Page 35 of Caution to the Wind

One connected with my side, punching the air from me even as I rolled and rolled away from him. My back hit a table leg, and I quickly scrambled beneath it to pop up the other side on my feet.

Kuan wasn’t even breathing hard.

I was, but not just from exertion.

This wasfun.

I hadn’t fought a true opponent with real seeming stakesever,and it felt good to flex my muscles and my mind.

With one hand braced against the table, I slid across the surface to scissor kick at Kuan. He evaded it easily, but that was the point. A distraction. As I whirled away, almost as if I was fleeing, I caught sight of him leaning forward to grab me. Quick as I could, I ducked beneath his reaching arm and pummelled him in his right side, directly atop his kidneys.

Breath left him in a grunt, torso bending to shield the tender spot.

I pushed closer, trying to land a series of hits he blocked with one hand before finally connecting a well-aimed chop on the side of his throat. He choked on a breath, and for one clear, vibrating second, I thought I had him.

Silly me.

Just as I relaxed my guard to grin triumphantly, he snapped forward faster than I could blink and swept my legs out from under me. I fell flat on my back, breath expelled from my body like an exorcism. Breathless, I was only able to roll slightly onto my side before he pinned me to the ground, but it was just enough room to work with. If he’d pinned me with both shoulders to my back, it would have been over.

But I’d been training as a woman against men for a long time.

So it wasn’t over yet.

I lay there under his crushing weight for a long moment, lulling Kuan into thinking he’d won.

And then, I braced my hands to one side of his body against the left leg that was straddling my torso and used my opposite leg to hook over his left foot. With his weight in his knees, I was able to drag his left foot to the inside of my leg and use my hands to push him off-balance, sliding his left leg off my side to between my legs. I readjusted my position onto my left side, still keeping my legs locked around one of his, and then swept out from under his body to escape.

I scampered to my feet, hair half escaping from its bun, chest heaving, and faced Kuan again in the same ready position we’d started.

He didn’t remain on his hands and knees for long, but something was sinuous and slow about the uncoiling of his body as he stood. A dangerous kind of calculation like a predator stalking his prey.

I bit back the bile on the back of my tongue, afraid I’d made a mistake that would cost me my life.

This wasn’t just a sparring match at the Calgary Martial Arts Society.

This was a test handed out by one of the most powerful men in the triad system. A man who would not hesitate to put me down.

I pulled on every ounce of bravery I had inside me as he prowled toward me, thinking of Kate and her beautiful face, Cleo and her loss, Henning and his belief in me becoming a dragon.

Miraculously, I didn’t vomit when Kuan reached up to rub a lock of my loose hair between his fingers. His gaze was narrow and dark, utterly unfathomable.

“Who said women cannot compete with men,” he murmured in Cantonese, and I recognized the phrase from the operaHua Mulanbecause it was one of my mother’s favourites.

Slowly, my tension dissipated, and a reckless grin overtook my face.

“You want to be a soldier,” he said in a way that should have been a question but wasn’t.

I nodded anyway.

“Well then.” He dropped my hair, turned on his heel, and collected his things from Kang Li. “So be it.”

“But she’s awoman,” Brian said, and he had a point.

There was a popular adage, “men do not fight with women,” and traditionally, it was men’s duty to protect them. But we weren’t in China, and in Canada, equality was practiced almost to the detriment of gentlemanly behaviour and all chivalry.

I wasn’t surprised Kuan had adopted some of that Canadian philosophy. It would be good for business. People didn’t often suspect girls to be criminals.

Kuan didn’t spare him a glance as he redid his diamond cuff links and shrugged on his jacket. “Kang will give you the package. If you can sell the total amount by this time next week, you can consider yourself Centre Street Crowd. If you cannot…don’t let me see your face again.”