Ileave Lana sitting in the kitchen while I go to change. I don’t know what came over me when I decided to bring her here, but it felt right in the moment.
I quickly change into gym shorts and a T-shirt with the school’s logo on before heading back out to kitchen, finding her sitting where I left her. I half expected to find her rummaging around our things, but she managed to stay put for the two minutes I left her alone.
“This way,” I murmur and head down the hall, not turning back to check she’s following me. I know she will, she’s too curious not to.
I reach the end of the hall and grab the key that stays on the top of the door frame and unlock it. The door swings open and I head down the steps to the basement, flicking on the lights as I do.
“You bringing me down here to kill me?”
“If that’s what gets you going, then sure thing, little menace.”
“Seriously, Cole, why the fuck are you leading me down to your basement?” she blurts and I snort a laugh.
I stop at the bottom of the stairs and turn to see her still standing in the doorway, her hands fisted on her hips with an apprehensive look on her face.
It really doesn’t suit her.
She should never be wary about anything. What happenedto the firecracker who can pull a knife on a man twice her size without batting an eyelash?
“It’s a converted basement, Lana. Just come down and see for yourself.”
She sighs, shoots me a glare, and then descends the steps. I look around, trying to see it through her eyes. When we first moved here freshman year, I had no idea if I’d find a place to fight or not, so the guys and I decided to have what was once the wine cellar converted into a gym/boxing area.
There are bags hanging from the wall in one corner, a boxing ring in the middle of the room, and other gym equipment in the opposite corner. Since I tend to fight at the church, and the guys prefer to use the main campus gym, this room more or less goes unused.
The only time it is used is when Logan needs me to spar with him or when I need to get out of my head and I don’t have any other options.
“Huh,” Lana mutters as she reaches my side. I look down to see her head tilted to the side as she takes in the room.
“This wasn’t on the blueprints.”
I chuckle and shake my head.Of courseshe has copies of the blueprints of this place. She wouldn’t be her if she didn’t.
“Gloves or no gloves?” I ask, and she blinks at me before realization takes over her face.
“You want to fight? With me? Even after I wiped the floor with you last time?” she snarks, and I hum noncommittally.
“Oh, pretty boy,” she sighs. “I’ll destroy you.”
“You can try,” I snipe and raise a brow, waiting for her to answer my question.
A wicked smirk forms on her face and she bounces a little on the balls of her feet.
Is that… excitement? She has another emotion other than anger? This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
“No gloves. Any rules?”
I contemplate it for a moment. If I give her no rules, then she’s likely to magically pull a knife from the waistband of her leggings and stab me in the back as soon as I turn away from her, sneaky little shit that she is.
“Standard training rules. And try and stay away from my face, okay? I’m too pretty for black eyes. They don’t go with my skin tone, and you really fucked up my face last time.”
Her mouth drops open and she looks like a deer caught in headlights for a few seconds.
“Was that… was that a joke?” she asks, almost too quietly for me to hear, and it makes me wonder if I was even supposed to hear it at all.
“I’m not who you think I am, Lana. Just like I’m sure you’re not who I thought you were, either.”
“Thought? You don’t think of me that way anymore?” she asks, not bothering to ask what my original opinion of her was. I’m sure she knows it was nothing pretty.
