That caused everyone to take notice, and we were suddenly surrounded. I was glad that Paul doggedly kept pushing through, or we would have been trapped. For once, I didn’t want to deal with fans.
I spotted Luke and Mike. Luke said something to his brother, and Mike took off into the apartment building, while Luke came out to meet us. I saw he had some State football players backing him up.
“Where’s Jill?!” I barked.
“Calm down. She’s sleeping it off in my bedroom,” Luke said as we faced off.
“If your rapist brother has touched her, I will kick the shit out of both of you,” I said.
Luke took a swing at me. My first instinct was to pound him into the dirt, but I knew that would be all this party needed to turn into a free-for-all. There was already too much testosterone and alcohol flowing for it not to.
I saw the punch coming, so I deflected it and jabbed Luke in the back of the arm. There’s a bundle of nerves there that, when struck, causes your arm to go numb.
“Shit!” Luke complained as he shook his arm to get feeling back in it.
When he tried to protect his arm, I grabbed his hand and got hold of his thumb. Luke’s backup surged forward. Then Luke let out a blood-curdling scream as I applied some pressure.
“Back off, or I’ll end his football-playing days,” I warned.
“Stop! Do as he says!” Luke begged.
He was a true believer, and his buddies saw I wasn’t playing around.
“I understand you held my brother while your brother beat the hell out of him. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t rip off both your thumbs and shove them up your ass?” I asked.
“Please, no. I’ll do anything,” Luke begged.
Frick! I saw a few people with their phones out.
“If—and I mean
“Yeah.”
“You and I aren’t going to have a problem later, are we?” I asked.
“Just don’t do any permanent damage,” Luke said.
“Deal,” I said as I released him.
“We’re good,” Luke said to his friends to let them know to stand down.
I turned to Wolf, Tim, Paul, and Cassidy.
“Mike’s inside Luke’s apartment. I need you to clear it out and keep everyone outside. Mike and I need some alone time.”
“Finally! Someone has needed to do this for a long time,” Wolf said.
Mike wasn’t happy when Luke unlocked his apartment door to let us in.
“What the hell, Luke? Are you going to let all of them beat me up?” Mike asked his brother.
Luke shook his head, turned around, and walked out. Mike looked like he might start crying. Tim and Wolf quickly got everyone out. I sent Cassidy and Paul out so it was just Mike and me.
“Did you think I would let it slide that you went after my brother’s girlfriend and then used him as a punching bag?” I asked.
Mike must have been drinking because he suddenly had his beer muscles.
“She’s too much woman for some pencil-dicked wimp like your brother.”
“Is getting them drunk and passed out the only way you can get a woman?” I shot back.
“You think you’re something special, don’t you? My brother banged your first girlfriend, Tracy, like a drum. I showed Mona what a real man is. Harper, she said you came up short in the equipment department.
“Now, I’m going to kick your ass and then show your little brother that he isn’t man enough to keep his girl,” he sneered. Then he added, “And my old man banged your mom.”
I think he expected I would be the one to start this fight. I couldn’t. Paul had warned me that Mike had to hit me first. Once that happened, I was free to defend myself.
“I was with Harper earlier tonight. She said you were as quick on the draw as your brother. You realize that you have to last more than a minute to satisfy a woman, right?” I asked.
Yep, that did it.
When you get into a fight with someone who isn’t trained, there are usually only a couple of styles you see. The first is where they lean back to keep their head from being punched. Cassidy had taught me to sweep their legs to get them on the ground and then go all Krav Maga on their ass.
Another style was to bull-rush your opponent. With that, I would use my judo moves to throw them and again get them on the ground.
Mike fancied himself a boxer. When I saw that, I wasn’t worried. That was until he jabbed, and I made the mistake of taking that as an opening to close with him. The uppercut all but put my lights out. Mike must have thought he was a professional boxer because he instantly came in for the kill, raining punches down on me.
Mike should have known that I had worked with Cassidy long enough that I would know how to defend myself. Little head and body movements could negate wild punches. If I didn’t do something soon, though, the cumulative damage would begin to take its toll.
