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Henrietta darted past Nutsbe into his backyard.
Nutsbe shoved the door. It slammed, locking automatically.
Now, it was Nutsbe and the biker alone in the backyard. Nutsbe had no quick exit route. His shoes sunk into the moist ground, so he knew he’d be slow off the X.
Shifting his weight only made the muddy mess worse.
“What the hell are you doing?” The guy stormed. “That’s my dog.” He jutted a pugnacious chin, breathing heavily from the exertion of the chase.
“I don’t think so,” Nutsbe kept his tone even. He was being recorded, and that was incentive to cool his rhetoric. “If she is, she doesn’t seem to like you much.”
“I’m taking her to the vet. She hates the vet.” He took a step forward. “How about you open that door and give me my dog back.”
“You’re taking her to the vet on a motorcycle at eight-thirty at night?”
Lifting his arms like he would throttle Nutsbe, the man ran for him.
Nutsbe put one hand on his fence for stability as he lifted his knee to his chest and shoved, catching the guy in his stomach and forcing him backward.
As the biker landed on his butt, legs in the air, head in the mud, Nutsbe paid attention. From the fall, it was hard to tell. This guy might be an amateur, but it might also be that he was caught off guard, and his head was already clanging from an earlier beatdown.
“Dude, cut it out.” Nutsbe tried to de-escalate. “You don’t want to fight me. It looks like someone beat the shit out of you already today.”
The look in the biker’s eyes said he had an agenda. And Nutsbe was getting in his way.
Nutsbe watched the guy’s hands for the sudden appearance of a weapon. If he pulled a gun, Nutsbe was doomed.
Sirens sounded up the road as Nutsbe took a sidestep and sank again. This was going to suck for sure if that cop car didn’t show up fast.
The guy got to one knee and posted his forearm on his thigh. He looked away and waved a hand as if in surrender.
A moment later, the guy was launching himself at Nutsbe, trying to get in a sucker punch that Nutsbe averted by leaning out of the way. The crack of angry knuckles splintered the wood on his fence.
“Ouch, that had to have hurt,” Nutsbe kept his tone even. “How about you take a step back?”
The guy gave a single shake of his hand and yipped to relieve the pain. Something the hell sure was motivating the guy. He rounded with a hook that Nutsbe pressed away.
The siren drew closer, and a second one joined the cacophony at a distance.
The man lifted his fisted hands and pummeled Nutsbe as Nutsbe did his best to block and parry. “I need that dog. Give me my dog.” Yeah, despite the bad start, this guy was trained. Nutsbe would say ex-military. When the biker kicked toward Nutsbe’s shins, he jumped out of the way, throwing himself off balance.
Nutsbe did his best to step and dodge. Since Iniquus had all this on tape, Nutsbe didn’t want to do anything that would signal that he was the aggressor and he refrained from landing his own punch. With as much anger as Nutsbe had firing in his system right then, he wasn’t sure the man would survive the contact. A manslaughter charge would only make this day that much more complicated.
As the attacker got a foot up on Nutsbe’s thigh and shoved, Nutsbe grabbed at the cuff of his jeans, curling his fingers into the fabric, letting himself go with the strike's momentum. This did two things, limited the damage to Nutsbe’s body and dragged the guy off his feet. Nutsbe twisted the man’s heel, glad he’d primed his muscle memory using this move when he was fighting Chuck just that morning.
The twist of his foot forced the attacker onto his stomach. Nutsbe clambered on top, wrapping his hand around the man’s head and shoving his mouth and nose momentarily into a puddle.
Nutsbe kept the guy in this stress position just long enough that the guy realized he could drown. When he stopped squirming and submitted, Nutsbe let him turn his head and gulp in some air.
“Police!” Nutsbe heard a take-charge alpha voice. “Don’t move.”
Nutsbe slowly ducked his head to look under his arm. Not seeing the officer, he gasped out, “Operations. Is that Alexandria P.D.? Over.”
“Affirmative. We’ve accessed your house security cameras. By our count, there are two police vehicles. Three officers, weapons are at retention ready, and high guard. Over.”
“Copy. Over.” It was good to have eyes on.
Following the officers' directives, Nutsbe found himself up against his fence, spread eagle. “Name?”
