CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

 

 

JONATHAN SHADE

 

A few weeks later, Rayna and I met up with Kelly and Brand at the dojo. There were still loose ends with the police departments of both Denver and Boulder, but with O’Malley and Kramer, respectively, plus Rayna making some rather substantial donations to the right police charities, I knew everything would work out fine.

Brand was in good spirits, and he was completely healed. Lina does excellent work. Esther moped around for a week because she wasn’t happy I was dating Rayna, but she got over it.

“Ready for lunch?” I asked as we entered.

“I need to work up an appetite,” Kelly said.

“And how do you propose to do that?”

“By kicking your ass.”

“That doesn’t sound like a good idea to me,” I said.

Kelly laughed. “But it does to me.”

“Are you all better now?”

“One hundred percent.”

“In that case, I’ll pass.”

Kelly shook her head. “Right before all this started, you took Brand down a little too easily. Then you were a lot faster than I expected. I won that matchup partially because Mike distracted you.”

“You’d have won anyway.”

“Let’s find out.” She stepped onto the mats, which I have to tell you were a royal bitch to clean. There were still a few spots where if you looked closely, you could see bloodstains.

“I forfeit,” I said.

“Come on, Jonathan.”

“I don’t want my girlfriend to see you kick my ass. It hurts my masculine pride.”

She laughed. “Fine,” she said and stepped off the mat. “Brand, when he wouldn’t fight you, what did I tell you to do?”

“You told me to hit him because he’d probably hit back.”

I tried to back away, but Rayna pushed me forward.

“Hey,” I said. “Whose side are you on?”

Kelly grabbed me and threw me onto the mat. I rolled to my feet, and she was on me in a heartbeat. To my credit, I did manage to block a few of the punches before she proved to me that she was back to full strength.

As I flew through the air, I heard Esther say, “Atta girl, Kelly! Show him who’s boss!”

Kelly pinned me to the floor. “Do you give up?” she asked.

“Yes. I tried to give up before you started.”

She laughed and helped me to my feet.

Rayna took my hand and leaned into me. “You got beat up by a girl,” she said.

“I know,” I said, “but I’m used to it.” Then I kissed her.

 

 

 

The Jonathan Shade series continues with Anubis Nights

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