Cross My Tigress Face the Wrath (Stella)

Staring at the mesh bag overflowing with fish, Susanna let out a groan of pure exhaustion.

Yvonne grinned, handing her a tall glass of lemonade. "See? Nothing like some hard work to get your blood flowing again."

The glare in Susanna's eyes melted away at Yvonne's words. As Yvonne straightened up, Susanna collapsed dramatically onto the sand, wrapping her arms around Yvonne's legs.

"Please, Yvonne, I'm begging you just let me go!" she wailed, tears threatening. "I can't eat another bite of fish. I swear, if I see one more fillet, I'll lose it."

Real tears started to roll down her cheeks.

God, she was so tired. Yvonne's training methods were just plain brutal.

For the past three days, Susanna hadn't had a moment's rest. Every morning at five, she was dragged out of her sleeping bag to run laps. Ten laps around the island before breakfast. That was a solid five hours of running! At this point, she knew exactly how many palm trees lined the shore, and which ones had coconuts left. Morning runs, afternoon runs, evening runs... she was going to die from exhaustion.

And if that wasn't bad enough, they ate nothing but fish. Fish sticks, grilled fish, fish salad-Susanna was pretty sure she'd start sprouting gills soon.

Meanwhile, Yvonne looked like she'd just stepped off a magazine cover, her long, red bohemian dress making her look even taller and more glamorous. Susanna, on the other hand, was a sandy, sunburned, disheveled mess.

When Susanna burst into tears again, Yvonne rolled her eyes. "Hey, try not to wipe your nose on my dress, okay?"

"Yvonne, please," Susanna whined, voice cracking. "Look, I can shoot now. I can hit a beer can off a fencepost at fifty paces! I know you want to take Dan out-just let me handle it. I'll do it, just please stop torturing me!"noveldrama

Yvonne raised a brow. "You're just gonna gun him down? Isn't that a bit much?"

Susanna nodded furiously. "He deserves it! That bastard should've been gone a long time ago."

Her big, pleading eyes looked up at Yvonne. "Don't worry, I won't hold back. He's not really my brother. No way."

Thinking about Dan made Susanna's skin crawl. She'd deny any family ties to him a thousand times over.

What had she done to deserve this?

She sniffled. "Honestly, I barely even know the guy. We're not close at all."

Yvonne, unimpressed, just stared down at her.

Ever since she'd found out Dan was supposed to be her brother, Susanna had been worried Yvonne would take it out on her. She really was getting the short end of the stick here. At this point, she was blaming Dan for everything.

When Susanna mentioned "brother," Yvonne sucked in a sharp breath. "Brother? Dan's, what, ten years older than you? How's he your brother?”

Susanna blanched. "I don't know! Hull said, on paper, he's my brother, that's all I know."

Yvonne shook her head. This whole Black Gate mess was a disaster.

Just looking at them, there was no way Dan could be Susanna's little brother. If anything, he looked like her uncle.

Susanna tightened her grip on Yvonne's legs. "Brother, cousin, whatever-just let me be the one to take him out, okay?"

Yvonne looked at her like she was the world's biggest coward.

If it weren't for Star, she'd have left Susanna for the seagulls a long time ago. Oh, whatever-Yvonne gave Susanna a hard kick and sent her sprawling into the salty waves.

SPLASH.

Salt water filled s Susanna's mouth and nose, her brain going momentarily blank. Back in the day a kick like that would've knocked her out cold. Now, she scrambled Back to her feet in seconds, hands on her hips, yelling at Yvonne.

"Yvonne, you crazy woman! Do you have any sense of decency at all?"

She was fuming. If Yvonne kept kicking her around like this, who knew how many bones she'd break?

She glanced at her own sunburned arm and nearly groaned aloud. She was a

mess.

Yvonne crossed her arms, smirking at Susanna's disheveled state. "Run ten more laps, then come get your gun."

Susanna sputtered, "You've got to be kidding me! I'm not running another damn lap!"