The Secrets Of Dragons: Book One

Chapter 28

Abraham Crowley

This being at the gym every day after classes and football practice was starting to get fucking old. Jay was running a tight ship, and one that only she was allowed to control. She refused to take even one night off, and it was starting to run my body ragged. It irritated more now that Ryker had to not only crash our training session the other night but makes a constant regular appearance since. There were even days when he would show up early, and plaster on his most idiotic smile whenever we would walk through the doors.

Jay seemed unphased by it, but I was confident that the little vein that throbbed at her temple was also in the mild irritation that I was also feeling. She did her best to put on a good face, but not so well that I couldn't tell the difference. The past couple of weeks had been a revelation, getting to know her inner workings. It seemed like she had a hard childhood, which she wouldn't really talk about other than her brother. She would make small talk about campus, Giovanni's latest shenanigans, and her and Elsie's latest adventures.

I think that's what puzzled me the most. Her and Elsie. The fact that they were becoming as close as they were in such a short amount of time. They were like night and day, but even then, opposing sides usually compliment the other. This week alone, she had dropped her guard throughout our training more than she ever had with me, but I believed it to be because the fight was coming up in two short days. She underestimated her ability to get the job done, since she had been out of practice for just a couple of months.

I didn't.

She beat my ass too many times for me to believe otherwise.

Hell, she even beat Ryker's ass without shame.

But with their more than obvious attraction towards each other, she had told me quite a bit more than she is willing to tell Ryker. I took a large amount of satisfaction in that thought, but even I had to face reality. She was only so forthcoming about her thoughts with me because she knew I was a safe place, having already known about most of her dealings, and with finding out about her being Smoke.

That was the only thing I was having trouble with. She walked around like Ryker, himself, was not part of the very mob she worked for. It had to be somewhere in the back of her mind, and maybe she was just remaining blissfully unaware; all for the sake of trying to appear normal. Ryker hadn't come clean about knowing who she was, and that was even more confusing. He might not know about Smoke, but we were all made aware that when Giovanni was to start college that Black was making his personal bodyguard tag along. It had been an ongoing joke between Nick, Ryker, and me.

Giovanni needed protection in the form of a small girl.

But that small girl turned out to be a badass that none of us had been prepared for.

It seemed to comfort her a bit when I had come clean about who I was and what family I came from. You could see the visible relief when she vented about her job within a job, and how Black always found some way to fuck her over time after time. I believed every word that spilled from her pouted lips that were always in a perpetual state of frowning.

I swallowed down the fire in my throat at the thought of how her face curved in the most perfect way, or how her brow would furrow when she would turn cross at me. God, help me. I nearly jumped as a loud thump broke me out of my thoughts and I looked up into the ring just as Ryker hit the mat, blood spurting from his nose.

"That's going to fucking hurt in the morning." I chuckled aloud.

"The fuck do you mean?" Ryker spit blood to the side before standing back up. "It hurts now."