She kicked out, sending the gun in the closest guy’s hand flying. He rushed towards her, and she kicked out again, this time getting him in the stomach. The blow was enough to knock him down, gasping for breath.
The second guy grabbed her from behind, lifting her off her feet. Marilee reared back, head butting him hard enough to break his nose, if the sickening crunch of bone was anything to go by. He screamed and dropped her, blood gushing from his nose, thenshe spun around, landing a punch on his jaw. He staggered backwards and dropped to the ground.
Meanwhile the first guy was up on his hands and knees, ready to tap back in. I didn’t hesitate. I leapt on his back like he was a horse and locked my arm around his throat. He bucked against me, trying to knock me off, but I’d locked my legs around his waist and hung on until he passed out from lack of oxygen.
When I looked up, Marilee was watching me, a speculative look on her face.
“Who are you?” she asked. “What do these guys want with you?”
“I don’t really know what they want,” I said, answering honestly.
Next to her, the guy whose nose she’d broken was regaining consciousness. She landed a hard kick to his ribs, then another to the side of the knee, making the guy howl. Then he went quiet.
Marilee and I stared at each other for a long, heated minute, then there was a commotion at the entrance to the alley. She pulled me to my feet, shoving me behind her as four women came charging into the alley.
“Christ on a cracker, Martin, what kind of mess do you have here?” one of the women shouted.
Clearly in charge, she had a short crewcut and a menacing scowl. The woman was dressed way too light for the weather, although that didn’t seem to bother her.
“Lois, this is our client, Hazel Bryant.”
She emphasized my name and then paused, shooting me a look. I couldn’t help but wince.
“We don’t want any trouble,” the guy I’d choked out called from the ground.
I hadn’t noticed that he’d come to already, but based on the way he stayed on the ground, he knew he was outnumbered here. “We just want to talk to Moira for a little while.”
“Who the hell is Moira?” Lois asked.
“It seems there’s more we need to know about Hazel’s situation,” Marilee told her boss.
The woman sighed deeply, like everything that was happening was a personal affront to her.
“Fine. You three,” she gestured towards the other agents, “zip tie these assholes and get them back to the office for questioning.”
Her attention turned back to me. “You’ll need to come with us too, Ms. Bryant. Clearly we have a lot to talk about, and I’m notgoing to do it in a goddamned alley surrounded by trash. Let’s go.”
As I followed the Sapphic Security team to their vehicles I debated how much I should tell them. How much information they would need to keep me safe. Then I thought about dinner last night. How Marilee and I had talked for hours, getting to know each other, talking about politics, sharing our interests. There was no artifice to her and despite the fact that she was practically a stranger, I somehow knew I could trust her.
That’s why I decided to do something that went against everything I’d been taught in life: tell the truth.
Marilee
Well that was a fun way to spend my morning. Not. I’d been expecting a dull day of following Hazel around Seattle’s tourist attractions. Instead I was fighting off goons who thought she was someone else.
Or who knew her real identity…
There was more to my little diplomat than she let on. I saw the way she froze for a half second when that first guy called her Moira.
“Start at the beginning,” Lois demanded as we settled into one of the conference rooms at the Sapphic Security offices.
Around the table, several teammates sat at attention, ready to help. I loved that about my team.
“We were with a group of conference attendees taking a bus tour of the local sites,” I began. “We ended up at Pike Place Market, and these thugs attacked us while we were watching the guys who throw the fish.”
“I love those guys,” my teammate Allie said. “It’s unbelievable the way they hold onto the fish.”
Lois glared at her before asking me, “Random attack?”
