The Tornado Read online

  She glanced up at me and shoved a lock of hair behind her ear. "Hey," she returned. She nodded at our empty table. "Your two friends couldn't keep up?"

  I smirked. "Nah. They just have to work in the morning and knew that their boss would pummel them if they were late."

  She smiled at that and nodded. "Their boss can certainly be a scary guy when he wants to."

  I smiled at that. "So, you leaving here soon?" I asked. "It's about closing time."

  "Yeah," she sighed. "I don't have to stay for closing duties tonight, the other girls will handle that. But I want to wait for those assholes to get going." I glanced over my shoulder, and saw the bachelor party was very slowly making their way toward the entrance.

  "I’ll give you a ride home with my brother," I said. "We drove together, and it looks like I'm going to have to drive him anyway. He’s a lightweight."

  "It’s fine. I’ll take the bus."

  I shook my head. "No. There’s no way in hell I’m letting you take a bus. I'm taking you home and I won’t take no for an answer." I looked back again as the lounge suddenly got quieter. The group of guys had gone. Good. I turned back to Juliet. "Why don't you get your stuff and come outside. Bailey and I will go get the car."

  "If you're sure," she said uncertainly. "Bloomfield is not super close. I'd hate to impose."

  "You don’t have a choice," I replied. "Meet you outside." I turned and walked off to collect Bailey before she could protest further. Bailey was hunched over, texting on his phone, hardly noticing when I approached. "C'mon, bro," I said. "Let's get the car. Give me your keys. I'm taking Juliet home, too."

  "How chivalrous of you," Bailey said with a smirk. “And it’s Jewel—Jewel. Just ‘cos you don’t say her name right doesn’t mean you’re not into her, bro.”

  "Whatever," I said with a shake of my head. "I just don't want her taking the bus by herself that far this late at night."

  "Hey, I support this," Bailey said. "A new sister-in-law? Hell, yeah."

  I couldn't help laughing out loud at that one. "You might be getting a little ahead of yourself." I threw an arm around my brother's shoulder and yanked his drunken ass toward the door. "Now, come on."

  I shoved the door open and saw several of the drunken guys still outside. I didn't spare them another glance, shouldering roughly past them, but drew their stares.

  "Hey, that’s what’s his name!" one of them yelled, but I didn't turn around. Douchebags. "Tornado! The MMA dude. The one that kicked everyone’s shit in Sparta! Holy shit, bro, can I have your autograph?" A chorus of laughs erupted from them, but I ignored them. "Asshole! Still fucking your dead friend’s Mrs.?!" one of them shouted at me, slurring his words. I clenched my jaw, my fist balling involuntarily.

  "Calm down, man. Don’t go all Hulk on me, now. Their not worth being kicked out of Ithaca," Bailey reminded me, quietly. "Let's just get to the car."

  Bailey handed over his keys when we reached his white Range Rover and I hopped into the driver's seat. Bailey climbed into the backseat and I looked at him curiously.

  "The fuck you doing?" I hissed. Bailey grinned at me.

  "The lady should sit in the front," he said. "I can pretend to pass out if you want, so you can say all your sweet nothings to each other."

  I shook my head, pissed. "Shut up, man." I backed the vehicle out of the stall and pulled out into the street. As I pulled up closer to the bar, rage set in my bones.

  Juliet was standing just outside the entrance, and the crowd of assholes had closed in on her.

  "Shit," Bailey muttered from the backseat.

  She was frozen in place, her eyes huge with the same fear I'd seen the night of her attack at the gym. She stared blankly as two of the assholes leaned in close, flanking her.

  I thrust the gear shift into park and jumped out of the car.

  They were gonna wish they were fucking dead by the time I finished with them.

  Chapter Eight

  Her

  I WALKED TOWARD the door, feeling the cool blast of air breeze in from outside as I pushed out. Immediately, my stomach clenched.

  Several of the guys were outside still, smoking and drunkenly cavorting in front of the lounge. In order to get across the street, I was going to have to walk through them.

  "Damn, there she is," one of the guys said, and all eyes turned on me. "That's the one I liked. Been wanting you all night, sexy."

  "Holy shit, you're right, Shane. She was the hottest of them all," another one chimed in from the other side. "Hey, baby, it's still early. Why don't you come over for a nightcap tonight?"

