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  Abbey searched around her. “Where’s Logan?”

  “Montana,” Gordon answered. “Robert and Bartholomew are training him.”

  “Montana? Why couldn’t we train with them? I’d be closer to my kids.”

  “Abbey, your training needs to be more in-depth. There are things you’ll encounter that Logan never will. I don’t want you away from your children. I hate that you are. But you need to be able to protect them and yourself against people like MacPherson. Remember what he was capable of. Change. Then come out so we can begin training.” He stepped out, closing the door behind him to give her privacy.

  Abbey glanced around the room once more. It was giving her a sudden case of claustrophobia. She ripped open her duffel bag and yanked out the first sports bra and Lycra capris she could find. Quickly changing her clothes, she folded the T-shirt and shorts she had traveled in and set them on the table. Then she threw the door open and strode back into the main area.

  She was startled to find not only Gordon, but also Liam, standing on the warehouse floor, the men quietly conversing together. Liam was dressed in a polo shirt and khaki slacks like he normally wore. Gordon donned a tight-fitting, dri-fit T-shirt and a pair of running shorts. Had Abbey not known better, she would think her stepfather was going out for a jog.

  “Good, Abbey.” Gordon’s brogue cut through the thick, dry heat. “Come here and let’s get started.”

  She strode over to the two men and then frowned, confused. “Where’s the equipment we’re going to use?”

  “Attached to the end of your arms, lass,” Liam answered. “We begin with hand-to-hand combat. You need not only be able to fight and defend yourself, you need to be able to handle multiple attackers.”

  “Oh, joy.” Abbey noticed both men smile at her sarcasm.

  Gordon motioned to her. “Throw a punch at me.”

  Abbey fisted her hand and swung. It thundered weakly into Gordon’s palm. The men looked at each other warily.

  “This will need some work,” Liam remarked.

  “I don’t make a habit of hitting people,” Abbey defended.

  “You might be forced to. And you’ll be striking men bigger and stronger than you. You have to be ready.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Gordon scanned her head to toe. “Relax, Abigail.”

  “I am relaxed.”

  “Nay. You’re not. You’re standing straight up. Find a stance.”

  Abbey stared at him, bewildered, and then allowed her body to sink.

  Gordon nodded encouragingly. “Try again.”

  Abbey fired another punch, this one with more force.

  Gordon chuckled. "That’s right. Do it again.”

  Abbey did as her stepfather instructed. Over and over, he repeated the order. She obeyed each time until her arm ached. Finally after a little over an hour, Liam interrupted them. “All right, Abigail. The other hand. Throw a cross.”

  “A what?”

  “A cross. A punch with the opposite hand.”

  Abbey shook her head and attempted to strike with her opposite fist. It missed horribly. Before she could attempt to do it again, Liam was behind her, guiding her arm how it should go. “Again, Abigail.”

  She punched again, with much more power than before. A smile spread across her face. She wasn’t sure if she had ever hit anything in her life, but these two punches made her feel invincible. She liked it. A lot.

  Abbey worked the same two combos repeatedly for hours. The hot, stagnant air in the warehouse caused tiny beads of sweat to pop across her face and every pore of exposed skin. Thin, clear trails cut their way across her flesh until they soaked into her clothes. Slowly, Liam and Gordon added a hook and an uppercut.

  As the room grew dark, Gordon stepped away from her. “Good work today. It’s time to eat.”

  Abbey’s belly growled in response. It struck her—she hadn’t eaten anything since they had stepped off the plane. No wonder she was starving. She looked around for Liam. “Where’s Liam? Shouldn’t we find him so that we can go find something to eat?”

  Gordon chuckled. “Liam is finishing supper. We aren’t going anywhere. You will eat. Then, you will go to sleep. You have to get up early in the morning.” He led her up the stairs to what appeared to have once been a supervisor’s observation room. Panels that probably once held computer monitors now sat hollow and vacant. Liam was across the room, setting bowls on a fragile card table.

  Abbey crossed to him and glanced in. Beans and rice. “This is it?”

  “No fine cuisine. You aren’t going to find prime rib in the middle of the desert,” Liam quipped.

