35. To Fight a Killer
To Fight a Killer
“See?” When you step forward with the punch, you win precious centimeters.” Kate stood on the ball of her right foot, sinking the slightest bit through her knees.
The girl, Elise, her head bobbed in confirmation, a frown heavy on her face as she mirrored Kate as best she could. “Yep, that’s in the right direction.” She was still a little unbalanced, which Kate demonstrated by leaning against the girl’s shoulder with a light hand, tipping her over.
She sent Elise a reassuring smile. “You’ll get there! Took me a while to find my balance, too. The trick is bending through your knees and—” She pointed to the mats. “—don’t put your feet too close together.”
Georgia called her name, gesturing with a loose hand at her throat, head tilted with a phone clenched between cheek and shoulder.
“Alright, ladies.” Kate clapped her hands together. “That’s it for today.” She helped them clean up their boxing gear, taking the thank you’s and comments in stride.
Not too bad for an introverted book reading hermit, eh?
Even so, relief flooded her system that it was over, leaving her a little dazed.
A hand clasped around her shoulder, turning her around. Georgia.
“Well, hello there, Miss teacher. Lucien just called.”
Kate’s cheeks burned red. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” She put her hands on her sides. “What did he need?”
“Actually…” Georgia waved the phone around triumphantly. “He told me to take you and a couple of girls out for some drinks!”
Wait, he said what? Lucien asked her to take them out without him… present. What in the ever-loving… That means that I could… slip out the back and escape.
Emily bounced in between them with a beaming smile, leaning heavily on Kate’s shoulder and pulling her straight out of her thoughts.
“Please tell me I get to go along for this one.” She ran a sweaty hand over her temple, brushing back the brown strands out of her face.
Showing a faint scar just below her hairline.
She must have felt Kate glance at it, as she rushed to hide it beneath a strand of sticky hair.
Heather popped up behind her, hesitantly stepping into their circle. “May I volunteer as well?”
Georgia lifted an eyebrow toward Kate, leaving it up to her.
Escape, drinks, going out with people. What if I just… enjoy the evening and decide then and there? A chance like this won’t just pop up again. Meaning… I have to take it but before that.
Kate rose on her toes, scanning the room for a hair color akin to hers. “Hey, Isabel!” The woman turned, blue eyes dancing in her flushed face. Kate waved her over. It had been Isabel’s first lesson, but damn, she had found her flow on the pads.
This place, it had been good to her.
Isabel walked up, squeezing in between Georgia and Emily. “What’s up?”
“We’re going out for some drinks, feel like coming?” Georgia’s keys jingled together as she got ready to leave.
A shadow passed over the face of the girl who might as well have been her sister. Isabel rubbed her fingers together. Kate stared at them, the movements exactly like her own, twirling over, under and around. Tips already turning reddish. What the…
Talk, she needed to have a chat with her, just to be sure. Kate bumped her shoulder against Isabel’s. “Come on, girl! It’ll be good fun.” Emily joined in from the other side, squishing the hesitant Isabel between them.
But what do I know? My very first get-together.
“Yeah, yeah. It’s alright, I’ll come with.”
Georgia swung the doors open, and the girls followed like a horde of chattering birds.
They charged through the long hallway, decorated with quotes in all different colors and sizes.
A couple of minutes later, they stood, looking out over the sand-colored steps and parking lot.
The wind howled around the building with a vengeance.
Kate shrugged her hoodie over her head, jamming her hands deep into the pockets of her jacket.
“I’m just going to grab my jacket from the car.” Isabel charged ahead, with Emily and Heather lost in conversation behind them. Kate turned to Georgia. “You know, Georgia, I could get used to doing this.”
“It is amazing, isn’t it? The feeling you get when you’re able to help others.
” The shelter's leader shook her head, closing her eyes.
“It helps us become whole again.” A shoulder bumped against hers playfully.
Georgia leaned in closer, whispering “You and Lucien, huh? You must be getting serious if he is letting you take over a lesson.”
“Is it yes? I didn’t know it meant so much for him.”
“For all his faults, and he has them, believe me.”
No shit, the charismatic killer for hire had them. Kate hid a small smile behind a hand, pretending to yawn.
“Lucien cares about every single girl that enters this place, and all the ones who haven’t yet found their way here, and who may never will.” A small, rueful smile played along her lips. “I can see he cares a lot about you as well, hun. More than he dares admit.”
A loud shriek pierced the air. The four women froze, eyes widening, that scream… in it was pure terror.
