Page 148 of Shattered Pieces

“You never do as you’re told, and neither do I. I saw you basically drooling to get in here, so I’ll show you some moves to help you take down people bigger than you. Sound good?”

I was surprised by his willingness to teach me, so I nodded and let him move my body how he wanted, keeping all the moves slow as he talked me through them all. Faris was sitting at the bar watching us while Bobby talked his ear off, apparently done with the cleanup finally, and it was going well until I noticed Diesel and Brick talking to Hunter by the door.

I tripped over my own feet and Marco caught me, a frown on his face. “What’s wrong?”

“Do you have a meeting with the Psychos?” I asked carefully, making him glance over to see what I was looking at. Diesel was busy talking, but Brick was eyeing me with a blank look on his face. He’d definitely noticed Marco’s jacket on me though, so there was no point in panicking and shoving it off me. That just made me look guilty.

“Not that I know of,” Marco replied with a shrug. “Come on, hands back up. We’ll go full force this time. I’ll come at you, and you try to take me down.”

I blew out a breath and got ready, knowing he was holding back a little when he jerked forward and made a move to grab me, but I focused on kicking his feet out from under him and knocked him back in the process, his body landing on the ground with an oomph.

“Nice one,” he wheezed, and I smirked when I realized I’d actually winded him.

“Get up, I want to do that again.”

“I bet you fucking do,” he grumbled, but he got to his feet and got into position again, ending up on his ass again.

This was fun.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

DIESEL

“Skeet couldn’t come himself?” Hunter asked dryly when we arrived, my eyes flicking over to Rory and Marco in the cage before returning to Hunter.

“Look, it’s better this way. Besides, he wanted to handle today’s drug deal, and I’d rather not be around the drugs or him when I can help it,” I answered, letting out a sigh. “Would you have preferred Skeet showed up to see Rory in the cage with one of your jackets on? C’mon, man. You know that’s asking for trouble.”

“She was torturing people earlier and probably got blood on her riding jacket. Marco wouldn’t have switched them over without a reason.”

“I know that, but Skeet’s not really a logical thinker when he’s pissed. Wait, Rory was doing what?” I asked as I looked over at her again, watching her take Marco down to the ground. At least he was teaching her something important.

“Go ask them about their day. Marco had a job and let Rory tag along. Bobby dealt with the cleanup and was pretty impressed with the scene. Apparently, Marco told him Rory had done most of it,” Hunter replied, making Brick wince.

“Isn’t that a bad idea getting her involved in stuff like that?”

“She can do what she wants and we’ll protect her. Everyone says she doesn’t belong in our world, but she does. I don’t love it, but Marco insists she needs to let a little of that darker side out, so he’s happy for her to tag along with him.”

“You’re going to get her killed,” Brick grunted, eyeing them too. “This just looks like Skeet was right all along.”

“I haven’t touched her,” Hunter said sharply, making me grimace.

“Not from a lack of trying though.”

“You can’t even blame me. You of all people know how tempting she is,” he grumbled, flicking a hand at us. “Go see her. Her throat’s pretty bad to look at but she seems alright. She’s been texting Josie so she knows she’s okay.”

“You slept on the couch, right?”

“Unfortunately,” he huffed. Brick snorted, but I was over the conversation, leaving him to talk to Hunter while I headed over to my girl. She took down Marco again before looking up and seeing me, her face lighting up.

“Hey. What are you guys doing here?” she asked as he got to his feet to stand beside her. Her voice was still scratchy and occasionally cut out, the purple bruise around her throat looking painful, but she seemed pretty happy.

I climbed into the cage and she immediately hugged me, tilting her face up for a kiss.

“You really need to take that jacket off,” I murmured, and Marco sighed.

“Why? I think she looks good in it.”

Rory shot him a dirty look before turning her attention back to me with a look of apology.