Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 68243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Then I heard what we were doing for the rest of the afternoon and narrowed my eyes.
Hand to hand combat.
Yay.
Chapter 4
Hell hath no fury like a man who knows you’ve harmed his woman. Even if she doesn’t know that she’s his woman yet.
-Ford’s secret thoughts
Ford
“What are you doing?” Louis asked as he fell into step with me.
“Going to check out the police academy. They’re doing hand to hand combat training this afternoon, and I want to see how Ashe does,” I answered.
“Oh, count me in,” Saint said as we passed.
“Me, too,” Hayes said.
It was normal for the hand to hand training to be watched by other officers. It was a rite of passage, so to speak, to see all the new recruits get their asses handed to them.
But, based on Ashe’s texts this morning, and my gut feeling, I felt like I had to be there just in case.
Just in case what I had a feeling was about to happen actually happened.
Ashe was a beautiful woman.
At five-foot-three, she was curvy in all the right spots, and she had a face that was to die for. Kissable lips. Beautiful eyes that matched her hair, and a smart mouth that nearly always got her in trouble.
I’d always had no problem attracting women.
I was a six-foot-four, muscled man that had a decent face and wore a badge. And before that, was in the military and wore a dress blues uniform.
I had no problem getting a fuckin’ woman.
But Ashe? She wasn’t just any woman.
She was Ashe Trammel.
The woman that I loved to hate. The woman that I wanted but refused to allow myself to have.
“Where are y’all going?” Nathan asked as he walked into the room with Booth and Bourne.
“We’re going to watch the new police academy recruits get their asses handed to them,” Saint answered. “And we’re going to watch Ford try not to lose his shit when he sees Ashe getting schooled.”
“Actually,” I said as I walked into the observation room that overlooked the training facility, “I doubt that happens.”
“Why do you say that?” Booth asked as he walked up to stand beside me.
I grinned, not bothering to tell them that Ashe was a blue belt in Krav Maga, a brown belt in Aikido, but she’d been taking Muay Thai lessons for years as well.
The girl knew how to handle herself, that was for sure.
Which was funny when men tried to intimidate her.
I’d once seen her take down a two-hundred-and-twenty-pound football player in high school.
It’d been goddamn hilarious.
“Hey, down in front.”
I looked over my shoulder to see Downy, Luke, and Nico sitting in the stadium-style seating behind us.
“Oops,” I said. “Sorry.”
I took a seat closest to the window as I could get.
“We should place bets,” Nico muttered. “Which kid gets knocked out.”
“I’m betting on the girls,” one asshole in the corner muttered.
Jerry.
Of course, it was Jerry.
“The female instructor normally doesn’t knock the women out, Jerry,” I drawled.
Because of how this academy worked, usually the females trained the females, and the males trained the males.
There were times, like I was sure was about to happen with Ashe, that the males would help with the females.
“All right, ladies,” Patman said. “Who wants to go first?”
Nobody raised their hands, causing the entire viewing room to break out in chuckles.
“Well, this is how it’s going to go then,” Patman said, rubbing his hands together. “I’m going to pick a person for you to work with. And y’all are going to work together to put me down on the ground. Normally we have some females working with us, but since we only have two in the class, we’re going to let you team up with a male and work on hand to hand for today.”
I snorted, causing everyone in the room to look at me.
“What do you know that we don’t?” Nico asked.
I shrugged and kept my eyes aimed forward. “You’ll see.”
He would, too.
When people watched Ashe fight, it was like watching a goddamn transformer pop out of a fuckin’ Camaro. You would’ve never expected it. Not in a million years.
“All right, you and you then,” Patman said, pointing at a male about six foot even, and of course, Ashe. “Y’all come at me.”
Patman waited when neither one of them moved.
“What are you waiting for?” he asked, jumping.
Ashe shook her head, blew her bangs out of her eyes, and then looked up at the viewing room.
She instantly saw me, and her eyes narrowed.
I gave her a chin tilt that said, ‘go for it,’ causing her to sigh.
“What was that?” Saint asked.
“You’ll see,” Louis said cryptically.
Louis hadn’t actually seen Ashe in action before, but he had seen videos.
They were just too impressive not to share.
Every time my family got together, Ashe always got brought up.
See, when two people fought as much as Ashe and I did, it was rare not to want to antagonize the other person just a little bit.