Tommy didn't wait to hear any objections and ran off toward the nearby dense trees.
"Be careful, stay close and do everything I say," I told Sara. "You going to be okay with this?"
Sara nodded. "After what he did to those women, I'm not sitting it out."
We both set off in a run, following the direction that Neil had taken into the park. He wasn't exactly difficult to spot as he had stopped and was talking to a large group of young, well-built men a few hundred yards in front.
"Has he stopped for a chat?" Sara asked as we both slowed to a jog.
"Apparently there's no urgent need to escape, either that or he's an idiot."
"What's more likely?"
"Well, he let himself fall forty feet onto a car; I'm thinking he's not much of a genius. Be careful, I get the feeling we’re about to have a new problem to deal with."
As we got closer, Neil turned to glance our way, and I could have sworn that he grinned, before sprinting off at speed toward the distant tree line, his werewolf healing ability already having taken care of his leg injury.
Sara and I increased our speed but the group of men whom Neil had been talking to stepped into our path forcing us to stop. "Can I help you?" one of them asked.
I ignored him and kept walking as the other six men slowly created a semi-circle wall of muscle to bar us from following Neil. The one who had asked the question was a few inches taller than me, and much bulkier.
"Do you shave your head because you're going bald, or because you think it makes you look like a badass?" I asked. "Because if it's the second, then you might want to lose the diamond stud earring, it sort of destroys the image."
The bald thug laughed.
"Fucking twat him one, Danny," another of the group said.
"Ah, so you're the leader are you, Danny?" I asked. "You want to tell me why you're standing in our way?"
Sara moved so that she was next to me, but turned to face the men that stood behind us.
"That bloke paid us five grand to make sure you don't follow him. We plan on doing that."
"Don't do this," I said to Danny.
"Five grand is more than enough for us to fuck you both up."
"I think the little lady might like to spend some time with us afterwards," the thug closest to Sara said.
He reached out to stroke her face, but she slapped his hand away and pushed him back which made him laugh. "You're a spirited little one aren't you?"
"Sara, the two on your left," I whispered without turning to look at her.
"No problem," she said.
"Well, I'm not getting any younger," I told Danny.
Danny cracked his knuckles. "Nice to see you're not going to run and hide."
The man on my right was the first to move, a hard right hand which would have taken my head off, if not for the fact that I saw it coming a mile away and was moving before it came even close to connecting. I ducked under his arm and slammed my forearm into his ribs. The air rushed out of him and I grabbed him by his t-shirt, spinning him around and releasing him at the exact moment so that he collided with Danny and Thug Four. The three of them fell to the ground in a tangled mess.
Thug Two darted toward me and, like his friend, tried to catch me off-guard with a fast punch to the head. I grabbed his forearm with one hand and twisted his wrist with the other, stepping toward him and using his own momentum to take him off his feet and dump him on his head behind me. The third thug tried a different tactic and ran at me full tilt. I ducked at exactly the right moment and shoved my shoulder into his stomach, lifting him up and over me. He landed on the ground with a loud grunt, and a swift kick to the head made sure he wasn't going to be getting up again.
Thug One was back on his feet and assuming a boxer’s stance, along with thug three, who'd thrown the first punch. A quick sidestep and push from me brought three's head directly into contact with an ill-timed punch from his friend, and after a second punch from me, three was down for the count.
Thug one soon followed after I kicked him in the solar plexus with enough force to bend steel. He dropped to the floor and stayed there, just as thug four grabbed me around the chest in a bear-hug, pinning my arms to my sides.
He had some strength in him as he easily swung me to face Danny, squeezing all the time. Danny came forward and threw a mean punch at my fac. I slammed my heel down on Thug Four's kneecap, which popped. He began screaming in pain, letting me go as he fell to the ground. Danny threw another punch, which I deflected, catching him in the nose with a punch of my own. A savage blow to his solar-plexus, lifted him from the ground and dumped him on all fours, sucking in whatever oxygen he could manage.
All five assailants dealt with, I turned my attention to Sara who had one man writhing on the floor holding his crotch, and a second whose chest Sara was straddling whilst she rained punches down onto his face. I tapped her shoulder and she spun on me, a rage in her eyes until she realised I was no threat.
"You done?" I asked.
She glanced down at the messy-faced asshole, who was moaning softly on the floor. She stood and kicked him in the crotch.
I assumed she needed a moment and walked back over to Danny, who was on his feet, a switchblade in his hand.
"Gonna gut you, fucker," he bellowed and came at me.
I caught his wrist in one hand and smashed my free forearm into his face again, and again, until he went limp and could no longer stand. When I was certain he'd taken all he could, I broke his wrist and left him to his whimpering, joining Sara a moment later. She was rubbing her hand, which had turned red from the multitude of punches she'd caught the thug with.
"When we get back to the car, we'll get you a cold compress," I said.
We continued jogging toward where we'd seen Neil vanish. Before we'd made it halfway, Tommy left the trees and came toward us. He looked annoyed, more so than I'd seen in a very long time.
"What happened?" I asked.
"He disappeared," Tommy said.
"What? How?"
Tommy shrugged. "I have no idea, I followed him into the damn woods, had his trail the whole way and then whoosh, he's gone."
"His trail ended?" I asked with more than a little curiosity.
"He jumped into a car and I lost it."
"Was someone helping him, or did he use his own car?"
Tommy shrugged. "Don't know. What happened to you two?"
"Neil paid of a few local thugs to try and stop us. Sara here took down two by herself, but she's hurt her hand."
"Let's get back to the car; we'll get something for it." Tommy must have noticed the change in Sara's demeanour. "That your first fight?" he asked as we made our way back through the park.
"Yeah,” she said. “I’ve never hurt someone before. Apparently I had some anger that needed to be expressed."
We reached the still prone men, one of whom jumped to his feet and fled when he saw us. The two Sara had taken down were still out, and I took a moment to check on them and put them both into the recovery position, just in case. I might not give a shit if any of them died, but I knew that Sara would. "Broken nose, ribs, maybe a jaw, and they'll have some nasty bruises, but other than that they'll both live."
Sara appeared noticeably relieved.
"So, what now?" she asked a few moments later.
"We get you something cold for your hand, then we go to the farm on that map and figure out what's going on," Tommy responded.
"Something odd is what's going on," I said to Tommy. "It feels off. More so than usual."
"What is it?" Tommy asked.
"Not sure, but something feels wrong. Neil is a dumb bastard who has enough power to kill and hurt people and somehow instead of being executed, he's released early from prison and given a posh place to live."
When we reached the car, Tommy handed Sara a first-aid cold pack, which he'd wrapped in a bandage so that it wasn't too cold against her skin. She winced as it first touched her red hand, and I considered the possibility that she'd broken a bone. But hopefully it was just bruising and would go down before too long.