Adrian's Eagles: Book Four (Life After War) (6 page)

The Mobster took a quick glance around to verify there was no one else in hearing distance. “She had a nightmare. Said you need to talk to the new woman, Sam.”

“She say anything else?”

“Something’s coming within the week.” Kyle’s voice dropped. “You think Sam’s special too?”

“The odds just went up on that bet.” The Leader turned back toward the larger camp, taking the hot coffee. “Bring her by when you see me breaking down my canvas and we’ll find out.”

3

“Ready?”

Angela blew out an annoyed sigh, nodding. “Yes, and stop warning me. It’s like training with someone’s nervous grandmother.”

Those watching laughed, their eager noises carrying on the wind.

Flushing a bit, Seth moved toward her with a leg sweep that she jumped and returned, sending him to the ground in his surprise.

“Never underestimate your opponent!” Doug growled, huge form moving between them. “Who’s next?”

They’d been at it for half an hour despite her passing the self-defense part in the first few minutes. She’d insisted on more and Marc stepped forward with a worried heart. “Me.”

His tone was hard to read, but his thoughts said he had hated seeing her wrestle with these men. “You guys are too easy on her.”

There were scoffs from the four disheveled men she’d already cleared and the senior Eagles watched closely, evaluating. It was obvious that she was already better than some of Adrian’s rookies and this would tell them where to place her in training when Adrian openly declared her an Eagle.

That he would, his top men had little doubt, though it had only been a few days. When Adrian wanted something, he got it, and female members of the guard were high on his list. He’d only been waiting to put his faith in the right one.

“Don’t hurt yourself, now.”

Marc’s light challenge came from their mornings spent this way and Angela’s face stretched into a huge grin. Lower level men exchange disapproving looks at her lack of seriousness, but again the top Eagles wondered. The determination behind that smile said she was anything but distracted.

From the beginning, it was fierce. Marc did what none of them had been willing (in this situation) to do. He tackled her.

Prepared and glad to be back on Brady’s training terms, Angela locked her ankles and used the momentum from their fall to roll him over and off.

Marc pushed to his feet, hair messed sexily as he stalked her. A light smile of contentment melted his face back into her best friend and Angela crouched low, still grinning. “Say it. Say it!”

“I’ve missed this.”
 
His answer came quick and her grin widened.

“Even the pain, grunt?”

He barked a laugh. “Especially that!”

“Then, let’s get to it.”

Before he could rush her again, Angela lunged upward to deliver a harsh hit to his shoulder that he absorbed, wrapping his arms around her upper body to trap her in a tight hug.

Angela immediately dropped to her knees, dumping him on his head, and she twisted her elbow into his side. Able to slip free, she ducked his swipe for her braid and kicked out, shoving him away from her.

Angela flashed to her feet, laughter spilling out. “More Brady, more!”

It was a blast from their past and it lit up his heart. “Whatever you want, baby cakes.”

He remembered! In her happiness, Angela didn’t get set for his lunge and the shock of being on the ground under a man sent fear rushing into her mind, freezing her.

“Lock those ankles!”

Angela steeled her panic, eyes calming, and then Marc had his hands full keeping her on the ground as she punched, twisted, elbowed.

As they struggled, there was only the sound of their harsh breathing and the mutters of the watching males, who all wore deep scowls at seeing a woman on the ground under a man they didn’t trust yet.

As they rolled over, Marc on top, Seth stepped forward to break it up.

“Leave them.” Adrian had come from the caution tape with quiet steps, and it eased his men to have him there even as their frowns deepened.

“Still want more?”

Angela had freed herself and was staying low as Marc circled her, rapidly closing the space.

She didn’t answer his taunt and he eased closer. “Very good. You remember the next lesson?”

She tensed, watching his eyes and not his big body. “Trade-off.”

“That too much?” Angela shook her head and Marc came forward, swinging.

This time, even Neil moved to stop it and only Adrian stepping forward halted the rush to help her. He stopped as soon as the men did though, eyes on the battling warrior woman of his dreams.

Angela swung back, connecting with his open palm and Marc immediately fired again, this one a bit harder. Angela had her feet braced and didn’t budge as her hand absorbed the hit.

She threw the next punch with a quick twist at the end and she could feel his surprise that she’d remembered the single five minute lesson. The blow made him sway to the right and she waited for his return hit, gaze locked firmly on his.

Marc knew what she wanted, what the blond watching wanted, and was unable to resist the pull from them both. Angie wanted the Eagles to know she could do this and Adrian wanted the same. Marc grunted at the hope on her face as she read his thoughts. Fine. At least with him, she wouldn’t be hurt.

“Level Two.”

Angela swung at the words, following a right with a left and Brady’s arm being locked forced him into a step back.

He moved toward her with a raised hand and the fear had her freezing again, hands going to her sides. He was so big!

Unsure and very aware of his duty, Adrian stepped forward as Marc’s slap neared her face and then she cupped her hands into one huge fist and slammed it into Brady’s unprotected jaw.

Expecting it, Marc grunted at the impact, but kept coming and she flashed out with a punch to his kidneys that sent him to his knees at the unexpectedness of it.

Calming, Adrian motioned the Eagles back, but stayed close as Marc lunged for her legs and got a boot in the shoulder that sent him rolling backwards and then onto his feet.

“Switch.”

Angela’s grin stretched her lips back into a fierce snarl as she attacked.

Now mostly confident they’d done this enough times to keep her from getting hurt, Adrian observed the reactions of his men, trying not to wonder how many of Marc’s hits had landed when she’d first begun to learn these moves.