Kate whirled around, searching between the cars for the source. There, next to a dark grey KIA, three men, surrounded…
Oh, Gods no. Isabel.
Heather’s white face lost all its flush. She backed away with her hands in front of her, as if she could shield herself from the harm of seeing it.
“I-I can’t,” Georgia uttered under her breath, pale as a corpse. She stumbled before following Heather, pushing through the double doors, it screeched over the floor before it banged shut. Shutting out Isabel.
Georgia can’t stay.
Kate’s hands balled into fists. She, she couldn’t back away. Not from this.
Her feet led her straight to the men towering over Isabel, who had shrunk in on herself. Looking nothing like the girl who had looked so… alive mere minutes ago.
Kate’s jaw clenched, seeing the red hand print embedded on the girl’s cheek.
One of the men, greasy hair sticking out, nudged the tallest of the three, nodding his head in Kate’s direction. Raising her chin, she stopped just short of Isabel, who was sobbing into her hands, shoulders shaking.
The three men diverted their attention to Kate, the tall one bearing a look of… surprise. The others couldn’t hide the hunger in their gaze.
She should be afraid. Her legs should give out beneath her, with tremors coursing through. Kate felt none of it, nothing but this white-hot burn in her stomach, erasing any thoughts of fear.
“Not to mention the fact that you don’t freeze, you act. That might seem normal to you, but most people would shut down where you pushed through, Kate.”
She steeled her nerves, for all the compliments he’d given her that morning.
It was time to back it up.
“Could you take a step back from my friend here?”
They glanced her up and down, apparently not impressed. The tall one blurted out, voice hoarse. “What’s it to you, woman? I’m not here for you, and you don’t want me to be.” He curled two of his fingers in a walking motion. “Walk away.”
“Excuse me, sir? I just finished teaching my self-defense class, only to come here and see you harass one of my ladies!” She put her hands on her sides. “Maybe you should leave the premises before I call the cops on your ass for touching my friend. I bet they’ll eat that shit right up.”
Bluff, all bluff. But what else could she do? She could only hope Georgia or Heather had the clarity to call the police.
She laid an arm around Isabel’s shoulders. “Why don’t you go inside, dear? I’ll be right up.”
Isabel nodded, face blotched and red from crying, already stepping away for her escape.
“She’s not going anywhere. She’s mine.” The man bent over toward Isabel, triumph lighting up when she hunched over. His voice like the sound of a hinge gone without oil for too long. “Just you wait till I’m done with you this time wifey.”
Her husband, what a lovely, poor excuse of a man.
Kate bit out. “Hey! Eyes on me, okay.”
Isabel glanced her way nervously. Breaking under the weight of her tears. “It’s alright, Kate, I’ll be fine.”
No, she wouldn’t be. These things never turned out fine. It ended with a woman covered in bruises, or worse.
“Leave now, or don’t, it’s up to you. But when this shelter’s leader arrives here.
” Kate made a show of glancing at her phone.
“Which shouldn’t be long.” If only that were true, there was no way of knowing whether Lucien was on his way.
“You will regret not having left when you still had the ability to do so.”
The only thing she didn’t need bluff for. Lucien would do more than break their bones.
The husband stepped closer, his friends moving in with him, entering her personal space they circled around her.
Kate nearly gagged from the alcohol-stained breath inching its way up her nose.
“Leave us be before I start with you.” He jerked with his chin to the knife strapped around his waist.
Fuck, he’s intoxicated. A knee in the ‘crown’ jewels might not work.
She stepped back with her right foot, finding her fighting stance with ease. Kate knew the dangers, tasted it in the air. Knew damn well that a fight meant she would get hurt. At the very least. But there were no good options. Her pulse shot up, adrenaline filling her veins.
Lucien’s voice echoed in her mind.. “If you’re outnumbered, with no way out. Use the element of surprise. That and… hit down hard on the leader of the group”
At least she had that. She leaned closer, ignoring the sting of the smell of their alcohol in her eyes. Kate offered her chin, exposing it while she drew up her hands. “And. What. If. I. Don’t?”
She saw him draw back his arm and there it was, a sloppy, looping right cross.
Kate sidestepped it effortlessly, letting the force of his punch send him careening toward the floor. His feet straightened toward her, but before he could fully recover, she was already on him. Her own jab, cross flying toward his face, followed up by a knee to his groin.
Judging by the breath leaving his lungs in a pitiful mewl, he could still feel it, alright. Good.