"I need to hire you, I guess," she said a little begrudgingly.
"Faith," K said, drawing her attention, him with his scary observational skills likely picking up on her being off. "You alright?"
"Ah, yeah. I need... I need some fucking coffee and then I need you guys to figure out everything you can about Danny Faber and then..."
Then what?
What if they found out he was trying to make a move on Vin?
What was her move then? Telling Vin? Likely getting him killed?
"Alright," K said, reaching for her wrist and pulling her with him. "You need to take the emotion out of this for a minute," he told her. K, for all his caring, could easily come off as detached, blunt, or unfeeling. All of that couldn't be further from the truth. He cared enough and dealt enough with women who were either on the verge or had completely surpassed it, he knew the best way to handle things was clearly, concisely, with as little feeling as possible.
"Oh, hey Faith," Ellie, Xander's recently pregnant wife said as they walked into the back where the break room was set up. Ellie was the opposite of Faith in every way- extremely slight, blonde, sweet, soft.
"Sweetheart, can you get Faith some coffee. Black, like her soul," Xander said, kissing her temple as he moved past. "Alright," he said as they all sat down at the break table. "Why the hell do we need to look into Danny Faber?"
"You know how you said something was off about him," she started, looking at K.
"Yeah."
"Well, Anthony confronted me today..."
"If that mother fucker..." Xander started.
She smiled at that. "No. This was actually the most positive interaction we've ever had. Anyway, he thought something was off too so he pulled his resume and personnel file. Apparently Danny Faber didn't exist before he moved to the City a couple months ago."
"Yeah, that's a red flag," Xander said, nodding. "Do you have the file with his social and shit?"
"Yeah," she said, reaching into her purse and pulling out the stack of folded papers. "Thanks, El," she said as Ellie dropped off the coffee. "Here," she said, handing the stack to Xander who looked it over then handed it to K.
"Know that on the books, you teach boxing, but no one knows more about new identities around here than you."
"If these are fakes," K said, pointing to the copy of his driver's license and social security cards, "they're good. Expensive."
"Anything else weird around Lam? Has he been snooping around or..."
Faith visibly shrank down in her seat.
The security cameras.
He knew exactly where all the cameras were pointing. He knew that the corner she had been standing in right before he fingered her was a blind spot.
That wasn't something normal employees knew. At least not that quickly. That was something you learned after six months when you no longer wanted to bust your ass for someone who didn't appreciate you and therefore looked for ways to slack off and get paid for it.
"What is it?" K asked.
"He knows where all the security cameras are pointed. And, um, he's had that Krav Maga training. And he's snuck up on me four or five times already."
"No snooping around?" Xander asked.
"Not that I've seen. Vin had me train him to do the count so he has access to the office now. But I haven't seen him lingering."
"Is Vin getting into any new business deals or something?"
Faith paused for a second. "Max."
"Sorry?" Xander asked and she realized she had mumbled.
"New player. He was at the bar the other night. Max. I didn't get a last name. Tall. Strong. Maybe Puerto Rican heritage? He had that perfect skin tone. Light brown eyes. Really charming. Confident. Sexy voice. And he had expensive taste in booze. He was sitting with Vin, Anthony, and Salvatore for a really long time. Seems like he's getting into bed with them somehow."
"Alright. We'll look into him too. See if we find any connections," Xander assured her.
"Faith," K said, sounding a little softer, drawing her attention.
"Yeah?"
"What's going on with you and Danny?"
"Nothing," she said defensively. But K's brow rose and she knew he saw right through it. "Okay, something. And I don't want to fuck it up if Anthony is just being paranoid and is butthurt because Danny disarmed him his first night."
"Babe," Xander broke in. "You do realize that, even if he's not out to kill Vin or some shit like that, that this no identity before three months ago thing isn't normal."
"I know," she agreed with a nod. "But maybe he was trying to untangle from some bad people. Hell, maybe he testified against some bad guy somewhere. We don't know. But it could be nothing and I don't want to..."
"To what?" Xander prompted.
"To screw it up if it's nothing," K filled in. "She likes him."
"Bull fucking shit. Faith, I never thought I'd see the day."
"Don't tease her," Ellie scolded, sitting down on his thigh and effectively shutting him up. "What he means to say is he's happy for you that you found someone that makes you want to open up and we will figure out who he is and if he's up to anything as quickly as possible to put your mind at ease."
"Yeah, that's what I meant," Xander agreed, wrapping an arm around his woman. "This will be top priority. I'll put the new blood on it too. They're eager to prove themselves. They'll be scrambling to be the one to bring the rat to daddy."
"I don't know or care about what freaky shit you're into," Espen's voice said and everyone looked up to her standing in the doorway, "but I am never going to call you daddy."
Faith felt a small bit of humor tease at her lips at the hardass in the doorway, thinking it reminded herself of the woman she was at twenty-four or twenty-five- harder, less tolerant, outspoken.
"We got a case?" Enzo asked from right behind the woman's shoulder and the way she stiffened seem to speak less to irritation than she wanted everyone to believe. If Faith wasn't mistaken, and she wasn't given that this Espen girl was taking a page right out of her own playbook, Espen was into Enzo. And she just bet that their work rivalry was just making things all the more heated between them.
