The Fighter Page 3

  Three weeks later, she had beat Monroe twice and the whole damn station was lining up to spar with her. Some of the men were taking pride in her explosive improvement rate and loved teaching her, while others enjoyed beating her to put her in her place.

  For most of these men, Raven was the first female they got to touch. I worried that the raised testosterone and excitement level that occur during fighting might make some of the men unable to control their urges. That’s why I stayed around to make sure she was safe.

  Today, I worked out in one end of the gym while Sergeant White was sparring with Raven. He was in his late forties and from what I’d seen, she was giving him a run for his money. The eight colleagues watching the fight were blocking my view, but I could hear them call out and make comments – some encouraging Sergeant White, and others helping Raven improve her technique.

  “Come on, White, you can’t let her get away with that.”

  “Raven, be ready, he’s coming on your left.”

  “Get that fucking elbow up, woman.”

  “That’s it, White, show her who’s the boss.”

  That last comment made me walk over to the ring area to get a better view just as Cameron shouted:

  “Turn, Raven, fucking roll like I showed you. Yes. that’s it!”

  I stopped next to Cameron, a large man a few years older than me. “How is she doing?”

  “She doesn’t have his strength, but she’s compensating with speed and technique.”

  Just then Raven got a kick in and Sergeant White, who was sweating profusely and panting hard, doubled over with a deep groan.

  “Don’t just stand there, take him down,” Cameron ordered, and Raven was quick to sweep at her opponent’s feet, making him fall flat on his back.

  “Arrghh!” Sergeant White roared with irritation and banged his hand down the floor.

  Raven’s face was red and sweaty too, but she was dancing on her feet with a large grin on her face. “Did you see that, Cam?”

  Cameron, who was normally always so stoic and brusque, grinned back at her. “I saw, Raven, but you still have to move faster and be more precise. There was no reason for you to let him get that blow in. Had Sergeant White fought you when he was five years younger, he would’ve nailed your ass to the floor.”

  The man in question was already back on his feet and he scowled at Cameron as Raven tried to ease his embarrassment.

  “I just got lucky. We all know that even experienced fighters have bad days. Next time, it’ll be me on that floor for sure.”

  White was leaving the ring, but he turned and answered her, “Fucking count on it.”

  That led to a satisfied smile on Raven’s face and then she looked at me. “What about you, old man? Do you want to go a few rounds with me?”

  I hated when she called me old, and I suspected that was exactly why she did it. Raven had a special gift for riling people up. She was an expert at finding things that would give her a strong reaction.

  “How many times do I have to tell you, I’m not interested in fighting with you?”

  She gave me a cocky grin. “What if I go easy on you?”

  Cameron’s deep chuckle next to me made me narrow my eyes. “You wouldn’t stand a chance against me, Raven.”

  “That’s what Sergeant White, Monroe, and the others said before I beat them.” Looking straight at me, Raven still danced on her feet, jumping from side to side with a lot of energy. “Come play with me, Leo. It will be fun.”

  The other men looked to me, and one of them muttered. “What the hell, Inspector, did she just call you Leo?”

  “Raven, for the last time, you’ll refer to me as Sir or Inspector.”

  “Cameron lets me call him Cam.”

  Cameron avoided my hard look. It was clear he had a soft spot for Raven. “I don’t care what Cameron does. You’ll call me Sir or Inspector.”

  Raven tilted her head with a playful smile. “How about you come in here and make me?”

  Some of the other men couldn’t hide their amusement with her putting me on the spot like this.

  “Um, are you gonna spank her ass for being a brat, or can I do it?” Cameron’s question was for me, but he was looking at Raven.

  “Okay, I’ll teach you a few lessons, Raven. But I don’t want a fucking audience when I take you down.”

  The men protested when I pointed to the door. As they walked out a few of them shared their opinion, “Fucking highlight of the year and then we don’t get to see it. Way to be a dick, Inspector.”

