Ultimate Courage

by Piper J. Drake

  “It wasn’t his fault, anyway. Boom made me take a picture of her at the ER to send to him to reassure him.” Rojas shook his head. “She tried a flying roundhouse kick. It’s not even one of the core kicks Gary and Greg teach here as part of the Jun Fan Jeet Kun Do curriculum. She learned it from one of her friends at school who takes tae kwon do.”

  Elisa straightened and turned to face him. “How did she…?”

  He chuckled as she trailed off. “Break her arm doing a flying kick? She executed the kick beautifully. It was a sight to see. But she didn’t stick her landing. She fell backward and put out her arm to catch herself. Too much momentum and she fell badly.”

  “Ouch.” Elisa scrunched up her face.

  “Needless to say, the proper ways to take a fall are being incorporated into the core curriculum this school year.” Rojas crossed his arms, Souze’s leash hanging loosely from his wrist. “Gary and Greg take their work very seriously, and it hit them hard that a kid was injured on their watch.”

  “Some parents would sue the school.” Elisa’s observation was made as she resumed her sweeping. There was actually a decent amount of dust on the mats. It was an ongoing struggle even with no street shoes allowed.

  “Yeah.” Alex raked a hand through his hair before crossing his arms again. “This was a true accident, and I’m not going to go after them. Besides, they offered to split any hospital fees insurance doesn’t cover. I don’t want to put them out, and neither does Boom. She loves it here.”

  “It was good of them to offer.” Elisa made her way down the side of the mat and started back, keeping the dust she’d swept in a growing line to one side. Very systematic, the way she approached things.

  He wondered if she ever noticed how much of her thought process came out in her actions.

  “Well, they do have to be careful. Any owner of this kind of school has to be.” Rojas visually checked the windows and doors, everything in sight for anything out of place again. Never knew when something could come up, but it was good to be vigilant, especially in places where something out of place wasn’t expected. “Gary and Greg more so than others in some ways, but mostly the parents who bring their kids here are really positive people. The kids’ program has received community awards for the confidence building and the anti-bullying program.”

  Elisa paused again. “How does a mixed martial arts school teach anti-bullying?”

  Rojas watched her more closely. Her shoulders had hunched some and her tone had a slight note of strain.

  “Not by teaching the kids how to fight.” Rojas reached out to tap a poster on the wall. “The kids are taught to tell an adult and trust the adults in their lives to believe them. If not their teachers, their parents. Preferably both. The kids are also taught not to be caught alone. Use the buddy system, whether it’s their friends at school or another kid from here. And the skills they learn in mixed martial arts give them a confidence they don’t even realize they have. It’s in the way they walk and everything they do. The confidence makes them unlikely targets for bullies. And if they are absolutely backed into a corner and have no other alternative, they have the skills to defend themselves.”

  Elisa stared at the poster. “It works?”

  “For most kids, yeah. The confidence goes a long way toward making a kid a less likely target.” Rojas studied her. “A lot of the same concepts apply to adult self-defense.”

  She gripped the broom handle more tightly. “Boom seemed to think I should take a seminar. And you gave me a card.”

  It’d be a benefit in a lot of ways. The added awareness aside, he would love to see her confidence bloom.

  “It’s a good seminar. There should be one in the next weekend or two.” Alex moved to the counter Gary and Greg used as a reception desk, looking for a flyer. “They’re usually on Saturdays, but I think Forte could be convinced to give you the day off to go. Sophie attends those even if she doesn’t take regular classes.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  From the way her thin brows were pinched together in a pensive expression, she was already considering. It was important, and honestly, she might have real need of it in the near future. He, Cruz, and Forte were starting to put precautions in place, but the best defense started with Elisa herself.

  It was a shit reality in the current world.

  His vision started to blur in a red haze. Souze stirred next to him, leaning in until the dog’s shoulder was pressed against the side of his leg. The movement and gentle pressure brought Rojas back to the present, and he decided it was a bad time to follow that line of thought.

