Molly

I don’t know what’s going on, but none of it seems like a good idea. Jake is beating the hell out of a punching bag, his thick, muscled arms churning like pistons. He’s not wearing gloves, and his bandage-wrapped knuckles are smeared with blood.

Of all Jamie’s brothers, Jake’s the biggest. He’s wearing a pair of black board shorts and a sleeveless black T-shirt. There’s a tattoo on his left side. It looks like a date tattooed in black ink.

Liam throws a towel at Jake. “Dude, wipe the blood off your hands and rebandage. Jamie wants to go a few rounds.”

Jamie pulls off his sweatshirt, and underneath it he’s wearing a black T-shirt tucked into his jeans. He kicks off his sneakers and pulls off his socks. Then he hands me his glasses. “Would you hold these for me? I don’t want to break them.”

“What? No!” I say, taking his glasses. “What are you doing?”

Liam climbs into the ring and calls to Jamie. “Over here, man.”

Jamie zeroes in on the sound of Liam’s voice and walks to the ring.

Jamie steps up onto the platform foundation of the ring and slips between two ropes. Jake’s right behind him, wrapping fresh bandages on his hands.

“What are the rules?” Liam says, as his two brothers face off in opposite corners of the ring.

“There aren’t any,” Jake says, grinning at Jamie.

“What a minute!” I say, approaching the ring. I have no idea what’s going on, but I don’t like it one bit. “What are you guys doing?”

“We’re sparring,” Jake says, giving me a duh look. “What does it look like?”

“You can’t do that!”

Jake gives me another exasperated look. “Why not?”

“Are you kidding me? Because Jamie can’t see!”

Jake shrugs. “So? It never stopped him before.”

Jamie turns in my direction. “Molly, it’s okay. You don’t have to worry about me.”

And then I realize what he’s doing. He’s trying to prove that he’s capable of protecting himself physically. This is because of Todd! I climb up onto the platform and grab hold of the ropes near Jamie. “Jamie, please! You don’t have to do this. Please come out of there.”

“Are we going to do this or not?” Jake says, sounding annoyed. “I don’t have all night.”

“Stop pressuring him!” I say.

Liam comes up beside me and lays his hand on my shoulder, giving me a consoling pat. “Molly, it’s okay, really. You don’t have to worry about Jamie.”

“Yeah,” Jake says. “If anything, worry about me.”

“All right, takes your places, gentlemen,” Liam says, climbing into the ring with his brothers.

Jake moves back into the corner opposite of where Jamie’s standing. Jamie steps forward into the ring, and stands with his arms at his sides, completely relaxed, reminding me of a sacrificial lamb.

“Okay, go,” Liam says. “May the best man win.”

“That would be me,” Jake says, coming out of his corner.

My heart is in my throat, nearly choking me as I watch Jake stalk across the mat toward Jamie. This is so wrong! So unfair! I shake my head, wanting to bash both their heads in for being foolish.

The door behind us opens.

“Ooo, just in time!” Lia says.

I glance back as Lia and Jonah stroll into the room.

“Lia, make them stop!” I say.

She rolls her eyes at me like I’m nuts. “Why would I do that? This will be the most fun I’ve had all day.”

“Molly, you’d better get down from there,” Lia says, grabbing my hand and pulling me back down to the floor. “They get crazy sometimes.”

I watch as Jake stalks barefoot in a wide circle around Jamie, as if looking for an opening. Jamie closes his eyelids and cocks his head slightly, as if he’s listening. But there’s nothing for him to listen to, except the faint shuffling of Jake’s bare feet on the boxing ring floor.

As Jake continues to circle Jamie, Jamie moves with him, turning to keep his brother in front of him. I can’t possibly see how this is a good idea.

Suddenly, moving faster than I ever could have imagined, Jake strikes out at Jamie, but Jamie sidesteps the blow and turns the table on Jake, twisting to grab his brother from behind and throw him to the floor. Jamie follows him down and pins him to the mat with an unbreakable hold on his shoulders and a knee in the middle of his back.

Jake slaps the floor, and Jamie leaps back, letting his brother up.

Jake chuckles. “Lucky first strike,” he says, taunting Jamie.

