Rules of Survival (Entangled Embrace) (15 page)

“I told you to walk away,” Shaun growled.

“I will. Just hand the little bitch over and consider things done. I won’t even beat your ass raw for the disrespect you’ve shown me.”

The muscles in Shaun’s jaw twitched. His eyes flickered from Deeds to the scaffolding overhead as he wiped his mouth again and took a step back. “I dare you to fucking try.”

Deeds laughed. He was standing directly under the middle of the scaffolding now. The can of red paint still dripped, the droplets hitting the ground right next to him and dotting his pants leg with what looked like specks of gore. He glanced down and frowned. “And on top of it all, you owe me a new pair of pants.”

Shaun didn’t respond. He pushed me back and took another step, until we were out from under the scaffolding.

“What? Got nothing to say, boy?” Deeds grinned. It was the kind of smirk you just want to wipe from someone’s face using Brillo. Or possibly high-grade sandpaper. It was conceited and, more than that, cruel. “Not that I expected anything else. Most beaten animals put up a small fight, but in the end, they know who the master is.”

Shaun stiffened. For a second I was sure he’d charge Deeds again, but instead, he gently pushed me behind him. “Master? That’d be
me
.”

Without warning, Shaun brought his leg up and kicked out at the scaffolding support with impressive force. It caved, wobbling for a moment before crashing down on Deeds.

“Let’s go.” He took my hand and led me away as a crowd started to gather on the corner.

Chapter Sixteen

I stuffed my free hand under my leg to keep warm. We’d settled on the edge of an abandoned lot, against the wall of an old box factory, a few feet away from one of the many trash-can fires. It was late and the sun was going down. We’d spent the rest of the day trying to avoid not only Jaffe’s men, but now Deeds as well. “Can I ask you a question?”

Beside me Shaun smiled. He was trying not to shiver. I’d attempted to give his jacket back, but he kept insisting he wasn’t cold. “The answer is yes. I do work out.”

I smiled but shook my head.

There were tents strewn all around—some real and others homemade—as well as sleeping bags and crudely made shelters. The locals called it Purgatory. Mom and I had crashed here for a couple days a few years ago. The cops mostly ignored it, and the local shelter came through once a day with food. It was mostly down-on-their-luck people—entire families who’d lost their homes, runaways, the poor and jobless, people who wanted to disappear. It was a broken community where everyone was welcome and no one had a name.

“I was wondering about what Deeds said…”

“Ahh.” He knew exactly what I meant. “I told you, hunters talk. They knew Pat took me in. He disappeared from the game for a while after that.”

“Why did he disappear?”

Shaun adjusted the cuff on his hand, then turned to look me in the eye. “’Cause I was a terror. Seriously damaged and impossible to handle.”

Something Deeds said—something about a beaten dog and taking a hit—made the acid bubble in my belly. I swallowed hard. Suddenly it wasn’t so cold. “Damaged?”

“My dad—my real dad—was a bastard. He was a drunk and knocked me around pretty badly.” He shifted the collar of his shirt aside to reveal the angry bunch of scars I’d seen the other night on his left shoulder. “Used to use me as an ashtray.”

“Jesus.” I gasped, remembering Shaun’s reaction, first to Patrick smoking back at the cabin, and then to Josh in the junkyard. Now it made sense—and looking at the cluster of scars, I couldn’t blame him.

He shrugged it off. “One night, right after I turned thirteen, I’d had enough. I got angry and I fought back.”

“What happened?”

Shaun’s expression went dark. “He didn’t like it.” He pulled up his shirt, revealing the tattoo above his navel. Running his thumb across the top, where the ink was slightly warped, he said, “Stabbed me. That’s why it’s all fucked up. I had them put the ink over the scar. I survived, ya know? He also gave me three broken fingers, two busted ribs, and knocked out four teeth that night. Told the people at the ER I fell.” He shook his head. “After hearing that over and over again, they didn’t even bat an eye.”

All my life it had always been just Mom and me. We looked out for each other and no one else. So when I found myself furious that someone had done that to him—had hurt him while he was so helpless—it was a bit overwhelming. I took a deep breath. “Where was your mom?”

“Died when I was born. It was always just me and the old man.”

“So you left?”

“I had to. He left me alone for those first few days after I got out of the hospital, but fighting back had been a tipping point. If I stayed, he would have killed me. As soon as I could, I packed a bag and never looked back. I lived on the streets for ten months before I stumbled into the alley behind Pat’s building. I was frozen and starving, and beyond messed up. I was violent, and didn’t trust anyone. He put up with a lot from me…but never once did he yell or try to slug me.” A small smile crept across his lips. “When he put me into school, I didn’t really mesh with the other kids. I was always getting into fights—got my ass handed to me, too.”

