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Chapter 1 - The Aluminum Swing in the Honeymoon Suite

The moment our honeymoon cruise set sail from Florida, my husband locked the cabin door, cornered me with an aluminum baseball bat. "This is how my dad kept my mom in line," he grinned. I didn't scream. I just cracked my knuckles. He forgot to read the part of my resume where I served as a Marine Corps hand-to-hand combat instructor. In one fluid motion, the bat was mine, and his face was...

I had spent four years in the United States Marine Corps training others in hand-to-hand combat, and when that chapter of my life ended, I made myself one promise: that version of me would stay in the past.

Combat boots became designer heels. Scarred fists became manicured hands. I wanted a quiet, ordinary life more than anything.

Then I met Gregory Hartman.

He was successful, charismatic, attentive—the kind of man who could make me believe I was the center of his world.

That illusion ended the second the door to our honeymoon suite locked behind us.

The latch clicked, and when I turned around, the warm smile I had fallen in love with was gone. Outside the balcony windows, the ship kept moving farther from the Florida coastline.

"Well..." Gregory said quietly. "Now we're finally alone."

I tried to keep my voice casual. "Should we open the champagne?"

He ignored me.

Gregory crossed the cabin, knelt beside his expensive leather suitcase, and opened the polished brass locks. I expected a robe, maybe some ridiculous honeymoon surprise.

Instead, he pulled out an old aluminum baseball bat.

Every muscle in my body tightened.

"What... is that?"

"My father gave it to me before the wedding," Gregory said with a calm smile. "He always said marriage is like breaking a wild horse. If you don't establish control from the beginning, you'll spend the rest of your life chasing it."

He stepped toward me. Miami's skyline was nearly gone now. Inside the cabin, I had nowhere else to retreat.

"You've always had a strong personality, Ashlynn," he continued. "That's actually one of the reasons I married you."

Then his voice hardened.

"But now it's time you learn where your place is."

He expected tears. Panic. The polished corporate executive he thought he had spent the last year shaping into exactly what he wanted.

What he had never bothered to learn was what came before the heels and manicures.

Four years in the Marines. Years of teaching people what to do when another human being became an immediate threat.

The bat began to rise. And something inside me changed.

My fear didn't get stronger. It disappeared.

My heartbeat slowed. My breathing steadied. My eyes stopped looking at Gregory as my husband and started measuring distance, balance, timing, and the openings in his stance.

I cracked my knuckles. The sharp sound carried through the cabin.

Then I shifted onto the balls of my feet and settled naturally into the stance I had promised myself I would never need again.

Gregory's grin hardened.

"This is how my dad kept my mom in line," he growled. "Let's find out how tough you really are."

He charged.

The aluminum bat came across in a hard horizontal arc aimed straight at my ribs.

My body reacted before conscious thought caught up.

I stepped outside the swing. The bat cut through empty air inches from my chest, and Gregory's momentum carried him exactly where I needed him.

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Before he understood he'd missed, I was inside his reach. My left arm trapped his extended elbow. I rotated my hips.

Then I drove the heel of my right palm upward with explosive force into...

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