01 Untouchable - Untouchable (13 page)

CHAPTER SIX

By a quarter to midnight
everyone was ready to go home. We doused the fire and put the
chairs back into the building. Then we cleaned the area well enough
that no one would ever be the wiser that we had been there. Ryan
led the way, once again, but this time I was second in our train,
as we drove back up to the gate. But, to everyone’s surprise, the
gate was blocked by an older Buick that had pulled in sideways. A
pickup truck and another older car were also in the circle and a
group of six men and two women stood around leaning against the
vehicles drinking. They looked mildly surprise to see a group
driving out of the woods.

Ryan leaned his head out
and yelled, “Hey, buddy. Would you mind moving your car so we can
pull out?

The tallest of the group
sat down his beer on the bumper of the pickup and gave a fake smile
holding up one finger as if to say to give him a minute. He climbed
into the car as one of the other men approached and spoke to him.
The Buick pulled away from the gate and continued around the large
circle stopping on the opposite side blocking the road
out.

“
Well, that’s stupid,” I
muttered. “How does he expect us to get out?”

Evan began to stiffen in the seat,
“That isn’t good.”

Skeeter came up from the
car behind us and hurried to unlock the gate. The remaining five
guys that had been standing around drinking began moving toward the
car that was now blocking the exit. Ryan pulled through and over to
the left, I pulled to the right, allowing Carlie and Bethanne to
come up in the middle and Andrew bringing up the rear.

My training with Tony Dix
was starting to yell in the back of my head, but this scenario
wasn’t anything I expected to encounter. The road behind me was of
no use since it dead-ended into the beach. The large rocks on
either side of the roadway blocked me from making use of the
shoulder around the Buick. The only other option, if this should
turn bad was using the car as a battering ram. The problem was the
car I needed to be in would have been the Buick because Evan’s
little Nissan would hardly stand up against the clunky metal beast.
I swallowed as I considered, by the time this night was over, I
might actually need to get the keys to my Porsche to replace Evan’s
car.

With everyone in the
circle, Skeeter locked the gate and hurried to the car he was
riding in. Ryan and the guy from the Buick were standing there
talking when Evan opened his car door.

I reached for his arm.
“Don’t get out. That’s what they want.”

“
Sit still, Leese. It might
be nothing.” But the sound of his voice clearly told me he really
didn’t think this was going to turn out to be nothing.

I could see Nate crawling
out of the back seat of the Trans Am. His tall black frame caused
the other men to slow their walk toward Ryan. Then as Evan came
into the picture, it appeared the men almost stopped their
approach. I rolled down the window, listening to what was being
said. The guy from the Buick sounded friendly enough. He was
talking about Ryan’s car, saying he’d really like a peek under the
hood. Ryan was politely refusing saying everyone in our group was
tired and we were on our way home. But the guy just kept
talking.

“
That’s a
bunch of good-looking women you
boys
got with you tonight,” I heard
one of the men say as he sauntered up to the budding
group.

I could see Carlie in her
little Suzuki Sidekick, her eyes wide and panicky. Jewels simply
looked annoyed. I couldn’t see Natasha. Bethanne, in her Saturn
with Skeeter and Lori, all looked upset (I had a feeling Skeeter
was more upset with the fact that these idiots had scattered beer
cans around the parking lot), Andrew was climbing out of his Dodge
Dakota much to the dismay of his girlfriend, Tina.

Then I heard one of the
drunk women, yell, “Whoohoo, look at them pretty little
boys.”

There were six men that
looked like they attended barroom brawls for relaxation, next to
our six high school guys. Kevin had opened the door to the Suzuki
and was wisely standing there and not approaching the group.
Andrew, a senior, slim built and wiry, was making his way toward
them, while Skeeter, a junior but no bigger than Kevin, approached
the group half way. The only threatening ones were Nate, a medium
built, 6’2” ball player, Ryan a well-built 6’3” and then there was
Evan who was the only truly menacing guy on our side. Just over 6’
tall he had at least twice the muscle mass with broad shoulders and
sculpted, thick biceps. So for all intensive purposes it was a two
to one ratio, in favor of the other men.