  Definitely not the time to ask her. Thus far, he’d tried to limit his questioning into her past to need-to-know items. Things that could impact the kennels or the school or Elisa’s immediate safety. The rest could come out when she decided to share, if she did.

  “Gary’s computer is damned slow again. I’m going to need to come in some other time and give it some tender loving care.” Cruz cut into his thoughts. “But I’ve pulled the feeds from this afternoon and started an upload of the video file to our servers. First look was interesting, though.”

  “Yeah?” Rojas got a good look at Cruz’s glowering expression and turned to see Elisa sweeping the dust she’d gathered into a dust pan. “Elisa, did you want to go upstairs and change?”

  Elisa met his gaze and raised an eyebrow. “You mean go upstairs and let you two exchange information while I’m out of earshot? I’d prefer not.”

  Cruz snorted. “Smooth, Rojas. Subtle.”

  Rojas threw up his hands. “Okay, I’m sorry. Could you please join us over here and not be insulted if we maybe don’t phrase our exchange of information in the nicest way possible.”

  Because it was a real possibility. Hell, his ex-wife had constantly picked fights with him over the tiniest details instead of focusing on the important concepts of a discussion. It got worse when she’d dragged her parents into any kind of decision-making. Cruz’s own father had been far away in Peru and had never been part of the day-to-day yelling matches between Cruz and his ex-wife, so it never made sense to Cruz the way she’d call in her parents to back her. He’d wanted to get the information from Cruz without getting hung up with someone else interjecting.

  Cruz just shook his head. “It’s not encouraging news, but you should hear it eventually.”

  “Then it saves time if I’m right here.” Elisa joined Rojas, leaning against the other side of the doorway and crossing her arms with a pointed look at him. “I’ll try not to jump immediately into overreaction mode until we’ve heard everything.”

  Rojas winced.

  Cruz brought up a video. “Well, you weren’t overreacting earlier this afternoon. This guy is definitely shady.”

  The video clip showed a man walking past the car more than once and not actually entering any stores, just the way Elisa had described.

  “And he is definitely messing with your car,” Cruz finished as the guy first kneeled down as if he’d dropped something and then lay down flat on the pavement, reaching underneath the car as if to retrieve it. “I want to take a closer look at this video feed on my computer at home before any of us actually go to the car.”

  “Okay.” Elisa’s response was in a small voice, not frightened but definitely subdued. “What do you think he did?”

  “Well, the tires didn’t look flat when we came through the parking lot tonight.” Alex rubbed his chin.

  A smile tugged at Elisa’s mouth, and he looked at her askance, but she waved it away. “No flat tires is good. But what’s the worst-case scenario?”

  Not everyone would want to know, but Rojas could respect her preference. He’d want to know the worst, too.

  “Could be something as dangerous as an explosive if we’re talking worst case.” Cruz delivered that bit of information in a flat tone. “But not likely in such a public place, with your ex messing with you the way he has been. If your ex wants you back, he’s not going to want you back in pieces.
”

  Well, probably not. Some stalking scenarios did escalate to deadly situations. None of them was an expert, but it didn’t look like it’d gotten there yet. Rojas had a call in to a friend at the police department, though. Just in case.

  “More likely, he placed a tracking device on your car.” Cruz finished his assessment. “Quick to install and easy to figure out where you are any time.”

  “So what do we do next?” Elisa asked.

  “Well, I have a police friend I want you to talk to.” Rojas watched her closely. “We’ll give this video to them, too, and file a police report.”

  Her eyelids shuttered half closed, and her face went blank. After a moment, she spoke quietly. “I went to the police when I first left. They kept asking me over and over again if I was certain I wanted to file a report, apply for a restraining order. Instead of writing down what I told them, they kept offering me counseling.”

