No Pain: Book 1

Chapter 3: Najee

I stare at Star's tracker, she at the old church. She must have just seen the message because her blood pressure shot up. I knew she was going to be angry, "she's never been on her own before."

"Come on Najee, we trained her better than we trained ourselves." Keller says placing her hand on the punching bag to still it.

"Tough as nails, nerves of steel, the hand to hand combat level of a martial arts master." Kader has no doubts when it came to Star. "And," Kader goes on "it doesn't hurt that she's can't feel pain."

"Was that supposed to be funny, Kader." I can't help the defensiveness that rises inside me. I don't need to protect her, not from our team. They just don't know how badly Star really feels about her abnormality, how can they, their abnormalities are easy. Theirs are more like super powers.

"What are you talking-" Kader pauses and a smile breaks out over his face "ha, it doesn't hurt that she can't feel pain." Kader throws his head back and laughs "I'm funny without even trying." My fingers turn white as I grip the edge of the table with all of my strength and struggle to hold Thierry to stay down, What did he say? Thierry growls inside. Thierry isn't afraid to hurt people, anyone that challenges him, not anyone "not Star" I sigh and force myself to stand.

"You guys don't get it, she thinks she's a killer and the only thing that stopped her from ending her life before was m-us." I clench my hands into fists, before Star, I didn't feel like I was really a part of the team either.

"Najee, that was true at one point but she's a big girl now." Keller walks over to me clasps my shoulder "we all miss her but she is much stronger than any one gives her credit for and it's not because she has no pain signal." Keller pulls me into one of her rare hugs and squeezes me with a strength that feels very different than her usual brutal attacks.

"I want her back too," Keller arms tighten around me "but not at the risk of her life."

"yeah..." I glance at the screen again as her blood pressure levels out. That's not good either, it went down too quickly. She's not ready to drop it, she's ready to fight.