Page 32 of Chasing Shelter (Sparrow Falls #5)

“I am, aren’t I?” a deep voice said. Kye moved in with a grin, giving Arden a quick hug. “Miss seeing you around here.”

She grinned up at him. “You know I’ll be back in action as soon as I can.”

Kye turned to me, his gaze assessing. I expected a joke or a tease, but there was none of that. “How are you feeling about being here? ”

I glanced at Arden for a moment before turning back to Kye. “Good. Your place is beautiful. You’ve got a serious eye.”

“That’s a major compliment coming from a fancy New York interior designer,” Arden said.

Kye’s lips twitched. “Happy to know I made the grade. Killer, you want to show Ellie the women’s locker room? Then we’ll get started.”

“You got it,” Arden said, leading me down a hallway while Brutus hung with Kye.

She pointed things out along the way. “Men’s locker room.

Kye’s office. Gear storage room.” She opened the door to a smallish room.

“Not many women work out here, but we’ve got these lockers and two showers if you need them. ”

I nodded, slipping my bag into an empty locker and pulling off my hoodie. I’d thought about going badass black for my outfit, but I couldn’t resist the pink workout set with rainbow piping. If I was learning to be strong, I would do it as me , not pretending to be someone I wasn’t.

Shutting the locker door, I turned around. “Ready.”

“Let’s do this,” Arden said with a grin.

We made our way back into the gym, only to be stopped by a guy wearing low-slung shorts, sneakers, and nothing else. His tanned skin had a slight sheen of sweat, and his blue eyes sparkled as he gave me a head-to-toe scan. “I like the kicks,” he greeted.

I peeked down at my white tennis shoes with rainbows on the side. My lips tipped up. “Thank you.”

“You must be new around here. I’m?—”

“The gym’s resident playboy,” Arden informed me.

The man turned to her with a look of exaggerated hurt on his face. “Arden, you know it’d only take one crook of your finger to make me a reformed man.”

“Mateo, I love you, but I’m not about to expose my soon-to-be sister to your bullshit,” Arden shot back.

“Listen to her warning,” a younger guy who looked to be in his early twenties called as he pulled on some mitts.

Mateo sent the guy a scowl. “Why you gotta do me dirty like that, Evan? ”

A laugh bubbled out of me. “How about I admire the game but politely decline?”

Mateo shook his head. “Sisters. Damn. That’s too much hotness for my brain to hold at once.”

Kye strode up, his worn Haven tee pulling taut across broad shoulders. “If you spent half as much time working on that slip and duck as you do hitting on my family, you’d have it down by now.”

“Brutal, bro. Brutal,” Mateo muttered, heading toward Evan.

“I don’t hear you saying it’s a lie,” Kye called back.

“I’m getting the sense this place is like its own sort of family?” I said, but it was more of a question.

“A shit-talking, would-bury-a-dead-body-for-you family,” Kye agreed.

I laughed. “I can appreciate that.”

“Until they won’t stop giving you shit for getting engaged,” Arden mumbled.

“Just wait till they find out you’re knocked up,” Kye said, dropping his voice to a whisper.

“Bite your tongue, Kyler.”

“Uh-oh,” I muttered. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard one of your siblings call you Kyler.”

Something flashed across his expression, but he quickly covered it with a shake of his head. “Only when I’m in trouble. Come on. Let’s get you started with a warm-up.”

Kye took me through a jump rope warm-up that ignited my lungs and had me questioning my sanity. And then we headed for a practice ring.

“If you get into MMA on the whole, or jujitsu like Arden practices, we’ll get you kitted out with sparring gloves, maybe even some boxing gloves for heavy-bag work, a practice gi.

But for now, we’ll work on self-defense.

” Kye met my gaze before dropping his voice.

“If anything is too much, just say the word, and it stops instantly. There anywhere you don’t want to be touched or an approach I shouldn’t make? ”

A memory flashed in my mind, Bradley’s face contorting in rage, his hand rising, the stinging blow that had me staggering back a few steps. I blinked a few times, shoving that down and focusing on Kye.

The way he had asked the question and how he’d empowered me to take control of the lesson told me he’d worked with people with triggers before. He wasn’t overly gentle in a way that suggested I was weak, but he was thoughtful.

“I’m good with whatever we need to do. I’ll let you know if something’s too much,” I said.

Kye studied me for a minute longer and then nodded. “First thing is something you might expect.”

“Okay…” I said, curiosity taking hold.

“Avoidance. Run, scream, do anything to bring attention to yourself and your attacker. Many times, the assailant will be startled and take off. That’s the best-case scenario.”

It made sense, and I would never be mad that I didn’t have to punch someone in the face. “I’ve got a pretty good screaming voice.”

One corner of Kye’s mouth pulled up. “That’s good. If you can’t avoid it, the next step is to guard your face. Someone gets off a bad punch to your head, and it’s game over.”

I lifted my hand to mirror how Kye had his.

“You want to keep your feet a little wider apart, one in front of the other. That’ll give you a strong base and make it harder to knock you to the ground. Do everything you can to keep that from happening.”

I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry, but I copied Kye’s stance. “I feel that. It’s more stable.”

“Exactly. Next thing you need to know is your opponent’s weakest spots. It’s always eyes, nose, throat, groin, and knees.” Kye pointed to each place as he spoke. “I’m going to show you which one to target based on how you’re attacked.”

I straightened my shoulders and nodded. “Let’s do this.”

Kye began walking me through different approaches. If I was grabbed from behind or the side. If someone tried to choke me. He showed me how to use my keys as a weapon and told me to always walk to my car with one threaded through my fingers if I was alone at night.

It didn’t take long for my heart rate to rise, and a thin sheen of sweat to cover my body. I grabbed a sip from the water bottle Arden had handed me. “I am so out of shape,” I wheezed.

Kye chuckled. “It’s a different set of muscles. But I can give you a circuit workout to improve muscle strength, too, if you want.”

“I do,” I said quickly. There was just something about the promise of feeling stronger. I wanted it more than anything else.

“All right. What do you think? Got enough in you for one more?”

I nodded and set the bottle down. “Ready.”

“Okay, on this one, I’m going to grab for your wrist.” Kye moved to show me how he would approach. “The moment I’ve got you, I want you to lean back and kick at my knee. It’ll make me release you. You might stumble or even fall, but that’s okay. Just right yourself as quickly as possible.”

I ran through the approach in my mind, what I needed my body to do. I was always clumsy at first, but I was learning. “Got it,” I said with a jerk of my head.

Kye moved in, slightly slower than normal speed. He grabbed my wrist tightly, jerking me forward, but I instantly leaned back, not going where he wanted me to. I lifted one leg, kicking in half-force at his knee.

Kye’s grip on my wrist loosened, and I stumbled backward. I did my best to stay upright but failed. As I slammed into the ring’s floor, the air whooshed from my lungs, and I struggled to catch my breath.

Before I could sit up or say a word, a figure swung into the ring, crossing it in three long strides before giving Kye a hard shove. Rage blazed in dark green eyes. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”