Fire And Ash by Nia Davenport Read Free Book Online Page B

down on the mat.  
    I smile down at him when his head cracks against it.  
    He jumps to his feet without the aid of his hands and for a moment I marvel at the sheer strength it takes to do so. His biceps flex and I know they did so on purpose when Derek winks at me.
    So he’s not just a jerk, he’s an arrogant jerk.
    I jab out powerfully enough to accidentally break his pretty nose, but he blocks my left fist from connecting with its target. I swing my right fist out and around but he wrenches my arm out of the air and jerks me forward. He uses his larger body mass to force me to spin around as I move. I end up with my back pressed against his chest, my right arm in a submission hold behind me and my left one restrained tightly at my side.
    My right arm burns like it’s been set on fire and I swear he’s trying to pull it from the socket.
    I clench my teeth against the pain, forcing myself to focus past it, exactly how I’ve learned to do in my training. My arms are restrained but my legs are still free. It’s nearly impossible to incapacitate all four limbs at once from a standing position. In a borderline dirty move I know Derek will not expect, I rear my head back, knocking it hard into his nose.  
    If you ever find yourself outmuscled, go for the nose. A hit with enough force behind it will snap the bone. It doesn’t matter who has you, I promise they will release you.
    Aunt Farrah’s advice proves sound. My arms are at once freed. I take a couple of steps forward then   spin on my heels to admire the damage I’ve done.  
    Blood is trickling down Derek’s nose but it isn’t broken. Even though he deserves for it to be I pulled the blow when I struck so it would only feel like it was.  
    Mick would throw me out of the gym and possibly bar me from ever coming back if I hadn’t. The golden rule of his gym is to fight a clean match.  
    Derek and I face off again. If looks could kill we would both collapse where we stand.  
    “Enough!” Mick calls out throwing Derek the towel around his neck. “Before one of you does some real damage to the other.”
    He places his freight train of a body between us so we can’t engage each other again.

    ******
    My family has returned home when I walk through my front door.
    “You look like shit,” Sean says from the couch as I limp into the living room.
    I give him the finger and he laughs at me under his breath when my grandmother calls out from the kitchen that she saw me.
      I collapse into the seat nearest the door. It’s the worn overstuffed recliner my mother bought my father for Christmas when I was four. It’s the same one she used to sit in and read me bedtime stories until I fell asleep. She’d fall asleep too until Dad happened upon us and then he’d gently prod her awake and he’d carry me to my room with her one step behind him. They always tucked me in together and kissed me goodnight at the same time. Mom kissing my left cheek and Dad my right.  
    It is one of the happy memories I have of my parents before their constant arguing began. I smile at it, trying to hold on to it and not think about the things that came later.  
    “What happened to you?” Aunt Farrah’s question brings me back into the present. She’s sitting on the couch in between Tweedledee and Tweedledum. There is no way they were there first and she chose to sit between them. It’s more likely that she claimed the couch first and they sat on either side of her simply to be annoying.  
    “A boy happened to me,” I grumble wishing more and more that I’d actually broken Derek’s nose. It feels like I had a run in with a brick wall. Every muscle in my body is sore, but my right shoulder and my back are screaming at me particularly louder than the rest.  
    “What boy?” My cousins and my aunt all growl at the same time. They each look certifiably homicidal.
    I roll my eyes at the absurd conclusion that they’ve all jumped to. “Not like that. It was in the ring down