Chapter 14

brOOKE

This place should be a rundown empty space, but it's definitely not. Yeah, it still has a gritty vibe to it, but the space is open and modern. The guys clearly put a lot of money into this, and I can tell they take pride in it.

"The rings over there, that's where our fights take place, you should see your boyfriend in there…he's a beast."

"Fiancé," Chase states, and I look over at him. Am I? I mean, I said one day, but surely not now. I give him a look, and Devin's laughter booms through the room.

"Are you sure about that? I don't see a ring, and the look she just gave you was clearly a surprise."

"We uh… I mean…he…but I…" Fuck why can't I get my words out?

"Bad luck, man." Zane's hand goes over Chase's shoulder as he shakes his head in fake empathy.

"What's that?" I ask, pointing over to an area that's cordoned off, aware I'm changing the subject.

"That's where we do… Well, let's say private business." Levi's tongue piercing catches between his teeth, and I'm not sure I really wanna know what he means.

We walk past a bar area with tables and booths before walking over to a locked door. Levi places his finger on the lock pad, and it soon clicks open. The corridor is long, and I notice stairs to the left, the bald-headed man from last night standing guard. I'm curious as to what's downstairs, but instead, we veer off to the end of the corridor and take a different set of stairs going down. This one is not supervised, which makes me think they don't end at the same place. Before we go through another locked door, Levi stops us.

"Go have a drink, man—it's on us."

Chase's jaw ticks in annoyance. "Uh uh, where she goes, I go."

Levi shakes his head, "Not the deal. You want me to train her, fine. But I'm not having you go all apeshit on me during training. You know she's gonna have to get hurt to learn this shit, and you being there will stop that."

I feel my stomach drop. What does he mean to get hurt? I mean, Levi seriously isn't going to injure me, right? I swallow hard. "It's okay, I'll be fine. Go relax with the guys for a bit."

Zane pulls Chase away. "Chase, we got some new girls dancing for us. There's this redhead…the way she can bend, dude…" Devin follows, shaking his head.

His voice fades in the distance, and I instantly regret telling him to leave. I have to trust him, though, if we want this to work. I sigh, turning back to Levi. "Okay, let's do this."

Levi smirks, opening the door to a room that almost looks like a miniature boxing gym. A large punching bag takes center stage, along with a miniature ring and weights along the wall.

"Have you ever fought barehanded before, Brooke?" I shake my head. "But Chase tells us you took down four guys."

"Yeah, but I used a gun, and I had a Taser for the last two."

Levi smirks, and I'm sure I see a flash of respect mixed with surprise in his eyes as he nods walking over to a cabinet. He throws me something, and as I catch it. "Okay, tape your hands up for now. It will help support you. I want to make sure you're using your hands correctly. A guy can very easily take your weapon away, especially a gun. It's easy to knock out of your hands and easy to turn on you. So, I'm gonna teach you this first. Once you get it, we'll move on to some more…fun weaponry."

I start to tape my hands up, wondering what he means. Devin said last night he always has his knife on him, so I'm gonna assume it's that.

"Okay." I finish taping up my hands, unsure if I've done it correctly since I've never had to do it before. He walks over, concentrating with his teeth on his tongue bar as he studies my hands. He nods, seemingly approving of them.

"Okay, hit me," he states, stepping back.

"What?"

"Hit me." He laughs.

"I'm not going to hit you."

"Brooke, what did you think we would be doing here?"

"Training," I say meekly.

"Right…"

"I mean, there's a punching bag there. Can I hit that?"

He shakes his head. "Not yet, I need to feel how much pressure you put behind your hit, what the contact feels like so I can help you make adjustments."

I sigh, steadying myself on my feet before throwing a punch to Levi's jaw quickly. His eyes flash with anger for just a second as I hear the crack of my fist connecting to bone. His face sways to the left for just a second. He opens his jaw, rubbing it.

"Ow," he simply states, bringing his face back to mine. "I didn't say hit me in the face, Brooke."

"I'm sorry… I just…" Then, I can't help it—laughter erupts from my body at the whole thing of all of this. Levi is standing there cradling his jaw, and there's me, this girl who six weeks ago never hurt a fly, suddenly standing here with blood on my hands. Those laughs turn to sobs until I can't catch my breath anymore and fall to the floor. Levi's hands reach me just as I collapse, and he settles me on the floor with him.

"What's wrong?" he asks, and I don't know how to answer that. "It's okay, I'm not going to retaliate. Truthfully, it hurts like a bitch, but I'm just surprised, that's all."

"I killed four guys," I whisper through the tears. He just nods, looking at me like he's wondering why I'm stating the obvious right now while on the floor, crying like a child.

"You did."