  “He’s just afraid she’ll take him down and he’ll be humiliated.”

  “Nah, I think it’s more like he’s hoping to have her go down but in a more pleasant way, you know.” Gruff male laughter was heard until the door slammed behind the last one.

  “Is that true?” Raven asked with an amused smile. “Are you hoping for me to go down?” Her eyes fell to my crotch, but I knew her mind games and didn’t take the bait.

  “Stop trying to fuck with my brain. It won’t work on me.”

  She tilted her head to the other side and gave an innocent smile. “I’m not very experienced with sex but I’m having a hard time seeing the anatomy of it. How do you fuck with someone’s brain exactly?”

  “You don’t! All you have to worry about for now is understanding and using the right titles when you speak to me and other employees at this station.” While talking I was putting on thin safety gloves made of Protego. “First there’s you, a recruit, then there’s Monroe, who’s a cadet. After that comes officer, sergeant, and then comes inspector, which is what I am. Are you following so far?”

  “Yes. I’m just wondering why you’re not putting on a helmet…”

  “Because we won’t have any blows from the neck up. Maybe a black eye would teach you some humility, but I’m sure as hell not sending you home to your dad with one.”

  Raven removed her helmet and tossed it to the side while shaking her large mane of dark curls.

  “As I was saying, I’m an inspector and the next time I get promoted I’ll be a chief inspector. After that comes lieutenant, and captain. Captains are typically mature men and they don’t see much action as they mostly work at the station.”

  “Got it.”

  “After captain comes Commander, and we only have one in our country.”

  “Magni Aurelius.”

  “Yes.”

  “So, are we going to get physical today or should I sit down and take notes, Professor?”

  I clapped my hands together and with a hard expression, I took up fight position. “You’re being disrespectful again.”

  “I’m sorry about that. It’s just that it takes so little.” Raven had a smug smile on her face when she got into position as well.

  “Cameron was right, you know, you shouldn’t have allowed White to get so close to you. Let’s see if you do better with me.”

  Raven’s eyes were shining with excitement and her nostrils were flaring in anticipation of my first attack.

  My first high kick she blocked and with incredible speed, she placed her foot where my face would have been if I hadn’t ducked.

  I puffed out air. “I told you, neck and down only.”

  “My bad, I mistook your head for your ass.”

  “Very funny.” I moved in a circle, my body expecting her to attack.

  “Yeah? If you think I’m so funny, then why aren’t you laughing?”

  My next attack came swiftly and the sheer force of my blows to her body forced her back. Raven took three punches while trying to protect her core. When I pulled back to launch my fourth punch, she sidestepped and placed her fist in my ribs.

  “Umph.”

  Encouraged by my groan of pain she jumped back and screamed when she launched a roundhouse kick to my chest. For all her small size her impact was hard and it hurt. Like always, I let my pain fuel me to fight harder and this time, I used my body to force her to the ground. Maybe Raven remembered Cameron’s words because she roll
ed like a fucking anaconda and used her legs to wrap around my body. Like two wrestlers, we were grappling for control but my problem was that I was too fucking conscious about not wanting to place my hands between her legs or on her chest area.

  Raven was panting and her hair was in disarray from our rolling around on the floor, but tight as a damn parasite, she clung to me, trapping my right arm. “What kind of fighting is this?” I growled, but her only response was to twist my nipple hard.

  “Stop that shit.” I got up, but instead of letting go of me Raven clung to my back. Fuck, this woman was a fucking acrobat with unbelievable core muscles and persistence. Falling on top of her to make her lose her grip didn’t work, so I rolled to get her to let go. That move backfired as it gave Raven a chance to reposition herself, this time wrapping her legs around my neck and strangling me.

