Page 100 of Anonymous Acts


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After he said that, he held up the headpiece, comparing it to the size of my head before he nodded, putting it down on the table against the wall as he scoured for one for himself.

“Uh, excuse me… so…you’regoing to be my instructor today?”

Wick turned to me, eyebrow raised. “That gonna be a problem, Stuart?”

He looked me right in the face, daring me to challenge him – a dare I had no interest taking him up on.

“Not at all,” I told him, then turned with my bag on my shoulder to go to the area he’d pointed out in the small room – a tiny corner, cordoned off by a wall. All that was on the other side was a chair and a few hooks, so there was little distraction as I traded my blazer and boots and jeans for sneakers and workout gear. Still, by the time I came around the wall to get back to Wick, he’d already changed and picked out protective gear for both of us.

“Okay,” he said, giving me an approving nod. “Let’s get to work.”

The first thing he did was run through the basics with me again – the stuff I’d learned with Naomi three days ago. Using the heel of my hand to strike an attacker under the nose, a quick neck chop, or eye-gouging, all intended to cause enough pain or disorientation that I was able to get away, and try to run. Those were all easy to remember, as well as fairly easy to execute, so we moved quickly from those, into what to do to break out of certain holds.

I focused hard on what he was telling me, especially when he started explaining what to do if I was being choked. Going through the motions of it brought back ugly memories, but by the time we’d gone through his whole list, I felt convinced that even if I was overpowered, I wasn’t going down without a fight. If someone tried to mess with me again, I would atleastbe leaving a mark.

“So… how do you feel?” he asked, as if he’d been reading my mind. “Confident, I hope. You’ve been doing well, between here and the gun range.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I feel pretty good. In theory, at least. In practice, I may end up just screaming in the attacker’s face, or fainting or something.”

“Nah,” Wick laughed, shaking his head as he approached me. “You hit me with a decent headbutt the other night – I would’ve been fucked up if you’d actually had the leverage to put some force behind it.”

“That’s how I got loose from the guy who attacked me at my office too, only he was behind me. And… still caught me… and choked me… so… I’m not that sure any of this stuff works, but at least Ifeellike I can do something.”

“It definitely works… under the right circumstances, with the right conditions. But you said something key – youfeellike you can do something, and that’s half the battle. Anything you do with confidence is always going to get a better result than the shit you do while going about it like you’re scared. You have power. Don’t be afraid to use it.”

I smirked. “Yeah, I hear you with all the motivational stuff, but um… I was expecting to get to punch something. I’m supposed to be using my power, right?”

Wick smiled. “So what, you want to do a little bit of sparring or something?”

“As in, hitting each other?” I cackled. “Have you seen your arms, man? No thanks.”

“No, as in, you trying to hit me. I’ll be doing something else.”

My head dropped, eyes narrowed as I looked at him. “Something likewhat?”

A different, mischievous sort of grin spread across his face as he walked away from me. “Oh, you’ll see.”

I watched, curious – and a little concerned – as he went back to the wall containing all the boxing gear, and lifted the tabletop, which apparently housed a storage compartment. I frowned when he turned to me holding two bright blue sections of pool noodle.

“Okay, you ready?” he asked me, and I immediately shook my head.

“What? No, I don’t even know what’s happening.”

“I told you already.” He switched the pool noodles to one hand, then grabbed a pair of boxing gloves before he approached me. The pool noodles dropped to the ground while he helped me into the gloves, and after he bent to retrieve them, he stepped back. “Try to hit me.”

“What?”

“Come on, Monica. Imagine I’m… I don’t know, a chipped manicure. Take your best shot.”

Feeling completely awkward about it, I planted my feet how I was supposed to, and tried to jab him – an action that was immediately met with a swipe from the pool noodle. The lightweight foam didn’t hurt at all, but the fact that he’d blocked me with it was strangely… infuriating.

So I jabbed again.

And got blocked again.

Fuck!

This time, I aimed low, only to get blocked again, and to add to my annoyance, Wick bopped me right upside the head with the other noodle, and then grinned.

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