Chapter 5: Learn How To Defend Yourself

“Yeah, I’m not doing this.” I smiled at Thea, crossing my arms.

There was no way in hell that I was taking a gym class now with this girl when I managed to avoid it at school for four freaking years!

Nope! It’s definitely not happening.

She rolled her eyes at me as she started doing her stretching exercises. 

“If I were you, I would start stretching because you’re gonna have to do this.” Thea told me. 

No, sister. Never!

“There is no way that I’ll even consider doing this shit!” I told her honestly.

I don’t think that these people actually understand what kind of a creature I really am.

“Then there is no way that I’m letting you be on the team.” I heard the one and only, Archer’s voice speaking from behind me. 

I turned around to see him in a tight black T-shirt and black shorts.

He’s hot! Smoking hot!

Even if he’s an ass, I cannot help but appreciate his well built form with adequately sized muscles that aren’t too huge but just perfect.

Damn!

Wait, what were we talking about?

Oh yeah! Exercise.

“I am not dying to be on your team either, Knight. The work you are making me do is going to make me die out of boredom before the end of the week!” I rolled my eyes. 

After checking for errors on the file, they just told me to search about some weird places, people and other stuff like the locations of their enemies. 

I almost died out of boredom. 

It was horrible!

“It’s either this or actual death.” He replied in a nonchalant tone. “You know too much about us for me to just let you go now, Miss Sassy Pants.” He added, glancing at me. 

Woah! 

Hold on a second! 

“What the actual fuck?!” I exclaimed. 

No!

That’s the best nickname he could come up with?!

Gah!

“Either you learn how to defend yourself and become a real member of my team or you die.” He shrugged, not even turning to look at me. 

What?! 

“This is not what I signed up for!” I roared. 

Who the fuck does he think he is?! 

No one has the right to order Mia Queen around! No one!

Archer sharply turned to face me. He walked up to me with a clenched jaw and leaned so that his face was close to mine.

Oh boy!

“This is exactly what you signed up for.” He spoke through gritted teeth. “So suck it up or die. The choice is yours.” He added in a low voice. 

I took deep breaths through my nose, trying to make myself calm down. 

Damn! That was hot!

No! Focus, Mia! Focus!

In situations like these, the queen bitch that I’ve been for the past four years comes out and the logical side of mine goes to sleep. 

But I couldn’t let that happen here. 

Even though I seriously doubted their connections with the underworld, I’ve seen them murdering people in cold blood. 

They are dangerous. 

And I need to remember that. Purely for my own survival.

I cannot afford to be on their bad side. God only knows what these people are capable of! 

Note to self: Do in depth research about all of them as soon as possible! 

“I hate you!” I spoke in a low voice as I took a few steps back to create distance between the tall handsome pillar of muscles and myself.

“The feeling is mutual.” He sneered back. 

I rolled my eyes as I turned back to Thea whose face now showed no emotions. 

It was like she had somehow found a way to turn off all the emotions and now was just a machine.

A killing machine… 

“Are you ready?” She asked me as she offered me a pair of boxing gloves. 

“I-” I started speaking but apparently Archer wasn’t done torturing me for the day. 

“I’ll work with her.” He spoke up. “Thea, you can do whatever you want.” He added. 

Why?! 

I thought he hated me… 

Maybe he still does and he just wants to punch me now… 

I can’t put it past some wanna-be mafia man to want to do something like that.

Thea nodded once at Archer before she handed me the boxing gloves with a small, almost non-existent smile and left the gym room.

Why did she have to leave?! 

Well, it’s not like I could have trusted her not to kill me either! I mean, it looks like she works for Archer.

What on earth was I thinking when I decided to go to that club?! 

“Do you wanna kill me so badly?” I asked Archer, without even turning around to face him. “I kinda have a feeling like you don’t really want me to make it through this whole initiation thing.” I said as he walked up to stand in front of me. 

“Even as a hacker, you’re not always going to do boring work. You would have to go on some of the field missions. I don’t want anyone on my team to be a liability in such situations.” He explained. 

Oh… 

“I thought that you didn’t trust me.” I frowned as I put on the boxing gloves. 

“I never said I do.” He shrugged. 

I rolled my eyes as I stood in front of the boxing bag and brought my fists up. 

“Gee! I feel like a part of the team already!” I said sarcastically as I started throwing punches at the punching bag. 

Honestly, I was hurting my hands more than the punching bag. But I didn’t want to wince in front of that tall mean person made entirely of muscles. 

I hack with those hands! 

How do they make this look so easy and cool in the movies?!

I wonder if this can actually damage my hands permanently… 

If that’s possible and because of this stupid training or whatever, my hands are damaged forever, I’m going after Archer Knight! 

“Are you planning my funeral while poking that punching bag?” He mused as he observed me. 

How does he even… 

Was I mumbling in anger again?! 

“I hate you!” I hissed as I continued hurting my own hands. 

Archer chuckled as he stopped me by gripping onto my wrists. 

I stepped away from the punching bag and from him, glaring at the lifeless bag hanging from the ceiling.