  There was only so much humiliation I would take and by now it was clear that she was a lethal fighter. Using my strength, I tried to tear her off me. All I managed, however, was to get her in front of me, her thighs still locked around my neck, and her arms hooked around my waist. No matter how much I tried to push and hit her, she only squeezed her thighs harder. I was fucking struggling to breathe and at that point I was done playing nice. I let my dead weight fall to the ground with her underneath me. It was satisfying to hear all the air whoosh out from Raven’s lungs and I didn’t care that my crotch was in her face. If I couldn’t breathe, I had no fucking sympathy for her gasping for air like me.

  By now my face had to be blue and I reckoned her thighs to be on fire. I could feel her pounding on the backs of my thighs, signaling that she couldn’t breathe, but I wasn’t letting go until she released her hold on my neck. Using the muscles in my legs, I kept her from rolling, while I wriggled and pushed my hand up between her legs to force her thighs apart. It worked. First, I got my whole arm through, then my shoulder, and I could finally break her hold and breathe again. Sucking in a large gulp of air, I rolled off of her and heard Raven cough and suck in air too.

  My eyes were wide as I stared at her while panting. “What the hell was that?... Do you call that fighting?”

  Raven’s chest rose up as she heaved in oxygen and spoke on the exhalation. “What would you call it?”

  “Porn!”

  “Porn? What are you talking about?”

  “It was like doing a sixty-nine with clothes on.”

  “What’s a sixty-nine?”

  “You had your head in my crotch, I had mine in yours. That’s a fucking sixty-nine.” I was angry at myself for having allowed this situation to begin with.

  “Oh, now I get it.” Her eyes fell to my crotch. “When I couldn’t breathe, I thought about biting. Good thing I didn’t.”

  I frowned and got up. “Only a coward would bite in a fight!”

  “My dad taught me to use every trick possible and if this hadn’t been a training situation, I would have used my teeth.”

  Offering her a hand, I pulled Raven up and when she stood in front of me, she kept her hand linked with mine. “So, I guess this wasn’t what the others meant when they joked about me going down on you?”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Are you trying to be funny again?”

  Raven used her free hand to brush her hair back and then she gave me a smile. “I am funny! I might not be able to take you in a fight, yet, but I’ll consider it a personal victory when I make you smile.” Her eyes were full of amusement and it felt intimate to stand this close with her eyes shining up at me. Taking a step back, I pulled my hand from her grip, cleared my throat, and changed the subject.

  “I heard you moved into the Gray Manor.”

  “Who told you that?”

  “Magni did.” I moved to the fridge to get a few balls of water. “Do you see Mila a lot?”

  “Of course. She’s my best friend and it was her suggestion that I should move in there.”

  After popping two balls of water in my mouth, I held one up, asking, “Do you want water?”

  Raven nodded and caught the one I threw to her.

  “Any chance you could put in a good word for me with Mila? I’m fighting in her tournament and I have a good chance of becoming one of the five champions.”

  Raven looked down at her torn tank top. “You ripped my shirt.”

  “So? You strangled me. And why are you changing the subject? I asked you if you could put in a good word with Mila for me.”

  Raven lifted her gaze and stood for a second. “Sorry, but she’s my best friend and I would never recommend that she marries a guy who has no sense of humor.”

  “I have a sense of humor.”

  “Do you?” Like it was the most natural thing in the world, Raven pulled her shirt over her head.

  “What are you doing?” My eyes were like magnets drawn to the drops of sweat traveling down her belly. I’d never seen a real woman in only shorts and a sports bra. The amount of naked skin had my heart hammering faster, and other parts of my body reacted as if she was wearing lingerie.

  “I’m throwing my shirt out. Told you, it’s ruined.”

  I watched as she tossed it in the trash and picked another shirt from her bag. “Thanks for sparring with me today. You’re a fabulous fighter. If only you weren’t so damn serious all the time, I might like you enough to put in a word with Mila.”

  “I don’t need you to like me. I just need you to respect me. You can start by addressing me as Sir or Inspector.”

  Raven gave a low chuckle and left with her hips swaying. “See you tomorrow… Sir Inspector.”

