Girl Takes Up Her Sword by Jacques Antoine Read Free Book Online Page A

him?”
    She shifted around on the couch to face him, but found Emily standing behind her.
    “Let’s just say we had a meeting of the minds.”
    “What happened to him?” Ethan asked.
    “He’s dead.”
    “You didn’t have to kill him, did you? Not after you released him?”
    “No. He died shielding me from gunfire.” Then, turning to Connie, she said: “I’m sorry I lied to you.”
    “It’s okay. You have to keep your own counsel, just like you’re doing now. Tell us what you want us to know.”
    Emily perched on the arm of the sofa next to her. When she leaned over to kiss her on the forehead, Connie felt a little frisson of pleasure, and savored the peculiarity of the gesture: kissing a stone cold assassin as if she were her mother.
    “There is some stuff I’m not gonna tell you. But here’s what I will say. His name was Ba We. He was the only clone who survived to maturity. Lots of others died as children, probably from genetic irregularities. After I destroyed the Koreans’ compound, I disposed of Ba We’s body. I don’t want anyone ever to find him, or reconstruct what the Koreans were able to do.”
    The four of them sat quietly for a moment as Emily’s words sank in. Connie reflected on the chances Emily had been willing to take for Michael’s family, what she achieved, and what it must have cost her. She sensed in it a form of loyalty unfamiliar to her.
    “Michael, that video...” she started. “Emily risked everything for you. It’s incredible.”
    “Andie and I owe her everything . But it’s no less than I already owed her father.”
    “Owing everything to each other, that’s what it is to be a family,” Emily said with a smile.
    When she leaned over to kiss her again on the forehead, Connie felt like she’d been baptized.
    “And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a sparring class to get ready for.”
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Chapter 6
    Playing with the Security Guards
    Everyone else sat in a large circle on the grass or on lawn chairs. Li Li and Stone watched from the patio with Andie and Yuki. The last match of the day, the only one Emily would participate in, against the guy who had won all his previous matches. He stared across his gloves at her, perplexed at the dilemma he found himself in. She was practically the boss’s daughter, and here he was in the ring with her. Could he really hit her without catching hell for it? And if he didn’t try, or at least make it look like he was trying, he’d probably catch hell for that, too.
    They all knew she was in seriously good shape. They saw her workout routine: tons of push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and she ran forever, like a gazelle. Nobody doubted how tough she was. But was she really a fighter? Or was this just some way of indulging her vanity?
    “Don’t be afraid to hit me. I can take it,” she said sweetly. “Or would you like me to put on more pads?”
    “C’mon. This is bullshit,” he said dropping his hands in disgust. “You can’t really expect me to hit you for real.”
    She took the opportunity to smack him on the nose with a quick jab, not full force, just enough to smart.
    “Jerry, if you lower your guard again, I’ll hit you a lot harder. Now show me what you got.”
    He was annoyed now. His nose stung, though it probably wasn’t broken. The girl was so much smaller, the whole thing seemed preposterous. He swung a long right hook toward her head. A subtle lean away from his fist and she slapped him a couple of times on the headgear derisively. She was clearly trying to provoke him.
    “I know you can do better than that. What exactly do they teach you in the Marines?”
    He put on his game face, raised his guard and circled to his right before unleashing a sharp combination: left jab, overhand right followed by a sneaky left hook. These were serious punches. Anyone of them could have laid her out on the grass. But he hoped she would only get a glancing blow from the left hook, his money punch. To his surprise, none