I Remember Love 24 Tunnel Vision

For the life of him, Cage couldn't understand what was running through Hunter's mind. It was an an unusual feeling. They were almost always on same wavelength, especially when it came to the Soldiers. It was a bond they had managed to develop amidst chaos and gruelling training. They had served and bled for each other unerringly. That was until now.

Since the arrival of the kid Hunter hadn't been himself. At first Cage had thought Hunter was simply entertained. The kid presented something new and unknown. It was obvious to all there at the initiation she had skill. They way she played with her prey could even be considered amusing. But since the night she had challenged Hunter, she should have been disciplined. Hunter lived for consequence and since that night, not a lick of anything else made sense.

It was bad enough Hunter had decided to keep her. The fact that he had been ordered train her just made him that much more annoyed. He watched her prance around while they sparred. She was quick, he would give her that. But she was also rash. She made too many a.s.sumptions on her opponents moves and she was too impatient. By the time they were done, she could hardly stand on her own.

He looked down at her as they finished. She stared up at him as though she was expecting him to help her up. Irritated, he had kicked her. If he had to train her, then he was going to treat her the way he did anyone else under his command. She was going to learn to swallow her pain and deal with it.

Cage wouldn't allow some weak half-hearted person around Hunter. He was his brother. They had built the Foot Soldiers from the ground up. There was no way in h.e.l.l this little punk was going bring it down. Over his dead body.

Having walked away from her, he could catch snippets of her conversation with Charlie. It became apparent to him, that apart from himself and Hunter, Charlie had no clue she was actually a girl.

He had always a.s.sumed that due to his protectiveness of the kid, he had known. Why else would he be working so hard to keep tabs on her? b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l, his gang was slowly turning into a daycare - or worse yet, a soap opera.

Cage ran his hands through his hair. There was a very big part of him that wanted to just beat her until she gave up and left. He wanted her to leave and leave Hunter alone. As much as he was aware Hunter didn't trust her, Cage trusted her even less.

The argument between her and Charlie was getting more and more heated. He watched as Charlie walked off and couldn't help but feel sorry for him. On the one hand though he had begrudgingly admit that he respected her choice as well. She wasn't wrong. Emotions only got you killed in this world and Charlie seemed to have quite a few of them. From the start, Charlie seemed a little out of place here. More so than she did.

Cage sighed again as he started wiping off the sweat from the sparring match. He had so many questions to ask and Hunter was out of town taking care of business. It was at this point when his phone rang.

"Yeah? Its Cage. Got it Boss" The call from Hunter had been short and sweet. As always. He had only been on the phone long enough to let him know he needed to do some digging with Feng territory's precinct. It took him about five minutes to get a hold of his brother who worked in law enforcement. He tipped him off about the spread of Candy in the area making sure he knew to keep the club up to date. Exchange of information was how they managed to evade the law so much. t.i.t for tat you could say.

After a few moments on the phone he got all the intel and was sure to have it forwarded to Hunter, who would hopefully be home soon. In the meantime he would train the kid to the best of his ability.

****

In the days since her fight with Charlie, Amalia had been working hard. By day she attended her cla.s.ses. When she wasn't in cla.s.s, she was training. She ran laps around the school grounds after dark and often around the sparring grounds between her sparring matches with Cage. She was restless.

It wasn't the anger she had experienced when Charlie had interrupted her fight. Nor was it her frustration with not being able to beat Cage in hand to hand combat. She knew her skills and limitations better than anyone. It was simply, she could not stay still. If she did, she would be forever haunted by the argument with Charlie. She simply couldn't allow herself another distraction. She had too many plans.

Her days were a blur of training, sparring and cla.s.ses. She lived a life fuelled by energy drinks, cla.s.sroom naps and late night sparring matches. As such she was hardly home. Most nights she called her grandfather and told him she was sleeping at a friends. She knew he worried but was helpless to prevent it.

Amalia was so consumed at this point, she had tunnel vision. The only thing in her line of sight were the men who stole her father's life. And once she had them in her crosshairs, she wouldn't just kill them. She would make them suffer a thousand fold the pain she and her father had experienced.

Little did she know that yet another tragedy lay, just around the corner.