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“A beautiful mess.”
Raine smiled. I was about to kiss her, but my phone buzzed with a text from John Paul.
Wakey wakey! Eggs and fuckin bakey!
I rolled my eyes.
“Who is that?” Raine asked.
“JP,” I said. “I have to get up.”
I took a quick shower. When I was done, I found fresh coffee waiting for me in the kitchen. Raine had her own cup in her hand, and she held onto it tightly without drinking.
“What happens now?” Raine asked. The tension in her voice was plain.
“I’m going to train with JP,” I said. “That will be for the next few days. After that, Landon said three weeks of training.”
“Where will you go for that?”
“I don’t know for sure,” I said. “Landon’s being in Miami makes me wonder if the tournament will take place somewhere around here, which would mean we stay close—in the same atmosphere. It’s best to train in the type of environment where you’re going to fight.”
“Where will I be?” Raine asked quietly.
Fuck. So much for my planning skills.
“I haven’t gotten that far,” I admitted. “I’ll talk to John Paul.”
“I could stay with Nick and Lindsay,” Raine suggested.
“No,” I said. “They can’t protect you.”
“We could go on a trip or something,” she said. “Stay out of the way?”
I shook my head.
“I want to know exactly where you are,” I replied. “If you’re not where I expect you to be, I won’t know if you’re safe or not.”
I was teetering on scaring her, which I didn’t want to do, but I wasn’t going to let her far from my sight if it could be helped. I moved closer and wrapped my arms around her. Raine placed her head on my shoulder and sighed.
“I hate this,” she whispered.
“I know,” I said. “I hate it, too. This time next month it will all be over, and you, me and Alex…well, we have to figure that part out.”
A thought occurred to me, and I leaned back and placed my palm on her cheek.
“I need you to help me figure that shit out,” I said. “I need you to get whatever the hell we’re gonna need with a kid around. I don’t know anything about that shit.”
“You think I do?”
I think you need to focus on something that isn’t about me killing people.
“I think you have a better chance of understanding it than I do. If you can put up with my childish ass, you can probably deal with a six-year-old as well.”
Raine gave me a tight lipped smile as another text from John Paul told me to come and meet him at the front door.
“I’ll be gone a while,” I told Raine, “just to the gym upstairs. Keep your phone close, and don’t open the fucking door for anyone, even if you think you know who it is.”
“Okay,” she said as she bit down on her lip.
