“You’re doing good, kid.”
“Yeah?” he grinned.
“Yeah, not bad. Although, I would have taught you differently.”
“How?” he asked, dodging my right hook.
“I would have made you go on the defensive first. It’s all about learning weaknesses, kid.”
“Oh, I know your weaknesses.”
“You do, huh?”
“Yeah.”
I switched it up and tossed a left hook, catching him in the jaw. I pulled my punch so I didn’t hit him too hard and bounced backwards. “So, tell me about these weaknesses.”
“Well, I’m your greatest weakness.”
He was doing his best to push me into the corner of the ring, and I let him because I wanted to see what he would do.
“That’s probably true. What about it?”
He ran at me and I slid to the side. He jumped up on the ropes and contorted his body so that he was flying through the air back toward me. I didn’t know what the fuck to do, so I just fucking stood there. This wasn’t the enemy or another one of the guys and I didn’t want to hurt him. I felt his knees lock around my body and I saw him twist right before my body was jerked and I was flipped onto my back. The air rushed out of me and spots danced in front of my eyes. Holy shit. That was like some kind of ninja assassin move. He walked up to my side and stared down at me with a grin plastered on his face.
“I’m your greatest weakness, so you’ll never see me coming.”
✯✯✯✯✯
“I don’t like Knight training him,” I grumbled as Florrie put some ice on my neck back in our suite.
“You don’t like him training Reid because he taught him how to win against you,” she laughed.
“No, I don’t like it because he’s teaching him to be more like some kind of ninja than a real fighter.”
“Oh, come on, Alec. You’re pissed because he taught your kid how to kick your ass.”
“Whatever. He shouldn’t be trained by Knight anyway. He’s my kid and I should get to be the one to teach him all I know.”
Florrie straddled my lap, letting her legs dangle on either side of me. “I know you want to be the one training him, but Knight is best for the job for a reason. You and I would be too easy on him.”
“You still spar with him.”
“Yeah, and only so that Reid has someone to train against. I have strict orders from Knight on what I’m supposed to do in the ring. And I only get to train with him when Knight isn’t doing it himself, so he can assess how Reid’s doing.”
“Why is he taking such an interest in Reid anyway? He doesn’t do that with the other kids,” I grumbled.
Florrie wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me on the lips. “You know what Knight did. He took away his father.”
“He was scum.”
“And he didn’t exactly force Reid’s mother to come back with him. I think he feels responsible for Reid being in the position he’s in.”
“I still don’t like what Knight did.”
“He did what he had to, Alec. You know the senator was a bad man. Why is this so hard for you to accept?”
I sighed, resting my forehead against hers. “I don’t want to teach Reid that you should take the law into your own hands. There are rules for a reason. Knight is a wild card and he always has been.”
“Well, we’re not going to agree on this one. I’m happy that Knight killed him, and I’ll never regret what he did for us.”
“But that’s just the thing, Florrie. He didn’t do it for us. He did it for his own reasons. And maybe he feels bad about that now, but at the time, it was all about his own agenda.”
“What does it matter?” she asked, pushing away from me and standing up.
“Florrie, when I saw Reid on the streets, I knew that I wanted that kid more than almost anything else. I wanted to bring him here and show him a life that he could have, away from all the crap that he’s grown up with. It doesn’t do him any good to be taken away from one bad situation only to be put in a situation with different problems. I want to teach him about the good in the world and the right way to do things. I don’t want him following Knight’s lead and going rogue. I want him to go to college and figure out his own path.”
“Knight went straight. He did that for his family. You can’t still think that he’s a bad influence.”
“Look, I like Knight. He’s a good man and I know he would do anything for any one of us, but he still has his own moral compass, and it doesn’t always align with mine.”
“Oh, and ours has always been pointing in the right direction? Alec, we’ve done some terrible stuff too. We killed off two gangs! We took on the cartels. And even though those people were not good, was it really our place to be their executioner? You can’t have it both ways. You can’t always have the moral high ground.”
“I’m not saying that I do. But I can still teach that kid how to use his head and make smart decisions.”
“And you can still do that. Knight is training him in the ring. That’s it. He’s not having man to man talks with him or trying to give him life advice. You have to let this go.”
I grunted, pulling her back toward me to sit on my lap. She was always trying to give herself space around me, and it felt a little too much like when she used to push me away. I knew that wasn’t really what was happening, but I didn’t have to like it either.
“We need to finish our other conversation from earlier.”
“What’s that?”
I kissed her lips and then across her jaw to her