  Abbey huffed. She was sure Liam was a fine cook, even with beans and rice. He had proved that in Belfast. But eating this for every meal for two weeks? The thought made her nauseated. “So, am I ready to take on a bunch of guys?”

  “Hardly, lass,” Gordon remarked. “Tomorrow, you’ll be kicking. Then, you still need to learn grappling and perfect it all. And that’s just the hand-to-hand combat. That’s not taking into consideration firearms, hacking, detecting poisons, and everything else on our agenda.” He took her bowl and heaped it full of rice and beans, setting it before her with a grin. “Eat up. It’s almost time for bed.”

  Abbey bit back her snarl, hiding it with a spoonful of food. It was going to be a long couple of months.

  Dinner was quick and quiet. No sooner had the last grain of rice left her bowl, Liam ordered her to her room. She shuffled her way down the metal stairs. She was asleep the moment her body hit her cot.

  Abbey was shaken awake by a powerful hand. In her small, windowless room, she couldn’t tell if the sun was up or not. She somehow suspected it wasn’t.

  Her stepfather’s voice broke through the fog in her head, “Get up, Abigail. We have quite a bit of ground to cover this morning. Rise and shine.”

  Abbey covered her face with the thin, small pillow, only to have it ripped off and tossed to the ground. She groaned in protest. She was certain she heard Gordon chuckle.

  “Five minutes, lass,” he warned.

  She slowly unfolded off the bed and stood. Muscles she hadn’t known she had ached. She scrambled for the small restroom, casting a dirty look at the lone shower. She’d give anything for a quick one. She was still wearing the clothes from the day before. She knew there would be no way to sneak one in during the remaining few minutes she had.

  Liam and Gordon were once again waiting for her in the large warehouse corridor, both staring her down as she approached. Yesterday, they had intimidated her. Today, she was too tired to care. She glared back at them. The first rays of sunrise crept across the cement floor from the open dock door. Yep, I was right. I was up before the sun.

  “Well, lass,” Liam greeted. “Are you ready to learn to kick?”

  “If I can. I can barely move.”

  “Trust us. With a little stretching, you’ll be able to move.”

  Abbey moaned as she followed them toward some raggedy tumbling mats near the weight equipment. They did stretches, most of which mirrored the yoga she did at the dance studio down the street from Sloan Enterprises.

  She stopped for a moment. Sloan. Was he back home now that she was here? She closed her eyes. She couldn’t believe how much she missed him. Would he ever forgive her for what she had done?

  “Abigail!”

  Liam’s voice shocked her from her thoughts. She shifted into the next stretch. The quicker she completed this little training camp that Gordon and Liam wanted her to do, the faster she could get to her husband.

  Abbey faced off against Gordon once again and watched as he demonstrated a kick. She smiled. It didn’t look difficult at all. Just as he had done, she took a step. Then, she swung her leg at him. Just as it left the ground, she felt her balance give. She landed on her butt with a thud.

  “Slow, Abigail. Take it slow,” Gordon chided.

  She didn’t have time for slow. She wanted to go home. She hopped to her feet and fell back into sta
nce. She stepped and kicked again, but this time, even though her leg trembled, she stayed upright and landed a weak blow to his thigh. He smiled. At least she must have done something right.

  Abbey fired kicks at Gordon for several hours as Liam coached her, long past her stomach growling for breakfast and lunch. When she mastered the first kick, they taught her a few others and then added them with the punch combinations. In less than twenty-four hours, she was able to fight.

  She hopped excitedly from foot to foot. “Now, am I ready to test my new skills?” she demanded.

  “No, Abigail,” Gordon answered. “After lunch, we learn to grapple. If we’re lucky and you pick up on it as quickly as you did this, then you’ll spend the next day or so fighting against Liam and me. Then, we’ll bring someone in to test you.”

  “Days and days of punching and kicking…for what? I thought you wanted me to train to protect Sloan.”

  “We are training you to protect Sloan. You know how to fire a gun. You know how to assemble a bomb. However, this is where you lack. You said it yourself. You made it a practice not to hit people. We need you capable to disarm and incapacitate an assailant with just your physical strength. This situation comes up more than you think.”

