Page 39 of Benedict’s Rejuvenation (Dark Patriots #5)

He shook his head, but smiled as he told her, “I would hate to meet your ass in a dark alley. You fight dirty, woman. But it’s fucking effective. You’ll have to show me a couple of those moves you did. I never saw them coming.”

As they chatted and took to the sidelines, Heath and I entered what was the unofficial fight zone. He was about to find out the one thing I excelled at, which Keely didn’t bother with.

“I promise not to touch that gorgeous face. But I’m not holding back. Bring it like you mean it,” he said loudly, then leaned close to whisper so only I heard him. “Show Ben you can protect yourself like I know you can. He worries a lot.”

“I plan to show all of you,” I promised.

We began in the same way the others did, and then we exploded into action.

Combinations of punches were thrown. Sometimes they were interspersed with kicks, or several punches were done, followed by several kicks.

I had more strength in my legs, so I was a heavier kicker than most guys would be.

While Heath’s blows hurt and at times gave me a numb arm or leg, I knew when I landed mine, he felt them equally as much.

I’d worked Heath back closer to the house.

He didn’t realize it was on purpose. When I had him close enough, I let out a loud yell and charged him.

He braced himself to deflect me and then follow up with his move.

Only that’s not how it went. I used him to gain height, using him as a springboard to grab the railing of the second-level lanai and scramble up it to get away from him.

His astonishment and that of the others were wiped away when Heath came charging after me.

As he reached the stairs to come up after me, I jumped off the second story and tucked into an Aikido roll so I was back on the ground.

Heath whipped around to come for me. I landed more punches and kicks.

I even got him in a choke hold when I threw dirt in his face and then climbed up his back like a monkey. He almost couldn’t get out of it.

The final acrobatic move I demonstrated was when I ran from him.

I was headed straight at the side of the house, and he was hot on my heels.

I’d be cornered, and he’d be able to capture or punch me.

Except when I got to it, I ran up the wall with the momentum I had and flipped backward, allowing me to flip over him and land on my feet, facing his back.

I jammed my hand into his kidney as I said, “I just stabbed you in the kidney. You’re done. ”

As I stepped back, there was nothing but silence. I scanned the faces around me. Astonishment, rueful admiration, and mirth were all there to see.

“What the fuck was all that? You were bouncing around like a goddamn spider monkey,” Heath groused as he wiped sweat off his face with his T-shirt.

“It’s a combination of gymnastics, capoeira, a few other martial arts, and parkour,” I explained.

“I’ve seen capoeira and other martial arts, but this was something else. And your dad and those three survival nuts taught you this?” Heath asked in disbelief.

Keeley and I laughed. “No, they didn’t. However, I loved to flip, cartwheel, and roll.

Dad saw I was different, so he paid for me to take gymnastics.

Keeley wanted nothing to do with it. I later learned about parkour and capoeira and became fascinated by them.

Somehow, Dad found people who knew how to do them and who were relatively close to us, so he had them teach me.

I know this must be a shock, as I let myself get caught.

I should’ve been more alert and not let them get the drop on me. ”

“I can see how, even one against one, when you’re not expecting it, it could do it. But I admit, I am shocked they kept you there after they captured you,” Ben hesitantly said.

“Ah, yes, well, there were a couple of reasons. One was the cage and the chain you saw me wearing, which contributed to it. The second is that early on, he kept me drugged, so I was sort of out of it. Then there were the three-to-one odds when Vadzim was there. He always had Nikita with him, and Slava stayed with me constantly. Slava wouldn’t let me out when it was just him.

One time, I almost managed to get away early on, and that ended my being allowed to be unmanacled and outside the cage if only one person was there. ”

Ben took me in his arms and kissed me. When he drew back, I had to ask. “Does this make you feel better about taking us with you? Surely this, combined with yesterday, shows you’re not taking total novices with you. I know we haven’t experienced battle, but we’re better than you think.”

“I do feel better, but no matter if you were a trained SEAL who had been in battle a hundred times, would it make me like what we’re taking you into. There are so many unknown variables. We won’t know what they are until we get inside that house, assuming we do, and then it might be too late.”

“That’s the chance we all will have to take. We’ll be an asset,” Keeley assured the group.

After that, we went inside to take showers, and then we’d see about dinner.

The day had flown by. There would be more preparation later tonight and early tomorrow, and then we’d be left to get ourselves decked out for the gala.

I felt guilty for looking forward to it.

I wanted to see Ben’s face when he saw the glamorous Kensington, not plain Kensy.