Page 71 of Hostile Saint

Eye locked to mine, Dagger slowly nodded. “Let your fingers tighten on that handle. Make that handle feel your heat.”

My fingers tightened and relaxed as I transferred my heat in a claiming manner.

“Let it become your heat. That fire that drives you.”

I lifted the knife to linger in front of me.

Now smirking, Dagger slowly nodded again. “Feel the weight. Feel the power you have just been given.”

Power given… My head tilted as that power dawned on me.

“That’s right, Pup. That power is yours now. What ‘cha wanna to do with it?”

My shoulders eased. My heart settled.

My ache for revenge replaced my fear. “I want to know how to use it.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Creating Gains

Sun beat down on my shoulders as I stood in the backyard, listening to Vice instruct me about how to use a knife properly. And when I say properly, I mean how to efficiently kill someone.

In a slow-motion example, he lifted my left arm with his, then swung in his right, to act as if he was going to stab me in the ribs a little under my armpit. Luckily, there was no knife in his hand because he said, “If your blade hits here, there is a high chance you will hit the heart. Fight over. Or, at least, at the tail end.”

When we had been at the dining room table, I told them I wanted to learn how to use a blade, but actually, in the process, I now felt I was reliving a vortex of nightmares.

Trying not to wince because I know how it feels to have steel sink into your flesh, I stared into his dark eyes that I sensed had seen much blood in their time. “How many lives?”

Grabbing his aviator glasses from the front of his t-shirt, he dropped my arm and turned away to go back to his starting point for our pretend combat. “Better them than me.” Facing me again, his glasses were in place as he squatted, his unkept dirty blond hair sticking to the sweat on his forehead. “Ready?”

Even though I said, “No,” I squatted as previously instructed and thought about how it was crucial I learn every way possible to protect Lacey, seeing how every family member I knew of, except my murderers, were dead. Knowing that as soon as the brothers found out she was alive, she would again be in danger, previously desired revenge dissipated. Now, surviving was back at the top of my list—

“Stop overthinking this and focus, Pup. When facing hand-to-hand combat, your mind must not drift. Be focused or die.”

“I’m just—”

“Not right now. Not in a fight you need to live through. Right now, you are Saint; a Steel Stallion that’s calling on his steel heart to live through this battle so he can safely get back to his Pretty Girl.”

Lacey… Nothing in the world could focus me like that girl.

I exhaled. I am Saint…

Heeding Vice’s advice, I did my best to push away all other thoughts.

Fortunately, I had a teacher who was patient and wise. “That’s right. Just you and me.”

I studied his stance. The way his gigantic biker boots adjusted his heavy weight. I studied his primed body. The aggression. The tension. How his hand gripped the wooden spoon that now looked deadly. His arms were spread and ready to capture his prey…

Better him than me… My mind cleared and was completely present.

Vice saw the moment I was ready and gestured to the wooden spoon in my grasp, taunting, “Show me what you got, kid.”

As I lurched forward to attack, Vice moved to meet me halfway. As soon as he was close, I used his weight to my advantage and spun and snuck around his side, ending up behind him. I pretended to ram the spoon in his back. Tap!

The six-foot-four man began to slowly turn around to face me. Me thinking I had made him mad, I took a cautious step back, but stopped when I saw a smirk shining from under his glasses. He asked, “How did you do that so fast?”

Feeling somewhat proud of myself, I set my shoulders back. “Learned to move fast when attacked by four all the time.”