16. Emma
“I really don’t want to hurt anyone.” I try to get out of sparring, but no one takes me seriously. Even Linc, who knows exactly what I’m capable of because he’d been the one to teach me, doesn’t try to put a stop to it.
Standing in the middle of the Birch PD gym, I feel like the shiny new toy that my brother wants to show off instead of a grown-ass woman.
“Come on, Emma,” Linc prods. “You know you want to get payback for Stryker calling you a badge bunny.”
Out of all the things that Linc or anyone else can say that may make me sit up and pay attention, that is the strongest. And it still isn’t enough to make me want to actually get in the sparring ring with anyone, not even Eddie.
“Why do you hate me?” I complain while at the same time reaching behind my head to put my hair in a braid. “They’re all going to think I’m a freak.”
We talk about the other officers like they don’t exist, and that earns us more than a few raised eyebrows.
“Ignore them.” Linc claps his hands together devilishly. “I haven’t seen a good fight in ages.” He looks around. “Do you think we have time to get popcorn?” When I shake my head and snarl at him like I did when I was little, he sighs. “I guess we don’t have enough time for popcorn. But I think I’ve got some chips in my locker.” He takes off at a sprint and calls out over his shoulder as he goes. “Don’t start until I get back. I mean it, Emma. You better wait.”
Focused on what I’m about to do, I sit down on the ground and start to stretch out my hamstrings, then my ankles and my calves. Once I feel like they are limber enough, I stretch out my arms and focus on my breathing. Until Dom walks in with Linc at his side. Linc who has a family-sized bag of Doritos in one hand and a bottle of water in the other.
“What’s going on?” Dom looks around the crowded room. “Why’s everyone staring at your sister?”
“Because,” I interrupt with a grimace. “Linc told everyone that I was going to get sparring practice today. Before he even cleared it with me. And now, here we are.” With a sigh, I wave at the assembled people.
“So that means half the department has to be here?” He stares at the others in disbelief.
“Hey,” Carter says from behind his phone. “Don’t blame me. I told Avery about how Emma kicked your ass on the range and my wife wanted video proof of the badass herself.” He shakes the phone slightly, and a voice bursts out of the speakers.
“Hey, guys! Carter said I could watch. I hope you don’t mind.”
“You and Avery have the weirdest relationship.” Dom shakes his head but waves at the phone anyway. “So, who’s going to spar with you? It’s not me. That’s for sure.”
“Stryker,” Linc says gleefully.
Dom’s eyebrows hit his hairline, and I snicker at his reaction. Surprised doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Linc munches loudly on a chip and sings out, “He’s gonna die.”
“I don’t understand why I have to do this while everyone is watching,” I grumble. “I don’t want to embarrass him.”
“Why not?” Dom crosses his arms and stands against the wall, looking about as relaxed as I think he can possibly be at this moment. “He embarrassed you in front of half the department by calling you a badge bunny. Or, I guess he tried to embarrass you but failed miserably. I feel like it’s going to be just what he needs.”
“Yeah,” pipes up Avery from the phone. “Besides, I’m the only badge bunny around besides Chloe, and she doesn’t count.”
“Babe.” Carter shakes his head. “A badge bunny is a bad thing.”
“Oh.” Avery sounds put down. “Is that kind of like one of the girls that hangs around my brother’s club?”
“Exactly.”
The sigh from the only other woman present, even if she isn’t actually there, makes me smile. “I take it back, guys. I’m not a badge bunny. Carter’s the only cop I’ve had sex with, and we’re married. Why can’t I ever be part of a cool club?”
“You are beyond embarrassing, Avery.” Carter rubs a hand down his face but doesn’t look put out. “Can you ever just be happy that you’re a badass and a teacher?”
“No,” she chirps back.
When the door opens again, the levity of the situation breaks, and we all turn to see Eddie standing there with a grimace.
“Do we have to do this with an audience?” He scratches the side of his neck uncomfortably. “I don’t really know if people seeing this is a great idea.”
