A Place of Hope and No Pain

Matt's POV

"I'll meet you downstairs." I called out to Chloe, opening the door.

"Okay." She called back and I smiled, closing the door behind me and jogging down the stairs.

I was a little excited. Today was the team exercise, which turned out to be gruelling obstacle course that was several miles long. To say I was looking forward to it was an understatement. Chloe and I had this, we were both pretty fit, plus I'd been dragging her to the gym everyday as well, preparing her.

I got to the bottom of the stairs and stopped. Carmen and Jerry were standing there, whispering furiously to each other and when they saw me they stopped. What the fuck were they discussing?

"Pretty boy." Jerry sneered.

I ignored him, pushing past him and heading outside, unfortunately he followed me.

"Where's Chloe?" He asked me, winking.

"None of your business." I muttered, ignoring him. I wanted to smash him in the mouth so badly.

"You know that Carmen doesn't like her." Jerry went on, not taking the hint that I didn't want to speak to him.

"What?" I snapped, looking at him.

"Yeah she hate's Chloe." He went on. "Apparently she's hitting on Clay or something."

"Pfft." I snapped. "No she's not."

Jerry shrugged. "I told Carmen I'd get Chloe's mind of off Clay, if you know what I mean." And he smiled his sleazy smile. "Oh damn, speak of the devil."

I followed his gaze to the door, where Chloe had just made an appearance. She was standing there, looking around and she was certainly dressed for the event. She had on black tights that stopped just below the knee and a pink top, that well, wasn't much more than a bra.

"She is fucking fine." Jerry growled at me.

I took a deep breath, ignoring him. I mean he was right, she was an attractive girl and fuck, there was that tattoo peaking out the top of her pants again.

She looked over at me, raising her eyebrows and I hurried over to her side.

"What are you doing with him?" She hissed at me.

"He was going on with crap again." I told her. "Now come on, we need to warm up."

"Matt you do realise this is a friendly competition don't you?" She asked me as I grabbed her arm, leading her away from everyone.

"Yes Chloe I do." I said. "But you still need to warm up."

"Hey where are you two going?" Clay called out, suddenly appearing and jogging after us.

"Apparently to warm up." Chloe said, stopping to look him.

"Good, we can warm up with you." Clay grinned.

"Whatever." I muttered. "Warm up all you want, Chloe and I have this."

"Oh please." Clay said. "Carmen and I have been training."

"Yep we have." Carmen said walking over and joining us, glaring at Chloe.

"Please." I muttered. "You have no chance."

Clay raised his eyebrows. "Let's have a bet then."

I had no problem with that because I knew I'd kick his ass.

"No wait." Chloe snapped, looking at the both of us. "You're here to stop an addiction, don't start another one."

"Don't be so dramatic." Carmen snapped back at her, clenching her fists.

"What's the bet?" I asked Clay, ignoring both of the girl's.

"Hmmm." He said smirking. "The winner get's dinner with Chloe."

"What?" She snapped, her face going red.

"What?" Carmen snapped, her face even redder.

I shrugged. "You're on." I would win this, I knew that, Chloe didn't need to worry about a thing.

"Whaaaat." Chloe screeched, glaring at me.

"What?" I asked, looking back at her.

"Oh fuck." Jerry called, jogging over to us. "You can count me in."

"Excellent." Clay said grinning at him.

Fuck, well that had backfired, big time. I couldn't let Jerry win, I couldn't leave him alone with Chloe.

Chloe stood there, glaring at me. "Are you my fucking pimp?" She hissed.

"Calm down." I whispered. "You know we'll win." I hoped we fucking won otherwise she'd fucking kill me.

"Oh we had better win." She snapped and it that moment I feared for my life.

"Come on." I said grabbing her arm, leading her away.

"Whore." Carmen whispered under her breath.

Chloe stopped, frowning. "Did she just call me a whore?"

"I believe so." I said quickly, tugging on her arm. "Just ignore her."

"What the fuck is her problem?" She snapped, glaring over at Carmen.

"Hey." Bruce called suddenly making an appearance. "Is everyone ready?"

I shook my head, no we weren't ready, we hadn't warmed up yet.

Chloe just grunted and I quickly started doing some stretches.

"If we lose." Chloe hissed, leaning close. "You're dead."

I nodded, because I believed that if we did lose Chloe would actually kill me.

"All right, let's get ready." Bruce said, smiling widely and walking off towards the start of the course.

Everyone followed, chatting amongst themselves.

"Just stick with me." I whispered to her as we walked. "I'll help you along."

"You fucking better asshole." She snapped.

Yep, she was pissed at me and I knew I was going to pay for it. It wasn't my fault Jerry heard, but Chloe needn't worry, there was no way I was letting that sleaze near her, whether he won or not.

"Okay, get ready." Bruce called.

"Hey." I said turning to Chloe as everyone shuffled around, lining up. "What's your tattoo?"

She looked at me, frowning and opened her mouth to reply.

"Go." Bruce yelled and everyone started running.

Fuck, now I'll never know.

I started running, we had to run a fair way before we got to the first obstacle and I was pleased to see Chloe keeping up. I wasn't pleased to see that Clay and Jerry were keeping up as well.

"Hey." I called out over my shoulder. "I'm pretty sure both you and you're partner have to be over the finish line to win."

Jerry rolled his eye's at me. "Caitlin." He screamed. "Move your ass."

I laughed, I couldn't help it, they stood no chance against us. I mean both the guy's were doing alright, but their partners were already huffing and puffing. I glanced at Chloe and smiled, she hadn't even broken a sweat.

We approached the first obstacle. It was a six or seven foot high wall, and I ran at it, jumping and grabbing the top, pulling myself up. I quickly turned around and held my hand out for Chloe.

She grabbed it and I started puling her up when Clay and Carmen arrived at the bottom. I had Chloe halfway up when Carmen suddenly grabbed Chloe's leg's, pulling on them.

"Fucking let go." Chloe screamed.

"What are you doing?" I screamed right along with her.

Suddenly Chloe kicked out, getting Carmen right in the face and she let go. I quickly pulled Chloe over, looking back down at Clay and Carmen who were scrambling to get up the wall.

So they wanted to cheat, play dirty?

It was fucking on!