A Wolf at the Door

“His name is Ivan. He’s another champion, like me.” He was more than that, but…need to know basis, and she didn’t need to know. “He can’t read it either, but he might know some people. He’s gonna call back.” I tilted my head at her. “You know, your demon was the weakest one I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t want to jinx myself and call the fight a sure thing, but…if you wanted it…”

“Don’t you dare.” She advanced on me, poking one finger into my chest, and I held my hands up defensively. “I told you, I hold up my end.”

“Hey, whatever you say. Just pointing out your options is all.” I glanced around. “Where’s Tai? He let you come up here alone?”

“I told him I was coming up to work out with you.” She shrugged. “I wanted to see what you were doing. And I find you poking your nose in my business where it isn’t wanted.” Once more, she jabbed her finger into my chest, which was one more time than I intended to tolerate.

Her eyes went wide when I snatched her wrist away, and but she recovered quickly and struggled against my grip. “Let go, asshole!” When that didn’t work, she tried to kick me in the shin, which was gonna hurt her way more than it was me, with her feet bare.

“Bobby and Tai never taught you how to get out of this hold? Seriously?” As short as she was, I may have even been able to pick her up and dangle her from that delicate little arm, were I so inclined. “Here, quit tugging, you’ll never get loose that way.”

Her eyes wary, she stopped fighting against me, and watched as I explained. “Look at how I have you here. When someone has you like this, the weakest part of the grip is the thumb, okay?”

“Okay…”

“So all you have to do is give your arm a quick twist, toward the thumb, and you’ll come right out of it.” I released her, and offered my own wrist. “Grab me, I’ll show you.”

After a moment of hesitation, she did as instructed, squeezing my wrist as hard as she could. With a quick yank, I was free. “Well, yeah, you can get away. You’re stronger than I am.”

“Has nothing to do with strength. My six-year-old daughter can break away from me like this. You try it.” This time, I simply offered my open hand, waiting for her to place her wrist in it. When she did, I gripped as hard as I could without bruising. “Now, turn toward the thumb.” She did, and I clamped down harder, preventing her escape.

She frowned. “See? You’re too strong.”

“You grab me now.”

“What?”

“Grab me in return, then yank against the thumb. Double the force, see? I promise you, you will come loose.”

“I feel stupid.”

“If I were some crazed stalker, and you had to use this, at the end of the day you’d just feel glad to be alive. Do it.”

Her brow creased in concentration as she jerked against my grasp just like I’d instructed. Her look of amazement was priceless as she freed herself. “I did it!” Then she looked at me suspiciously. “You let me go. It can’t be that easy. Hold tighter this time.”

We practiced a few more times, with me holding her as tightly as I dared. Even then, I could feel the tiny bones in her wrist grinding, and I hoped I wasn’t going to leave a mark. Once she felt she’d mastered that, I showed her a few more. How to get out of a two-handed grab. How to get free from a choke hold from behind. How to get loose from a hold on her hair. She picked it up pretty fast, really. I was kinda impressed if I did say so myself.

“Okay, so…I get loose, then what do I do?” She bounced a little on her toes, grinning at me. “Can you show me how to kick some ass?”

I snorted. “If it comes to you using this to get away from an attacker, you scream your head off and run like hell. That’s the best thing you can do.”

Gretchen pouted, turning on the full force of those deep blue eyes and full lips. “Oh, come on, show me something. Just one punch. Anything.”

I sighed as I debated with myself. When confronted with an attacker, most people are just going to get themselves hurt if they try to fight back. The best thing to do is get away, run to a safe place. Your garden-variety street mugger isn’t going to chase.

Still…I couldn’t deny any woman the right to defend herself. I’d taught Mira. I was slowly teaching Annabelle. First person to lay a hand on one of my girls was gonna be damn sorry.

“Okay. Make a fist for me.” She did, bringing her hands up in a really bad boxer’s stance. “No…thumb on the outside. You punch someone like that, you’ll break your thumb.” Automatically, she corrected herself.

I grabbed her by both wrists, like we’d been rehearsing. “You have choices here. Your best choice is to break the hold and run, like I said. But, you can also do the last thing he expects. You will only get one chance to surprise a man, so you have to make it count. From this position, you can yank him into a head butt.” I demonstrated, slowly. “I advise against this, mostly because you’re gonna knock yourself senseless if you don’t do it right. Still, as a last resort, it’s an option. Aim for the bridge of the nose. Broken and bloody makes it damn hard for a guy to see.