He looks down at me apologetically, and I shrug. “I tried to get out of it, too. But you know Linc when he sets his mind on something.”
Eddie knows what I’m capable of. He’d been my boyfriend during the years that Danny and Linc trained with me. He was one of my first sparring partners, strapped with pillows and duct tape in my backyard so that I didn’t hurt him. Or, technically, he’d been trying not to hurt me.
We’ve grown up since those days, and now we won’t have any type of protective gear to block the blows. At least, nothing to cover the good parts.
“I hope you brought a cup,” Linc says around a mouthful of chips. “Danny and I taught her to fight dirty.”
“I’m not going to hit him in the dick,” I snap at my brother. “And if you don’t shut up and stop distracting me, I’m going to kick you and the rest of the fan club out of here.”
“Yeah,” Avery shouts from the phone. “Don’t ruin this for me, Linc. I’m stuck home with the flu and I’m so bored. If you ruin it, I’m gonna send Lucas over to your house in the middle of the night to spork your yard.”
Unable to help it, I stare at Carter’s phone and ask, “Who’s Lucas?”
“He’s my son,” Carter offers. “He’s a badass, and Avery will drive him to do any of the mischief they cook up without feeling the slightest bit guilty about it.”
“Yeah, send him over.” Smiling at the phone like a crazy person, I clap my hands together and get up. “He can torture Linc, and we can drink and laugh while it happens.”
“Carter.” Avery snaps her fingers through the connection. “Get her info. Make it happen.”
“Come on already,” Linc whines pitifully. “We have to get back to work in like ten minutes. Lunch can only last for so long.”
I shake my head sadly at Eddie. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He rolls his shoulders back. “I’ve gotten a lot better.”
“Yeah,” I tell him with another grimace. “So have I.” I did my best to try and get out of it, and I apologized. I’m not sure there’s much more I can do at this point.
The problem with being the little sister of two Marines, the daughter of a former Marine, and the world’s most competitive pain in the ass is that when I learn how to do something, I throw myself into it wholeheartedly and with a single-minded determination that makes my parents proud.
I don’t do something unless I can do it well, and if I don’t do it well, I practice until I get better. Really, I have to be the best. And yes, I know that it’s a character flaw, but I’ve done my best to make it one of my superpowers.
That’s why, when Eddie and I square up, I see the weakness in his stance. I see the way he puts too much weight on his front leg and how he drops his elbow just a hair. He doesn’t want to fight me, and he’s going to hold back so he doesn’t hurt me. Which only means that he is going to lose.
Because that’s the difference between us.
I may not want to hurt him, but I’m not about to hold back.
There’s a reason behind the need to spar.
I have to prove myself to these men.
The men who have to know that they can trust me with their lives.
Even Eddie.
When he steps forward, he doesn’t shift his weight, and I do what I know I can do. I drop to a crouch, then kick out and hit him in the meat of his thigh right behind his knee. Like a tree falling in the forest, Eddie goes down.
He rolls as he goes, but I’m faster.
I have to be faster.
I’ve always had to be faster.
With a solid hit to his thorax, I shift back to make sure the wheezing isn’t just an act. But his face turns red, and he drops to his knees just as quickly as he gets up. Just in time for me to step behind him and wrap my arm around his neck and lock it with my other hand.
My body is pressed as close to his as I can manage, which means that his head squeezes between my boobs.
When his hands reach back, pulling the braid that slipped over my shoulder and into his face, I grunt with the force and pain of him pulling.
“Guess he’s playing dirty, even if she’s not.” To anyone else, Linc sounds unaffected, but I’m his little sister. I can feel the rage flowing off him in waves, and the need to protect me fills the space.
But he doesn’t take a step into the space.
Doing so would mean that I lose, even though I can do this.
Thirty seconds.
I only need thirty seconds of pressure to knock him out.
I can handle any amount of pain for thirty seconds.
An elbow to the ribs almost takes me out five seconds in.
But even when he drops back, putting all of his weight on my body, I don’t let up. I don’t release my grip on his neck.