Angela swung from the hip, letting her anger out a bit and Marc’s duck was quick. He jumped back from her leg sweep and managed to avoid her left hook, but the right caught him squarely on the forehead and he hit the ground.

Stunned, Angela rushed to him, not thinking about anything but him falling from the mangled blazer. What was she doing?

“Brady?”

Marc’s body was shaking, but not from her hit, and his snort shot out at her worried tone, letting them all relax.

 
“I’m fine,” he ground out through the laughter, “just finished thinking you looked like you wanted me on my ass and then here I am.”

Angela chuckled, offering a hand up that he took and kept for a second.

“Nice switch.” He smiled at her, moving back. “That enough or you want some more?”

He challenged like he’d won, making her grin and the sparks between them were thick.

“That’ll do, Brady.”

Her amused sigh was full of long suffering and she moved out of the circle with his chuckle in her ears and a lighter heart. Marc didn’t want her to be an Eagle, but he did want her to be happy. If this is what it took, he would give it to her.

“Let’s have a lesson.”

Adrian’s words caught her attention and she lingered nearby, hoping she’d be allowed to watch. Sweat rolled down her back and she shivered as a cold gust of wind gave her a chill.

Adrian moved toward the back of the long tent that Neil had indeed directed them to less than five minutes after they left the little Mess. “Open matchups.”

All the Eagles were grinning now, stripping gear, and when Angela stayed near the door, Adrian gestured toward her. “Eagle Four has lead. Rookie session during, Eagle Three.”

For reasons she soon understood, their spirits went up another notch and Neil moved her way. “You should have a front row seat for this.”

Angela went willingly enough, happy to be allowed to watch, but she was aware of Marc’s good mood being gone as he fell in on her left. She also noticed the Eagles giving her strange looks, but their thoughts weren’t open in her distraction.

“What was the first thing you learned in my self-defense class?”

Adrian’s voice was full of a command he hadn’t used with Angela yet and the sound of it was mesmerizing, drawing her closer.

“To duck!” The Eagles answered in unison.

“And the second?”

“To hit back!”

Adrian gestured to the empty space in the center of the tent. “The basics. Square off and show me.”

Angela watched in fascination as the men chose each other and started brawling. Except it wasn’t a chaotic fight with wild swings and reckless moves. It was a choreographed play of punches and ducks that made the men doing it seem like puppets on a stage, their strings being wielded by a master.

“That’s the first set you’d learn if you were an Eagle,” Neil stated and she nodded, but never took her eyes away from the fight. Not a single swing was out of place, no missteps that sent them into each other or to the floor. This was the basics?

“It wasn’t so smooth in the beginning. It gets this way over the course of time and repetition.”

Not sure why Neil was telling her these things, but very aware of Brady’s disapproving grunt on her left, she nodded again.

Adrian spun a finger. “Level One.”

Now the hits were landing, but only into open palms, much the way she and Brady had done. Only these punches were hard and fast, making men move back from the force being used.

The slaps of skin meeting skin rang violently through the tent and Neil waited for the right moment to speak, surprised to find he could read her as easily as he did the males. “By the end of this level, your arm muscles are so sore you feel like you can’t move, and the bruises on your palms last for weeks.”

Angela didn’t respond, thinking she’d had a taste of that when Marc had started really trying to give her the training she wanted. He’d pulled most of his hits, she knew that, but she’d also made him stay at it until she ached, to make up for his gentle touch.

“Level Two.”

The first punch took Seth to his knees and Angela stiffened her lips into a line to hide the fear that bubbled up. This is what she needed to see, what she had to know.

Seth wiped the blood from his mouth, slinging the scarlet drops as he swung back. Marc had refused to do more than trade hits with her open-palmed. Would she ever be able to take that? If not, she’d never be an Eagle.

“Three.”

Adrian moved them up the levels, giving them the release and nerve-steadying workout they needed, and he watched her face as the fights got harder, nastier. She needed to know what she was walking into.

“Camp rules say when you bleed, you’re out,” Neil stated with a tone of longing ringing in her ear. “But as an Eagle, there’s no crying off. Blood’s a part of what we do.”

Angela could feel him wishing he was part of the lesson instead of sitting here with her and she kept quiet, hoping he’d understand he didn’t have to miss the fun to explain things to her.

“To teach you,”
the Witch corrected, awake and scenting the tent’s odors of strength and pain
. “You’re the rookie he’s instructing.”

“Level Six.”

Angela winced as Daryl smacked into the ground near her feet, but his wink and grin told her he wasn’t unhappy and when he delivered a brutal ankle kick to his opponent, his roar was full of life.

“They love this,” she murmured wonderingly.

Neil’s tone was pointed. “Enough to follow his orders, no matter what they are.”

Angela heard the warning, the tone that said she wasn’t strong enough to do this, and raised her chin. Just because she was scared of something didn’t mean she couldn’t do it - especially when there was so much at stake. When the Slavers came for her, when Dean came, she had to be able to hold them off long enough to take out their Leader. With the head cut off, Adrian and his Eagles would be able to go in and wipe them out.

“You okay?” Marc’s voice brought her back to the lesson and she gave a nod, frowning as she realized the men were all cleaning themselves up, finished. She’d missed the end.

“We have another hour. Anyone else feel like a challenge?”

Adrian stepped into the center of the tent, removing his 9 mm, and the excited reaction of the men was nothing to the thumping in her heart as Adrian stripped his shirt. Her eyes went over the tattoos, seeing some she recognized as Marine and others she suspected went much deeper into the underside of the military. They stretched over his back and arms in beautiful, exotic detail.