Free Reckless Retribution (West Warriors Book 1) by Gemma Pennington Page A

out of your system. Not here.” He shook his head.
    Wow, he was angry. I never thought he would react this way to him training me. It made me wonder why Cam was okay to do it and not him. Unless he was more at risk of injuring himself, and then he would be out of training. That would make sense. I knew Jamie was one of the best fighters there; I’d overheard Kal many times talking about it.
    I walked to the back room and quickly grabbed my purse from the locker, pulling out my cell and checking for missed calls from Dad. Luckily, there wasn’t any. Setting my stuff down on the desk, I pretended to mess with the computer so I could carry on listening in. The music had been shut off and they had stopped whispering, so I could hear most of what they were saying.
    Really, I should’ve been running home to Dad, but I was too intrigued by this whole problem I’d caused, enough for me to risk the consequences to find out.
    The door suddenly opened, and Cam came walking in. “Hey,” he greeted us.
    I briefly smiled.
    “Where have you been?” Kal turned on him. He was overreacting and it wasn’t fair.
    “Out.”
    Jamie’s arms were folded across his chest defensively, and he looked really agitated. Poor Cam looked like he didn’t know what was going on.
    “I had plans.” Cam shrugged, looking from Kal to Jamie, confused. “What have I missed?”
    Kal hissed and walked away. I took the opportunity and quickly walked over to them. “Did I get you in trouble?”
    Jamie shook his head at me, the hard look back in his eyes, and I prayed to God he wasn’t angry at me or was putting the distance back between us.
    “Golden boy,” Cam teased. Jamie shoved him and exhaled.
    I grabbed my purse and left them all to it. I’d obviously caused enough of a stir for one night. It was my last shift there for a week, so hopefully when I returned, things would be okay with Kal. I hoped he wasn’t angry with me too.

 
     
     
CHAPTER SIX
     
     
    I walked the few blocks home and noticed that Rod’s car was in the driveway behind Dad’s broken one, which had taken up residence there the last four months because we couldn’t afford to fix it.
    Rod was kind of Dad’s best friend. They didn’t see each other all too often, which was a shame in some parts because Dad really enjoyed his company and was certainly happier when he was around, which made my life easier. I hoped that now he wouldn’t be too bothered by the fact I was late coming home. I opened the front door, and hearty laughter came from inside.
    “Here she is,” Dad’s voice joyfully boomed from the kitchen.
    I didn’t respond to it. I hated how he played the nice guy whenever anyone was around. “Hi, Rod,” I said, ignoring Dad.
    “Hi, sweetie,” he greeted. “How have you been?” he asked politely.
    Rod had a mop of thinning red hair and pale skin with sunken brown eyes. He reminded me of Shaggy from Scooby Doo and even dressed in a similar way, which I had always found odd.
    “Busy with school and working.” I smiled.
    “You’re a good kid.”
    His compliment touched a nerve with me. While it was nice, I could only think that if he really knew what I had to put up with, maybe he would think differently. I wasn’t just a ‘good kid’, and I didn’t just go to school and work like a normal, carefree kid does. His friend had ruined my childhood and forced me to grow up too quickly. I worked my ass off while trying to study, all while being physically abused by Dad on a regular basis. I had to put my dresser in front of my door every night so he didn’t attack me while he was drunk. He’d done that once when I was twelve. He came into my room and yanked me out of bed by my hair and gave me a beating for no reason. I had bald patches for a while because he used so much force. Trying to explain that to the kids at school was hard, and they used to taunt and bully me for it. Ever since that night, I pulled my dresser across. I wanted to say those