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“With all due respect, there’s nothing you’re going to teach me that I can’t already handle. Give it your best, and it will save us a lot of time here,” I told him.
Marquis looked skeptical, but he nodded and cracked his knuckles.
I could tell from the immediate offensive attack—slower than I imagined—he didn’t fully believe me. But I ducked beneath his swing and used his leverage to swing a leg beneath his and push him to the mats.
The man stood, shocked by the maneuver.
We went through various attacks, all of which I countered easily. Marquis quickly began working up a sweat from the effort he put into attacking me, but I didn’t so much as breathe too deeply. Heswung, and I deflected. He kicked, and I dodged. He left a gap in his defenses…
“Fuck,” he shouted as I clocked him across the jaw, sending him staggering back a few steps.
“I think that’s enough,” Dante said with an approving nod. Marquis shook my hand, though he seemed to do it begrudgingly as he strode from the mats and toward the exit, still nursing the jaw that would certainly be bruised by tomorrow. “You just outmaneuvered my right-hand man. You’ve been holding all of that back?”
I shrugged as Dante stepped onto the mats effortlessly, his arms crossed over his chest.
“I told you I’ve spent the past decade training for this,” I retorted. “I went through a lot to make sure I was ready for you.”
“Did you consider how well-trained I was?”
“I assumed you had substantial training of your own. And you have a size advantage. It’s why I worked so hard for so long.” He began moving around the mat as if circling me. “I don’t need more training.”
“If you can take me to the mats, I’ll believe that,” he countered. “Maybe I’ll even hire you asmypersonal assassin.”
I could see the bait that he dangled before me. He’d watched my deflections and strikes on his trainer, and I didn’t doubt that he cataloged each one for this moment.
“If I do, is there a prize?” I asked, adjusting my footwork as I turned to fully face him, not allowing him to leave my sight. “Or do I just get to stop listening to you pestering me?”
“Do you need a reward?”
I shrugged. “It would be nice.”
“How about this,” he said with a wicked smile. “If you win, I’ll let you choose exactly how we spend our evening. If I win…” He licked his lips. “I have some ideas.”
“It sounds like a win-win scenario.”
I barely got the words out of my mouth before he lunged forward. He moved more swiftly than the trainer. His fist nearly clipped my jaw before I pivoted and swept away. My eyes captured every line of his movement as I lunged backward.
He left no openings to expose. Not without exposing my own body to his attacks.
Instead, I ducked and rolled out of his assault, springing back upright and facing a second attack.
This time, I had the briefest second to gather my bearings.
I allowed him to get close before hooking a leg around the back of his. It felt like the world around me slowed as I saw the progression of our movements before they came to fruition. I used his own momentum to send him shooting forward.
I didn’t expect him to grab my arm.
I barely managed to pull myself from his grip with a strategic turn I rarely used in fights. But it was my only option. As I twisted out of his hold, his second arm came around my throat, pulling me back into a hard, warm chest before I could do anything to counter it.
I felt the hard length of him across my back, and I gasped.
“Overconfidence will get you killed,” he said, tightening the chokehold enough to show that he had me trapped.
Only he didn’t.
Instead of succumbing to it, I stomped a foot down on his, twisting my entire body in tandem. As he tried to readjust his grip, he didn’t focus on all the parts of his body he left exposed.
I sent a sharp blow into the most sensitive one and broke free when he cowered forward.
