"You like these odds? Do you want to die or something?" One of the five buffoons asked me.

I just shrugged my shoulders.

"If I die, I die right." Of course I didn't want to actually die. If I died now, Colton would still be out there and I would have died for nothing.

But what these five losers didn't know couldn't hurt them.

If they thought I didn't value my life, that would give me an incredible advantage over them. And better yet, they wouldn't know what hit them.

"Well, what are you guys waiting for? If it's an invitation, here it is." Was I getting myself in over my head? Probably. But I knew that I wouldn't loose.

All five of them charged at me and I swiftly ducked under one of them.

As soon as I did that, I realized it was a stupid, stupid, mistake. They had me right where they wanted me now, I was trapped at a dead end.

"There's no where for you to run now Little Girl." The sun finished setting.

"I wasn't going to run." Good Daytona, make them think you planned this out.

They all glanced at each other, trying to figure out if I was bluffing or not.

"Either way, this works out to our advantage," one of the goons said with a satisfied smirk on his face. "I bet you forgot about this."

The moonlight reflected off the gun in his right hand.

My heart pounded in my chest a little faster. I had forgotten. I had been so preoccupied with trying to calm myself down, I had forgotten why I was trying to calm myself down in the first place.

Then they charged again, but not all at once like last time. Instead, three advanced on me. The goon with the gun stayed back along with another guy who was covered head to toe in tattoos.

"You can do this Daytona," I whispered under my breath.

When the first one swung at me, I easily ducked underneath him and pivoted on my left foot to throw a kick to his side.

I landed the kick and jumped back to avoid the knife slicing past my side.

This is going to be harder than I originally thought.

And it went on like that for several minutes.

Dodge. Kick. Dodge. Slice. Punch. Dodge.

I was getting slower with each breath I took and I still hadn't taken down any of them.

"She's- she's good." One of the three panted. He was probably the most worn out of all them and would be the easiest to take down if it wasn't for the fact that Dicks-For-Brains kept getting in my way every time I got close to him.

"I told you I liked these odds." It was hard to hide how out of breath I was, but I needed them to think I was stronger than I was at the moment. "When will you two back there join the party? Or are you just going to sit there and watch the whole time?"

"Think of us as reserves," the one with the gun said, "If we need to step in, we will. But I don't think we will."

I bit my tongue hard enough to draw blood. I was beyond tired of people underestimating me, and I was beyond tired of always proving them right. Tonight was the night that I changed that. Who gives a shit about what happened in California. That was in the past and if anything, it should have made me stronger, not this shell of a girl I knew once upon a time.

A well of energy erupted in me and I caught my second wind, well metaphorically. I was still very winded, but it was as if I could feel strength coming back to me, and it was burning like white fire in my veins. Glancing up at them through my lashes, I put on my evilest grin.

"Never, ever doubt me."

One of the unnamed goons charged at me and I easily caught his arm and twisted him around like I had done so many times in the bar. I yanked his wrist closer and closer to the back of his head til I heard a snap.

He let out a scream that seemed to girly for someone his size, but hey, who was I to judge. "Did you just break my arm?!"

"Well I dislocated your shoulder, but yeah, same thing right."

The dude turned to face me and I socked him on hard enough to put him to sleep.

His two friends who he was fighting with earlier just looked at me in sheer terror. Surely there was no way this pathetic girl was able to do that much damage. "Who's up next?"

Both guys turned tail and ran away.

"You don't think you'll need to step in huh? Looks like now you don't have a choice." I was slowly getting my breathing back under control, and once I was able to do that, the real fun would begin. Until then, I needed to stall. "I know how it looks fellas, I dislocated your buddies shoulder and scarred the other two off. Why don't you guys just save us all some time and let me leave. I won't tell anyone about what happened here either."

"You bitch! You think we are going to let you walk away just like that? Hell no, we're going to make sure you're never able to walk again," The one without the gun sneered.

"Yeah, yeah. 'I'm going to kill you', 'You will never see the light of day again', guess what, I've heard it all before. And you know what's crazy? I'm still here and I'm going to kick your asses." I leveled my fists in front of my face in a defensive stance.

Even though I sounded very confident in my words, I kept in the back of my mind the fact that the one dude still had a gun.

"We're going to make you eat your words Little Girl." Then, at once, like a blur, they both ran towards me.

"Shit," I barely ducked in time to avoid a tattooed fist flying at my face. But, ducking that meant I threw myself right into the kick from other dude.

I sucked in a breath and clenched my jaw hard willing the pain away. Stumbling just a bit, I remained upright and leveled my fists again.

"Is that, all you got?" I stumbled over my words and cursed under my breath.

"Are you out of breath already?" Asked the one with tattoos.

"Not quite." I threw my arm out for a punch, but didn't actually move my body. Like I hoped, the one with the tattoos slightly leaned back, just out of reach of my fist, and while he did, I swiped my right leg out and knocked him down.

Immediately, I dropped on top of him and started to land punch after punch.

That is, until his friend grabbed me by my waist and tossed me like a rag doll back into the wall. My head met brick and black spots danced across my vision. Was that blood I also tasted?

"We told you we were going to make you eat your words." But whoever was talking sounded like they were speaking through water and were also a million feet away.

I tried to get up, but more black spots clouded my vision. This was definitely not good.

"What's wrong Little Girl? Hit your head a little to hard. Here, let me help." I was defenseless as a tattooed fist came towards my head. I tried my hardest to avoid it, but it was like moving a cinder block through the mud.

When his fist connected to my cheek, I didn't even feel any pain. All that I felt, well, more like heard, was a sharp ringing in my ears.

They both advanced on me, and I just sat there watching them. "Finish her off Gun."