“You need to learn the technique before jumping into action.” He told me. “Now, just observe.” He told me as he took his position in front of the punching bag.

He started punching the bag with a focused look on his chiselled face. 

The punching bag moved a little as the chains attached to it rattled every now and then due the force.

This looks just like the movies… 

How the hell do I learn from this?! 

This is not exactly something you can just look at and copy! 

Archer stopped what he was doing and looked at me with a raised eyebrow. 

“Yeah, I can’t do that.” I told him as I started removing the boxing gloves. “It’s not exactly what it seems! It’s super tough!” I huffed.

“It’s tough but not impossible.” Archer told me as he stopped me from removing my gloves by putting his gloved hand over mine.

Why is he helping?! 

And why is he not snapping at me? 

“Why can’t I just keep pepper spray handy?” I whined as he placed his hands on my waist and guided me to stand in front of the punching bag again.

“Pepper spray won’t work when someone’s pointing a gun at your face.” He told me as he adjusted the position of my hands and legs.

“Neither does throwing punches!” I argued. 

“It sometimes does.” He shrugged. “Now punch.” He whispered near my ear. 

I shivered before taking a deep breath and decided to focus on trying to harm the bag instead of harming my own hands. 

This time, my hands didn’t hurt as much and I could tell that the force that hit the punching was more. 

“That’s better.” Archer commented. 

“I’d still prefer pepper spray…” I remarked. 

Archer sighed as he came to stand on the other side of the punching bag. He held the bag in his hands. 

“Keep punching.” He ordered. 

I huffed in irritation but did as he told me and started throwing punches at the punching bag. 

“All that I’ve learned of what I’ll be doing if I decided to join you guys is dying of boredom or over exertion.” I grumbled as I kept throwing punches at the bag. 

“It’s not always this boring.” Archer argued. 

I stopped and raised an eyebrow at him. 

“All I do is something that even a child could do. And besides that, well, you’re torturing me by making me do exercise!” I complained. 

Archer frowned. 

“You don’t look out of shape. Did you never go to the gym?” He crossed his arms. 

“Dieting is a thing!” I shrugged. “It’s better than killing yourself by exercising and sweating like a pig.” I shook my head.

Archer looked at me but I could tell that he wasn’t focusing on me. He was thinking about something. 

I just huffed as I went back to punching the stupid lifeless thing. 

“I’ll take you to get a burger after this.” He told me as he turned around to leave. 

“Hey! Aren’t you the one who said that he’d work with me?” I called out after him. 

“I’ll ask Thea to get to you. Until then, keep doing what you were doing.” He glanced at me before walking out of the room. 

Weird guy… 

“I’m not going to go have burgers with him in this life!” I spoke to myself as I started punching the bag again. 

“You are.” Lucas told me as he walked over to me, putting on a pair of boxing gloves. 

“What makes you think that pigs have started flying?” I asked him sarcastically. 

Lucas rolled his eyes as he stood in front of the punching bag next to the one I was using. 

“He’s the boss, Mia. He can do anything he wants.” He told me. “And if he wants to take you out to have burgers, he can do that too.” He shrugged. 

“In his dreams!” I scoffed. “I’d rather die than go anywhere with that intolerable asshat!” I huffed. 

“You do know that you are talking about your boss here, right?” Lucas chuckled. 

“He’s not my boss yet. And he probably never will be. He doesn’t even want me to pass all the tests he’s creating for me.” I replied. 

“He’s a hard nut to crack.” Lucas nodded his head. “But don’t worry so much about that. He’ll come around.” He smiled at me. 

I frowned, crossing my arms as I turned to face Lucas completely, the punching bag forgotten.

“Why are you even defending him? He treats you like dirt from what I’ve seen!” I tilted my head to the side. 

“He’s an ass, I agree.” Luac chuckled as he turned to face me. “But he’s family.” He shrugged. 

What?! 

“Family?” I asked, raising both my brows in shock. 

“He’s my cousin, Mia.” Lucas informed me. “I’m Lucas Knight.” He pointed to himself. 

“And Thea is…” I trailed off. 

“Thea Knight.” He completed my sentence. 

“And yet he still treats you both like-” I started but Lucas cut me off. 

“He needs to show everyone that he’s strong and that he’s impartial. He can’t exactly give me or Thea some special treatment just because we are his family.” He explained. 

“Why?” I questioned. 

“Because he’s the boss, Mia.” He sighed. “He’s at the top.” He gave me an awkward smile before he turned back to his punching bag. 

Okay… Wow… 

So that was just… 

I don’t even have any words for all this! 

How can someone not put their families above everyone else?! 

Well, my parents do that all the damn time… 

But still! 

If you’re powerful, you’re supposed to be able to be impartial without any fear! You should be able to treat your family just how you want to! 

I think Archer is just doing this because he’s an insensitive inhumane creature! 

Wait! 

Does this mean that I’m actually going to have to go to have burgers with the boss? 

Eww! 

Hell no!

Yeah, that’s not happening… Ever!