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“Of course. Anything.”
“Could you and Justin ask around or search for martial arts instructors who will come to you? Karate or Muay Thai. I’ve trained in both. I want someone tough who will beat my ass and not go easy on me. I don’t care how expensive they are.”
“What’s this about?” she asked.
I sighed. “I’m done. I’ve trained and worked out all my life, but people have still gotten the jump on me. It’s because I’ve trained in sparring matches with people who were taught to pull punches, so we didn’t hurt one another. I’m over it. Yeah, I might be more skilled than someone like Eric and his asshole friends, but they were still stronger and took me down.”
She snorted. “Yeah, by hitting you in the back of the head with a two-by-four. I think that’s a little different.”
I shook my head. “I don’t care. I’ve slacked off on working out and training for long enough. I need to get back into it. I’m tired of feeling weak and useless. Especially if there are people out there who want me dead. And now that Harper is evenmorepissedandnow that Asher knows, anything could happen. I’m not taking chances. If something happens, I want to know I can defend not only myself, but you guys, too, if the need arises.”
She leaned over and hugged me. “It’ll be okay. Everything will be okay. Justin has a lot of resources. His story isn’t mine to tell, but just know he’s got your back, okay? But I’ll look into this for you.” She pulled away, and her grey eyes stared into mine. “You just get some rest, and we’ll worry about that stuff.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Luna kissed my forehead and walked away, tossing my phone up on the pillow next to me. If I’d done that, it would have ricocheted off and broke every-damn-thing in the room. She gave me a little wave and shut the bedroom door. A few short moments later, I heard the apartment door click as she headed out to her last class of the day.
CHAPTER FORTY
JUSTIN
October was one of my favorite months of the year. I loved Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas—or Hallowthankmas, as my mother saw on Facebook once—but Halloween was my personal favorite of the three. I loved decorating for it, the cheesy movies, and dressing up. It was the best.
When Temperance said she wanted to go into town and do some shopping to make a costume, I was all for it. What happened to her flipped a switch. In the short time I’d known her, I’d never seen her so determined.
She was in the gymeveryday working out or in the pool swimming laps, and she even hired a Muay Thai instructor who came to the gym three days a week to train her one-on-one. It had been three weeks since the tattoo incident, and the fire in her hadn’t died yet. She said she’d never let anyone take her down again, and from the looks of it, she meant it.
I pitied anyone who fucked with her at this point. She was stillmad, mad, and I couldn’t blame her. Since coming to the school she’d been assaulted several times and bullied non-stop. She was sick of feeling like a victim, and she’d decided to do something about it. I was proud of her, even if I thought she was going too hard.
When she told me she wanted to take a night off and go shopping, I was more than happy to take her. Just in the three weeks she’d been training, she already looked even leaner than she did before. Her thighs were a little thicker, and her arms a little more defined.
“I’m going to have to go up a size in pants,” she whined. “I’m going to have to buy them big enough to fit my wide ass thighs and my dump truck ass, and then take in the waist.”
“Oh, boohoo,” I said with a laugh. “You’re whining about something most girls would kill for.”
She barked a loud laugh. “Yeah, if they’re from Crestview, they’d kill for it, but they sure as shit wouldn’t work for it.”
“Touché,” I said. “I suppose that’s a fair assessment.”
“So… I had an idea. I wanted to see what you thought.”
I looked over at her. She wanted to drive fast and live dangerously, so I let her drive my car. While she loved hers, she couldn’t resist such a powerful sports car. “Sure. What’s up?”
“Are you busy tonight?” she asked. “After this, I mean. Do you have plans?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I planned the night around you. Did you have something in mind?”
She bit her lip, and I had to look away. It was difficult to look at her when she did that. She always looked so damn sexy.
“It’s been a few weeks, and the tattoo is healed. I destroyed some of it in the shower and scrubbing the hell out of it the first few days. Painful as hell, but at least it’s faded some, and you can’t tell what it is anymore for the most part. Anyway, it’s healed, and I was thinking of hitting up a tattoo shop tonight.” She looked at me briefly before watching the road again. “What do you think?”
That brought a smile to my face. It sounded like she’d moved past the rage part and was starting to move forward. “I think we should. I’ll get one with you. Do you already have something in mind? I’ll have to figure out what I want, but by the time we’re done shopping for fabric and supplies, I bet I can think of something awesome.”
“I think I do. In my bag, there’s a tablet. Will you pull it out? When you unlock it, it’s the sketch app on the home screen.”
“Sketch app? You drew it?” I asked, and she nodded.
I did as she asked and pulled the tablet out, finding the app she’d mentioned. When I did, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It wasstunning. It was a 3D nautical theme. On the shoulder, where her current tattoo was, there would be a large compass in heavy black and greys that wouldeasilycover what Harper had done. The background had map lines and a map with torn edges of North America. Two places were marked on the map—one where Indiana would be if the state lines had been drawn, and one where California would be.
