Page 41 of Hard Corps (Selected Sinners MC 7)

“You calling my pappy a liar?”

“Here we go again with the cloudy judgment. I said he was mistaken. I didn’t call him a liar. Go home. Save yourself being disgraced in front of your friends,” I said as I tossed my head toward his friends.

“I’m fixin’ to disgrace you,” he said.

Katie stepped behind me.

“Kick his ass,” she whispered.

“Probably be a good idea if you and those big titties of yours get back away from him so you don’t get hurt, little girl,” the asshole said as she whispered in my ear.

Disrespectful prick.

I stepped forward and swung the heel of my palm into his chest. As he bent over, coughing for breath, I pulled my right hand back, grabbed the back of his neck with my left, and struck him in the base of the neck with my right hand. As he stumbled, I struck him on each side of the neck with the outside of my flattened hand.

As he collapsed, I caught him and prevented him from falling to the asphalt.

Shane Dekkar, who had been quiet all night, shouted. “Holy fuck!”

“It’s gonna be tough, but try and stand up. So you can apologize,” I said.

“Come here, Bug. He won’t hurt you,” I said over my shoulder.

I had struck him pretty violently with what was described by Marines as a knife hand strike, hitting him in the mastoid muscles of the neck. The strike, if properly executed, paralyzes a man for several seconds.

Katie stepped beside me and stared down at the man.

“Now, I know you can hear me,” I said. “This isn’t the first time I’ve done this. Apologize to the girl.”

He returned a glassy-eyed stare.

“I’m going to count to three,” I said. “And you better apologize.”

“One…Two…Three,” I counted.

“That’s a bad decision on your part, really. Like I said, I know you can hear me. If you try to, you’ll be able to talk,” I explained.

Nothing.

I shook my head. “Austin, come here. Hold him while I light a cigarette.”

Austin stood and stared at me as if I was crazy.

“Dude, you fucked Randy up bad, let him go,” Steve said.

“Steve, you’ll need to back the fuck up, right now,” I said as if I was giving a command to a Marine.

Steve stopped in his tracks.

I widened my eyes. “Austin?”

“Hold this prick up. I need a cigarette,” I said.

Austin walked up behind who I now understood was Randy, and took him from my grasp, holding him upright. Most of what he was doing was a show, I was sure. I had performed the strike on many a Marine as a joke, and the paralysis lasted all of a few seconds.

I lit a cigarette and took a slow drag. As I held it in my teeth, I explained my concerns to Randy. “You see. This is always the problem with certain people.”

I bit into the filter of the cigarette and drove both hands into his neck again.