Rules of Entanglement (12 page)

She’d found the grappling exercises fascinating. Two men trying to best each other with nothing but wrestling moves and submission holds. It wasn’t about strength but quick reactions and the ability to outmaneuver your opponent while watching for the moment he left himself open for that split second, allowing you to strike.

Jax had bested his training partner almost every time, and she heard some of the other guys talking about how his Brazilian jiu-jitsu was his greatest strength.

Now she watched him wrap each hand with over seven feet of three-inch-wide black fabric. Round and round he crisscrossed the wrap over his wrist and palm, making sure to weave them between his fingers and cover his knuckles at the top. Once he secured the Velcro ends and tested his handiwork by flexing and fisting his hands a few times, he grabbed his gloves and walked over to a large punching bag hanging from the ceiling.

For the next half hour, he pounded his fists into the bag. Sometimes he’d perform high kicks or spinning kicks—she didn’t know the technical terms for any of them—in combination with his punches. His hair was soaked and plastered to the edges of his face and his white sleeveless shirt could’ve won him first place in a wet T-shirt contest. Rawr.

“Maris!”

Jax looked across the room where Frank stood inside the cage. “Coach?”

“Come on in here and spar with Danny, will ya?”

An evil grin cocked up one side of Jax’s mouth. “My pleasure.”

Vanessa didn’t know the deal with him and “the kid,” as Jax called him earlier, but her Spidey Sense told her there wasn’t a lot of love lost between the two. She wondered how it worked when guys who didn’t particularly like each other had to fight nice.

“Well,” she said to herself, “we’re about to find out.”
Dang it
, she thought, settling back in her cozy chair. She really did wish she had popcorn.

Jackson stripped off his shirt, jogged up the few steps into the large octagonal cage, took his mouth guard from where it was tucked in his waistband—
ew
—and shoved it past his lips over his top teeth. Danny, like the rest of the guys she’d seen sparring in the cage, wore a padded helmet. Jackson donned no such thing.

“Hey,” she called out. “Where’s your headgear, Maris?”

He looked over his shoulder at her like a teenager upset with his mom for embarrassing him in front of his friends. “I’ll be fine,
dear
.” His endearment was laced with sarcasm. She narrowed her eyes at him and crossed her arms over her chest. She didn’t appreciate his tone, but fine. She got it. He was a big boy and could take care of himself.

She hoped Danny clocked him a good one.

A hulk of a guy—Corey, if she remembered correctly—squatted next to her, shooting a stream of water into his mouth and swallowing. “Don’t worry about Jax,” he told her with an easy smile. “Akana’s just a rookie. He doesn’t stand a chance hurting Jax in a sparring exercise. He’s just in there to defend and make the kid work.”

“Oh yeah? Then why does Danny look like he wants to exact a pound of Jackson’s flesh?”

Corey chuckled. “Probably because the entire gym witnessed you shooting him down, and it was pretty damn obvious who you shot him down for.”

Vanessa rolled her eyes and sighed. “Why are boys such cavemen?”

“Can’t help it,” he said, standing again. “It’s in our DNA.” With that said, he walked toward the cage and yelled, “That’s it, Maris, keep him on his toes!”

For the next twenty minutes or so, Vanessa watched in awe as time and time again Jackson blocked most of Danny’s strikes and thwarted almost all of the kid’s takedowns. The few punches Danny managed to connect only made Jackson offer a wide, plastic-filled smile as he bounced on the balls of his feet and gave him the universal sign of
bring it on
with his fingers.

When they ended up on the ground it didn’t take more than a minute for Jackson to work his way out of Danny’s hold and reverse the situation, landing Jax on top in the power position.

Corey was right. Jackson could definitely hold his own and then some. But what concerned Vanessa was the look in Danny’s eyes. With every passing minute, the frustration and anger grew more and more obvious, but a glance around the room showed she seemed to be the only one who noticed.

She wasn’t sure what it meant for the two men duking it out in the cage, but nothing good ever came from that kind of a look. She’d seen it over and over again on her stepfather and it had never led to anything remotely good.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to relax, telling herself Jackson knew what he was doing.