  All at once, they all started speaking at me. Their voices were a jumble in my head and I shifted my eyes from side to side, hugging my bag to my chest. Their faces became a blur, their voices distant, and panic threatened to consume me. My heart jerked oddly in my chest, beating fast, then slow, as anxiety filled me from my toes to the tips of my ears. I felt hot, then cold. My breathing became hitched, and memories, violent memories, assaulted me.

  I stared, unseeing, in front of me as I felt their body heat; they were closing in. Terror paralyzed me, and I couldn't move when I felt a hand on my shoulder, then another on my back, sliding down to my hip. I knew I was shaking, and I felt bile rise up and down in my throat.

  Move, you dumb fuck! my mind screamed at me. Yell! Shove them! Get away! Do something! And yet, my body continued to disobey, keeping me rooted in place. I felt hot breath on my ear, heard the low murmur of a voice, and I squeezed my eyes shut, wanting either the ability to move, or to die, right then.

  "Jewel."

  His voice was cold, hard, but not angry with me. The strength of that one word made my eyes snap open and I felt… safe. I couldn’t explain it. But I did. I felt safe. Every head swiveled toward the voice.

  Asher was standing on the sidewalk a dozen feet away. His face held an expression I'd never seen before; it was the deepest, calmest anger I'd ever seen on a person. He stared at no one but me.

  He called me Jewel, I thought vaguely. Not Juliet. Jewel. He always called me Juliet.

  "Come here."

  The words were still hard, but there was also a gentleness to them. I swallowed and my level of panic lowered slightly. I took a hesitant step toward Asher, looking at only him.

  I watched as his eyes suddenly, sharply, shifted to his right and he held up a hand, pointing a finger at someone passed my shoulder. "Don't even fucking think about it," he said quietly, his voice dangerous and full of warning. I didn't want to know the reason for his threat. All I knew was that the entire street had gone completely silent.

  Asher looked at me again, and held his hand out to me. "Come here," he repeated, his voice taking on that hard and gentle quality again. "Come on."

  My eyes fixed on his hand, my thudding heart beating erratically in my chest as I shuffled my feet forward off of pure desire. When I was close enough, I stiffly reached out and grabbed his large hand, and then he was moving me swiftly in front of him, turning us so that I was in front of Asher and his back was to the drunken group. The hand that held mine squeezed around it, while his other hand landed on the small of my back.

  I looked up at him. He was glaring murderously over his shoulder but leading me out into the street toward a vehicle. He opened the door for me. "Get in," he said, staring down at me, his eyes still hard but full of questions that I didn't want to reveal answers for.

  I climbed into the passenger seat wordlessly, my bag on my lap, and I clutched myself, trying to make my trembling subside. I didn't look at him, but I also didn't miss the look Asher exchanged with Bailey in the backseat.

  As Asher started the car and pulled off, I fumbled through my bag for my meds. I located the amber bottle but didn't pull it out, miraculously managing to get the top off and two pills in my palm without much trouble, keeping my hands concealed inside my bag. I knew Asher would notice, but I brought my shaking hand to my mouth quickly and tossed the pills in, gulping them down without water.

&n
bsp; "What's that?" Asher asked immediately, suspicion evident in his voice.

  "Aspirin," I lied quickly, and I knew he knew I was lying, but he gave it to me anyway.

  We drove toward Bloomfield in silence as I waited for my nerves to soothe. When I felt somewhat in control of myself again, I glanced at him.

  "You called me Jewel," I said, my voice gravelly.

  He didn't take his eyes off the road, but I saw confusion crease his brow. "Yeah?" he replied.

  "You never call me Jewel," I said, echoing my thoughts from earlier. "You always call me Juliet."

  He clearly didn't know where I was going with it, if anywhere. And truthfully, I wasn't going anywhere with it. I thought it best if I speak first so he couldn't ask me the questions I knew he had.

  "I thought that was your name," he said, gently sarcastic. "Would you prefer Juliet next time?"

  I allowed a tiny smile. "No. I actually hate it when people call me Juliet."

  He snorted quietly. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Where am I going?"

  I guided him through the neighborhood to my apartment, which was about a mile from the café. I reached for the door handle and turned to him, intending to thank him for the ride, and saw that he was taking his seat belt off and opening his own door.