I feel like I can't breathe as I take large gasps of air to try and compensate, my head swimming with the images of these men as they took their last breaths. I did that, and now I'm here learning to kill more people. I'm hyperventilating, gasping for breath as I feel it leave my body, leaving me a withered shell. "I killed them," I cry out in anguish. I took away someone's sons, brothers, and best friends. Nate. Oh god, Nate. He bled out in my arms. He at least had us around him—he wasn't alone. I burned one of them alive, screaming in agony. Oh god, I can't breathe.

Levi tilts my head up to his with his fingers, putting pressure on it as he pinches my chin hard. His eyes are as cold as ice. "You did what you had to do. Don't shed tears for them or for the girl you used to be. They don't deserve it, and that girl you were…don't mourn her. She was weak and stupid and you are not her anymore. You are strong with a fire that will burn everyone that gets in your way. Don't just accept that—celebrate it."

I nod, wiping my tears away as his words sink in because he's right. I was na?ve back then, shielded from the world because of those boys. I'm not her anymore, and that's okay. I can do this. I did it for a reason.

"They hurt girls like you used to be, Brooke. You think we didn't see you; you crossed the street when we walked toward you, you thought we were trouble, and you avoided us. You were weak—those girls they hurt were weak. They had no one to fight for them the way you do now, so you have to be that person. Don't be a pathetic girl that cries at the deaths of men that raped and kidnapped girls. Get up, get strong."

He lets go of my chin standing up and walking away as I try to gather myself back up. I quickly fix that small tear in the wall of my psyche that's keeping me standing, keeping me fighting. He throws a bottle of water my way and I watch him take a sip of his. He doesn't do empathy well, I don't think he knows how to either. And I think it's clear what I'll get from Levi is brutality and a force that will keep me fighting, but if I break down then I am on my own.

"Okay, enough, ready?" he asks me. I pick myself up from the floor, putting the bottle to the side.

"I am."

He shakes his head. "We'll see. Your punch is good, but it hurts because you took me by surprise. Not because it was hard enough."

He grabs my feet, planting them in a certain position before adjusting the height of my arms as he talks through the correct position to put the force and weight behind my hits. I listen to every word, but then he whips his leg under mine, and I'm on the floor, pinned beneath him.

"This is what will happen if they catch you, Brooke, so get me off you. Fight me with everything you have." I struggle. His hand pins my arms above my head, and his leg shifts and presses against my calf.

"That hurts, stop."

"Good, because they won't care, Brooke. They will do what they did to every girl before you if you don't learn to fight. You aren't good, you got lucky, you took on the weak ones but put yourself in front of the others, and you'll lose. So, fight me."

I squirm, but it's useless. He has me pinned down, and every time I move, his weight on my calf adjusts, and it just hurts. I see a flash of silver from the corner of my eye, and I freeze. He presses a blade against my neck, using the tip to caress down my jawline.

"What. What are you doing?" I ask nervously. My body screams danger, and I need to get out of here, away from him.

"You don't believe you're in danger. You're still that weak little girl, Brooke, waiting for a man to come and save her." I shake my head, but the knife breaks my skin just below my jaw. I feel blood trickle against my skin.

"Stop, please," I beg him.

"Oh, begging now? Is that what you're going to do to them, Brooke? Beg them to stop? How about this? I will cut you. I will make you bleed unless you decide you have the power to stop me. Tell me, Brooke, who has the power here? I have the knife. I have the strength, but does that mean I hold the power?"

I stop squirming. Going still as I think about his words, breathing slowly as I feel my warm blood continue to trickle. I take half a second to plan my move. The knife is on the side of my jaw, so shaking my head will just result in more loss of blood. I can't use my hands; they are above me. He has one of my legs pinned down, the other between his. I raise my knee up quickly, pushing him further toward me so I can lift my head up hard, headbutting him.

He lets go of my hand in surprise as he pulls his to his forehead. I take my hand and punch him as hard as I can in this position in the face. He curses before I shift my weight as best as I can and throw him off me. Well, I say throw, but it's more of a roll. I'm on my feet, quickly back in the position he showed me before, ready to throw the next hit if he comes after me.

He shifts so he's resting on his knee, sitting upright. "Fuck me, Brooke."

I smirk at him. "I have the power; I always have the power because they think I'm weak. They judge me to be that silly, na?ve little girl. Not the girl I am now."

He nods slowly as he smiles "Correct. Are you weak, Brooke?" He stands up, walking toward me.

"No."

He grabs the back of my neck, aggressively pulling me against him.

"Then what are you?"

"I'm the girl that's going to kill them all."

He smirks back at me as I smile up at him.

"Yes. Yes, you are."

For a second, we are staring at each other. There's no danger here but a mutual understanding of who we are. Neither of us is prey anymore, and I have a feeling from Levi's eyes he used to be too. Now we're both stronger. Something else.

He steps back, letting go of my hair.

"Okay. Again."