I couldn’t picture Shaun on the business end of a beating after the things I’d seen. The guy was hard-core. “Seriously?”

“Oh, hell yeah. But Pat spent the weekends teaching me to fight. Teaching me to stand on my own two feet and defend myself.”

“Well, he taught you good. Those were some killer moves back there today. I’m kinda jealous.”

“Don’t be. It’s
too
easy for me. I’ve never been able to let go of the anger I had as a kid. I wasn’t kidding when I said I had impulse-control issues. I’m better now, but I’ve got a real short fuse.”

I smiled and before I could think twice, rested my hand over his. “I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit. You showed more control than I would have dealing with Deeds earlier.” I sighed. “Sometimes I wish I could fight. I’ve always relied on brains, but sometimes that’s just not enough, ya know?”

He glanced around, then got to his feet. “Here. Lemme show you.”

He helped me up and took my free hand in his. “Go ahead. Make a fist.”

I scrunched my fingers into a tight ball, trying hard to concentrate on anything other than the way his skin felt on mine. “Like this?”

“No.” His fingers slipped across my knuckles, warm and slightly rough. The touch sent my pulse through the roof, and I was positive he could hear it—mainly because when I picked my head up to look up at him, he was staring.

I tried to turn away, but there was some unseen force keeping my gaze locked to his. I panicked and said the first thing that came to mind. “Hi…”

He grinned. “Hi.”

Shit. Okay, now what? Apparently my brain cells had leaked out along the way. I needed to speak. Say something that wasn’t stupid. “So, um, my fist is wrong?”

He blinked several times, then nodded. “Oh. Yeah.” Pulling my thumb out, he said, “Has to go on the outside—otherwise you risk breaking it.”

I adjusted my fist and took a deep breath. “Okay. How’s this?”

He nodded. “Better. Okay, first thing to remember is, if you’re going for the face, always aim for the mouth or the nose.”

“Not the cheeks?”

“Nope.” He brought his index finger up and ran it along my cheek—from just beside my nose, to my ear. The touch was feathery soft, but left ripples of heat in its wake. It stirred an odd kind of high that kick-started my heart and left me feeling kind of breathless. In that moment it was hard to remember why I’d put the brakes on last night. “There are a lot of small bones in the hand. You could break something, or worse, collapse your knuckles.”

“
Collapse my knuckles?
Sounds painful,” I managed to get out.

He moved closer, and I shivered against his nearness, bringing a smile to his lips. He was doing it on purpose. Knowing that it affected me. A part of me thought that was cruel, while another part found it intriguing.

“It is. Spread your legs a little wider.” He bent slightly, left hand skimming the outside of my leg. Even through the thick material of my borrowed oversize sweatpants, I could feel the warmth of his hand gliding down my leg. I bit my lower lip hard so I’d have something else to focus on. Something
other
than the unbelievably amazing, fluttery feeling in my chest as his hands moved over me.

When he got to my knee, he wrapped his hand around and pulled out lightly. “You want to maintain good balance. Make it impossible for your opponent to knock you over.”

I let him position me where he wanted and held my breath. If I breathed in now, I’d say or do something monumentally embarrassing. I just knew it.

He stood and stepped away as far as the shackles would allow. “You’re small, but I’ve seen you move. You’re quick. And smart. Nine times out of ten, you’re going to be out-muscled—but that doesn’t mean they can take you down. Your best bet is dodging. Even the most powerful guy is thrown off—even if it’s only for a second—when you dodge his blow. It’s all about momentum. Dodge—” His free arm shot out into the air in front of me, sending tendrils of my hair fluttering every which way. “Then strike.”

“Dodge, then strike. Got it.”

He nodded and waved me closer. “Hit me.”

I blinked, sure I’d heard him wrong. “
Hit you?
”

He flashed me a grin that nearly turned my knees to goop. “Well,
try
to, anyway.”

“I don’t want to—”

And I swung. My plan was to take him off guard. It didn’t work out that way, though. He twisted to the right and easily avoided the blow. There was even enough time for him to tweak my nose before returning to his original position.

“See how the follow-through kinda wrecked your balance? As the smaller, weaker fighter, you need to exploit that.”

It sounded like it made sense. “Okay…”

He stepped away again. “Let’s try something a little different. I’ll come at you.”

My mind, already swimming through the gutter after he’d practically groped my leg, didn’t send the
shut up
command to my mouth fast enough. “For what?”

“To try and attack you. You dodge the blow, then strike at me. Remember—dodge and strike.”

I wasn’t sure I liked this plan—for a long list of reasons. “How am I supposed to dodge you?”

He winked. “No worries. I’ll make it easy.”

Without another word, he moved forward with his left hand, moving slow enough for me to duck out of the way. As his faux momentum propelled him past, I brought my right arm up and tapped his jaw with my elbow.

