Page 100 of Stand: Part One

“Good night, my little brat.”

27

Confessions

I only lasted another four days before I was ready to bite someone’s head off. I finally got a taste of the outside world, and Darren spat all over it in a single night.

The car chase had been fucking terrifying of course, but it was also incredibly exhilarating. I hadn’t felt that damn alive in so long, absolutely thrilled by the fact that Darren was essentially forced to work with me like we were some kind of functional team. And it had gone better than I could have ever hoped.

But naturally, Darren didn’t see it that way and probably never would, which was disappointing. Getting him to acknowledge my ability to hold my own was like pulling teeth. He wanted too much to be needed by me to ever let me match him in anything.

Still, at that moment, it felt invigorating to contribute something to the fight, to be useful in ways I was never allowed to be. What good was all this training if it never got put to the test? It was worthless if Darren kept me from ever utilizing my hard-earned skills that he himself had instilled in me. And worthlessness was not a term I ever wanted to be associated with again.

Bored out of my mind, I decided to hit the bags in my personal gym to blow off some steam. It only took about twenty minutes before the strain eventually kicked in, but my body bounced back with a vengeance, and it kept me motivated.

I decided to take things a little further and started training with weights around my wrists and ankles, hoping to increase the speed of my strikes over time. Strength alone didn’t always secure a knockout. Sometimes, you literally had to beat them to the punch.

When I finished, I took a quick shower upstairs and headed back down to find Camaro where I’d left her, in the kitchen so she could eat her lunch peacefully. But as I rounded the corner, I smacked face-first into a solid wall of muscle.

I stepped back on reflex, and my upper arms were caught by large, warm hands that kept me still. I glanced up in confusion, angry with myself that I hadn’t heard him walking down the hallway like I usually could.

“Where are you off to?” Darren asked, his hands still clutching my arms.

“I was going to find Camaro. I left her in the kitchen while I showered.”

Darren glanced down at the left hand I was using to point in the direction of the kitchen and immediately scowled.

“Where the fuck are your rings?” he barked, tightening his grip with a quick jerk.

I looked down at my fingers and realized I was, in fact, not wearing my rings.

Shit.

“Oh, I must have left them in the gym. I took them off when I was hitting the bag earlier.” I tried to keep my tone as innocent as possible, but I doubted that would be enough to pacify him.

He stepped closer to me, raising me so I was basically standing on my toes, and forced me backward until he crowded me against the wall. I silently cursed myself for my absentmindedness, my stomach clenching in anticipation of his anger.

“I thought I told you to ensure those rings never leave your finger again,” he rumbled, his voice low with a dangerously dark edge.

“Well, I can’t exactly train with my rings on,” I tried to argue, but the sharp knots of regret that began to twist in my stomach made it difficult to think past the encroaching panic.

Darren’s frown deepened, the intensity of his scowl growing with even more disapproval. “Why not? You’d be fighting with them on in real life anyway.”

I tried to shrug, but his fingers continued to bite into my skin. “I don’t want to injure my hands?—”

“I had your engagement ring specifically designed so it could also be utilized as a weapon, Jaden, not so you could shelve it at your discretion.”

“I know?—”

“You know,” he mocked sharply. “Yet here you are, once again discarding the one thing I’ve repeatedly told you not to remove.”

My mouth suddenly went dry as he glowered down at me, the forewarnings of something sinister preparing to surface setting off all the alarm bells in my head.

I grimaced as he started to squeeze even tighter. “Darren, you’re hurting m?—”

“You disobeyed me, Jaden. Again.”

The more he spoke, the harsher his voice became. His gaze sharpened to a lethal edge, dark waves of fury brimming in those deep blue irises of his. And the longer he stared at me, the tighter his grip around my arms became, causing me to visibly wince.