He took a liking to him, no one had ever almost beat him in a fight. ”
Elodie finishes her squats and straightens up, hands on hips, cheeks a little flushed. “So what happened?”
I point to the mat. “Inchworms.” She obeys, and I continue.
“After Fiz explained his situation, Caden didn’t think twice about taking him under his wing.
He never told Russell about the robbery.
Just made Fiz give the cash back, introduced him to Russell, told him what he could do.
He’s been working for him ever since. And to this day, that’s how he still trains. It’s ingrained in his DNA.”
Elodie comes back up. “He trains to be able to jump buildings?”
“To always be able to escape. To survive.”
She wipes her hands down her thighs, peering over in Fiz’s direction, a slight glaze over her eyes. “Wow.”
“Yeah,” I say, “weights and machines might be good for our bodies, but really… it’s the natural exercises that are the best for us.
Callisthenics. Body weight moves. For survival, that’s really all we need in our lives.
We were hunters and gatherers. Built to run, to hunt, to survive.
All this shit” – I flourish a hand around the gym – “it’s all modern luxury, but what he’s doing” – I turn to him as he starts his push-ups again – “that’s what we really need.
And that’s the hardest shit we’ll ever do. ”
She watches him, observes the muscles in his sculpted body ripple and flex. “I think I’m beginning to understand it a bit better.”
I hand her a light kettlebell, and she gets into stance. “What’s that?”
“The Cleanse. The Hunt. Taking all luxuries away and just being who we’re meant to be. To move and work and not worry about anything else.” She starts pressing the weight.
I nod. “Good. That’s a good start. Perhaps next year you could participate in The Hunt as a hunter, rather than a hunt-ee.”
She exhales a sharp laugh as she lowers the kettlebell. “I won’t be here. I’ll be living life on an island sipping Sex on the Beaches.”
I chuckle. “Of course.”
A timer blares through the speakers, and Fiz collapses onto the floor with a loud groan that’s audible over the music, rolling onto his back and sprawling his limbs, panting, chest heaving.
“Little slow that last round,” I call out.
Fiz angles his head and looks toward us, face glistening with beads of sweat. “I’d like to see you do it faster.”
I grin, turning back to El as she starts her second set. “Squat with it too.”
“Huh?”
“As you bring the weight down, squat down with it, then come back up and press.” I demonstrate.
She follows my actions, her lips tightening with the effort.
I feel movement behind and then Fiz appears next to me, dabbing his body with a towel.
Testosterone rolls off him in thick waves, making me want to start lifting something.
I never work out with El. I always have my attention on this girl.
Whether that’s for safety or just because I enjoy watching her too much, I’m not sure.
“Looking good there, Sleeping Beauty,” he says.
“Don’t take the piss,” she spits, strain crinkling the corners of her eyes.
“I’m not at all. Few more sessions like that and you’ll be squatting on my dick for a full minute.”
She throws him a middle finger. He chuckles.
“Not a very deep squat though, is it?” he says to me.
I fold my arms across my chest. “Baby steps, Fiz, she could barely walk two weeks ago.”
He makes a sound, then steps forward. “Drop the weight.”
El straightens. “What?”
“Drop the weight.”
Her eyes flicker to me. I shrug a shoulder, then nod. She places the weight down on the mat.
“Now squat down.” She does. “Lower.”
“I can’t.”
“No such thing as ‘can’t’. Lower.” Here comes that assertive, no-nonsense Fiz.
She takes a deep breath, then bends an inch lower.
“You want your thighs parallel to the floor,” Fiz says, walking over to her and crouching. He extends a hand underneath her thigh. “Keep going until you feel my hand.”
El lowers a little more, then stops, her legs beginning to shake. “How low is your damn hand?”
“As low as your thighs should be. Keep going.”
When she finally feels Fiz’s hand hit under her thigh, she shoots back up. “Jesus.” She kicks out her legs, shaking them.
He doesn’t grin. “Again.”
She scowls at him. “That’s too hard.”
“I’ll show you something too hard in a minute. Again.”
I see the fire awaken in her eyes. The fire I’ve grown so damn attracted to recently.
Every time she’s faced with a challenge, every time she’s put in front of an obstacle, those blue eyes glimmer with a hunger to succeed, to prove everyone wrong.
It’s how she’s managed to do so well in just two weeks.
It’s how she’s managed to survive her whole fucked-up life. Out of pure spite.
Fiz keeps his hand where it is as she squats all the way down, hitting it and pushing back up with a subtle groan.
“Keep going.”
She does, pushing her body all the way down, beads of sweat appearing around her hairline. I stay back, watching the spectacle, watching her push herself over and over, only a sliver of guilt roiling in my stomach.
“Good,” Fiz says after she completes ten deep squats. He straightens up. “Now every time you squat down, I want you to jump up into the air and then squat back down.”
