Page 86 of The Sound of Silence

“Oh, for fuck’s sake… Fine!” Derek yelled and threw up his hands.

I listened to Hana speak in Japanese, presumably to Xi. I had no idea what she was saying, but when she hung up, she was smiling.

“I didn’t know you spoke Japanese so fluently,” I said.

“I was born here, but my parents are from Yokohama. I can speak the language, but only use it on occasion—like when I’m trying to keep secrets from Derek,” she teased and looked pointedly at him. “Anyway, Xi is free now. He said he can meet us over at the boxing ring in fifteen minutes, then we can get started.”

Derek scowled at her before turning to point a finger at me.

“I’m warning you. Xi isn’t a teacher. He’s an MMA fighter. He doesn’t understand boundaries or limits. If something goes wrong, don’t say—”

“I get it, Derek,” I bit out. “If I get hurt, it’s on me.”

* * *

The next morning,I discovered the reason behind Derek’s warning—felt it in the fibers of every single muscle in my body. Halfway through the session, Derek had stormed out in protest of what he thought was unnecessary roughness. It was true. Xi was no joke. He took me to task in the traditional boxing ring—which was exactly what I needed. I reminded myself of that as I stretched my calves for lesson number two.

“Back for more,” Hana joked when she walked into the room. After dumping her bag in the corner, she joined me on the mat next to the ring. I just smiled weakly, trying not to look at the posters of fierce MMA fighters on the walls. Her grin turned into a frown. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know, Hana. I honestly don’t know. Sometimes, I wonder if I’m only fooling myself.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to the police just in case? I mean, if your husband really is here, he doesn’t have the pull in New York like he does—”

“No, Hana. No police. It won’t make a bit of difference. There are good cops and bad cops, but I’ve yet to meet one who didn’t hide behind the blue wall of silence. If there was a way for people to know who the bad cops are, they wouldn’tbebad. I don’t know who Ethan has paid off, so I can’t trust any of them. Besides, even if the NYPD did help me, that wouldn’t stop Ethan from coming for me. You and I both know that.”

She sighed and shook her head.

“The shit women have to go through just isn’t fair.”

A silence passed between us, neither one of us needing to elaborate on how skewed the system was.

“I’m scared,” I whispered, more to myself than to her.

Before she could respond, Derek came into the room with Xi following behind him. He nodded curtly, then walked over to the stereo system.

“Are you stretched?” Derek asked me.

“All set to go.”

“Good. Go gear up. Xi is going to… well, he’s going to try to kick your ass again today. But the keyword there is ‘try.’” Looking pointedly at me, his face turned hard. “You aren’t going to let him win today. Do you understand me?”

My eyes widened in surprise. Derek had never taken an authoritative tone with me—ever. As I tried to decide whether that had been the missing link to all this, I went to put on the protective gear.

Derek turned on the stereo, and angry, growling lyrics from Three Days Grace blasted through the speakers. Derek nodded his head at Hana and pointed to the door. Reacting to his silent message, she went and closed it.

With the music loud in my ears, I climbed up into the ring. Xi began by taking me through a series of drills, none like the self-defense moves I’d learned. He taught me how to respond to a first hit and how to initiate one. All were grueling once we got into it, and I hit the deck more times than I could count. After an hour, Xi took a step back.

“Are you ready to go at this for real now?” he asked, his Japanese accent thick in between pants.

“Yeah, let me just grab a quick drink.”

Walking over to the corner of the ring, I took the water bottle Derek held out to me.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to prove here, Sparky. This is a bad idea,” he warned. “Xi went easy on you yesterday. Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

I ignored the sinking feeling in my stomach. I was still sore from yesterday, and my muscles were already wrought with exhaustion from today, but Derek didn’t understand why I had to do this—why I had to be prepared. He was a man and I was a woman. As much as I cared for him and appreciated his many self-defense lessons, he would never truly comprehend how different our worlds were. Instead of showing any sort of concern, I just nodded and handed the bottle back to him.

“I’m ready.”

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