And if she wasn't in so deep with her own problems, she would have found it amusing. Hell, they would all have probably placed bets on when the two would give in and have some fun.
"Yeah, I need you guys to figure out who the fuck this Danny Faber was before he moved to the City and became Danny Faber a couple months ago," Xander told them, handing them the files. "I want copies of all of this, one for each of you and one for me and K. See what you can dig up and we'll talk in the morning."
Espen shuffled forward and gathered the papers, holding them tight only to have them snatched out of her hand by Enzo as she passed. Which, from the sounds of their low, but angry voices, led to yet another fight.
"He has yet to tell them that they don't have to fight for the position, that he has room for both of them," Ellie informed them, shaking her head.
And, despite her crummy mood, Faith felt a smile pulling at her lips. "You're an ass," she told him.
"Oh, come on. Listen to that," he said with a devilish little smirk as their voices raised. "This is some primetime entertainment. Besides, if they think they're fighting for a spot, they will put in their best work for these first couple of months. I can know just how good they really are. It's a win/win for me."
"Guess I can't fault you for that," she allowed, moving to stand.
"Why are you rushing off?" Ellie asked. "You seem stressed. Stay and hang out for a bit. Ryan is going to be over with Gabe in a bit too. You spend too much time kicking asses and not enough time relaxing on your own."
She wasn't wrong.
Faith knew her schedule wasn't an optimal one. She even realized that it was slowly but surely catching up to her. She wasn't handling the overnights and then somewhat early mornings as well as she used to. Hell, she used to be able to be at the bar until three or later, go home, crash for three hours, then g
et up and teach a class with no problem. Lately, though, it was getting harder. She hit her snooze on her cell at least three times every morning even after a solid five hours and then climbed out of the bed full-on zombie until she was showered, caffeinated, and on her way.
Another couple years. That was all she needed. She could power through.
"I have a class for teens at a gym," she said, shrugging. Some classes, like the ones at the Y or the ones at women's shelters, she did those for free, for the greater good, to make sure if any man ever tried to put his hands on those women without permission again, they could fucking obliterate them.
Because that was the resolution she had made herself after she got her own ass handed to her by a man. The first and mother effing only time that ever happened. She would never let a man hurt her or any other woman that she could help. That was when she got serious about training. Her face was a swollen, bruised, stitched mess when she walked into that first mixed martial arts studio and demanded they make it so it could never happen to her again. Those four men had taken in her face, taken in her determination, and made her into a concealed weapon.
It was her mission to turn as many other women into concealed weapons as she could.
She never missed a class.
"Give your poor human punching bag hell, sweetheart," Xander said, giving her a smile and squeezing her wrist as she moved past.
She made her way to the gym, one she only ever did classes at once every couple of months- when they had the demand for it. It was just basic self-defense moves- how to get out of a forward choke, a back choke, rape position, all the usual stuff. And Xander was right; she used a real man in her demonstrations. Womens' biggest issue with self-defense was actually putting their hands on another person, always growing up to be taught to be gentle, to keep their hands to themselves. All those classes that made you hit a mat or go half-force with a partner, yeah, those were bullshit and a waste of time and money.
If you wanted to learn how to take a man down, you had to take a man down.
That was why when she walked up in front of the large, shining plate glass windows of the gym, Trey was standing out front waiting for her in all his six-foot-three, solid-as-a-rock-, gorgeous Puerto Rican perfection. Trey had been one of her trainers when she was seventeen, only being twenty-three at the time, but having been in various forms of martial arts since he could walk. Literally.
"Ready to get beat up?" she asked, opening the door and going in.
"Always. The teen girls are always the most brutal," he said with a warm smile as they walked past the front desk and toward the class room at the right of the building, only sectioned off by more glass walls.
"Did you bring..." she started to ask when Trey threw his gym bag at her. "You're the best," she said, giving him a smile as she moved off toward the bathroom to change into the black yoga pants and tight, sleeveless spandex top in a bright pink color- the outfit she left with in the laundry at Trey and the other guys' gym to be cleaned every week.
When she walked back out- hair in a ponytail, rolling her shoulders to get rid of some of the tension, most of the class was already standing around, many dressed like her, others in loose tees and basketball pants. Pretty much all of them, though, were staring at Trey with various degrees of obviousness. To which Trey was completely oblivious as he stretched out a little, having discarded his hoodie, leaving him in black basketball pants and a very tight deep gray wifebeater that clung to his abdominal muscles like a second skin.
She couldn't blame them for staring; he was fantastic looking.
But luckily, or unluckily for her, depending on your view, he had been like a big brother to her for years.
"Ready?" he asked as she walked over, making her smile a sly little smile, knowing they both enjoyed sparring more than almost anything.
"Oh yeah..."
Twenty or so minutes passed and Trey was behind her with an arm around her throat as she slowly showed the girls how to grab the arm and slide down and backward to slip out.
"That's great," a very familiar voice called casually, making her stiffen and turn to find Danny leaning against the doorway in a tight black tee and matching basketball pants, his hair just a little sweaty from, obviously, working out.
