Ultimate Courage (True Heroes Book 2) (12 page)

G
ary and Greg had a date tonight, but we stop in a lot to check on the school or help out with the computers. They already said it was fine for us to review the security feed.” Even though they were coming in through the back entrance, Rojas entered first with Souze, visually clearing the room once he’d turned on the lights and watching for signs from the big dog.

Souze first sniffed the floor, then lifted his head to catch the scents in the air. This was the dog’s first visit to Revolution MMA, so he didn’t expect Souze to signal a stranger’s scent, but the big dog would alert him to the presence of a live person.

Once he and Souze had stepped inside, they continued on to check the few rooms on this floor including the office, bathroom, changing rooms, and supply closet.

Elisa entered after them with Cruz bringing up the rear. As much as Rojas enjoyed Elisa’s company—and he intended to explore their chemistry more once she’d had time to catch her breath—it was easier to travel off kennel grounds with backup to help watch their six. Souze could come in handy both inside and out, plus he needed the exposure to areas off the kennel’s property for his training, anyway. Cruz was the wiz with the computers.

Inside the MMA school, big blinds were drawn down over the front windows facing the parking lot, so they didn’t have to worry about observers for the moment. Rojas made his way around the center matted class area to Gary and Greg’s office. He could’ve cut straight across, but school rules were no street shoes on the mats, and he wouldn’t disrespect those guidelines even after hours with no one to call him on it. Besides, dogs weren’t allowed on the mats at all on the rare occasions they visited.

“This place seems a lot bigger with no one here.” Elisa trailed along behind him and Souze.

The big dog didn’t show any notice of her. Souze was in working mode and focused on the task of sniffing out any strangers present. Rojas was glad to see the big dog’s attention to his work even with people he liked nearby. A good working dog didn’t get distracted.

“The space fills up fast once you pile two dozen sweaty bodies in here actively moving around.” Cruz passed her and proceeded into the office to sit at Gary’s desk. He immediately brought the computer online and started tapping away at the keyboard, ignoring the mouse as much as possible.

It was a thing for Cruz. Rojas left him to it.

“The kids’ classes get really crowded.” He was proud of what Gary and Greg had established here. “It’s a really good program. Boom loves it.”

“She told me about it that first night.” Elisa smiled at the memory, her eyes slightly unfocused as she thought back to it. “I couldn’t imagine her wanting to get back to the thing that broke her arm so soon, but she seemed like she couldn’t wait.”

Rojas leaned against the doorway to the office, facing out toward the main class area. Souze sat to his left, relaxed and alert. “It was pure accident. The kids all wear proper padding when they spar. Greg was supervising. He always keeps a close eye on the kids to make sure it’s as safe as possible.”

“It’s still direct contact.” Elisa dropped her big shoulder bag and grabbed a broom from the closet.

“Yeah.” Rojas wasn’t going to argue, but he could provide some additional context. “The sparring isn’t ever all-out for the kids, but it’s important for them to apply the moves they’ve learned against a partner around their size and skill level. Otherwise, they might not be able to use what they know in real life if the need ever comes up.”

Elisa slipped off her shoes and stepped onto the mats, starting in one corner and beginning to sweep in short, strong strokes. He noticed she never seemed to remain still for long, always looking for something to do.

“I guess I can see that, but it seems young to start learning to fight a real person.”

He grunted. Hers was not an uncommon perspective. “Never too early for self-defense. Besides, learning the timing and how to move in response to someone else isn’t a bad thing. I hear dancers and athletes learn similar skill sets when they train. In Boom’s case, her arm wasn’t even the result of a direct strike.”

“No?” Elisa didn’t look up from her sweeping, but she did sweep more slowly, more quietly, so she could hear better.

“Nah. Her protective gear would’ve prevented a break that way. In this case, somebody mentioned she’d learn fastest if she was continually pushing beyond her comfort zone to try new things.” Rojas sighed. “Which is true.”

“Hey, Forte felt real bad about what happened,” Cruz called from inside the office.

