Project Trouble X Three

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Recap

“I want ink on my arm too. I should get to go first since I’m the oldest,” Cruz commented with a sneer on his face. I knew my parents were waiting to see what I would do before they reamed him another asshole.

I shook my head at his stupidity. “It doesn’t matter who was born earlier. What happened to ladies first. You can’t act as if you are a brat. I thought you were taking everything seriously. What happened to giving your all to better yourself. I-”

“-I should be able to go first! I already know how to protect myself and fight!” He screamed, cutting off what I was going to say to him.

“You can’t hit the bullseye when you shoot and you want to protect yourself and us? What happens if you shoot one of us instead? And, we don’t know if you can fight or not, we haven’t seen you fight. Do you want to show us your fighting skills?” Madrid took the words right out of my mouth. If I didn’t know any better I would have thought he was a mindreader.

“I’ll fight Cat right now and show you how good I am,” Cruz stupidly said. He was stupid to think he could beat me, but I was all for him showing how he could fight.

Not

He’s going down

Cats POV

“Alright, no problem. I will fight you so you can show us how you can take care of yourself should anything happen to you.” I walked over to the training room and pulled the matts out, pushing the other weight set into the wall.

Everyone, including Doc and Sophia came to see how well Cruz could fight. He was going to be embarrassed once again, but he wouldn’t listen to anyone who told him he was making a mistake fighting me. He thought he was tough, underestimating his opponent, me, because I was a girl.

I walked into the middle of the mats, Cruz following me as I disabled the suits. I made sure he knew he wasn’t protected. Of course, the idiot wanted to know if mine was disabled too, causing me to stop and show him both of ours were the only suits disabled. He was an idiot if he thought I would cheat to beat him. Hell, I could have left his suit on and disabled mine. But, I wanted him to feel all my punches, kicks, and headlocks. He was going to be in pain.

Just like he was a pain in my ass

“Are you ready, Rowdy?” I asked my jaguar, getting a hell yes in return. I wasn’t sure if Cruz knew how to talk or let his jaguar help in the fight, but I didn’t care. I could tell he was asking his jaguar, but he wasn’t getting the answer he wanted.

“Are you ready to go down, bitch?” Cruz asked as he squatted down to low, gasps leaving the throats of everyone around us. They knew he was going to pay for his words to me.

I slid my right foot back and made sure my left foot was pointed straight at his torso. I noticed Cruz had squatted low, causing his equilibrium to be off center. I didn’t dare comment on his words. He was going to see how much I was a bitch as soon as Madrid screamed go.

“Go!” Madrid screamed, making Cruz jump and fall on his ass. I stayed where I was and waited on him to get situated. I didn’t want to take him down when he didn’t have a fighting chance.

I rolled my eyes and held out my hand, trying to help him up. But, he slapped my hand away and got up on his own. I backed up and waited to see if he would make the first move. He came at me without any finesse or training. I threw myself to the side and rolled, coming back to my feet behind him. I punched him in his left kidney, not giving him time to turn around. He fell to the floor, one knee catching his fall as the breath whooshed out of him.

“Bitch, you are going to pay for hitting me when my back was turned,” Cruz commented as he stood back up and faced me.

“You will have to catch me unaware for that to happen, Cruz," I taunted him, causing him to come at me again. He tried to kick me, but I caught his foot in the air and threw his ass back on the ground.

“How about we make this fight fairer?” Dragon commented, catching Cruz’s attention quickly. He knew he didn’t have a chance unless I was handicapped somehow.

“I’m going to blindfold Cat,” Dragon stated as I walked up to him and turned my back to him. He tied the blindfold around my eyes as tight as he could, making sure I couldn’t see. I had trained the same way against some of the recruits who thought they were better than me. Dragon helped me back to the center of the mats, making sure Cruz didn’t take a cheap shot at me before we got there.

“Let’s see what you go, Cruz,” I calmly stated to him as he taunted me back. The idiot thought he was hot shit, but he showed his true self when he was ready to fight me with my eyes blindfolded. He was acting as if he was a child and he wanted to beat up someone but couldn’t with his friends helping him win. This time he wouldn’t have any friends to help.

I heard Madrid tell us to fight and I waited to hear the rustle of clothing or his breath, telling me where he was. I heard him take a breath and knew he was going to punch me first. As soon as I heard the matts creek I squatted down and punched him in his thighs. I wanted to make sure he was unstable for my next move. He screamed and tried to kick me but I rolled out of the way and listened for his next move.

Cruz moved and I heard his harsh breaths. I knew he was mad because he screamed out in pain, but did I care?

