He searched my eyes, I prayed he found what he needed there.
Squeezing my hand tightly, he held on. “I do trust you. I also trust that she will haunt me.” Letting go, Kite stepped back. The gap felt a mile wide. “What hellhole of a life am I going to be left with if I sentence this woman to death, because she was willing to sacrifice everything, everything, to avenge her family?”
Looking at his fist, I read his knuckles and smiled bitterly. “You'd tear this life down, abandon what we have, all because of a nightmare that left this woman crying.”
When his eyes narrowed, my blood chilled. “Wasn't it my tears that pushed you to do the same?”
“Fuck you,” I said, but it had no strength. He was aiming to make me crack, and it was working. The laugh that slid out was stale. “Kite, you're going to ruin this.” I waved around at the bar, at ourselves. “Everything! I helped you back then, and what we did—it made us who we are. You'd use that to manipulate me now?”
“I just want you to open your eyes and see that maybe, for once, your planning is wrong.”
He took a step toward me.
It took everything I had to hold my ground.
Marina had changed us both. I had known it, yet the full extent of the damage... it now stretched between us.
“Jacob,” he hissed. “Give her a chance. It's her right to kill Lars Diani. Let's help her with that, and then, after... maybe she doesn't need to die.”
I stood to my full height. I only had an inch or so on Kite, but I wanted everything in my arsenal. He was my best friend, and he was talking insanity. But...
If it was so insane, then why was my heart thumping at the idea?
Why did I feel hopeful that maybe, just maybe, Marina Fidel didn't have to die?
Reckless. Stupid. Chaotic.
I wanted to howl with laughter. My tone was low and cool. “Here's the deal. We're going to go finish my errands.” Snatching up my duffel bag, I looked him up and down. “I have spare clothes for you.”
“What?” He was scowling in confusion.
“We're going to sweat this tension out. A nice, old fashioned spar. If you beat me, I'll agree to give Marina a chance.”
He didn't seem capable of blinking. “A chance at what?” he asked.
I took a breath—filled my lungs and held it. Yes, getting this adrenaline out of our system would be good for us. “A chance to prove that she can be trusted.”
I wasn't lying. If there was a way to make me believe, truly believe in my gut, that this affliction of a woman wouldn't turn on us one day, I would take it.
I was just as insane as Kite.
What had Marina done to us?
- Chapter 23 -
Kite
––––––––
The gym was hot, a cloistering kind of heat. Think the Amazon, but sweatier.
I didn't care, I was too caught up in the situation I had gotten myself into.
In the backroom we had to ourselves, Jacob stood across from me. He was wrapping his hands in tape with such speed and familiarity.
A seed of doubt grew in me.
He practiced this shit all the damn time. I knew how to brawl, but it had been awhile since I'd needed to, years since I'd been a bouncer. Running was my only real exercise, it kept me lean and light.
Jacob turned, letting his slick, steel-wrought calmness roll over me. Rarely was I on the other end of that look. It gave me chills, strangled my lungs.
It also renewed my desire to win.
This was not a casual spar between friends. This was a battle for Marina's life.
Fuck. What had we become?
He'd changed into long red shorts and a form-fitting black tank-top. With the boiling energy in his stance, it looked natural. I was wearing similar gear, the extra shorts and shirt he'd had in his bag.
“Are you ready?” he asked me, rolling his neck.
Tucking my hands into the fingerless gloves, I squinted at him. “I don't know. Are you?”
Jacob's smile was too wide for his mood. It was bothering him that we were doing this. But shit, it'd been his fucking idea. I'd wanted us to shake hands and agree that Marina could keep breathing.
But we hadn't.
And so we were here.
The side of his jugular pulsed. It was his only movement. “You can back out now, if you want.”
“Screw you,” I laughed. “I'm not backing out. You said if I beat you, you'll give her a chance.” My hands had been heavy. Thinking about Marina, how she'd opened herself up to me this morning... it made my arms pure air.
If I could move as fast as the blood shooting through my veins, I'd take Jacob down in a heartbeat.
He squared off with me, stepping so slowly to one side I almost missed it. I twisted to keep facing him, hands up and clenched.
He said, “I wasn't suggesting you back down because of her.” The edges of his teeth glinted. “If you walk away now, you'll still be able to stand tomorrow.”