  "I'll walk you to your door," he said in a tone that offered no option for refusing him.

  I glanced over my shoulder at Bailey, who had been silent the entire ride and whose head was laid against the seat, eyes closed.

  "Good night," I said softly. "It was nice to meet you." I wasn't expecting a reply, assuming he was passed out, and I jumped a little when I heard his voice reply back to me, completely awake and almost sober-sounding.

  "’Night, and nice to meet you, too," he offered back. "Hope to see you again soon."

  I wasn't sure how to reply so I merely nodded and hopped out of the car, Asher holding the door open. He pushed it closed and followed behind me as I led the way into the building and up to my apartment on the third floor.

  My stomach tensed. Now Asher knew where I lived. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. I never wanted anyone but Ruby to know where I lived. My family obviously knew, being that my parents owned the building, but outside of them, I was extremely cautious about anyone else knowing. What if Asher was some sort of psycho, and he was going to follow me inside and do unspeakably horrible things to me?

  Like in New York…

  My heart tightened again. But when I reached my door, and turned around, I noticed that he was at least three paces behind me and studying the carpeted floor. When he realized that I’d come to a stop, he looked up, meeting my eyes that I knew were wide with a mixture of fear, expectation, and uncertainty. He took a few ambling steps toward me, his hands in his pockets, and as I studied him, I noticed for the first time how good he looked.

  I was used to seeing him in sweats, athletic clothing, with either a skullcap or a hat on his head, or his hair damp and matted from sweat. But tonight, he was wearing a long-sleeved black sweater that looked light and soft and clung to his body just right, with a nice pair of jeans and dark shoes. He even had a little product in his normally messy hair, and now he was close enough for me to smell his spicy cologne. I sucked in a breath, louder than I meant to as his gaze locked onto mine. We studied each other's faces for what felt like an eternity, and my heart kicked into another level of irregularity when his eyes dropped to my lips, his tongue flicking out between his own to moisten them.

  Oh, shit. Oh, fuck. Kiss me, don't kiss me. Kiss me, don't kiss me. Kiss me, don't...

  My arms involuntarily rose and I hugged my bag to my chest, pressing my back against my door. The action was completely independent of my conscious thought, and he didn't miss it, his eyes going over me quickly.

  "Better go on in," he finally said, dropping his eyes. His hands never left his pockets and he subtly retreated a step. I gulped, feeling relief flood through me, mixed with a strange twinge of disappointment.

  "Thanks for the ride," I squeaked, turning to grab for the handle.

  "Sure," he replied. "Anytime. Sweet dreams, Jewel."

  "Sweet dreams, Asher," I responded without looking at him, and rushed inside. I shut and triple-locked my door, then collapsed against it. I felt anxiety rippling through me again, but this time, it wasn't due to paralyzing fear. The reason for it was completely different altogether.

  And that reason was walking down the hall and out of my building.

  Chapter Nine

  Him

  “CLOSIN’ TIME, BOSS,” Connor announced. "Got all the equipment sanitized, most of the clients have left. All except Mac."

  My ears perked up. "She came tonight?"

  Connor shrugged. "As always. That surprise you?" His eyes narrowed as he examined my face. "Everything cool after Trinity’s?"

  Connor and Leon had both left early, so they hadn't witnessed the scene outside the bar. I looked away and rose from my desk, gathering my leather jacket, gym bag, keys and water bottle. I shrugged. "Just fine."

  "C'mon, man," Connor said, standing to the side to let me pass through the door. "What happened? I can tell something's up."

  I hesitated. I didn't want to tell Connor too much; whatever was going on with Jewel wasn't anyone's business but hers. Plus, I didn't want to give my brash friend any fodder to potentially torture her with. He meant well, but Connor had a habit of thinking he was funny when no one else did.

  "Some drunk guys gave her a hard time, is all," I said. "She's fine though."

  "Oh, save the day, did you? Big man," Connor chortled as we headed into the gym.

  "No," I grunted. "Anyway, you’d better shut the hell up about it in front of her."

  Connor just shook his head and laughed. "Everything look good, man?" he asked, sweeping his arm over the expanse of the gym. I knew how eager he was to get home. He had a date tonight. With the gymnast.