  Abbey sighed. “Then, I guess I’d better work harder.”

  Gordon tugged her to him for a hug. It was the first sign of affection he had shown her since he had picked her up to go on this trip. She curled against him. “Lass, you’re working as hard as you can. I know you are.”

  She smiled as he let her go. Then she followed him and Liam to the supervisor’s room for lunch.

  After another bland lunch of rice and beans, Abbey was ushered to the tumbling mats for her next lesson. Gordon lay on his back with his knees bent and his feet flat on the floor. Liam motioned toward him. “Kneel between his legs, lass.”

  Abbey glanced warily from one man to the other. “Just a little awkward, Dad.”

  “Abigail,” Liam warned.

  She shrugged and did as instructed. Before she could ask what to do next, Gordon snaked his arms around her neck and flung her to the floor. His grip tightened around her throat. She grabbed at his arm to pry it from her neck, but couldn’t budge it. She couldn’t breathe. Her vision dimmed as her head grew light.

  A voice far away reached her ears. “Tap his arm, Abigail.”

  Weakly, she drummed her fingers against skin. Suddenly, the pressure on her throat released, flooding her lungs with air. Coughing violently, she collapsed as Gordon let her go.

  “We may have more work than we thought,” Liam mused.

  Abbey buried her head in her hands. Sadly, she had to agree.

  For the rest of the day, Abbey attempted to wrestle Gordon. She lost count of how many times she nearly lost consciousness. Never once did she get him to submit. The best she could do was hang on for dear life as he transitioned from one position to another. Finally, Gordon stood and pulled her to her feet, nudging her back to the staircase for dinner.

  As the overhead light in her room woke her from her sleep, Abbey hoped they would move on from the grappling, that she would finally get a break from all the physical exercise. The muscles that hadn’t hurt yesterday now ached this morning. She tumbled out of bed, still in the same clothes she had worn the first day, and made her way to the bathroom. Changing clothes seemed like a waste of time.

  She made her way across the warehouse to where Gordon and Liam were waiting for her. She was handed a large Styrofoam cup full of papaya. “Eat this,” Liam commanded. “You’ll need the energy.”

  Abbey moaned. More grappling. Fantastic. She slumped on the mat and started tossing pieces into her mouth, chewing the sweet fruit slowly to draw out the time before her torture began.

  Much to her amazement, she started with Liam. She thought the larger, more rotund man would be a little easier. As she watched his flaming Irish hair fly past her vision when he placed her in her first chokehold of the day, she realized he wasn’t. She wrestled with Liam until lunch, never once getting the advantage. After lunch, she was paired against Gordon again.

  The orange sunset lit the warehouse in a warm glow. The only sounds in the room were the grunts and groans of those fighting each other. Abbey could barely move, clinging on to Gordon for dear life as he moved his strong arms around her to make her submit. Again.

  Instinctively, she jutted her rear out and slid from beneath him. Her mind raced as she climbed on his back and wrapped her small arms around his neck. She flexed her muscles as tight as she could. She felt the victorious tap of his fingers on her arm.

  “Well done, Abigail!” Liam congratulated as he helped her to her feet. Her legs trembled as she stood.

  Gordon rose behind her and clapped her on the shoulder. “Let’s eat. We’ll refine this tomorrow.”

  On the fourth day, as Abbey stumbled out of her makeshift bedroom hardly able to move, she hoped Gordon had been kidding about refining her grappling technique. As he handed her another cup of papaya and pointed to the mat, she groaned. He wasn’t.

  Abbey tapped out against Gordon several times again. Her heart fell. She’d thought she’d had it figured out. But after a couple of hours, she began to get the upper hand. She finally got a submission. Then another. Then another. Gordon switched out with Liam. Liam quickly got the upper hand, but only for a little while. They only broke for a hurried lunch. Abbey was relieved and delighted when she was nudged off the mat and the two Irishmen went at it.

  Drenched in sweat after a full day of grappling, Gordon pulled Abbey to her feet. “Let’s eat.”