“It wasn’t his fault, anyway. Boom made me take a picture of her at the ER to send to him to reassure him.” Rojas shook his head. “She tried a flying roundhouse kick. It’s not even one of the core kicks Gary and Greg teach here as part of the Jun Fan Jeet Kun Do curriculum. She learned it from one of her friends at school who takes tae kwon do.”

Elisa straightened and turned to face him. “How did she…?”

He chuckled as she trailed off. “Break her arm doing a flying kick? She executed the kick beautifully. It was a sight to see. But she didn’t stick her landing. She fell backward and put out her arm to catch herself. Too much momentum and she fell badly.”

“Ouch.” Elisa scrunched up her face.

“Needless to say, the proper ways to take a fall are being incorporated into the core curriculum this school year.” Rojas crossed his arms, Souze’s leash hanging loosely from his wrist. “Gary and Greg take their work very seriously, and it hit them hard that a kid was injured on their watch.”

“Some parents would sue the school.” Elisa’s observation was made as she resumed her sweeping. There was actually a decent amount of dust on the mats. It was an ongoing struggle even with no street shoes allowed.

“Yeah.” Alex raked a hand through his hair before crossing his arms again. “This was a true accident, and I’m not going to go after them. Besides, they offered to split any hospital fees insurance doesn’t cover. I don’t want to put them out, and neither does Boom. She loves it here.”

“It was good of them to offer.” Elisa made her way down the side of the mat and started back, keeping the dust she’d swept in a growing line to one side. Very systematic, the way she approached things.

He wondered if she ever noticed how much of her thought process came out in her actions.

“Well, they do have to be careful. Any owner of this kind of school has to be.” Rojas visually checked the windows and doors, everything in sight for anything out of place again. Never knew when something could come up, but it was good to be vigilant, especially in places where something out of place wasn’t expected. “Gary and Greg more so than others in some ways, but mostly the parents who bring their kids here are really positive people. The kids’ program has received community awards for the confidence building and the anti-bullying program.”

Elisa paused again. “How does a mixed martial arts school teach anti-bullying?”

Rojas watched her more closely. Her shoulders had hunched some and her tone had a slight note of strain.

“Not by teaching the kids how to fight.” Rojas reached out to tap a poster on the wall. “The kids are taught to tell an adult and trust the adults in their lives to believe them. If not their teachers, their parents. Preferably both. The kids are also taught not to be caught alone. Use the buddy system, whether it’s their friends at school or another kid from here. And the skills they learn in mixed martial arts give them a confidence they don’t even realize they have. It’s in the way they walk and everything they do. The confidence makes them unlikely targets for bullies. And if they are absolutely backed into a corner and have no other alternative, they have the skills to defend themselves.”

Elisa stared at the poster. “It works?”

“For most kids, yeah. The confidence goes a long way toward making a kid a less likely target.” Rojas studied her. “A lot of the same concepts apply to adult self-defense.”

She gripped the broom handle more tightly. “Boom seemed to think I should take a seminar. And you gave me a card.”

It’d be a benefit in a lot of ways. The added awareness aside, he would love to see her confidence bloom.

“It’s a good seminar. There should be one in the next weekend or two.” Alex moved to the counter Gary and Greg used as a reception desk, looking for a flyer. “They’re usually on Saturdays, but I think Forte could be convinced to give you the day off to go. Sophie attends those even if she doesn’t take regular classes.”

“I’ll think about it.”

From the way her thin brows were pinched together in a pensive expression, she was already considering. It was important, and honestly, she might have real need of it in the near future. He, Cruz, and Forte were starting to put precautions in place, but the best defense started with Elisa herself.

It was a shit reality in the current world.

His vision started to blur in a red haze. Souze stirred next to him, leaning in until the dog’s shoulder was pressed against the side of his leg. The movement and gentle pressure brought Rojas back to the present, and he decided it was a bad time to follow that line of thought.

Definitely not the time to ask her. Thus far, he’d tried to limit his questioning into her past to need-to-know items. Things that could impact the kennels or the school or Elisa’s immediate safety. The rest could come out when she decided to share, if she did.

