Page 73 of Beautiful Soldier
I turn to find Jiko Cardinale striding into the gym like he owns the place. “No, that’s Rocket’s friend from Chicago.”
Finn smirks. “Jax is going to have an aneurysm with all the gang guys we have in here. This could be fun.” Without giving me a chance to respond, he stands. “Ready, Princess? We have to figure out a way to kick the ass of...one of your boyfriends?” He shakes his head. “You’re in a world of shit, girl. I don’t envy you at all.”
“Same,” I say, standing after him and heading toward the ring. “I’m not going to take it easy today. I think I have some aggression to get out.”
Seeing us get up, Jax walks toward the ring from the opposite side. “I got her.”
Like before, Brawler holds back as Jax and Finn get into the ring with me. I wish he would just come up here. He already wants to throw the fight, and it’s not happening. Fighting is his future. Regardless of the fact that we’re fighting one another in a few days, he still needs training for every fight after that. He’s going places in the fight world as long as we can get the fuck out of the Heights unscathed.
Jax starts some drills with me. Defense first, and then a punching and kicking combination while we move around the ring. I’m not taking it easy today like I did the other day. I should probably only hit at seventy-five percent, but I don’t really have the time to baby my arm into this. K needs to see a good fight, which means I’m bound to get hurt, even if I am going to let Brawler win. And really, “let” him win is just a turn of phrase. He can kick my ass.
Probably. Maybe. I don’t know. It would be a toss-up. But for the purpose of this fight, he’s beating me.
After five rounds, each one with a different challenging combination, sweat drips from my face in rivulets and hits my chest and back. I take off the thin sweatshirt I’d put on over my shirt and wipe my face with it, tossing it over the side of the ring. I pause when I notice Johnny and Jiko are still standing just outside the ropes. I thought they’d be long gone, dealing with Candy shit.
Johnny’s gaze is pure hunger while Jiko’s looks appreciative, but not in the kind that makes me feel as if I’m about to get jumped. Johnny’s, however, screams that at me, sending a chill down my spine. He really did give me all those orgasms the night before, and it was fucking amazing. Not that I want there to be a competition between him and the guys, but a competition about how many orgasms they can give me sounds like the one to have if, you know, that was going to happen. We could all race to the finish line. Again. And again. And again.
“Easy, killer,” Finn whispers in my ear as he hands me a water bottle. “Your eye fuck game is on point. Jax and I are going to get sent away again.”
I elbow him in the ribs and smirk, but I shake those thoughts off anyway. “Right. I’m ready. Let’s go again.”
Jiko jumps onto the ring, leaning over the ropes before we can start the next round. “I’ll hold pads for her.”
I eye him warily.
Below us, Johnny chuckles. “Just can’t stay away, can you, Jik?”
Jax and Finn look to Johnny and when Johnny shrugs, Jax hands the pads over with a deep smirk on his face. I hope that means he thinks I’m going to take his ass down. I’d hate it to mean something else since he is my coach, after all.
Jiko enters through the ropes and shrugs his suit coat off. He rolls the sleeves of his white button-down up and kicks his shoes off. He grabs the thai pads, shoving his hands through and getting into position like he’s done this before.
Okay...
“Cross, cross, cross, uppercut,” he orders.
Finn rings the ring-side bell, and we start. I don’t hold back, and Jiko doesn’t either. He gives me just enough pressure back with the pads that I know he’s done this before, and he’s quite good at it too.
When the round is up, Jiko straightens, and several droplets of sweat form in his hairline. “You’re good, Kyla. I’ll give you that.”
“You don’t have to give me anything,” I throw back.
He holds his hands up in surrender, the black thai pads still surrounding them. “Just a figure of speech.” He hands the pads to Jax and walks past me to pick up his discarded stuff. He walks backward toward the ropes. “Can’t wait to catch your fight on Friday.”
His gaze lingers on me, and I stop to watch him leave the ring, wondering what the hell that was all about until Jax calls out, “Heads up.” I look up in time to find a water bottle careening toward my face. I catch it with my gloves on and then have to re-catch it as it slips through, but eventually, I tear my gloves off and am able to suck down some refreshing cold water.
When I peek back, Jiko and Johnny are gone. Unease crawls over me. I still don’t like this Jiko guy. Since Johnny seems to trust him, I hope I’m wrong.
27
Clearly, training doesn’t erase the feelings I have about Jiko Cardinale because as soon as we get in the car, I grumble, “I don’t like that guy.”
“Finn?” Magnum asks, brows pulling together.
“No,” I tell him. It’s not surprising where his mind went, considering Jiko and Johnny have been gone for a couple of hours, but I haven’t been able to let it go. There’s just something about him that rubs me the wrong way. “Jiko.”
He nods slowly. “I hear he’s into their crew’s underground fights as well. It was odd he wanted to hold pads for you though.”
I shrug. “Johnny told me we can trust him, but I just get a weird vibe off him. I don’t know.”
