Peaches

Twenty Nine

Focus.

"Hook," I spoke quietly, beginning a mental checklist of the steps to achieve the intended outcome. My foot looped around his leg, pressing hard into the back of his knee with my toes.

Not easy in the slightest.

As much as I was aware this was only a rehearsed scenario, the fear behind it could easily hold me back. Chris made it to be as believable as he could while being able to leave room for me to learn and understand.

Fuck, he wasn't going down.

Gently jerking from side to side as he pulled me back planted me directly in a mindset to panic. It was an understatement to say that he was stronger than me. Hell, dare I say he could be tougher than Marcello.

I need to be able to kick that leg out from under him.

With a heaving grunt, sucking in air for a mighty effort, I thrust my foot back and kicked my toes into the tendons behind his knee. As his leg began to cripple below him, I felt my opportunity to transition into my next step.

Clasping my hands together, I raised them above my head before lunging myself down, doubling over with all of my strength. The force of coming down brought him down with me, just enough reach for me to take hold of his ankle.

"Yes!" He grunted out a quick word of encouragement before I pulled his leg out from under him, sending him to the ground in a heap. "That's how you do it!"

My moment of triumph was short-lived, as I rationalized the situation. It would never feel like this with Marcello. There would be no coaching and absolutely no praise in the success of a takedown.

The reality is so much worse. I'm sure Marcello wouldn't even bother with restraining me. At least with force.

His style would most likely include a syringe containing his sedative of choice.

"Bri!" Chris rolled over in the grass, looking up at me with a gallant smile. "You did it, aren't you happy?"

"This is all bullshit." Under my breath, I muttered a string of negative remarks while collecting my things.

Why did he think this was going to work? Why did he have it in his mind that this training would be useful?

His irritation was made very clear as I watched his smile drop and a somber stare. "Couldn't hear you."

"I think you heard just fine."

"Briel." He sighed, peeling himself off of the sticky grass to stand beside me. "I thought you wanted to do this. You asked me to help you practice-"

"Oh, don't make it all about you now, Chris. Like I begged and begged you to drag yourself out here and-"

"What went wrong, Bri?" He wiped his palms down the front of his face and groaned. "You did-"

"See- there you go; 'you did great.' Like I've actually learned a fucking thing. Something useful against him. 'So amazing, Peach, you got this!' Bullshit."

I don't want to be mad.

I don't want to lash out at him.

"Don't mock me, Briel." His jaw snapped closed, tightening as he clenched his teeth in frustration.

"What, Chris? Do you honestly think that this will work for me? Like It'll run smoothly? There isn't any point to this. Once he has me I'm gone." I could feel my self-control slipping with every word that I heaved out, my hands waving at my sides as my knees shook mercilessly. "There won't be an option to 'try again, baby' because I'll be fucking dead-"