Page 31 of Little Fury

I nod at Albert, telling him to get on with it. He swings at me, and I dodge it, allowing me to land a punch to his left kidney. He grunts at the contact, and I step back, giving him some space. He refocuses on me and attacks. He may have some training but doesn't know how to use it. He broadcasts his moves before making them, making it easy to avoid them and land my own. Albert is sporting a bloody nose, and I’mpretty sure a badly bruised kidney after a few well-placed hits on my part.

I hear Oscar start to take a few semi-normal breaths, and I see him out of the corner of my eye get up off the floor. Albert sees this as well, and an evil grin crosses his face.“Two on one bitch; let’s see how well you do now.”

Oscar stays behind me, effectively blocking any way for me to get to the door, but he still isn’t 100% on his feet, so I know Albert is the bigger threat at the moment. Albert throws a right, and it hits me square on the cheekbone, and I feel it all the way into my eye socket. That pisses me off. I can see Oscar out of the side of my eye, so I turn to him and kick the inside of his left knee with all the power I have, and the knee gives way under my foot with a satisfying snap. Oscar screams in agony, and he is back on the floor. This time, I know he isn’t getting back up. And I’m pretty sure he peed himself.

“Stop fucking with them, Ava. Just finish it.”I hear Harry growl. I never even heard him enter the room. “Relax, Marcus, she's fine. “

I smirk at Albert, reveling when I see it click for him that I was toying with them.“I didn't want to hurt either of you too badly, but now I don’t care. I’m going to have a bruise on my face, and that really irks me.” I step towards him, and he takes a step back and drops his hands ever so slightly in what I think might have been a surrender gesture. But I don’t care. I take the opportunity it produces and clock him in the temple and once more in the nose, breaking it. Albert drops like a stone.

I turn and see Marcus standing beside Harry. Harry sits in a pool chair, feet up, drinking a beer. He’s bare-chested, looking like it's just another ordinary day at the pool.

“Thanks, guys, for the help,”I tell them, my hand going tomy cheek, feeling the swelling and the bruise I know is starting to appear.

“I wanted to help, but Harry wouldn't let me,”Marcus tells me as he approaches me.

“She didn't need help. She wouldn't have even taken that one hit had she gotten over the idea of not wanting to hurt them faster.” Harry informs Marcus.

I look at Harry and stick my tongue out at him. He's right. I played nicer than I should have and have the swelling to prove it.

“Answer me this, Ava, why didn't you leave as soon as they entered? Why did you go into the sauna?”

“I don’t know. I ignored my intuition, I guess,”I answered without giving it any real thought.

We head to the elevator and up to our rooms.

“Miss Bennett will not like hearing that,”Harry informs me. I groan, knowing Miss Bennett will make me regret doing that.

We get off the elevator and head to our rooms. I go straight to the phone and order a burger, onion rings, and a vanilla milkshake. I hop in the shower to rinse off the pool and the little bits of blood I have on me. I step out of the shower, wrap my hair in a towel, then grab the robe from behind the door and freeze.

How fucking dare, he!

I rip open my room door, walk two doors down, and bang on it. Harry answers the door with his trademark red eyebrow raised. Not giving him a chance to speak, I brace my hands on either side of the door jam, using it for leverage as I jump and swing a bit. Using the momentum, I drop-kick the Scottish asshole right in the stomach. The door frame allows me to come back to standing.“You fucking set me up??!!”I spit at him, accusing him and stating what I already know.

Harry is bent over, gasping for air, so I stand there waiting for him to answer.

It takes a couple of minutes before he can answer me,“Jesus Ava, I thought you were going to punch me in the face, nae kick me in the' tummy. Who the hell does that?”He says, his brogue thick.

“Me! I do that, Harry. I've been trained for years, that I need to do the unexpected because of my small size. And clearly kicking you in the stomach was the unexpected.” I yell at him.

“Why?!”I ask him again.

“Because Ava, I test everyone. It's my fucking job.”

“Do you test everyone like that? At my age?”

“You’ve always been so nonchalant about everything. Always just accepted everything. Since you were a little girl, you've just taken this all-in stride.” Harry pauses, trying to catch his breath.“And your birth mother requested it be done now and like this.”

I look at him. The shock clear on my face. He never mentions my birth mother or the circumstances of my adoption and being placed with him after my parents died.“So, you're reporting to her then? She decides how my training progresses?”

“I've always reported your progress to her. You’re a minor, and when your parents died, your guardianship went back to your biological mother. She signed you over to me while you were in the hospital. That’s how Beth was able to take you and bring you to the ranch.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? Have you been sending her progress reports about me this whole time? And what? She sends you back notes? Tells you what training and tests?”

“No, Ava. Not once has she replied to an update, I’ve sent her. She's never interfered once in your eight years with me. This test here in New York, while yes, she requested it bedone now, I supported the decision, or it never would have taken place.”

“Fucking super. Fuck you, Harry, and fuck her.”

He breathes deeply and sits on the end of the bed.“It's never once seemed to phase you. You hide behind your brain and your smartass mouth. I’ve seen you during training, and you're good. You've always been good. It's always felt like you were made for this life. But you never took any of it seriously.” He takes a normal breath, and it's irritating right now how good of shape he's in for his age; men half his age would still be writhing on the floor. I step into his room.

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