She did not look away from Nash.
His eyes were on hers. Their noses practically touching. Tension thickened the air between them.
“How about I just make pancakes for everyone?” Ryan asked to no one in particular. “Sound good? Great. You two kids keep practicing that sexual tension and reunited-lovers bit. Great job so far. Stellar.” He stomped away.
Nash remained exactly where he was. So did Delaney.
“You can’t be with me every single moment.” She hated the stupid, continued tremble in her body, but she hated the tremble in her words even more. “So how about instead of trying to scare me, you actually help me? Let’s assume I can actually hold onto a knife for longer than five seconds.”
“Can you?”
“Stop being a dick! Help me!”
“I fucking am. I will kill for you in a heartbeat.”
“I need to protect myself! I need to be able to?—”
He stepped back. His nostrils flared. “You will only have time for one or two slashes, if you’re lucky.”
Unfortunately, she’d never been particularly lucky.
“Strike first. If you’re looking to completely incapacitate a person, you’d want to focus on the brain stem or the spinal cord.”
Nausea rolled in her. She choked it down and made herself listen.
“But those hits will probably be too difficult for you to make. Your attacker will be coming straight at you, so you need to hit fast.”
Not like she wanted to hit slow.
“The femoral artery is good.” His left hand dropped to a point near his inner thigh. “That will give you massive blood loss. Along with that blood loss, your vic will feel a fast drop in blood pressure and probably a loss of consciousness, all within a matter of moments.” His right hand—the one still holding the knife—rose toward his throat. “You can also go for the carotid artery. Always a winner.”
“You’re trying to terrify me. Unnecessary. I’m plenty terrified enough.”
“You’ll get covered in blood in those hits. And if you don’t succeed in actually incapacitating your target, you’ll be screwed.”
She got that.
“You can go for major tendons.” A quick movement of the knife over his body. “If you’re on the ground and have the access, your attacker’s Achilles tendon is a good target. Knocks out the person’s mobility fast.” His eyes glittered. “Of course, let’s not forget the ribs.”
“No.” Hushed. “Not like we want to forget those.”
“With a knife to the ribs, you can cause serious injury, maybe even kill your attacker. You can puncture organs, start internal bleeding…”
She wet her lips.
“But you aren’t going to have much time. The people that Kurt sends after you will be bigger, stronger, and one hell of a lot more used to handling weapons. You’ll probably only have one go at it.” If possible, his hard jaw went even harder. “Which is why I will be with you.”
But what if he wasn’t? No way could he be with her every moment. And he’d been describing how she should attack. Except, what if she wasn’t attacking? What if she was being attacked, and Nash was not there? “Next lesson. How do I defend against a knife attack?” Her gaze dropped to his knife. “If you were to come at me right now, what should I do?”
“A real knife attack doesn’t happen in slow motion. It will be fast and brutal. Stabs that keep coming and coming, and you are probably not going to be able to stop them.”
“Not the visual I want.” But then again, she’d hated all the visuals so far. “Give me something to work with here, Nash.” A plea.
“Your attacker is going to overwhelm you.” Blunt. Brutal. “They’ll start slicing and won’t stop until you’re immobile.”
“Fantastic. I get one slice, but my attacker gets to keep coming and coming?” Did that seem fair? Delaney did not think so.
His dark lashes flickered. “You’re gonna need to use whatever the hell is close in order to defend yourself. You’re not gonna be able to grab the knife out of your attacker’s hand like I did with you.”
