Page 20 of Lure

His eagerness didn’t overcome strategy or experience and Voodoo never turned his back on me. Nor did he lunge forward. No, he was playing the long game. In forcing me to go to him, it let him choose how we engaged. Irritation scraped along the inside of my skin.

It would serve him right if I made him come to me. Which of us was the most stubborn?

Someday, we might find out.

As it was, I packed away the annoyance his tactics provoked. The fact he knew to do this was a testament not only to how well he knew me, but also how much I needed this fight.

“I really fucking hate it when you’re right,” I said before surging across the mat. I expected him to dodge and evade, so I was already lunging to the left and leaping over his leg even as he tried to sweep mine from beneath me.

What usually followed was a combo of hits. But he changed the playbook and caught me in the jaw with a backhand. The metallic tang of copper flooded my mouth. It was a wakeup call, sharpening my focus.

Instead of leaving me to chase him, Voodoo closed the distance and delivered three sharp blows to my side and one to my kidney before I caught his arm. Mother fucker had been training.

Turning his arm around, I yanked him off his feet. But he didn’t just let me control the fall. He shoved himself right into me, forcing me to release him. His arms were around me and we hit the mats together.

It was hard to get him in a grappling hold. Slippery bastard kept getting away from me. The fourth time he broke the hold, he caught me in the jaw with his forehead. Blood explodedthrough my mouth and seemed to drench my temper in kerosene.

I drove my left into his abdomen twice even as I tumbled us back and over. I got my foot up and then I shoved him off me. Rebounding to my feet, I blocked his right, then his left, then his right again.

Old combo, bad call.

I let him through on the next left, because it opened up his right. The moment he swung, I let the impact push me away. Not far, though, because I wanted this opportunity. A series of swift combo, hammer blows had him gasping as I drove him back across the mats.

Three times I landed blows to his kidney. His elbow caught me right in the back of the head. It sent me stumbling forward right into the mat-covered wall. The blow to the face wasn’t painful but it did knock the haze off.

I staggered back to find him on the far side, watching me with narrowed eyes and raised fists. Blood decorated his wraps and I didn’t have to look at mine to know they were likely spotted and soaking as well.

Air came in hard little pants. The haze over my vision, however, cracked, then splintered before it shattered.

Fuck.

This wasn’t just me being annoyed. This was… fractured training. I was letting my temper win. This would get someone killed.

“I hate when plans derail,” I admitted aloud. “I hate it even more that it was my call that left Alphabet and the client?—”

“Grace,” Voodoo said, not letting me dismiss her to a category. “Her name is Grace.”

I wiped the blood from my face with the back of my hand and stared at him. “Fine, it was my call to leave Alphabet and Graceat the safe house. That put them well out of reach when shit went sideways.”

“Alphabet’s a big boy,” Voodoo said, clearly unimpressed with my reasoning. “He’s also more than capable of taking down an opponent, which I remind you, he did. He also has Goblin and Goblin is more than capable of taking down his fair share.”

Leaning my head back, I tried to get the pounding in my temples to slow down. “It’s not the point.”

“Actually, itisthe point. Alphabet isn’t an invalid or incapable. If he suspected more of an issue, he would have been the first one to say something.”

Fine, I could admit it. He had a point.

“The real issue isn’t just that someone showed up at the safe house, it’s that they got their hands on Grace. That could have gone a hell of a lot worse.”

“She shouldn’t have been outside while he was on ops.”

“No, she shouldn’t,” Voodoo said with a shrug. “Youmade a choice when you snapped at her. Not sure where the fuck you thought she was going to go, but it is what it is.”

“So you think everything is my fault.” Though it wasn’t a question, it definitely came out far surlier than intended.

“Does it matter what I think?” Like me, Voodoo had gotten his breathing regulated. The longer we stood here, the more in control I felt. Still, he wasn’t backing down yet.

Good. I didn’t want him to back down. “No,” I said. It really didn’t matter.

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