Then, without pausing even to catch his breath, Jake comes at Jamie with a roundhouse kick. Jamie intercepts Jake’s foot before it makes contact, redirecting his momentum and driving him back down to the mat.

“Ooo, man!” Lia yells, hanging on the ropes along the side of the ring. “Brutal!”

Jake jumps to his feet, then comes at Jamie from behind and gets him in a choke hold. He’s squeezing Jamie so tight his arm muscles are bulging. He’s got to be cutting off Jamie’s air.

“Stop it!” I yell. “Let him go.”

Lia laughs as Jamie reaches back and strikes his brother’s groin. Jake grunts with pain, and Jamie follows through by pivoting and striking his brother in the abdomen with a solid punch that knocks the air out of Jake.

This isn’t sparring! These guys are trying to kill each other. My heart stops in my chest and I can’t breathe.

Jake takes advantage of the lull in the action to jump Jamie from behind, throwing him to the floor. Jamie twists to his back, catching Jake’s legs with a swift kick and knocking his brother to the ground. They roll across the mat, struggling for control, and Jamie ends up on top, lying on top of Jake, who’s face down on the mat. Jamie threads his arms under Jake’s brawny shoulders and behind his neck, trapping him in a choke hold.

“Had enough?” Jamie grunts, breathing heavily.

Unable to get enough air to speak, Jake slaps the mat twice. That must be some sort of surrender signal, because Jamie releases him and jumps back out of reach.

“He kicked your ass, Jake,” Lia says, climbing in the ring with them.

I glance at Jonah, who’s standing beside me shaking his head. He simply shrugs. “Never get in the way of McIntyre siblings when they’re having their fun,” he says.

Jamie holds out his hand and hauls Jake to his feet.

“Shake it off, pal,” Lia says to Jake as he tries to catch his breath.

Jake wraps his arms around Lia and lifts her high in the air, then throws her over his shoulder so that she’s hanging face down, laughing as she struggles to get free.

I glance at Jonah again, and he just shakes his head. “Like I said, don’t get in their way. You could get clobbered by mistake.”

When Jamie climbs down from the boxing ring, he says, “I need a shower, badly.”

Jake laughs and throws a hand towel at him. Jamie catches it midair before it can hit him in the face. How in the hell does he do that?

This close to Jake, I can see the tattoo on his side better: March 5, 2005. I wonder what the significance of that date is.

“Molly?” Jamie says, facing my general direction.

I realize he’s trying to zero in on my location. “I’m right here.”

Sure enough, he walks right to me, and when he gets close, I reach out and touch him. He is hot and sweating, and he’s breathing hard.

“Come upstairs with me?” he says.

“Yes.”

“But first, can you help me find my shoes and socks?”

* * *

We leave the workout room and head for the stairs.

“Everything all right?” he says, walking behind me with his hand on my shoulder so I can guide him.

“Yes.”

“You’ve been awfully quiet since the ring.”

 You mean, since your brother tried to kill you? I want to say, but I bite my tongue. Obviously, this is normal behavior for these guys. “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

“Okay,” he says.

I’m preoccupied by what I just saw downstairs. How in the world did Jamie do that? How could he anticipate his brother’s every move and meet it so effectively with a counter move? The man’s blind, like completely blind. It makes no sense.

I stop in front of the door to his suite and open it. He grabs my shoulders and walks me into the room, nudging the door closed with his bare foot. He tosses his sneakers and socks to the floor. “What’s wrong?” he says.

I shake my head, exasperated. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“Start anywhere you want,” he says. And then he whips his T-shirt off and tosses it onto the bed.

My eyes widen at the sight of his magnificent chest up close and personal. That fiend! He did that on purpose! “No fair. You’re cheating!” I say.

He laughs. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Bullshit! You’re trying to dazzle me with your magnificent body, and that’s not fair.”

He smiles. “Magnificent? Do you really think so?”

“Oh, stop. You know perfectly well what you look like, and yes, it’s magnificent.”

He unbuttons his jeans and lowers the zipper. “You don’t mind if I shower, do you?”

“Don’t let me stop you,” I say, daring him to follow through with his threat to strip in front of me.