She dug her fingernails into his flesh.
“I still have my hands free.” He raked his fingers up the back of her arms and pinched the skin on the underside—not hard enough to bruise but with enough pressure she released him. “With that move you will definitely get your attacker’s attention.”
“Then what should I do? Because pinching someone that hard will piss him off.”
He studied her. “You should run.”
“And what if I’m caught again?”
“Then you’ll fight. The goal of this class is to make your reactions instinctive. To give you a tool and a solid mind-set to deal with a physical crisis situation where you don’t have time to think—you just react.”
Master Black had gotten close to her again, and spoke in the deep timbre that rolled over her like warm honey. “Since you’re short a partner, next week I’ll show you more options.”
They stared at each other, locked in an eye-fuck that was better than any sex she’d ever had.
“Sensei, if I may interrupt, you’re needed in the black belt class,” someone said behind him.
Master Black backed up and gave her a small bow. “Until next time, Ms. Hardwick.”
She returned his bow, not as smoothly. “Thank you for the instruction, Sensei.”
After class ended, some students were giving her suspicious looks. Including Molly.
“What?”
“It’s just strange, the fact that Master Black took interest in you and—”
“All but made me wear a dunce’s cap and sit in the corner when he wasn’t beating the crap out of me in front of everyone?”
“Um, that’s not how I saw it at all.”
Amery was moving her boots off her purse when she felt her phone vibrating. She picked it up but didn’t recognize the caller ID. “Hello?”
“Is this Amery Hardwick?”
“Yes, who’s this?”
“Officer Stickney, Denver Police. We received a call from your alarm company regarding a possible break-in. We arrived on-scene and discovered the front window is shattered. We’ve done a sweep of the main floor and the upstairs. Are you able to return to the property to verify if anything is missing?”
Amery’s heart hammered. Someone had broken into her building? Damn, damn, damn. Her computer with all her client files was on the desk in her office, right in plain sight.
“Ma’am?”
“Sorry. Yes, I’m on my way.” She jammed her feet into her boots.
Molly sidled up as Amery retrieved her keys. “What’s wrong?”
“Someone vandalized my building. The cops are there. I’ve got to go.”
“Since I rode here with you, I’m coming too.”
Amery shouldered her bag, Molly close on her heels as they exited the building a lot easier than they’d gotten in.
The dojo was across the Platte River, which separated Platte Valley from Lodo—a nickname for lower downtown Denver. With one-way streets and dead-end alleys, the trip took fifteen minutes. On the drive she spoke with the alarm company and then she called an after-hours window repair company to temporarily board up the window until the new glass could be installed.
Parking was nearly impossible to find—especially with all the cop cars blocking the street. She didn’t get the full impact of the damage until she stood in front of the building.
The front window wasn’t just shattered; it was completely gone.
Spots danced in front of her eyes. She had to bend at the waist to keep the bile rising in her throat from exiting her mouth. Had she been robbed too? Had they done damage to Emmylou’s side? What about her loft? Had that been ransacked?
Keep it together.
A cop moved toward her. “You’ll have to move along—”
“I’m Amery Hardwick. This is my building.”
“Need to see some ID.”
Her hand shook when she removed her driver’s license from her wallet and handed it over.
“Okay, ma’am, you can go in. Officer Stickney is waiting inside.”
The beat cop tried to keep Molly back, but she snarled at him—very un-Molly-like—and he let her go with Amery.
She stepped over the glass to take a better look at the damage inside the building. Two officers paced in her office. She just about fell to her knees when she saw her computer on her desk intact.
Molly squeezed her hand. “I’ll go check and see if anything is missing at my desk.”
The African-American cop approached her while the other cop, a young Hispanic woman, talked on a phone.
“Ms. Hardwick? I’m Officer Stickney.”
“Do you have any idea what happened?”
“It doesn’t appear that anything was taken, so we doubt robbery was a motive. It’s sad to say, but there’ve been random acts of vandalism like this across the Denver metro area in the last six months.”
Amery slumped against the wall. “So it’s just my bad luck?”
“Possibly. Or it might be some freak accident where a car spins its tires, dislodging a rock that hits the window at just the right speed and shatters it. Sounds weird, but I’ve seen it happen. We weren’t able to find any evidence of what was used to break the window inside the store.”
“Am I still supposed to check upstairs to see if anything is missing in my loft?”
“Yes, and we’ll need Officer Gomez to accompany you.”
Molly looked up from her desk. “Nothing missing or out of place on my side.”
“Thank god.”
Amery led Officer Gomez through the rear door that led from her office into the small back area with a steel door that led into the alley. A circular staircase dominated the space and opened up into the second-floor loft apartment where she lived. In true loft fashion the only room walled off was the bathroom. This was the first place that was completely hers, and it put an extra twist in her gut to imagine her safe haven had been violated.
But nothing had been disturbed in her oversized bedroom, or the large eat-in kitchen, or the great room with the funky windows that overlooked the street.
“Anything missing or destroyed, Ms. Hardwick?” Officer Gomez asked.
“No. I can’t even blame the mess on the counters on anyone but myself.”
The female cop smiled. “I can relate. I’m relieved this wasn’t a B and E, but I will offer you some advice.” She pointed to the businesses across the street with the drop-down steel cages covering the storefronts. “Those might be ugly, but they are effective; those cages do deter crime. And it’s an especially smart add-on since you’re a single woman living alone above your business. I’d also suggest you install a heftier door with a dead bolt between your business area and your living space. Once that’s done, have the alarm company add a trigger to that door, so if someone does get in from the business side, it’ll alert you.”
“Thank you so much. I appreciate your advice.”
The cops didn’t stick around after that.
Amery and Molly sat in their office chairs facing the gaping hole.
“I can’t believe it,” Molly said.
“Me either.” As grateful as Amery was that nothing had been stolen, she worried about how much the repairs would run. Yes, she had insurance, but she’d have out-of-pocket expenses. She was running a much smaller profit so far this year and had been cutting corners and pinching pennies everywhere she could.
The window replacement company arrived and off-loaded pieces of plywood.
As they heard hammers banging, saws going, and an electric drill screeching, Molly said, “Amery, you’re awful quiet. Are you really okay?”
“No. I’m wired. There’s no way I’ll be able to sleep tonight. Especially not when all that’ll be separating me from the street is a sheet of plywood.” Amery offered Molly a wan smile. “I’ll probably be all caught up on my backlog of filing and stuff by the time you get here tomorrow.”