At the moment, Danny had Jackson under him in what she’d learned was called full-guard, when the guy on top was between both legs of the guy on the bottom. The guy on top had the goal of trying to gain more power through half-guard—where he straddled one of the other guy’s legs—or full mount, which meant he managed to completely bypass both of his opponent’s legs and sit on the guy’s hips. All while raining down punches to the head and body.

Unfortunately for Danny, Jackson was just too good. Even with Frank coaching Danny, barking out ways to get around Jackson’s moves and gain the upper hand, Akana never even managed to get to a half-guard position.

Vanessa’s hands clasped together in a viselike grip in her lap as she watched Jackson sweep Danny’s legs to one side as he pushed up with his hips, rolling them over until Jax was now on top in a full mount.

Danny immediately spun under Jax to try and push himself up to a standing position.

Frank’s face turned red as he shouted, “No, Akana, you never give up your back! Turn around and get him into your guard!”

But it was too late for Frank’s order. Jackson already had one strong forearm wedged against the front of the kid’s neck and proceeded to pull his clenched fist toward him with his other hand. Danny’s face flooded with darkening shades of red. It wouldn’t be long before Danny passed out.

This particular scenario had happened once before already, and Danny was supposed to either get out of it or tap out so Jackson would release the hold and they could stand up and start over. But this time Danny wasn’t tapping, and it wasn’t possible to get out of it; Jackson’s arm was in too tight for an escape.

Jackson turned his head to the side and spit out his mouth guard. “Come on, kid, tap and we’ll call it a day.”

But Danny didn’t answer and he didn’t tap as his face grew redder than a tomato. Jackson looked to Frank with a questioning brow and received a single nod in response. Jackson released his hold immediately, and Danny took in big choking gulps of air.

Slapping him on the back, Jax said, “Way to show heart and not give up, kid. I’m impressed. Better luck next time.”

Standing up, Jax turned to her, breathing heavily and dripping sweat as he approached the black mesh of the cage. He hooked his fingers through the holes and smiled. “You ready to get out of here, gorgeous?”

She stood and crossed to the octagon, keeping eye contact until she had to tip her head back. “I’m not afraid to admit when I’m wrong. You’ve proven yourself several times over. So get cleaned up and we can head back to Mau Loa. The day is young and we have
things
to do.”

Technically those “things” were cake tasting and reviewing the menus for Friday and Saturday, but she let her eyes tell him she meant much naughtier things than that.

Smart man caught on instantly, if the way his pupils swallowed the amber irises was any indication.

“Don’t have to tell me twice. I’ll be right there.”

Before he had the opportunity to turn around, Vanessa caught sight of Danny getting to his feet in the center of the ring. He muttered something to himself, but with all the noise of the weights clanging and the guys yelling to one another back and forth, she couldn’t hear what he said. But his wild look said plenty.

Her eyes flew open wide. She shouted Jackson’s name. But the warning came too late.

Everything slowed as though someone had paused the world and now clicked through time frame by frame. Danny cocked his hand back and struck at Jackson like a cobra uncoiling.

Jackson turned around in time to see the fist slicing through the air. He reacted by weaving to the left, but it wasn’t fast enough to avoid Danny’s right hand. What looked to be a jab intended for Jackson’s nose ended up as a glancing hit to his cheek. The impact spun him back to the fence, but he was quick to right himself to keep the threat in his sights.

With Jackson’s back now to her, Vanessa moved over several feet, her fingers clutching the fence, to get a better look at his face. Her stomach turned inside out. A gash below his right eye wept crimson blood and spilled over his jaw and onto his chest.

Jackson pushed off the cage and narrowed his eyes on the man who sucker punched him and now had the gall to get in Jax’s face. Vanessa didn’t know a lot of the technical aspects of fighting, but anyone with a lick of common sense knew that a guy getting up in another guy’s grill was a non-verbal invitation for a good old-fashioned brawl. Exactly the thing she wanted to avoid witnessing.

“Jackson, come on, let’s go.”

Her shaky voice showed her as weak, frightened. Things she’d fought hard to never show anyone again since the day she left home. But she didn’t care. She couldn’t. All that mattered was getting Jackson out of there before…
Before
what
, Nessie? Before things get violent? The man’s a fighter. He’s probably violent by nature…just like Carl.