  As soon as the door closed behind her, my eyes fell to the trash can. Like a magnet had been dropped in it, my feet moved closer and I couldn’t resist picking up her tossed-out shirt. My mind was reeling from what had just happened between us and my hands shook when I lifted the fabric to my nose, closed my eyes, and inhaled the arousing scent of Raven.

  CHAPTER 4

  Clues

  Raven

  Mila was in the garden with Jonah and her three dogs. I was no expert on dog breeds but one of them was small like a cat, another was a mix with a happy personality, and then there was Holger, who was a great Dane and the newest of Mila’s dogs. He was my favorite because being big and strong like a small pony, he never had a need to bark. Mila’s small dog would drive me crazy with all its barking, but not Holger. He was above that and just walked around with Mila, all nice and calm, letting her pretend that she could control him if he chose to run.

  “Hey, Raven, it’s so nice to meet you again. May peace surround you.” Jonah came and took my hands while the smallest of the dogs was nipping at our feet.

  I greeted him back, and when Holger came to sniff me, I rubbed the huge dog behind his ear.

  “Raven, I’m so glad you’re here. I was just telling Jonah about the mysterious death of my aunt Dina and how I spoke to my dad about her last night.”

  “You spoke to Magni?”

  Jonah picked up the little dog, whose name I could never remember, and by stroking it, he made it quiet down.

  “Yes. He even gave me some articles about her.”

  Jonah was holding his chin up to avoid being licked on the mouth by the little dog. “It’s like a real mystery. I’ve already told Mila that I would love to be her partner in crime and help solve it.”

  “Excuse me?” Planting my hands on my hips I gave Mila a hard stare. “I’m the policewoman here. How did this become your mystery to solve? And why is he suddenly your partner?”

  Mila had always hated confrontations and she hurried to take my hand. “Raven. I’m so sorry. We’re just trying to help. Of course, it’s your investigation! Why don’t we go inside and I can show you what I found.” Putting her arm around my shoulders, we walked back to the house together.

  “How many have you told about my investigation? When you spoke to your dad, did you tell him that I’m investigating Dina’s murder?”

  “No, I just told him that I was curious about the young woman my little sister is
named after.”

  “Good.”

  “I figured if you didn’t succeed, he would be disappointed. So, for now, there’s no need for him to grow hopeful.”

  Once in her room, Mila handed me a large envelope. “Magni said that after Dina died, their father purged the house of all evidence that she ever lived. Pictures of her were taken away, and her room was made into a bathroom for one of the guestrooms. Allegedly, it was because Erika was grieving. But even if she wasn’t around, Dina’s name was never spoken and when Magni asked about her, he was either ignored or told to never mention her again.”

  “How old was Magni again when his sister died?”

  “Seven. But later, when he was around eleven or twelve, he searched for evidence that she had existed, and he found a photo of her under his mom’s bed. He doesn’t have it anymore, but after his father died, he checked the archives to find more information about Dina’s life, and that’s where he found that.” Mila’s eyes fell to the envelope in my hand.

  I opened it and pulled out an old article with two pictures in it. In one of them Dina was smiling with her new husband. In the other they were surrounded by seven people.

  “Wow, it’s so weird to see pictures of Magni and Khan this young.” The two boys stood on the outskirts of the picture, Magni looking away and Khan looking up. Marcus stood between the bride and groom with his arm around their shoulders while Erika stood next to Dina holding her hand.

  “Who are those three men?”

  “I asked my dad about it and he said that this man was called Mr. Zobel. From what I understand he was Marcus’s best friend and instrumental in the revolution that helped Marcus take power in the Northlands.” Mila paused and rubbed her collarbone. “That’s why it’s a paradox that Mr. Zobel was later executed for treason.”

  “How long ago?”

  “At least ten years. It was about that time when my dad disappeared into Alaska, remember?” A ghost of pain flashed over Mila’s face and I reached out to touch her hand.