How fitting. I was going to get shot by a guy named Gun. Must everything in my life be a joke?

"What the fu-" there was mumbling and then the two dudes were both on the ground. 

"I think," I swallowed my saliva which felt like a hot rod going down my throat, "I think I'm going to pass out."

And then the ground rushed towards me, but everything went black before I hit it.

~~~~🌻~~~~

"I don't know, I missed it, but based on how she was when I got there, she hit her head pretty hard."

"Don't you think you should take her to the hospital? I mean she could have a concussion or something."

"You don't think I know that? Now help me wake her up, if she has a concussion, she shouldn't be out like this."

Who did these voices belong too?

Where was I?

What happened?

Too many questions and not enough answers.

I peeled my eyelids open, bracing myself in case it was bright. Blinking a couple of times, I looked around. I was in my room?

That didn't make sense.

The last place I was was...

I couldn't remember.

"What happened?" My voice sounded like sandpaper and there was a pounding in my head. "What did I get myself into this time?"

"At least you still have some of your humor." I rolled my head in the direction of the voice and saw Tony at one side of my bed.

"Will someone tell me what happened?"

"I'll tell you what happened. You, yet again, almost died. What were you thinking Daytona? Those guys had at least a hundred pounds on you and you thought you could take them by yourself?" I rolled my head to the other side and saw Jordan sitting there.

"I didn't really want to fight them." My head pounded more and more, but I needed Jordan to understand. "I tried calling you but my phone died so I started to walk home and one of those guys recognized me. If I pretended I didn't hear them, they would have gotten to be anyways. I remember now, there was five of them at first."

"Wha- five?! You took on three of them? Are you Wonder Woman or something?" This time it was Tony who was talking to me, but I didn't have the strength to move my head to look at him.

"I'm definitely not Wonder Woman." I answered, my voice barely above a whisper.

Jordan scoffed, "No, what you are is an idiot," he turned to look at me and sighed, "but I'm glad you're okay. Don't scare me like that again, alright?"

Through the pain I was in, I felt Jordan rubbing small circles into the back of my hand. This time I didn't pull away.

"You guys still haven't really told me what happened? I can remember all the way up until I dislocated that one dudes shoulder."

"Wait, wait, wait. Go back. You said you dislocated someone's shoulder? What did you do back in Cali? Were you apart of a gang or something?" Tony's words were harmless, but still, they hurt more than anything.

I tightly gripped Jordan's hand and willed away the tears. The tattoo burned like a brand on my neck.

"Um anyways, what happened is you hit your head and when one of them was about to shoot you, I found you." Jordan's whole look softened up at that.

I took a deep, shaky breath. "Thank you Jordan."

He smiled softly down at me.

"Alright now get out, my head is killing me and I want to sleep." I covered my eyes with my arm to try and block out even the tiniest bit of light (not that there was any, but hey, I was in pain.)

"Sorry Daytona," Tony started, "We can't let you fall asleep. You might have a concussion. But like I was telling Jordan, we can take you to the hospital and-"

"No!" I cut him off, "No hospitals. Please."

"Does the fearless Daytona have a secret fear of hospitals?" Jordan teased, a slight smirk lifting up the right corner of his mouth.

I ignored the way that my heart started to beat a little harder when he did that.

"No." My voice cracked.

"Yes you do!" Tony shouted, then immediately apologized after I gave him a death glare.

A sigh escaped my lips. "Hospitals just hold really bad memories for me is all."

With a glance I tried to convey to Jordan the exact reason why I didn't like hospitals.

Because hospitals reminded me of Cooper.

The air had grown still and awkward.

"So, um, yeah. We won't take you to the hospital, but that means you have to be very careful and take it easy in case you do have a concussion." Jordan's playful, teasing voice was gone and serious, stoic Jordan took his place.

I sighed again. "Alright. I'll try my best to take it easy."

"That means if you go down to the bar, only water. And Tony, if she does go down while I'm at work, please try and keep her from getting in fights."

"You're the boss," replied Tony.

"Alright, well I'll call in and take tomorrow off so I can keep an eye on you Daytona. Okay?" Jordan finally let go of my hand, and the cold air that brushed over my palm sent shivers down my spine.

With a swift nod of my head, I pushed myself off my bed and carefully swung my legs over the edge.

I made my way over to the bathroom where I flipped the switch and hissed as the lights come on. I could already feel the bruises settling in.

Gripping the hem of my shirt, I pulled it up, and sure enough, there it was. A nice blossoming red bruise. My cheek also had a nice little bruise on it too. I turned around but couldn't really see the bruise on my back, but I knew it was there.

"Oh, Daytona." Jordan stepped into the bathroom and grabbed my hands in his.

"I'm fine." I did my best to avoid making any kind of eye contact with him.

"Daytona," he let go of one of my hands and gently tilted my chin up towards him. "Please look at me."

When I did, he broke out into a sad smile. "I'm glad you're okay. I don't know what I would've done if I lost you." He pulled my into a tight hug, careful not to touch any of my new bruises.

"Yeah I'm glad I'm okay too." And I savored the feeling of his arms around me. The false sense of security was enough for me. "I'm going to shower, I probably smell."

And this time, when I stepped into the shower, I didn't break down and cry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey, hey, hey!

I'm back with another chapter!!!

Honestly I had everything but the last 500 words written for like the past two weeks, but I couldn't find a good place to end it 😅

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter! It has a little bit of something for everyone. Some suspense, whumps, and even some fluff! (Where are my Day×Jordan shippers at? This was for you guys 😘)

I'm finally on summer break so hopefully I will be able to update more than every two weeks lol.

Well, this is your favorite author signing out, and like always, this chapter is not edited :p

Love, May C.
😘❤