  I glanced around. “Not sure…” I said, watching a frown morph into his usual puppy-dog face. "Yeah. Go home," I said, waving him off. “And remember—wear a rubber.”

  As Connor left, I crossed the gym, rounding the corner of the ring in the middle of the room. I could hear the steady thump of Jewel's fists on the bag.

  A day hadn’t gone on by that I didn’t think of Jewel. I knew something bad had happened to her in the past. It made my veins pump hard knowing that someone had hurt her. I knew she was having some sort of anxiety attack outside the bar. It was nothing new to me. Reminded me of Mom, and some of my Marines. To me, all signs pointed to her suffering from PTSD. But what the PTSD could be a result of—I had no idea. I wanted to know, but I also knew what it was like to have people not minding their goddamn business. If Jewel wanted me to know—she'd let me know.

  As I went up to her, I noticed that she was beating the bag with new intensity, her arms quivering with fatigue. Her sharp exhales of breath had turned to grunts. She was overdoing it and risking injury. I leaned into her vision like I always did, as not to startle her as much. Her eyes immediately shifted to me, and I saw fire and anger snapping in the deep chocolate-brown depths. She dropped her arms, still staring into my eyes and stood still, her chest heaving.

  I swallowed, unsure of what to say. I hadn't seen her look like this before. Finally, I cleared my throat. "You all right?"

  Abruptly, she yanked her headphones off her head and dropped her mitts to the ground. "Fine."

  I didn't know everything there was to know about women, but what little I did know, told me that she was actually completely opposite of ‘fine.’ I sensed that rebutting her or probing further would likely make things worse, so I left it alone.

  "Hey," I said, switching gears. She glanced up at me, one of her brows raised questioningly. Curiosity pushed the fire out of her eyes and I was glad to see it. "I need your help."

  "My help?" she repeated, the other brow joining the first. "What could you possibly need my help with?"

  "Well, it's something you already shot me d
own for," I said, folding my arms. "I finally have a plan worked out for the women's self-defense course. Now that you know I'm not a total piece-of-shit, maybe you'll be willing to help me work the moves out."

  She shrugged. "Why can't you use Connor or Leon or someone?"

  "I need a female body," I replied bluntly. A second later, I heard in my head how it must’ve sounded and shook my head as Jewel hid a grin. "Not like that, smart ass. The course is designed for women; I need to make sure that it works with a woman's body, that the moves aren't too advanced for beginners and what not." I saw her hesitation. "What's wrong?"

  "Well, I've sparred before," she began, "in New York with my trainer. But that was like, boxing type stuff and we didn't do that very often. I'm not sure how well I'd fare with self-defense stuff."

  "It's not unlike boxing," I said with a shrug. "There are just other elements." I paused, studying her face as she studied her hands. "You would really be helping me out."

  Finally, she sighed and lifted her head, nodding. "All right. I suppose I owe you a favor from Saturday night, anyway."

  I hadn’t planned on bringing up what happened outside Trinity’s, for her comfort, and I'd expected that she wouldn't either. But she was braver than most it seems. I was glad. She smiled uncertainly at me, as though she wasn't sure how I'd received her comment.

  I waved a hand. "No big deal," I said. "Let's get in the ring."

  I leaped up into the ring and pulled the ropes back slightly so she could hop up beside me. She stood with her back to the ropes, hugging herself as I moved into the center of the ring.

  "All right," I said, "come here. I'm going to show you how to hit angles." Jewel stepped toward me hesitantly, still hugging herself. I smirked and reached out, pulling gently at one of her arms. "You have to put your arms down. Stand like this." I showed her a proper, basic fighting stance and she mimicked me.

  "Now. I want you to come toward my shoulder. When you get there, you're going to take your hands and push off, throwing me to the side. This is effective for when an attacker is coming at you head on. You hit your angle, shove him away, and run. Got it?" I demonstrated slowly against her, turning my body away from her slightly, stepping up to her side, and using my hands to push at her shoulder, sending her stumbling back several steps as I moved away. She nodded, and I resumed my place in the center of the ring, facing her head on. "All right. I'm going to stand still. You hit your angle on both sides." Jewel demonstrated, and I nodded my approval. "That was good. Easy?"