Page 52 of Ruin

“Neither were we.” Mason pats my shoulder and we all get back to my car. Maybe a day with my brothers is what I need. I don’t see them in the evenings as much, since they are all in college and on the days I’m at school, they’re off college. I can’t wait until next year when I’m in college with them.

* * *

Parking the car at the kick boxing studio. Me and my brothers spent most of the day working on the car. My head space is still a little fucked up, but I have to carry on with my day. The Pit will always linger over me. Like Cain said, I have to take control of it. I control my mind, not The Pit.

I look around the studio as I walk in. I thought there would be more people in here, but no, it’s a one-on-one session. I see Trixie with the instructor, and I sit on the bench to the side so I get a view of her punching his hands a few times. He goes for her quickly, but she moves out of the way. She’s fast, or he’s not going quick enough. Never mind, I was wrong. The coach lands a punch on the side of her ribs, which makes her bend a little in agony.

Her instructor takes a step closer to her as he takes his gloves off and starts rubbing her ribs. Why the hell is he touching her like that? There’s no need. He cups her face and starts talking to her. I’m too far away to hear anything he’s saying, but Trixie is nodding, agreeing with him.

Why is it pissing me off that he’s touching her? No one should touch her but me. It doesn’t matter if I’m only having fun with her. No one can touch her skin except me.

I whistle to get her attention and everyone else in the room looks in my direction. Her body tenses up when she looks over at me, and all I can do is smile when she signs.

I’m not a fucking dog.

She turns back to her instructor, but he keeps his eyes on me for a moment, and I give him a nod. What the fuck is it with the guys in her life. Robert, her dad, now him? There’s a warning. ‘Do not touch her’ attitude from them. They can all warn me as much as they want. She’s mine and everyone else can fuck off.

Her instructor takes a step back, putting his gloves on, and puts his hands up so she can continue to hit them. He moves them fast and I’m surprised about how quick Trixie is hitting them. They go on for a few more minutes before he stops, takes his gloves off and gives Trixie a high five.

They talk for a bit and I make my way over to her. Her instructor stares at me as I wrap my arm over Trixie’s shoulder. He doesn’t like it and I don’t care.

“You finished your session, little Trixie?” I ask her, and she gives me a nod. “Thought we could grab some dinner.” I turn to her instructor and put out my hand. “Declan, Trixie’s boyfriend.” My words make Trixie tenses up a little, but the smile on my face is huge knowing it pissed off her instructor.

“How long have you been together?” he asks me, still not giving me his name.

“Start of school, did I step in the way?” My question makes Trixie snap her head toward me, then shake her head as she looks back over at her instructor.

“You can say something like that.” He holds his eyes on Trixie and I see the small smile tug on his lips, which annoys me, so I step in front of Trixie.

“If you keep looking at my girl like that, we might have to see how well you can fight.” I take a step closer to him, but Trixie stands in the middle of us and looks up at me and signs.

Leave it.

“And if I do, what do I get?” I ask her, her eyes widen at my question. “Let’s eat while you think about it.”

I look back at the instructor, giving him a nod, as I pull Trixie back under my arm and closer to me as we leave the studio. We walk straight to my car. Trixie looks over at hers in question.

“It’ll be in your driveway in the morning. Now get in.” I open the door for her, and she does as I’ve asked, without waiting. I get in the car and look over at her as she looks through her bag for something. “I think you should know, no one touches you. I mean no one.” She takes a deep breath and nods her head, as if she can’t be bothered to argue with me.

Driving to the pizza place, I see my brothers are already here. Trixie gets out of the car and walks alongside me.

“Declan, so nice you’re here, too,” Beth welcomes me and smiles at Trixie as we join my brothers and Lileah.

“About fucking time you get here.” Mason moves over so I can get in, Trixie next to me.

“Not even that late,” I snap at him, and glance over at Trixie as she looks around the restaurant.

My brothers are laughing about something that happened at college and I take the moment to look over at Trixie, who’s using her finger to draw something on her leg.

So drawing is her way to calm herself down if she’s uncomfortable.

“You want a drink?” I ask, and she signs that she would like some water. Ordering our drinks, I place the menu in front of Trixie so she can have a look at what she wants. I take the moment to look at her arms, in particular look at her bracelets.

She wears a lot of them and most of them are some sort of dragon style. She even has a tattoo of one on her back which comes all the way around to her front. So whatever it means to her, it’s got to be big for her. A lot of girls don’t get tattoos just to get them. They think about it, yet Trixie draws all the time, so she might have drawn something and liked the idea of it on her skin.

Fucking hell, why do I care what she has on her body?

“Since when did you learn to sign?” Lileah asks.

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