“That was great,” he exclaimed. “Do it again, but this time, put some force behind the blow.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

He angled himself closer, proud grin morphing into something a little more wicked. It heated my skin. “Don’t worry.” Warm breath caressing the edge of my ear, he whispered, “I like it rough.”

There was no way to hide it. I was positive he could see the effect he had on me. How could he not? The heat that flared in my cheeks had to be nearly as obvious as the drumming of my pulse, which every inhabitant of the lot must have been able to hear by that point. He backed away as far as the chains would allow, but his eyes never left mine.

Without waiting for the okay, he came at me again, this time faster. I managed to avoid him—barely—and bent to duck his arm. Throwing myself forward, I caught him at the waist and pushed off the ground hard. The movement sent us toppling down. Him onto the ground. Me splayed awkwardly on top. If I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest before, now it was likely to make my entire body implode.

I lifted my head to find him staring again. “That was perfect,” he said, voice low and just a little husky.

Even though we were on the ground in a parking lot, not far from a group of downtrodden homeless people, and technically on the run for our lives, I wanted to inch forward and brush my lips against his. If I could kiss him again, everything would melt away. Like it had by the road. Like it had in the trailer… Just a few moments of peace. Another taste of normal.

As if reading my mind, he whispered, “You can kiss me, you know… You can take control.”

And I wanted to. Badly. But he was wrong. I
couldn’t
. “That probably wouldn’t be a good idea.”

He propped himself up on his free arm. The rippling light from the fire a few feet away played dancing shadows across the left side of his face, leaving the other completely cloaked in darkness. “Not a good idea?”

“After what happened back at the trailer…” I shook my head, and even though every fiber in my body protested, I slipped off him. Folding my knees under, cross-legged, I tilted my head back against the building.

Shaun sat up as well, eyes narrow. “I liked what we did at the trailer. I wanna kiss you again.” He let his finger trace the outline of my bottom lip.

“Okay,” I said, but as he leaned close, I wedged my hand between us. “But first, tell me why.”

He tilted his head, letting his finger fall away. “Why what?”

“Why do you want to kiss me?”

He looked confused. “Because I want to?”

Did he have to make this harder? “But
why
do you want to?”

He narrowed his eyes, understanding. “What you’re really asking is, is this just another distraction?”

I nodded. I liked him—much more than I should—but I still wanted to know the truth. I’d never had a relationship of any kind with anyone other than my mom. If this was all about using me to play the distraction in an otherwise horrible situation, then I was okay with it. It worked both ways. But if it was more than that…

He came a little closer. “Seriously? Do you really believe that?”

“You said—”

“Because you were so obviously freaked out.” He ran a finger along my cheek, all the way to my jaw, and let it rest there for a moment, just above my pulse point, which was going crazy.

“I was not,” I argued—even though he was right. I had been freaked. I’d never gotten that intense with anyone before, and the fact that I wanted to lose myself in it had terrified me. Add that to the way I was feeling about him, and it was one hell of a mess. “This is against the rules,” I whispered, eyes on his.

He rose onto his knees. “
The rules?
What rules?”

“Mom had a very specific set of rules. It’s how—”

He grabbed both my hands and held them tight. It was hard to think when he was this close. When he touched me. “This is gonna sound harsh, but you need to listen carefully. There are no rules, Kayla. Your mom is gone. You need to live your own life now. Make your
own
rules—not follow someone else’s.” He let go and raised our cuffed hands. “This is kinda the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

I wanted to look away, but I just couldn’t. “Because it’s giving you time to think, right?”

His nose scrunched, and he cocked his head to the right, before settling back down on the ground in front of me. “You can be so incredibly thick. It’s true, I don’t think I’m cut out for this kind of thing. I’ve got too short a fuse. Pat keeps his cool under any circumstance. You need that in this line of work—especially when dealing with people like Deeds. But what I’m talking about is you.”

My traitorous heartbeat sped up. Excitement—regardless of how hard I tried to tamp it down—started to bubble. “Me?”

“These shackles are the best thing that’s happened to me because of you. Being shackled to
you
. That’s what I’m talking about.”

“You’re insane. You’re basically stuck to a ticking time bomb.”

“Am I? If I hadn’t ended up cuffed to you, I would have never gotten the opportunity to start getting to
know
you. You’re more than a distraction; I like you. I think you’re smart and funny. I think you’ve got some mad skills, even if you don’t see it yourself, and you’re a good person. You’ve been through some crazy stuff and you haven’t made it all about you. I’ve met a lot of people like you—and like me. People who’ve been dealt a shitty hand. They get hard. Cold. Only care about themselves and where their next thing is coming from. That’s not you. You’re not a manipulator.”