Courtney Cole - Before We Fall

Mainly because not only is she holding it, but she’s not intimidated by him, either. She’s half his size, but she just marched right out here and jumped in, just like she jumped in between Cris and me. Completely unafraid.

The kid she’s with looks like he could eat her for breakfast, and every time he punches, it practically knocks her into the wall. But she still holds on.

She’s stubborn, I’ll give her that much. And fearless.

Why I’m thinking about her at all, though, I don’t fucking know. Annoyed with myself, I turn around and head to the other side of the room.

That’s when I hear the commotion.

Snapping around, I turn just in time to see the kid grab at Jacey’s chest, his tape-wrapped fingers twisting her T-shirt and yanking her toward him. For a split second, my heart hammers as I watch the juvenile delinquent manhandling her. The kid is giant, and Jacey is extremely small.

But there’s no time for me or anyone else to react before Jacey spins out of his grasp in one deft move, swinging her leg around in a surprisingly powerful roundhouse kick to his chest, knocking him onto his back.

I’m utterly stunned and so is she. I can see it on her face as she stands over him, her hands clenched and shaking at her sides as she balances one tennis shoe lightly on his neck.

“Don’t touch me like that again!” she snaps at him. “I’m here to help you, but that doesn’t give you the right to grope me.”

By now, activity in the gym has halted, and every eye is on Jacey and the kid on the floor. You can hear a pin drop in this place.

The kid is still and silent as he looks up at her, and unconsciously I start to move toward Jacey. Even though I don’t want to be involved with her or anything else, I can’t leave her there by herself. I’m not completely heartless.

But then the kid smiles, even though Jacey’s foot is still on his neck.

“If you let me up, I’ll behave,” he promises. Jacey stares down at him uncertainly, but after a second, she lifts her foot. The kid climbs to his feet, holding his hand out to Jacey.

She eyes him hesitantly.

“I’m sorry,” the kid tells her, smiling again. “My name’s Jake. There’s no hard feelings, right? I was just messin’ with you.”

Jacey stares at him and I stop a few steps away.

“I guess not,” she finally answers. “No hard feelings. Just don’t do that again. I can take care of myself.”

“Fuck, yeah, you can,” the kid agrees. “Where did you learn to do that?”

Jacey shrugs, relaxing slightly even though she still keeps an eye on the boy.

“My brother’s an Army Ranger. He taught me a lot of things. One of those things is how to shoot, and I have a 9mm in my bed stand. It might be pink, but it shoots just as straight as a regular one.”

I can’t help but chuckle now, at both the thought of this tiny chick with a pink gun by her bed and at the look on Jake’s face.

“No worries,” he tells her quickly. “I don’t have any plans to break into your house. No need to threaten me with your pink gun.”

I hear chuckling around me from the kids, and Jacey relaxes.

“Good. I just thought I’d let you know.”

“Jake!” Joe’s voice booms through the gym, and I glance over to find him standing in his office doorway, a pissed look on his face. “Get in here.”

Jake turns slowly and Joe looks at Jacey.

“You okay?” he calls to her.

She nods and so does he. “Good. And nice rotation on that kick, young lady.”

Jacey smiles now, a real smile that spreads to her eyes. “Thanks.”

Jake disappears reluctantly into Joe’s office, his shoulders slumped, and the door closes behind them. Jacey stands limply for a minute, probably trying to decide what to do now… now that she’s shown the entire gym that she’s an unlikely badass. Noise resumes around us as everyone goes back to their business.

I look at her.

“That was impressive,” I admit quietly, because it’s the truth. “You looked like a stuntwoman. Or a ninja.”

Jacey laughs a warm laugh, real and husky, as she walks toward me, closing the three-foot gap between us.

“Thanks,” she tells me. “I guess those endless self-defense classes with my brother paid off. I used to think that he just wanted to inflict pain on me, but maybe there was rhyme to his reason.”

She’s unflustered now, once again sure of herself. She tucks a stray lock of her blond hair behind her ear, and I can’t help but notice her plump lips. They’re just the right size to nip at. The tip of her tongue pokes out, licking her lips, and I swallow.

Must distract myself.

“Your brother’s really a Ranger?” I ask, refocusing myself. “Because that’s badass shit. If he trained you, it’s no wonder you can take down a guy twice your size.”

Jacey smiles, hovering near my elbow. Close enough to touch, but I don’t. Close enough to inhale, so I do, filling my lungs with the scent of apples.

She’s a breath of fresh air, whether I want to admit it or not.

“Yeah, he is. Or he was until a year or so ago. He is pretty badass.”

I’m getting ready to reply when a group of guys headed for the locker room stop off beside us.

“Dude, are you really Dominic Kinkaide?” one of them asks, his face dubious. I smile what I hope is a patient smile.

“Yeah, that’s me,” I answer. I can feel Jacey watching the exchange with interest, but she remains silent. The kid grins.

“Dude. I loved Annihilated . That was some crazy shit! Did you do your own stunts?”

I nod, and the kids start chattering eagerly, asking me questions about leaping from a helicopter and how I’d managed to flip my jet ski over backward. One of them runs to Joe’s office to get paper for autographs, and the group grows from three guys to fifteen.

The kid runs back and hands me a stack of scratch paper, and I start scrawling my name, handing an autograph to each boy surrounding me. As I do, I see Jacey slip away from the ruckus. A part of me is disappointed by that. I’m fascinated by the Jacey that just laid Jake out flat on his back.

I want to know more about her, because she seems different from the Jacey who works at Saffron.

After five minutes or so, Joe sticks his head out of his office and barks at the boys.

“Hey! You’re not here to get autographs. Let the man do his job and you guys get back to work!”

The kids sheepishly disperse, going back to their punching bags or to the locker room, and I head to the weight room to wipe down the seats. When I get there, I find Jacey already crouched by a machine, cleaning it. When I walk in, she glances up at me and smiles.

“So that’s your life?”

I shrug. “Most of the time. It’s why I don’t go out much. It’s just part of it.”

I grab a rag and help her, cleaning the other side of the machine she’s working on.

“Well, I think it’s awesome,” she answers. “Everyone loves you. That must be an amazing feeling.”

I snort. “Yeah. Everyone loves me. Jacey, no one knows me. Not really. They know my face. They know the roles that I play. But they don’t know me. That’s okay, though. It’s how I like it.”

Jacey shakes her head. “That’s depressingly lonely, Dominic.”

“Not really,” I mutter, bending next to her to grab the bottle of sanitizer. As I do, she wrinkles up her nose.

“Jesus. You smell like sex. Did you come straight from a whorehouse?”

I feel myself flush, just a bit, because she caught me dead to rights.

Visions of the girl-on-girl action I was a part of just before I came here flash through my head. I hadn’t taken the time for a shower because I was late enough already.