Criminal Instinct Read Online Free PDF Page A

it!
    “Up now, now!”
    Gritting her teeth, she rolled to her feet and crouched, hands out, eyes straight on her opponent. A few hairs escaped her headband, clinging annoyingly to her cheek, and sweat ran down her neck into her sports bra. Her muscles ached from two hours of physical training.
    They circled each other. Jax’s pale eyes never left hers, his hands out and ready.
    “Rush him!”
    “He’s a mountain,” she muttered.
    “Do it!”
    Her eyebrows furrowed, but she wasn’t dumb enough to glance at Sarge, giving Jax an open advantage. Jax’s codename was based on a video game character with arms made of steel, steel that could pretty much pound her to a pulp. His shaggy blond head was damp and his bare chest glistened with perspiration. The guy’s right arm was solid with tatts, the left spotted with various designs, and his long legs were covered with gray sweat pants.
    Jax gave a slow smile, taunting her with his thick fingers to come at him.
    “I don’t give a damn how small you are—or how big he is—rush him.” Fine. She feinted to her right, ducked low, and rammed her left shoulder into his hard stomach, wincing as the impact radiated down her back.
    Jax’s footing slid on the mat and then dug in. Bands of armor gripped around her slick waist, hauling her upside down, slamming her spandex-covered butt against his solid torso.
    She hooked her legs over Jax’s broad shoulders, bending them on either side of his neck and squeezing her knees toward each other.
    “Did I ever tell you I like my Latinas spicy and hot?” Jax grunted above her.
    “Did I ever tell you I couldn’t give a flying fuck?” Blood rushed to her head. She pressed harder with her knees, performed a full sit up, and aimed for a throat hit with her knuckles.
    Jax’s eyes flickered. He released her waist, gripped her biceps and shot her off of him like a damn slingshot. She flew, hit padding and tried to roll. Too late. Jax landed on her, knocking the air out of her lungs. He grabbed one arm, trapping it against the mat. His musky deodorant filled her nostrils, heavy chest pushing against hers.
    Son of a—
    “Pin!”
    She sucked in air, coughed. “Bitch.”
    “Anytime you want to go another round, chiquita , let me know,” Jax murmured into her ear. He winked, got to his feet, and took a few steps to his water bottle on the floor.
    Ana slowly sat up, body throbbing. She eyed Jax’s muscled back with disgust. Every inch of his five-eleven muscled frame hollered dangerous felon, from his sharp-edged, stubbled jaw and guarded blue eyes, down to the leather biker attire he usually sported.
    She didn’t know a lot about his past, but she imagined that when it involved crime, he could have been a jack-of-all trades. Anything short of murder. Maybe. Whatever his last stunt had been, it had left him beat up pretty bad and punched his ticket for a ten-year prison sentence.
    It wasn’t a secret the guy was her nemesis on the SIDE team. She categorized him with things she could do without, but still had to deal with. Like her period—it annoyed her, made her cranky as hell, but she still had to live with it once a month. Jax had the same effect on her, only she had to live with seeing him six days a week. Popping an aspirin and making him disappear would be the answer to her dreams.
    “Come on, Paul.”
    She glanced at the next mat. Skates’s long frame was sprawled under Digit, his arm yanked up, her knee jammed into his back.
    Jay-man was on the floor beside him. “Get out of it. You can do this.”
    “I can’t,” Skates groaned in pain.
    Poor kid.
    “For Christ’s sake, Skates,” Sarge muttered. He held a stop watch and diverted his gaze to Romeo running laps around the private gym SIDE rented three days a week. Romeo hit his fourth lap and gave the signal with a raised arm. One mile.
    “Four minutes, twenty-three seconds.”
    Romeo, the fastest runner on the team—hell, the fastest runner she’d ever seen in