Disastrous

12

I didn't know what to do.

At this point, life had just become a record, always on repeat.

I hardly left my room, and if I did it was because the girls forced me to.

Colby didn't make me do anything or even try to interact with me, thank God.

It was three days after my return to them that Colby burst through the door.

"I could have been naked," I looked up from the book I was reading on my bed, "You should learn to knock,"

"It's two in the afternoon, there's no need for you to be changing. I'm not stupid," Colby shut the door behind him, walking over to the bed and grabbing the book from my hand, courteous enough to atleast fold the corner of the page I was on before slamming it shut and tossing it aside.

"What are you doing?" I asked as he grabbed my wrist and sat me up.

"We're training. Put these on," He threw me a pair of tight fitting pants and a sports bra.

I stared at the clothing he gave me, identical to the set Jillian had let me borrow when I went out for my run with Mitch.

I glanced up at him, waving my finger to signal for him to turn around so I could get changed.

Once his back was facing me I switched from my baggy day dress into the tighter fitting clothes. "Okay," I said once I was done.

"What are we doing, exactly?" I asked as I followed him out of my room.

"Training," He replied snipply as we walked down to the basement I didn't know we had.

"No shit sherlock," I snapped back, "What type of training, gun training, sword fighting? Like, what are we doing?"

"Watch who you're talking to," Colby's tone harshened before going back to the closest as easy going I've ever heard, "I'm not stupid enough to give you a gun. So we're not gun fighting. And this is 2023, we're not sword fighting,"

Like a gentleman, he pulled open the glass doors for me, waving that I was to enter first. I thanked him quietly and scurried in the room, looking around at all the different equipment plus the open space in the middle of the room, along with a rectangular shaped trampoline off in the corner.

Colby must have seen me eyeing the trampoline because he said, "We have that for target practice. One of us jumps on the trampoline and the other shoots,"

"With a real gun?" I asked, glancing at him doubtfully.

"Yes, with a real gun," He said exasperatedly as he went to plug a machine in, "We aren't pussies,"

"So what we're gonna do," Colby began after a couple seconds, "Is you're going to stand other by the wall. I'm going to shoot tennis balls out of the machine and you're going to have to dodge them,"

What he didn't inform me was that he'd be controlling where the balls were going, and specifically aimed them for me. He also failed to mention that the balls will bounce off the wall and hit me with enough force to get a bruise.

"I," I shouted in between the shots he would make, "Hate. Tennis. Balls. And. I. Hate. You."

He shut off the machine for a moment when I said that, "You don't mean that," Colby started up the device again at a faster speed, causing me to lose my breath and energy a lot quicker.

"Yes I do!" I panted, "I'm not going to lie to you Colby! I'm not a liar!"

"Well you just did," He countered, turning up the speed to a higher level.

"Fuck this," I flopped over onto my side, not even caring as the balls would bounce off the wall and hit my backside.

"You'd be dead right now if those were bullets," Colby pointed out, flipping the machine off before walking over to me.

"And I'd be out of here, so I kind of wish those were real bullets," I waved off his offer to help me to my feet, doing it myself.

"Clean this up," He instructed, pointing around the room at the dozens of brightly colored tennis balls.

"Yes sir bitch a lot," I muttered, slowly making my way around the room and stuffing them into my arms until I couldn't hold any more.

"You don't mean that," He repeated from where he was, leaning up against the wall by the door.

"Huh?" I glanced over at him as I went to make another round of picking up the balls.

"You don't mean that you hate me," Colby looked the closest to hurt as I've ever seen him. His eyebrows were slightly tilted and his lip was only partially in a pout.

"Yes I do," I lied to him, "I hate you and everyone else. Except for Navi, she's cool." Navi is Corey's dog, a chocolate lab that was fairly obedient but was so funny. I've caught her and Corey dancing or barking at each other, and it's the most humorous thing I've ever seen.

Colby stayed quiet, studying me with his eyes, "I don't want you to hate us,"

"You don't really give me a choice," I let out a humorless laugh, "I've been ripped away from the life I love and I'm trapped in this house with nowhere to go and nothing to do. I have no life here,"

"I didn't bring you here for no reason," He defended quietly, "I had to. You're in such a high amount of danger, along with all your family. That's not my fault,"

"Explain," I begged, "Please, tell me what I'm missing here because I really have no clue as to where I'm going wrong,"

"You know about your grandfather by now," I gave a hesitant nod before Colby continued, "As long as you share the last name of him, you are on the kill list. You are a family member of Kumar, and the bosses know people by their last names,"

"So I'm Kumar, too," I realized quietly, "But how can I change that? Oh no," I shook my head once I realized, "I am not marrying any of you,"

"You don't have to marry any of us," Colby waved his arms in front of himself quickly, "That's up to you. But getting married within the next couple months would be the smartest thing to do, if you want to stay alive. And after you get married, you can leave on your own,"

"Really?" I asked excitedly, clapping my hands, "What's the catch though?"

"Uh," Colby thought for a moment, "You can't go back to Kentucky. Like, ever,"

"Deal," I reached out and shook his hand firmly, "How am I going to find someone though? And someone that would be okay with marrying me so soon?"

"I'll help you, if you'd like," Colby offered.

Once again, I didn't realize the risk in the deal I just agreed to. Or the severity of it.