I heard Evan say, “Just
move your car, man.” And then the voices began to escalate. I
looked up in the rearview mirror and saw the drunken women
bothering Tina as she sat in Andrew’s truck, but I noticed she’d
prudently locked the doors. I looked back just in time to see one
guy put his hand on Ryan’s chest and the melee was on.

I simply couldn’t believe
what was happening before my eyes. I’d never seen something like
this in real life. This was only supposed to happen on television.
My heart instantaneously began to pound, and the blood rushed so
hard in my body that it was like a great roaring in my ears. I
could hear myself yelling, “NO!” as if my shouting was going to
interrupt what was happening and then suddenly I was standing
outside Evan’s car. It was as if the motion to open his car door
and step out was so automatic that I didn’t even know I’d done
it.

Ryan had thrown the first
punch when the guy pushed him, sending the man staggering only to
come charging back. Evan wasted no time in taking out the guy
closest to him with a tremendous punch that was so loud, I could
hear the crack of his fist on flesh and bone from where I stood.
The guy went to the ground and never moved. Evan had knocked him
out cold and was on to the next one. Nate had stepped up beside
Ryan in an apparent attempt to stop the fight, but one of the other
guys jumped him and they were rolling on the asphalt, punching and
kicking. The largest guy in the group was now fighting with Evan,
but Evan clearly out-skilled him. That’s when the other two guys in
the group jumped Evan. When he suddenly became outnumbered, Andrew
and Skeeter didn’t need any other provocation to join the brawl and
they were running toward the group.

I was in motion, but before
I moved two steps, I heard a screeching behind me. I turned to see
that the two women had Kevin up against the Suzuki, yelling, “Give
me your wallet!”

Carlie was screaming for
them to leave him alone and in my peripheral vision I could see
that Jewels was out of Ryan’s car and heading toward them. Tina was
out of the truck and also moving toward the new battle that was
erupting in the center of the parking lot. Everything was happening
so fast. We were only seconds into this battle, but yet my mind was
clearly separating every piece as it occurred. The second woman
whirled around, fists clenched, as I came rushing up. She took
several steps in my direction when the realization crossed her face
that I wasn’t stopping. I knew that the momentum of my entire body
was a huge force. She didn’t even have time to swing as I hit her
with my forearm and shoulder in her chest. She was knocked,
breathlessly, into the back of the Suzuki and then hit the
ground.

The other woman turned from
Kevin to me. My hands went up and my body automatically assumed the
fighting stance I’d learned in martial arts. I knew this was no
sparring match, and the other person would not be aiming just to
make contact. I’d have to remember what I’d been taught to do in
this situation; hold nothing back.

The other girls had almost
reached me when Kevin jumped on the woman’s back, wrapping his
whole arm around her throat in a choke hold and held on for dear
life. She was reaching back scratching and clawing, knocking his
glasses to the pavement, but she was rapidly running out of air as
she went down to her knees and then almost face down rolling and
thrashing to try to get Kevin off her back. It was no use—that boy
had a tiger by the tail and he wasn’t about to turn loose until she
passed out. Her eyes began to flutter as she stopped
flailing.

Tina was yelling that it
was enough, “Don’t choke her to death!” she screamed.

But I knew better. If Kevin
was to let her go at that moment, she’d come up swinging. “Hang on
Kevin,” I commanded. “Don’t let go until she’s out.” Tina was still
shouting as I grabbed the first woman that I’d knocked senseless.
She was trying to stagger to her feet when I kicked her back to the
pavement and rolled her over in one quick movement. I pulled her
arm into a sharp “V” behind her back and twisted her wrist and palm
so that it almost touched her spine. “Hold her,” I ordered Tina.
“Here,” I said, showing her how I expected her to hold the arm. “If
she moves, just pull her hand upward; trust me, she’ll
stop.”