  She glanced out the dock door. The sun was just beginning to set. “We haven’t ended this early before.”

  “I know. Once we eat, Liam and I have a treat for you.”

  “That is?”

  He crossed over to his bag and dug in the contents. He returned to her with a large, fluffy bathrobe, a plush towel, and bottles of her favorite soap and shampoo. He dumped them in her arms. “A shower for as long as you want. The bathroom isn’t impressive, but we have an industrial hot water heater.”

  Abbey moaned in pleasure as she hugged the items to herself. She joyously followed him to dinner, barely chewing her food before she swallowed. Sprinting from her seat, Abbey raced for the bathroom, locking the door behind her. She turned on the faucet and then peeled her clothes from her body. Stepping into the hot stream, she sighed. It may have only been four days, but it seemed like forever since she had felt this relaxed.

  Abbey didn’t know exactly how long she had been in the shower, but the warehouse was dark when she stepped out of the bathroom. Liam chuckled as he pointed to her room. “Get to bed, lass. You are doing very well.”

  Abbey nodded as she slipped inside. She changed into a pair of pajamas and slid between the blankets, drifting off into blissful sleep.

  Chapter Nine

  Every day was the same for Abbey for the next eight weeks as she trained with Gordon and Liam. She woke up before the sun and when to bed well after supper. Her hours in between were filled with various forms of martial arts. She felt like she was improving. She just hoped she was enough to go home soon.

  The showers became more frequent as did new sets of workout clothes. Every weekend Gordon and Liam set up a Skype chat with her and her children. For being without parents they seemed very happy. Had Sloan come home to visit? She hoped so.

  Abbey found herself alone in the warehouse as she woke up. The late morning sun filled the room. Liam and Gordon must have let her sleep in. She glanced uneasily around the large, cavernous room.

  Even though there wasn’t another soul in the place, she had an eerie feeling that she was being watched. She spun to the glass windows of the supervisor’s room that hovered over her. She frowned, puzzled. Did she see a shadow in the tinted window? “Liam? Dad?”

  The sounds of footsteps clicked on the pavement outside the dock door. “Abigail,” Liam’s voice greeted. He, Gordon, and two short, stocky Thai men appeared in the
doorway.

  Abbey looked at them and then to the windows above again. She shook her head. Clearly, it had been her imagination. She strode across the warehouse to the men.

  “Who are they?” Abbey questioned.

  “It’s time for your test.” Gordon gestured to the two men behind him. “You’ll be fighting both these men at the same time.”

  “Wait. What? The same time?” Abbey demanded.

  “Yes. I believe I made myself clear.”

  Abbey let loose a half chuckle. “I didn’t realize you had assassins all over the world.”

  “We don’t. We found them on the street. We offered them money to fight you.”

  Abbey gaped at her stepfather. Nowhere in all the time she had known him did she ever think he would hire two street thugs to beat her.

  He smiled at her and nodded. “Are you ready?”

  “Ready as I’ll ev—”

  Her words were cut off by a blow to the head. She crumpled to the floor. She heard Liam say, “An attacker isn’t going to say ‘ready, set, go.’ Always observant. Always ready.”

  Abbey didn’t have time to shoot him a dirty look as the attacker grabbed hold of her head and began to choke her. She shifted her weight and flipped him over her back. As he struggled to gain his own bearings, she wrapped her arms around his throat and squeezed.

  The other thug tore her off his partner and threw her across the warehouse. She jumped to her feet and glanced at the first man. Whatever lock she had gotten on him had worked. He was having trouble getting to his feet.

  She attacked the second thug with a flurry of punches. He defended them all, throwing his hands over his head to deflect them. Abbey stopped and smiled. As he lowered them, she fired a sharp kick to his head instead. The blow dropped him unconscious.

  As her foot returned to the floor, she heard a rustle behind her. The first brute was stirring, rising slowly to his knees. Crap. He lunged at her. Taking a step to the side, she swung a kick to his stomach and then followed with an elbow to the back of his head, dropping him again. Abbey climbed on his back and wrapped her arms around his neck, squeezing tight with all her strength. After several long moments, he crumpled.