Open Flame

Three

I awoke with a start when I heard an argument out front, I pushed my legs out of my bed and opened the curtain to see Kali and Jake in the middle of a heated argument - her arms were crossed over her chest and Jake had his head in his hands. 

I quietly opened the window and heard what they were talking about, "There is no way! Jake, come on. You seriously can't believe that what they say is true?" Kali asks, and I lean against the window sill. 

"Have you got any explanation on why she looks so similar to the Lopeź's then?" He shouts back, and I c**k a brow - who's this her? I saw Kali look down at the floor before sighing and running her fingers through her auburn hair. 

"No, but that doesn't mean you can go raking through her personal file at our work place! Let alone look her up in criminal records!" She shouts, before slapping him across the face. "I love you Jake, but that's plain rude and until you understand the reasoning of privacy - we're over." She says, as she goes to look up - I quickly sprint behind my curtain. 

**********

"Morning," I say, walking out of my room to find Kali hunched over the counter top with her fork stashed into her food already - a cup full of coffee beside her hand. 

"Morning, Pancakes and coffee are on the island for you." Kali says, giving me her million dollar smile and I smiled tightly back at her before grabbing it and sliding into a seat beside her. The breakfast was awkward and I sighed before switching the TV on. 

"- 5am this morning, a body in downtown New York. 27 stripper Maddison Polec was found stabbed and shot to death on a small dirty passage, police suspect it's a black devil." A news reporter says and I look closely at the images. 

"That's not the black devils," Kali comments from beside me and I turned to look at her before nodding in agreement. "That is work of a total other gang. One that is obviously not from here," She comments and I once again nod. 

But I knew exactly who had done it, but I wasn't about to spill out the name because if I did, they would then find me faster than I could get out of here and there would be a lot of bloodshed. I quickly switched off the TV and stood up. 

"Where are you going?" Kali asks me and I look back at her.

"To the gym." I answer, before walking back to my bedroom to grab my bag and headed out into the New York fresh air. 

**********

I punched the punching bag hard, and it went flying against the wall. "You've got a lot of excess anger to burn off," I heard a husky voice say behind me, and I turned to find a raven haired male, with tanned skin leaning up against the wall nearby.

"No s**t," I say, as he pushes up off of the wall - his muscles bulging when he does so and I see a tattoo on the side of his shoulder - the same one that was on the Black Devils jacket. That's when I recognised him from Cloud 20. 

"You're the girl that works with Kali at Cloud 20?" He asks and I nod.

"Who's asking?" I question as I hit another punch on the bag as he came up behind me. He grips a hold of my hand. 

"You're doing this wrong, close your thumb over the top of your index finger. If in a real fight, it could break a finger if you don't punch properly, angel." He says, before turning to walk away. "I never got your name. Mine's Cody, Cody Robinson." He says and I turn to look at him.

"You'll know my name when you earn it," I say, winking at him and he smirks. 

"Fiesty. I like it." He teases before leaving the gym totally, although Cody thought I was fighting wrong. I knew how to fight properly without his teaching and what would happen if we didn't have the right stature.