There are shouts now, coming from the people watching, but I have to tune them out.
Seventeen.
Eighteen.
Nineteen.
I told Linc not to watch. It is his fault he has to see me get hurt. But I do feel bad for Dom having to see what’s about to happen.
Another ten seconds. I can already feel the sharp tingling in my scalp letting up as Eddie’s strength wavers.
If we were in front of a mirror, I would see his face turning bright red with the exertion. With the struggle not to lose.
I can’t blame him for what I know is about to happen.
When he arches his back and drives his shoulder into my chest, I gasp, unable to help myself. I don’t let go of his head, though.
I know he’s losing, and I know it’s embarrassing to not only lose to a woman, but to your ex-girlfriend at that.
My arms ache the way they do after being beat by a massage gun after a hard workout, and the fire leaching into every one of my muscles makes it almost impossible to concentrate. Like a spider monkey, I hold on as tightly as I can.
“Holy fucking shit.” I gasp for air when I feel Eddie’s body finally go slack at thirty-seven seconds.
Using my knee and the muscle memory of training, I maneuver Eddie so that I can get out from under his larger body without actually hurting either one of us. Although, his neck is going to be sore as fuck when he wakes up.
“She won!” Avery’s voice fills the suddenly silent room.
Since I’m still gasping for air and trying to breathe regularly, I don’t look up to see what the reaction is.
Instead, I check my scalp for missing hair.
My fingers making contact with the base of my neck stings, and I come away with blood on my fingertips.
“Shit,” I groan. Scabs on my hairline suck, and I know it’s going to suck having to take care of it while I’m at the academy. Washing my hair is the worst.
Dom is there when I open my eyes, a few inches away but not touching me. “Can I help?”
“No,” I tell him curtly. “I’m gonna go take a shower.” Thankfully, my shift is done, which is why Linc thought it would be a great idea to knock out the sparring practice.
I look down at Eddie’s still-prone body and barely manage to keep from kicking him while he’s down.
The muscle exhaustion is real, and if I do it, there is no guarantee that I’ll be able to walk out with my head held high.
No one else says a word as I leave the room, but the door stays open when I make it into the hall and collapse against the wall.
“Where did she learn to fight like that?” Dom’s voice echoes quietly. “I’ve never seen anyone move like that, with that much rage.”
“We created a monster,” Linc answers. His words have me refusing to give up my position in the hall, blatantly eavesdropping on their conversation. “We had to. We turned her into the perfect opponent. One that doesn’t pay attention to anything or anyone when she’s in a fight. Danny and I wanted to make sure that no matter what happened, Emma would be able to protect herself. So we teamed up on her. Made sure that she had eyes in the back of her head and knew how to take someone down hard and fast.”
“That wasn’t even any sort of martial arts.” Carter sounds amazed, but I can barely catch my breath. “Just raw and vicious rage.”
“I like her,” Avery calls out. “She’s my sort of people. I wonder if she can train me to be a badass, too. Ian, I’m gonna talk to Chloe and see if we can have some sort of badass bootcamp.”
“Think about it,” Linc explains, the same way he and my parents had explained it to me when they all insisted that I learn how to fight over a decade ago. “She’s not going to get any bigger. She’s all of a hundred pounds soaking wet, and she’s got maybe five feet of clearance. But when she walks into a room, she doesn’t have to worry. When she runs at night, she might be attacked. She might have to cross the street to avoid a creep. She might be hurt by the person she trusts the most in the world. There are a hundred thousand different scenarios that a woman can find themselves in. We needed to make sure that Emma was scarier than the monsters that go bump in the night.”
“I wanna be her when I grow up,” comes from Avery.
I don’t want to eavesdrop anymore, and I’m starting to get feeling back in my fingers and toes, so I push off the wall with a silent grunt.
“She’s gonna be an amazing police officer.” Dom’s voice is the last thing I hear before I walk into the women’s locker room. “I can’t fuckin’ wait.”