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“Yes.”
He cocked a brow. “You have?”
“Don’t look so surprised. You don’t know everything about me.”
Bane laughed. The sound struck me with a hard and sudden urge to peel off the one article of clothing in our way, and ride him on the couch again. Part of me hoped that was his plan when he woke me at four in the morning for our first day of training. We had to get it in before I left for Caddell House.
“I’m allowed to be surprised,” he said, grinning. “You look at my gun collection like they’re a pile of writhing snakes. Why shouldn’t I be shocked you picked one up?”
“I look at them like that because it makes me nervous to have so many weapons even in the same building as Laurel. But I have fired one before,” I confessed. “You know the trouble I was having with that low-life pimp. Marty was worried about me, so he got me a gun. We spent a day in the woods with him teaching me how to aim. In the end, I decided to carry a knife instead. You can’t get arrested for carrying an unregistered knife.”
Bane swore. “I am stupid for being surprised. You faced danger long before you met the Merchants.” He grasped my hands, kissing my knuckles. “Fuck, I hate what you’ve been through. I hate even more that you went through it alone.”
I lowered my head, heart thumping a rapid beat. A tender touch and sweet words clashed with the no-strings-attached casual hookups we were trying to be. It was against the rules, but Bane was the kind of man to make his own.
“I wasn’t alone,” I said softly. “I had Sienna. She was right next to me, firing that gun too.”
“Now you have me too.” Our bodies drew together, hips knocking. His hands moved down my arms, stealing my breath with every inch that brought them closer to my breasts. “All this training, Kenzie, you won’t need it. I won’t let anyone hurt you again.”
I flattened my palm over his heart. “I believe you. I shouldn’t, considering all the men who’ve lied and fooled me in the past, but when you make promises to me, Bane. I believe them.”
A faint smile crossed his lips. “But you don’t believe I’ll keep my promise to avoid love, kids, and commitment?”
“Hmm.” I pulled a face. “I believe you’ll try damn hard, but the difference with that promise is, I’ll be working damn hard too to see you fail. The others you’ll keep because I won’t get in your way.”
If I thought he’d be mad at that, Bane surprised me again by laughing out loud. “If there’s an adversary I couldn’t beat, it would have to be you.”
My heart filled to burst, then it did when he let go—his serious mask slamming into place.
“Okay, you turned down a gun for a knife once, it’s fine to do it again.” My head spun at the subject change. “A blade is even better because you can hide it on you easily while you’re in Caddell House. We don’t know what this Brotherhood rat will do when you find them.”
My mouth opened and closed forming a response. “Hopefully they won’t attack me in a roomful of people.”
“They won’t, Kenzie. They’ll wait until they got you trapped in a bathroom, empty office, or dark corner. People die in crowded buildings all the time. There isn’t always safety in numbers.”
I shivered. Genny was right. I wasn’t thinking like a homicidal sociopath, but I had to learn quickly if I planned to hunt one down.
“All right, the knife,” I said, steeling my resolve and shoving away my feelings. Bane was teaching me how to survive. We could have sexually charged moments after.
He took my hand, leading me down the wall and his collection. Knives of all types and makes hung before me. “Pick whichever one feels right in your hand. Though, if I can make a suggestion, go for one of the switchblades.”
“Will you teach me to fight with it?” I picked up a switchblade with a blue-and-ivory handle, bouncing it on my palm. It weighed next to nothing. How could something so deadly feel like it was hardly there? “Or will Sunny be my teacher?”
Bane shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong, Sunny could kill a man with anything on this wall. But his expertise is knife-throwing—a skill our dad has been teaching him since he was five. You don’t have twenty years to learn.”
“Good point.”
“Another good point is it’s not a good idea for you to be throwing your only weapon across the room.”
I giggled, picturing all the ridiculous movies where people did just that. Flinging weapons all over the place while they screamed and ran about. “If I’m not throwing it, that means you’ll be teaching me to fight up close and personal.”