Oh, God, please no. Not Jackson.

Vanessa’s palms grew clammy, and her skin turned cold. She wanted to plead with him again, but the tightness in her throat had trapped her vocal cords. Jax angled his head and used his shoulder to wipe the blood from his face. Instead of helping the situation, it only smeared it around his stubbled jaw and shoulder like a preschooler’s finger-paint project.

Locking eyes with Danny, he ground out, “That make you feel like a man, kid?”

Danny’s jaw worked and his nostrils flared as though Jackson’s words smelled just as bad as they cut. “Nah,” he said. “But I’ll tell you what will.”

Vanessa held her breath as she watched Danny lean in to speak next to Jackson’s ear. Danny’s lips barely moved and he was too quiet for her to know what he said. Though he held perfectly still, every muscle in Jax’s body gripped his bones that much harder and his hands curled into tight fists as the kid pulled away with a satisfied smirk on his face. As he backed up, Danny went so far as to laugh, confident that whatever he’d said to Jackson had gotten the better of him.

A deadly look—the look she hated more than anything and had the power to stir up the dust in her memory and a sickness in her gut—sparked to life in Jackson’s eyes. Normally warm and inviting like a good whiskey on a cold night, his eyes now made her cringe and want to crawl inside herself.

Fighting as a sport was one thing, but fighting out of anger was another entirely, and something she couldn’t abide. Somehow she found her voice for a last-ditch effort at saving her perception of this man who had her turned inside out in only a few days. “Jackson, no, don’t do it!
Please!
”

Either he couldn’t hear her through the blood roaring in his ears or he chose to ignore her because a second later he threw a punch so fierce Danny’s eyes rolled back into his head, and he crumpled to the mat, a boneless version of his former self.

The coach, who’d left the cage after the sparring match ended, now charged back in, putting himself between a still-furious Jackson and the unconscious man. Corey and another fighter grabbed Jax by the arms and dragged him out of the cage, talking him down from the rage that still held him in its clutches.

As the world sped back up into real time around her, Vanessa spun toward the exit and walked as fast as she could until she at last punched through the double doors.

The heat of the early afternoon pressed in on her like a weight, bearing down on her chest and shoulders until her legs shook and she finally sought relief on the grass off to the side of the entrance.

She schooled herself to take deep, meditative breaths and regain control of her body. Soon she felt back to herself, but she still wasn’t about to go back into the gym. The guys probably thought she couldn’t handle a little blood, which couldn’t be further from the truth. It hadn’t been the blood that upset her but what came after it.

When she moved out of her mother’s house, Vanessa swore she would never involve herself with anyone who settled things with his fists. And even though this thing with Jackson was only a fling, it still bothered her to know he’d reacted the way he did.

Which rankled her even more. Why did it matter how he handled himself in a confrontational situation? It wasn’t like she was sizing him up for a potential relationship. She just wanted to bang his brains out for a few days—three, to be exact—and then go on her merry little way. It didn’t matter to
her
how many guys he knocked out outside of the cage. Right? Right.

The sound of the doors opening behind her had her glancing over her shoulder. Jackson strode toward her in his long, easy gait, so uncharacteristic of the intense man from minutes before. When he reached her, he lowered to his haunches, elbows resting on his knees and hands dangling between his legs.

“Hey,” he said. “You okay?”

Though he still wore the hand wraps, his gloves were gone and his face and body were cleaned of any blood. Only his slightly swollen cheek and the two butterfly bandages holding the incised flesh together showed any sign that he’d been struck.

She almost reached out to touch it, to test its severity or offer him comfort. But she stopped the impulse by grabbing a fistful of grass and shredding it to pieces instead.

She lifted her chin. “Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?”

He canted his head and studied her for a moment. “I don’t know. You left pretty quickly after I KOed Akana in there.”

“What did he say to you?”

Jax’s eyes hardened and the muscle in his jaw ticked. “Nothing worth repeating.”

An insult, then. Whether to her or him, it didn’t really matter. She nodded and looked down at the blade of grass she’d rent in two.