Neither. She offers a new threat.

"No," Colleen said, "of course I won't kill you here on the weight bench... although I don't suppose anyone would be too surprised at the horrible accident. What I will do is whip your butt if you so much as say boo to her."

If Rot remembered rightly, Colleen had studied Judo since she'd been a kid, back when Asian martial arts were considered exotic and even magical in whitebread America. What Colleen didn't realize is that the Rot who had returned had studied martial arts longer than Colleen had been alive.

"Help me up with this weight and I'll make you a deal."

She pretended to help but let him exhaust himself lifting before finally settling the bar in its cradle. "Okay, what's the deal."

"If you can whip me, I'll back off on Brianna. But if I beat you, you let me do what I want."

"Like you stand a chance."

"Do we have a deal?"