Page 50

“She left her gym clothes in the back, and I know for a fact she didn’t wash them last time she worked out because she didn’t have time. I almost washed them for her but, Mike, my husband, told me that was overstepping.”

Thank God for Mike’s boundaries. “Can I take this? I promise you I will get everything back to you as soon as possible.”

“Anything that helps us find Rowena.” Alasdair blinked away tears. “Anything at all.”

Friday, January 29

Rowena paced the small cabin. According to the little scratched off marks beside the bed, they’d been hostages for two weeks, and she was slowly losing her mind.

Their captors had given them playing cards and a cribbage board and a chess board and pieces.

It had helped for a little while, but now she thought she might scream from fear, worry, or boredom.

Would a book be too much to ask? Anything would do. The classics, an encyclopedia, Dan Brown.

At least Kurt was with her, and that thought made her feel guilty as hell.

“Wanna work out?”

“No.”

“Wanna game of chess?”

“No.”

“Want me to teach you close-quarters combat techniques?”

“N—” She whipped around to face him. “Close-quarter what?”

“Self-defense and maybe the odd preemptive strike.” The smile at the side of his mouth told her he knew exactly how pissy she was feeling.

He probably felt even worse because he was a man of action, and this was his expertise.

He was supposed to rescue hostages, not be one.

And the fact he was stuck in this damned cabin—she couldn’t help feeling it was all her fault.

“There’s not a lot of space in here, but we can improvise.”

“Let’s do it.”

He put the chair on top of the bed. “First thing is going over the principles of CQB.”

“I like principles.”

“The core of it is surprise, speed, and violent action—the latter means using overwhelming force to neutralize threats. In my world, that’s a team of highly trained, well-armed individuals coming in hot.

For you and me, it’s going to mean going in hard and fast and not stopping until the adversary is dead. ”

She blinked at him.

“I’m not expecting you to kill anyone, Row. Just preparing you for what you might witness. It won’t be pretty.”

She swallowed. “This is what you did back at the Mozambique border. ”

He nodded.

“Show me. Show me exactly what you did.”

“Row—”

“I want to know.” She gritted her teeth. “I won’t be able to help with most of this stuff, but I want to know how you saved us and how it might happen again. I don’t want to freeze when I should be running or running when I should freeze.”

He rubbed his hand over what was now an impressive beard. It gave him a rugged appeal she hadn’t expected to find so attractive. “Not sure I can teach all that in the time we have left.”

“You don’t know how much time we have left.” Bitterness leaked through.

His eyes burned a little at that. Mouth firmed. “True. But maybe we should start with some Taekwondo patterns— poomsae— to fill the time.”

She narrowed her gaze thoughtfully. “I’d like that. How many patterns are there?”

“Twenty-four. They’re supposed to represent each hour of the day. First few are easy, and we may not have room for a lot of them in here, but we’ll make do. It’s a good way to concentrate the mind.”

“How good are you at Taekwondo?”

“I attained a sixth dan black belt last year.”

“Bloody hell.”

He gave her a wry smile. “The longer you do it, the harder it gets.”

They faced one another, and he bowed so she copied him. “However, first, we’ll start by working on some basic self-defensive moves.”

She liked that idea. She was ready to fight her way out of this mess, if necessary.

“The first thing to remember is that if anyone puts you into a position where you need to use any of the things I’m about to show you, don’t hold back—unless there are overwhelming numbers. In that case, you’re gonna need to find another way to survive.”

She knew what he was saying. Mentally. She nodded.

She was doing her best not to worry about the threat of rape, but it seemed like a stock in trade to Hurek and his buddies, and she wasn’t going to assume she was special in any way.

She wasn’t special to them. She might be a useful pawn, but she wasn’t special.

“After we get through a few basic methods to disable someone, I’ll show you how I handled the mercs who were chasing us. Then we’ll work on pattern one.”

She nodded. She wanted to be a participant in this, not just a girl who needed saving.

“Okay, first thing, you need to go for the vulnerable areas and don’t be squeamish about it. Eyes, nose, throat, and groin.”

He stripped off his T-shirt, gave her a look. “So I don’t get too sweaty.”

“Playing dirty, are we?” She raised her brows.

He grinned, and she knew what he was thinking. “Feel free to do the same.”

She kept her shirt on, in case the guards decided to see what all the noise was about. This was what she needed. Something positive to maybe help them get out of here. A skill. A power. A distraction. She needed to move, or she was going to go insane.

“I’m going to start with what to do if an attacker comes at you from behind… And try not to emasculate me during training, babe, but feel free to do so to any asshole who comes at you in real life.”

She nodded and turned. She was about to learn how to strike back at an attacker, and she wouldn’t let all that lovely muscle on display distract her.

Not when their lives might depend on it.

She needed to learn how to punch back and how to make every strike count.

They didn’t know when their chance would come, but it would come. She wanted to be ready.