Page 4 of Crossing Paths
“Your first impulse is to stand there?”
She felt her cheeks warm again, but he sounded surprised rather than mocking.
Norah tried to think how to explain that he didn’t triggerthe usual alarm in her brain, but she couldn’t even understand it herself. If anyone except her sisters—well, apparently her sisters or Dash—touched her, she would’ve yanked away. “No,” she answered belatedly. “I’d pull back. If someone else grabbed my arm I mean.”
The revealing heat was returning to her cheeks, annoying her.Why am I being extra awkward today?
Luckily, he didn’t seem to notice anything off about her as he increased the pull on her arm. His fingers stayed gentle, even as he hauled her close. She wondered if she was supposed to fight back, but her brain was still preoccupied by her strange reaction to him, so she couldn’t organize her mind enough to figure out the best way to get free from his hold. As careful as his grip was, it was still firm and unyielding. Her forearm looked tiny and frail in contrast to his thick, rough-looking fingers.
He pulled her closer until their chests were almost touching. She kept her gaze on his face, checking for clues about what he wanted her to be doing in response. All she knew from looking at him was that his eyelashes were black and thick enough to be in a mascara ad, and he appeared to be…baffled.
“Why aren’t you pulling back?” he finally asked, yanking her attention away from her study of his eyelashes.
“Am I supposed to?” she asked.
“No.”
She blinked.
“Most people do, and we have to drill a different reaction into them. You’re the first person I’ve trained with such a…passive response.”
Norah frowned. “Passive?” She didn’t like to think of herself as passive. Even with her less physical role in her family’s bounty hunting business, her contribution felt active, like she was accomplishing something. Her method of chasing skips might be computer-based, but it was its own type of hunt. Though she had to admit that she hadn’t done very well in the field. Maybe if she hadn’t been sopassive, she wouldn’t have ended up on the wrong end of a gun so often.
Her chin set as determination coursed through her. This was why she was here after all. She wanted to get better at the physical stuff so she could do her part to protect her sisters. She was tired of always being the one tied to the railroad tracks. She wanted to be the hero riding to the rescue for once. “What should I do instead?”
The corner of his mouth twitched in something so close to a smile that she blinked, startled. “Just what you did,” he said.
Shaking off her distraction, she looked up at him, confused. “I thought I was too passive.”
“Not in this case.” He stepped back without releasing her arm. “Like I said, most people pull back when someone grabs them. That’s what the assailant expects you to do. If you step in closer instead, it throws them off guard.”
Norah could understand why the attacker would be thrown, but there were still holes in his logic. “I haven’t gotten away though.”
“That’s the next step.” He pulled her in again, and she allowed herself to be tugged toward him, even as the wordpassiverang sourly in her brain. This close, she had to tilt her headback to meet his gaze. “Now you’re in a position to get some hits in. You could knee me in the groin or stomp on my foot or do a palm heel strike to my nose. All my tender bits are at your mercy.”
The wordstender bitscoming from cranky Dash made her smile, but his meaning sharpened her grin. “Nothing passive about smashing your…tender bits.”
This time, he really did smile, and it looked just as fierce as hers felt. “Nope. As tiny and fragile as you seem, they won’t see it until it’s too late.”
Her surge of confidence faltered. “See what?”
He gave a light tap on her sternum. “Your ferocious inner badger.”
Her smile returned at full force, and she started asking him to show her how exactly to crush his bits when a thunderous knocking made her jump. His scowl snapped back into place before he released her arm and headed for the entrance.
She watched him flip the dead bolt and yank open the door as butterflies danced around her insides. When she’d walked into the gym for the first time a few weeks before, the most she’d been hoping for was to possibly learn to throw a punch. All she wanted was to never again be a liability in a fight, but Dash made it seem like evenmorewas possible. With time and training, she might become a true badass. It was a powerful feeling.
“What?” Dash snarled, but even his cranky tone couldn’t erase her smile, especially since his ire wasn’t directed at her.
“Why’s the door locked?” another voice, almost as deep asDash’s but not half as gravelly, asked. “This place is never closed. I thought you were dead or something.”
“Private session. Come back in an hour.” Dash swung the door shut, ignoring the other man’s protests, and clicked the dead bolt back into place.
As he joined her where she waited in the center of the gym, she felt a twist of anxiety, thinking that all the usual gym clients were locked out, waiting in the alley, getting more and more annoyed because she was having yet another private session with Dash. They met three times a week, since a sense of urgency pressed on Norah. Devon Leifsen wouldn’t sit around waiting for her to figure out how to fight. There was no time to waste. Not for the first time, she told him, “You don’t have to close the gym down just for me.”
He gave her a level look. “You don’t need a bunch of gym bros staring while you try to learn this stuff. He’s right—except for our sessions, this place is almost always open. He can come back later.”
The thought of having an audience as she struggled through the motions made her nauseated, and she gave him a grateful nod. “Thank you.”