  Son of a bitch. Even if her ex didn’t have influence at the police department she’d gone to, receiving that kind of resistance had to have been frightening. But if her ex did have contacts in the police department, it gave an added level of complexity to the sort of person they were dealing with. Rojas filed it away to consider later.

  Cruz broke the silence. “Can you give us your ex’s full name and address? I think it’s about time we find out what there is to know about him.”

  Elisa nodded. “I can tell you about his company and his educational background. He doesn’t really have much in the way of family. Parents retired out of country.”

  Cruz tapped the desk thoughtfully. “I’m not as curious about his bio. Can you think of why he’s willing to put so much effort into tracking you? Hiring people—that takes money and effort to find the right, discrete kind of people. It’s a risk when it comes to his reputation.”

  Elisa opened her mouth and closed it, a couple of times. She started to rub one hand up and down her opposite forearm. Her wrist brace was going to leave scratches in the skin of her opposite arm.

  “Why don’t you tell me while we get you settled upstairs for the night?” Alex offered. “Cruz is probably going to be here with Gary’s computer for a few more minutes.”

  Cruz nodded. “Any information is good, but I’m going to do some searches, too, to dig into any background you might not know about. Tell Rojas what you can think of in the meantime.”

  “Okay.” Elisa paused. “His name is Joseph Corbin Junior. Chief Information Officer of Corbin Systems. The company is global, but the headquarters are in California.”

  As she gave them both home and company addresses, Cruz made notes on a pad of paper and nodded. “Good enough to start. Let me get Gary’s computer back up to decent speed and double-check the network security.”

  Basic information wasn’t what was eating at her. She hadn’t relaxed after leaving Cruz with that much.

  “C’mon, you must be tired.” Rojas gestured toward the back stairs up to the studio above the school.

  “It’s been a lot for one day.” She looked around, somewhat twitchy.

  He watched her, considering. “Gary and Greg are going to be here soon and stay the night. If anything triggers the security, the police will be here in minutes. You won’t be alone. I’d stay, but Boom—”

  “Oh, no. Boom needs you. You’ve already spent too much time today on me, and she’s still recovering.” Guilt tinged her words, and she started to open the door leading to the stairs.

  “Hold up. Let us go first.” He wanted to address the guilt she was feeling over taking him away from Boom, but he applied his focus to clearing the stairs and the upstairs area first.

  Stairs were always the toughest to clear, especially narrow ones like these.

  Cruz called from the office. “Camera feed shows the upstairs as clear.”

  Rojas relaxed a fraction but didn’t speed his ascent, letting Souze take the lead. Knowing the cameras didn’t pick up anything helped, but nothing replaced the accuracy of eyes on the area. A skilled intruder could see security cameras and hide.

  Reaching the top of the stairs, it took him a few extra moments to pie the corner in such a tight space. Then they were going down the short hallway to the room Elisa was staying in and clearing it, too.

  Task completed, Rojas returned to the top of the stairs and called down to Elisa. “Clear. You can come on up.”

  The security system was good. He’d told her so himself. The likelihood of an intruder hiding upstairs had been minimal. But considering the latest issues she’d been experiencing, he thought indulging his tendency for overkill wouldn’t hurt and might even help her feel safer coming up to the guest room.

  Once she joined them upstairs, she headed into the guest room. Rojas lingered in the doorway.

  The conversation they’d been having downstairs seemed weird to pick up now, and he opened his mouth and closed it a couple of times with false starts. Talking. Not exactly his forte.

  Any of his interactions with women over the last couple of years had been infrequent and brief, limited to meeting in a club or bar, maybe heading back to her place. But he’d never stay the night and never tried to see the woman again. Standing here, wanting a different kind of connection, he didn’t know how to approach it.

  Elisa turned to face him from the middle of the small room. She looked lost, tiny, standing there alone.

  Clearing his throat, he pushed back the clumsy self-consciousness swamping his brain. “Do you mind if I come in?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  He stood there for a long moment waiting for her answer.

  She blinked. Startled. “You were just in here.”