Kevin’s woman was
completely out at this point and I quickly positioned her arm the
same as the first woman’s. “Jewels,” I yelled. “Hold this,” I said
indicating the woman’s arm. I repeated my instructions. I looked up
at the faces around me and then glanced toward the two other
vehicles. “Bethanne, see if their keys are in their cars; throw
them in the woods.” She gave me a nod and then I was headed toward
the men.

I could hear the shouts
behind me to stop, but I was no longer in control of my sense of
direction. It was like I was being pulled to the main fight. Nate
had given his opponent enough of a battle that the guy was backing
off. Ryan had gotten the upper hand on the man who had started the
entire thing, and that guy was crawling back into the Buick. Ryan,
Skeeter and Andrew jumped in to pull the three guys off Evan. As
they gave Evan a seconds worth of breathing room, he was able to
deliver the same powerful punch that knocked out his first
victim—down went another guy from a tremendous blow. One of the men
took off running into the woods, and that only left one and he
quickly realized what his fate would be if he kept fighting, so he
backed away toward the guy that had given up fighting against
Nate.

I was amongst the group of
men by that point when I saw it.

“
Evan, look-out!” I
screamed as I watched in terror. The guy from the Buick whirled
around with a knife and charged toward him.

It wasn’t conscious, but
everyone in the group seemed to back up, leaving Evan and this
obscenity-shouting man facing each other. The guy charged, swinging
for Evan’s body. There was a slash, but then as the arm was
extended, Evan grabbed the guy’s wrist. Evan’s knee came up as the
wrist was slammed down, causing the knife to fall from his hand and
hit the pavement. He had the guy’s arm in an unnatural position as
he brought the full force of his strength down and a sickening
crack was heard. The man screamed in pain and then crumpled to the
ground. He had broken the man’s arm at the elbow.

That was when I heard the
sound of a car cranking. Kevin had slipped around the back side of
the Buick and crawled through and cranked the car. He backed it a
few feet and then put it in drive, crashing it among the big rocks
on the shoulder. The sound of tires popping and metal crunching as
it came to a stop was gratifying. Kevin jumped out the passenger’s
side and yelled for everyone to get moving.

Evan was at my side pushing
me toward his car. I went automatically for the driver’s door and
he didn’t try to stop me. He bailed into the passenger’s side and
we were moving. Ryan had driven out in front of me, then Carlie as
she picked up Kevin. I fell into line, but looked into my rearview
to make sure Bethanne and Andrew were following.

Ryan drove to the base of
the big bridge about two miles away and pulled over under the
street lamps by the fishing pier. It was a chance to make sure
everyone was okay, ending the adrenaline rush of what had
happened.

Jewels came running toward
me and I met her half way. She gave me an excited hug. “That was
freaking wild! You were like BANG! And that woman went down! And
Kevin, oh my god, Kevin was like freaking wrestle
mania!”

“
Calm down, Jewels,” I
laughed. Suddenly, my nerves were giving way and I felt giddy and
jelly-legged.

“
I hope they aren’t
following us,” Natasha was saying.

“
No way,” Bethanne chimed
in. “I pitched their keys. They’ll never find them in the
dark.”

Everyone was talking at
once, replaying what they had seen. Evan’s name was clearly coming
out of the conversation as the hero for snapping that guy’s arm and
knocking out two others.

He didn’t get out, but Ryan
came around and gave him one of those arm-wrestling kind of
handshakes.

“
Awesome job, my man,” Ryan
was saying. “I think we’re gonna have to get you one of these ‘born
to kill’ tattoos.”

He smiled mildly, “No,
that’s okay. I don’t want them to know what’s coming.”

It took Ryan a split-second and then he
laughed, “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

I was doing a quick damage
assessment. Kevin had a couple scratches, but his glasses had
survived. Nate had some road-rash where he’d been down on the
pavement, but nothing serious. Ryan had a bruise darkening around
one eye and a bloody and swollen lip, but (to Jewel’s relief, I’m
sure) his nose wasn’t damaged. Skeeter and Andrew looked fine. I
sat back down in the car with the door open, still listening to the
jumble of voices as everyone spoke at once. I looked over at Evan,
and saw surprise written all over his face.