El obeys, but as soon as she does the first one, she gasps. “That’s way too hard.”
“That’s how we improve. No one builds strength by doing easy shit. Come on.”
She huffs her reluctance but does another one.
He steps back until he’s beside me again, crossing his arms and mimicking my stance as we both watch her.
“You’re a real prick, you know that?” I murmur.
“I do. And I’m so good at it too.”
“Did you do it to be a prick, or because you don’t think Cade could catch her now?”
He lifts and drops a shoulder. “Bit of both.”
We watch as El does ten squat jumps, her face red and damp, her breaths laboured and heavy. Then Fiz gets her to do two more sets. The sight of her gets my blood pumping hotter, every muscle in my body tightening.
She collapses onto the floor after, rubbing at her thighs, then her calves.
Fiz gives an approving sound and drops his arms. “Good. This guy’s too easy on you. You should train with me.”
“No way,” she pants.
He chuckles. “I’d get that stamina up in no time, baby, you’d need it to keep up with me.” He winks at her.
She grimaces. “There’s no way in hell that will ever happen.”
He stalks over to her, crouches down, and cups her chin gently. “We’re going to have so much fun together. Just you wait.”
She jerks away from his touch. “Not going to happen. Tomorrow I’m going to outrun Caden and you’ll never see me again.”
Fiz just chuckles, gets to his feet. “Yeah… good luck with that when you wake up tomorrow and can’t walk.”
She frowns as he turns away and winks at me, heading towards the back.
“What d’you mean?” El calls.
He glances over his shoulder. “Oh, those squat jumps will have your legs stiff as a board in the morning. Running’s going to be the most painful thing you could do to yourself tomorrow.”
She gasps in outrage and spews profanities in his direction as he heads into the back room.
He turns to face her and walks backwards, a cunning smirk on his face. “Or come have an ice bath with me, that might help.”
“Fuck you, you sick son of a bitch!”
He laughs again. “Suit yourself.” Then he’s gone.
She turns to me. “You knew what he was doing, didn’t you?”
I scratch the back of my head and approach her, drop to my haunches and grab her ankle. “Kind of. But stretching will help recovery. Lay down.”
She purses her lips, looking like she wants to repeat the tirade of insults she just hauled at Fiz, but she lies back. I push her ankle towards her head, and she gasps as her hamstrings pull taut.
“Caden’s wounded,” I say quietly, “you just have to use that head of yours, like I said. I’m not giving you any tips, but it’s not hard to pick up what I’m putting down.”
“You’re helping me now after you just watched me do something that you knew would wreck my already-slim chances tomorrow.”
I chew on the inside of my lip, swap ankles and press her other leg toward her. “I’ve always helped you, and I always will. I don’t want you to leave, El, you should know this.”
She averts her eyes. “No, I don’t.”
An urge swells within me. One that’s been growing every single fucking day she’s been in this house.
One I got so close to giving in to at my mum’s.
Remembering that moment, what I wanted to do to her, I get hold of her other ankle, getting onto my knees, and bring it up to her head too, my body arcing over hers, spreading her legs slightly so I can see her face between them.
She gasps at the stretch. This is certainly not a professional position, certainly not one a personal trainer could do to their client and not have an assault complaint filed against them.
Not when my cock is a mere inch from pressing against her ass as I hold her legs by her head.
Her eyes are wide, lips slightly parted as she stares at me above her.
“I do want you to stay, El.”
“Doesn’t feel like it,” she mutters, eyes glued to mine.
“Well, I’m telling you it is so.”
Her throat bobs in a swallow, her hands stay sprawled to the sides as I hold her in this submissive position. One I’d really, really like to fuck her in.
Goddammit.
Against my better judgement, snapping the single last shred of restraint I have, my hips push forward that one last inch and press against her, the width of my rock-hard cock fitting perfectly in the wedge between her extended legs. She gasps, hands flying to my thighs and digging in.
How I’d love to rip these clothes off her and bury my cock inside her. How I’d love to show her just how much I fucking want her.
I can feel her heat smothering my dick as it nestles against her pussy, making it ache and my stomach tense with need. How I’d love to do so many filthy, forbidden things to this body.
“Alfie,” she breathes.
Then everything snaps back into place.
I drop her legs and fly away from her, shame heating its way up my neck.
God-fucking-dammit.
“Sorry, I – I lost myself there,” I mutter, scrambling to my feet. “You should go shower.” I hurry out of the gym like it’s on fire.
I hit the side of my head as I scurry down the hallway. How the fuck can I get that carried away? Just a few seconds is all it takes for me to lose myself in that girl.
I shake my head. No more. No fucking more.
It’s not right, and it’s a recipe for disaster.
Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea if she leaves.
But Fiz has just made sure that her odds have gone from slim to none.
That girl will be so sore tomorrow, Caden will have no problem catching her.
Then all our problems will properly begin.