  Of course. He sounded incredibly stupid. “Yeah, but that was to be sure it was empty. Now you’re in it.”

  Brilliant. As explanations went, it wasn’t the best he’d ever made.

  But Elisa smiled. “Thank you for the consideration.” She hesitated, dropping her eyes. “And, yes, you can both come in.”

  “I’m betting Souze appreciates you including him in the invitation.” Actually, Rojas really liked her tendency to keep the dog in mind.

  “So.” She glanced around, opened her mouth, and then closed it again.

  Glad to know he wasn’t the only one grasping for what to say. “So.”

  “There’s more.” Her voice came out low, almost a whisper.

  “It’s okay. You can tell me.” Alex stood waiting, tried not to press in on her or add pressure.

  “Joseph designed programs to integrate with weapons systems and he was planning to sell the code instead of securing it for the US government. It wasn’t right.” Once she got started, she kept talking in a hushed stream of strained words. “He…he had it all on a laptop, locked up in his research facility. But he always took me with him. I was his key, he said. The security system required my fingerprints and my retina imprint to pass through.”

  Son of a bitch. Well, this explained the added effort to get a hold of her. This ex of hers was a special kind of obsessed.

  Elisa stood there, shoulders hunched and head down. A tear fell and hit the carpet.

  “Hey.” He bent to one side and craned his neck, trying to get into her line of sight without crowding her. “Elisa, it’s good you told me. It’s going to be okay.”

  Her eyes met his and she hiccupped, straightening suddenly and wiping away her tears with her palms. He wanted to be the one to help her brush away her tears.

  “Anyway, I hated being any part of that. But it is probably important to know.”

  Alex nodded. “It is. And you should know, you didn’t do anything wrong based on what you told me. You know that, right?”

  She swallowed hard. “At first, I was excited to see where he worked and have access to the restricted areas. He’d told me his work would have a far-reaching impact. And it could, but not in a positive way. I didn’t learn about that until later. Going into that research center was all I did. I just opened the access points. I wasn’t a participant. I was jus
t a key.”

  Alex couldn’t think of what to say, so he just held out his hand, palm up.

  She hesitated, then placed her hand in his and let him curl his fingers around her palm. He gave her a brief squeeze. Her hand was so small in his and yet her return grip was strong.

  A minute later, she’d reassembled her calm.

  “What time do you need me at work tomorrow?” She pulled out her phone and started to set an alarm.

  “There’s a morning training session here tomorrow at oh-seven-hundred.” Easy answer. “I’ll come by to train and then take you back with me. Sophie’s bringing a bunch of baked goods to try on us for breakfast. I hope you like sweet things.”

  Elisa visibly brightened. “I’ll look forward to it and to meeting Sophie. She seems to be around a lot. Finances for the kennels. Getting you all new shirts.”

  Danger. Red flags popped up inside his head. This was the sort of moment where his late wife would have been poised to jump all over him for mentioning another woman.

  “Yeah. She and Forte go back a long way. They grew up together. There’s a thing between them, but they’re pretending there isn’t.” It was nice when the truth got him so neatly out from under a metaphorical bus.

  “Ah.” A spark of mischief entered her gaze, and her voice held a touch of anticipation. “Then I’ll really look forward to meeting her. I like her taste.”

  “I think she’ll like you, too. She’s been on us to get someone to organize our front desk forever and she’ll love the rest of the stuff you’re doing.” Actually, Rojas wondered if he’d sidestepped one minefield for another. Once Sophie met Elisa, Sophie was sure to subject him to a serious interrogation.

  He really didn’t want to think too hard about the sorts of questions Sophie would ask about Elisa yet. Mostly because he was still feeling things out. Thinking too hard made things complicated.

  It was simpler to act. Like he had earlier. And he’d very much enjoyed the kiss that had come out of it.

  “So, tomorrow at seven, then.” Elisa hesitated, then turned to put her phone on the bedside table.