SHUT DOWN | JENLISA

60

Jennie

I hung up and put my phone into my bag. I stood up and pulled out the gun from my holster. I checked the chamber and made sure it was loaded. I put it back in and grabbed my coat to cover the weapon. With my purse in my hand, I stepped out of the office and told my new secretary that I'd be taking the rest of the day off. Once I got home, I stripped out of my extravagant clothing and into something more comfortable.

I wiped my makeup off and wrapped my hair up into a bun. I grabbed my sneakers and headed downstairs to wait. My dogs lounged around in the gym with me while I stretched and tried to undo the tense muscles knotting in my back.

I felt so on edge that my hands were shaking. I had to do my breathing exercises over and over again until I finally calmed down. There was a knock on the gym door, and Mino, along with three other men, walked in.

"Boss." Mino greeted me. "These men will help retrain you. This is Yue, and he'll be helping you improve your hand-to-hand combat." He pointed to a man of Asian descent. He was medium height, with a fit body and strong arms. I nodded my head respectfully at him.

"This is Vlad, and he'll be helping you improve your knife-fighting skills." He pointed to a short man with a shiny head and a large scar across his cheek. I gave him the same respectful nod.

"And lastly, this is Junaid and a very close and dear friend of mine. He'll be helping you improve your gun skills." He placed his hand on the man next to him. He had a thick beard, a headful of hair and his stance was strong, and his eyes were firm as he gave me a nod of his head, which I replied with my own.

"These men will help you, boss. I'll be here overseeing it all."

I approached the three teachers and placed my hands on my hips. "Shall we begin?"

Hours that felt like days passed me by, and I was a sweating, panting, and sore mess. My legs were sore from the laps they forced me to run. My back ached from all the push-ups, and my arms felt like jelly from the number of pull-ups they had me do.

Their workout routine was intense, and it lasted over an hour as they pushed me past my limits. They gave me a ten-minute break every ninety minutes, but they wouldn't allow me to drink water.

Something about drinking after would be beneficial. Each man spent two hours training with me. Yue was quick and sleuth as he taught me how to fight better. He taught me how to tighten my stance and how to take down someone double my weight and size. It felt like I was training for a war that I felt was nearing. I learned different types of combat because Yue mixed in some martial arts techniques along with some taekwondo. He had me in a chokehold so tight I thought I was going to die in it while he screamed directions in my ear. After Yue's lesson was done, he stepped away, and then I was paired with Vlad.

Vlad was even more brutal. He used a knife like it was an extension of his hand. He was quick, the blade almost invisible as he moved it around and cut through the obstacles. His English was weak, but he made up with grunts and visual aids. He taught me how to use not only the blade but the handle it came with. Mino pulled out a visual of the human body and its anatomy. He taught me where to cut for major damage and how deep to cut if I wanted them to bleed out. After teaching me, he gave me a stiff smile and pat on my back before I moved on to Junaid.

If I thought the first two men were savage, I was wrong. Junaid was an animal when it came to his gun techniques and his lesson. He spent more time training me than the other two. He taught me how to disarm a gun and how to put it back together in less than a minute. He'd time me, and if I were to make a mistake, he'd make me do it all over again. Then we were working with different types of guns and feeling the weight of them in my hand. He taught me how to shoot with techniques I didn't even know existed, but I was grateful. Despite his constant screaming and cussing, he was an amazing teacher, and I was grateful for him, for all of them. I was so tired; I couldn't even enjoy dinner with all of them.

Instead, I told Beth to save me a plate because I needed a long soak in the tub. I groaned in pain as I stepped into the bath, and before I could close my eyes, my phone began to vibrate. I cursed and got up to my bedroom.