Of course. Of course she would be teaching a class at his gym.
"But that works, say, ninety-five percent of the time," he added, making both her and Trey give him their full attention. "See, ladies," he said, addressing her class like it was his, with the same familiarity and casualness of a man who had done it hundreds of times before, leaving her to wonder yet again about his past. "Most attackers will be normal guys with little or no training. In which case, that will likely save you from getting choked out and assaulted. But," he said, moving toward Faith and giving her a small smile, "if your opponent has either immense strength or even the smallest bit of training, it won't work. Want us to demonstrate?" he asked, making Faith's mouth open to object, but there was a chorus from the girls that made her snap her mouth shut, eyes shooting daggers at him.
"I didn't invite you to help me," she whisper-yelled at him as Trey moved away, light brown eyes interested, lips amused.
"But you obviously needed my help, sweetheart," he said with a sly smile as he tapped her hip. "Turn around."
Oh, she wanted to turn around alright. Turn around and slap that look off his face. But they had an audience and she needed to keep her cool. So she turned and waited.
It was a long minute before his forearm went around her throat, making her immediately grab it, yank hard, then plant her feet and slam her ass back to hip check him as her body slid back and down. But whereas she should have been able to slip free from that angle, his arm tightened, strangled. Her face got hot as she tried to claw and wiggle and pull free.
But he was right. Nothing worked.
And he was also right; the girls needed to know of any possibility. If they wanted to survive and get away from a bad situation, they did need to know that five-percent of the time, they wouldn't be able to get away with a simple hip check, pull back, and slide through.
He released her, making her pull in a deep breath.
"And the thing is, girls, you have seconds, just seconds to make a move that will hurt him enough to get you free. Because if you try to struggle, all he has to do is squeeze his arm tighter and you're unconscious."
"So what you want to do," Faith cut off the rest of his speech, "is this," she added, turning her back to Danny again. She wasn't going to let it sound like she didn't know what she was doing. She knew what she was doing. And even though her traditional rear choke escape had always worked for her before, that didn't mean she wasn't quick enough to know how to escape when it didn't.
So he grabbed her, she hip checked him, she went down and backward. His arm tightened like she knew it would. She twisted slightly, slamming her closed fist into his crotch and the second his arm loosened, shot up and shoved the bottom of her palm against his jaw, making his head shoot up and back. "And from here," she said, just the tiniest bit out of breath, "what do you want to do?" she asked, both of them holding the position.
"Cause maximum damage as fast as possible and run away," one of the girls called.
"Right," she agreed, still holding his chin. "So you bring up this arm and you wail into his face. If that doesn't work, right to the throat." She demonstrated without actually punching his face or throat, but coming close. "Don't try to be a hero. Don't try to knock him out. Your plan is always to get him off you and get away."
"Admit it," he said close to her ear, voice a little rough, "you just wanted to punch me in the balls."
"Oh, I admit that happily," she said with a saccharine smile before clapping her hands and pointing. "You three, one of you with one of us to test this out. Everyone else, pair up. We will rotate. What," she said to him when his brow rose, "you wanted to teach my class so you're helping with the practice."
With that, she moved away and they worked
with the girls until they could all escape.
"Okay," Danny announced as he, Faith, and Trey moved to the front of the room again. She watched him with a raised brow and a smile that was both impressed and amused by his take-charge mentality. "Rape position," he said, the word making all the girls in the room stiffen, their smiles falling from their faces. "I know," he said with a nod. "No one wants to hear that, but the reality is, most women who find themselves attacked by a man will find herself in rape position. That's what it is called because that is what it is."
That was what she called it too. It was important for them to understand this wasn't some class, it wasn't a fun way to spend an afternoon, it was tools to use in real life scenarios. Like a rape that one out of every five women would face in their lifetimes. That meant three girls in that class alone. They needed to take what they were learning seriously.
"Faith?" Danny asked, motioning to the ground.
"Trey and I usually..."
"I'm good watching," Trey said, trying and failing to hold back the amused smile he had. He wasn't stupid. He knew something was going on between the two of them.
Danny waved to the ground again and Faith exhaled hard and lay down on her back. Danny moved down, knees on either side of her waist, pelvis pressed into hers, hands going to grab her arms and pin them to the ground above her head.
"This is rape position," Danny explained, but was looking down at Faith. "Now Faith is going to show you what most women will immediately do in this position," he said and Faith yanked her arms free and turned so that her stomach was on the ground, her ass pressed into his pelvis. "This is literally the worst position to get yourself into. In self-defense terms, we call this 'giving up your back'. You never want to give up your back."
"Because from here," Faith said, swiveling her head to face the girls, "he can drag down your pants and rape you and you will be powerless to fight him off."
"Exactly. Now what you want to do," he said as Faith rolled back onto her back and put her arms up for him to pin, "is plant your feet and buck up with everything in you. If it doesn't immediately throw him to the side, it will at least give you space to move. Like this," he said as Faith planted her feet and bucked her hips up to his. His body jolted and one arm released to instinctively brace a possible fall, freeing her one arm that she used to slam into his face as they rolled, putting her on top.
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