Not at all

I got his foot as soon as my jaguar announced his move. I pushed him back and he stumbled. I could hear him move, but he didn’t fall down. He tried to punch me and this time I let him hit me in the shoulder. It was a hard hit but it wasn’t as hard as he thought. I faked a left hand hit and punched him in the face as hard as I could. I heard something break, hoping it was his nose. He screamed out in pain again and tried to hit me in the face, but I dropped down in a split and punched him in his thighs again, taking him down to the mat. I scrambled over to him quickly and knelt my knee down on his chest. He hit me a few times and tried to spit in my face, but I effectively shut me up by closing his airway with my forearm. When he was unconscious I got up and untied my blindfold.

“Well, that was a little one sided,” my mom sarcastically said, making me chuckle. “Doc, if you would, would you wake him the hell up? We are going to have a come to jesus meeting.” I snickered and walked over to Martim and buried my face in his chest.

I felt his arms move. “Look up, Cat, I need to clean your face.”

“My face?” I asked, not feeling anything wrong with it.

“Yeah, you have a busted lip from his one hit to your face.” Marim paused. “And, how the hell did he get a hit on you?”

I sighed and looked up at him. “Because I let him have one hit.” Martim cleaned my face tenderly and put antiseptic on my lip. I never made a sound even when he put alcohol on my lip. If Martim was surprised he never voiced it

“All done,” Martim announced as he kissed my forehead. I snuggled into him but turned around when I heard Cruz moving around. I couldn’t wait to find out what he had to say. I knew it would be something stupid and I wasn’t dissappointed when he opened his mouth.

“Cat cheated. She must have been able to see past her blindfold!” He bellowed as he stood up, his legs shaking.

I rolled my eyes at the dumbass and was about to speak but my mom intervened. “How the hell did she cheat? She couldn’t see, but even if she could you said you could beat her! Hell, she could have beat you with one hand tied. Quit being a brat and man the hell up!” She shook her head, disappointment coloring her face. “And, if you try to do anything to her, notice I said try, I give her permission to beat your ass. She went easy on you. She could have beat you to a pulp but she didn’t want to hurt you too bad in case we had to bug out.”

I didn’t realize she knew what I was doing until I heard her comment on it. I was going easy on him for the reason she stated. I didn’t want him to be too sore to move if we had to leave. I didn’t want to be the cause of someone needing to carry his sorry ass. I, of course, got a dirty look from my sweet and caring brother.

Right

I knew he was going to be an ass. I knew my parents did too. My dad didn’t comment but shook his head and walked off. Sophia gave me two thumbs up and smiled at me before she followed Doc to her room. I was happy to see her trying. I just hoped she continued to train hard. I didn’t want two brats to train. I would need to keep an eye on Cruz. I wouldn’t put it past him to shoot me and act as if it was an accident. I knew he would try something, but I was always ready for any attack.

I pulled Martim to Sophia’s room. I wanted to see how she was doing with her ink. It hurt and burned our skin when he applied the ink. It had to be soaked in our skin to hold the colors we needed. If for some reason it wasn’t done right could be a fate worse than death. I remember the pain as if it were yesterday and was glad Doc was doing the work. He could administer something to Sophia to make her more comfortable.

“How are you feeling, Soph?” I asked as I walked into her room.

“Not too bad, but it does it hurt a lot, huh?” She answered as she screwed her eyes shut.

“Sophia, let Doc give you something to help you feel goofy. It won’t last long but it will make the process a little easier. There is no shame in asking for something to dull the pain. Hell, there have been a few Shadow Cat’s who needed help with the pain, so you can’t be embarrassed. Plus, no one needs to know about it,” I begged, not wanting her to hurt.

“Okay. Thanks, Cat,” she said as I let out a breath, my shoulders losing their tension. I nodded at her and we walked back into the main room. Martim sat down with the guys as I walked into the kitchen and helped my mom cook the food. I was starving and wanted to help make the food faster than it was being done, knowing I couldn’t hurry up chicken fried chicken.

I walked to the pantry and grabbed two granola bars, eating them quickly. I made sure to grab a coke and drink it too. My stomach wasn’t satisfied but it would do.. “Need some help, Mom?”

“Can you set the table and put a couple of hot pads down too?” She asked. I nodded and grabbed plates, silverware, napkins, and two hotpads. I had to put them on the island and take them to the table a couple of times, but by the time I was done making sure everyone had drinks the food was ready. I helped my mom carry everything to the table. I walked to Sophia’s room and checked to see if they were hungry. Sophia was coming to and she nodded her head, Doc doing the same. They followed me back to the table and took their seats.

“Where’s Cruz?” My mom asked as she looked around the table. I shrugged my shoulders, the others doing the same. My mom sighed and got up to look for him. I started eating the plate of food Martim had fixed me when I heard my mom yell. My dad jumped up and ran out of the room, Madrid running after him. I didn’t care what he did as long as I got to eat.

“Holy shit! Cat’s going to be pissed,” I heard Madrid say