“Gary’s computer is damned slow again. I’m going to need to come in some other time and give it some tender loving care.” Cruz cut into his thoughts. “But I’ve pulled the feeds from this afternoon and started an upload of the video file to our servers. First look was interesting, though.”

“Yeah?” Rojas got a good look at Cruz’s glowering expression and turned to see Elisa sweeping the dust she’d gathered into a dust pan. “Elisa, did you want to go upstairs and change?”

Elisa met his gaze and raised an eyebrow. “You mean go upstairs and let you two exchange information while I’m out of earshot? I’d prefer not.”

Cruz snorted. “Smooth, Rojas. Subtle.”

Rojas threw up his hands. “Okay, I’m sorry. Could you please join us over here and not be insulted if we maybe don’t phrase our exchange of information in the nicest way possible.”

Because it was a real possibility. Hell, his ex-wife had constantly picked fights with him over the tiniest details instead of focusing on the important concepts of a discussion. It got worse when she’d dragged her parents into any kind of decision-making. Cruz’s own father had been far away in Peru and had never been part of the day-to-day yelling matches between Cruz and his ex-wife, so it never made sense to Cruz the way she’d call in her parents to back her. He’d wanted to get the information from Cruz without getting hung up with someone else interjecting.

Cruz just shook his head. “It’s not encouraging news, but you should hear it eventually.”

“Then it saves time if I’m right here.” Elisa joined Rojas, leaning against the other side of the doorway and crossing her arms with a pointed look at him. “I’ll try not to jump immediately into overreaction mode until we’ve heard everything.”

Rojas winced.

Cruz brought up a video. “Well, you weren’t overreacting earlier this afternoon. This guy is definitely shady.”

The video clip showed a man walking past the car more than once and not actually entering any stores, just the way Elisa had described.

“And he is definitely messing with your car,” Cruz finished as the guy first kneeled down as if he’d dropped something and then lay down flat on the pavement, reaching underneath the car as if to retrieve it. “I want to take a closer look at this video feed on my computer at home before any of us actually go to the car.”

“Okay.” Elisa’s response was in a small voice, not frightened but definitely subdued. “What do you think he did?”

“Well, the tires didn’t look flat when we came through the parking lot tonight.” Alex rubbed his chin.

A smile tugged at Elisa’s mouth, and he looked at her askance, but she waved it away. “No flat tires is good. But what’s the worst-case scenario?”

Not everyone would want to know, but Rojas could respect her preference. He’d want to know the worst, too.

“Could be something as dangerous as an explosive if we’re talking worst case.” Cruz delivered that bit of information in a flat tone. “But not likely in such a public place, with your ex messing with you the way he has been. If your ex wants you back, he’s not going to want you back in pieces.”

Well, probably not. Some stalking scenarios did escalate to deadly situations. None of them was an expert, but it didn’t look like it’d gotten there yet. Rojas had a call in to a friend at the police department, though. Just in case.

“More likely, he placed a tracking device on your car.” Cruz finished his assessment. “Quick to install and easy to figure out where you are any time.”

“So what do we do next?” Elisa asked.

“Well, I have a police friend I want you to talk to.” Rojas watched her closely. “We’ll give this video to them, too, and file a police report.”

Her eyelids shuttered half closed, and her face went blank. After a moment, she spoke quietly. “I went to the police when I first left. They kept asking me over and over again if I was certain I wanted to file a report, apply for a restraining order. Instead of writing down what I told them, they kept offering me counseling.”

Son of a bitch. Even if her ex didn’t have influence at the police department she’d gone to, receiving that kind of resistance had to have been frightening. But if her ex did have contacts in the police department, it gave an added level of complexity to the sort of person they were dealing with. Rojas filed it away to consider later.

Cruz broke the silence. “Can you give us your ex’s full name and address? I think it’s about time we find out what there is to know about him.”

Elisa nodded. “I can tell you about his company and his educational background. He doesn’t really have much in the way of family. Parents retired out of country.”

Cruz tapped the desk thoughtfully. “I’m not as curious about his bio. Can you think of why he’s willing to put so much effort into tracking you? Hiring people—that takes money and effort to find the right, discrete kind of people. It’s a risk when it comes to his reputation.”