Redemption (Iris Series) (22 page)

She nearly turned to mush, smelling his clean scent and spicy cologne.  She seriously wanted to lick him all over.  Leaning back from the hug, she saw Ryann making her way over and giving them both a ‘what’s up’ expression.

“Hi, you two,” she said, leaning up and giving Jon a hug and kiss.  “What’s going on over here?”

Jon kept his arm around Ayanna, playing with the tip of her ponytail. 

“You know damn well what’s going on over here, Miss Matchmaker, so don’t play dumb now,” Jon said drolly.

Ryann giggled and flushed, then clapped to show her happy giddiness.  “So,” she continued, “what day are we on?”

Both Ayanna and Jonathan said, “30.”

Ryann laughed hard at that then said with a beaming smile, “Ten more days and counting, kids.”

Jeremy
came over and said hi to Jonathan while Janie made her way over.  Janie sent a happy look toward Ayanna, pointedly glancing at Jonathan’s possessive arm around her.

The only person they were still waiting for was Emily.  And just at that moment she appeared at the gym door.

Everyone said hi again, and Ayanna noted Emily’s cuteness.  She was five foot one, and she looked as sweet as a pixie with her yoga pants, sneaks and tank top.  She had removed her smart looking glasses, allowing everyone to see her almond shaped brown eyes now framed by the sexy and loose tendrils of her dirty blonde hair piled on top of her head.

Michael
looked over not hiding his interest in the petite attorney who was lush in all the right places, but compact just the same.  He towered over her easily standing 12 or 13 inches taller. 

She gave him a droll look as if she only tolerated being in his presence and put her bag down against the wall. 

“Sorry, guys.  I tried to get out earlier, but was waylaid a bit.  Have you done anything yet?”

“Nope,” Michael answered, stepping close to her and crowding her space.  “We didn’t want to start without you, Counselor.”  His eyes were sparkling.

“Well, that’s good.  Because I certainly didn’t wanna miss anything important,” she said with an innocent look.  “We’re so thankful to you for teaching us girls how to protect ourselves, Detective.”

Jonathan coughed to cover a laugh.  Michael looked amused giving Emily a once over with his eyes again. 

Yup.  This was gonna be fun, Ayanna thought.

“Well, why don’t we start with
you
then.  Come on over to the mats, girls.  The counselor here is gonna be my first victim,” he said in his best Dracula voice. 

The girls rolled their eyes and chuckled
before walking to the mats. 

“We won’t have time to go over techniques to ward off being attacked with a weapon because it will be too overwhelming to learn so much at once.  Tonight, let’s just focus on how to be more aware and how to fight off a physical attack.  There are two things I want you to remember.

“One, just because you’re smaller than your attacker doesn’t mean you can’t defeat him.  More often than not, the attacker will be bigger or stronger than you so rather than beating him physically, you need to beat him mentally with your smarts.  You need to outthink him, and don’t doubt for a second that you’ll be able to do that.  Women escape attackers all the time with the biggest muscle they have, which is their brains in this instance.

“Two, we’re gonna go over what’s called the soft targets on a person.  You don’t need to be stronger than the attacker.  You just need to aim for these parts on the body and it’ll bring him down, regardless of how much bigger or stronger he is than you.

“Counselor, let’s start with you.”

“I hope I don’t embarrass you, ladies,” Emily said, looking at the rest of the girls.

They all encouraged her with a round of “you’re gonna do great!”, then stood to watch the first of the demonstrations.

Michael smiled.  “Come on over.  Now as you can see, I’m much bigger than Em
ily.  She’s a tiny little thing so she’s
really
gonna have to depend on her smarts to outwit her attacker.  Here’s what I mean.

“Let’s look at what it would look like if she was attacked from behind.  Most of the time if an attacker approaches you from behind, he’ll more than likely grab you in a bear hug.  You can try slamming your foot down onto his, but chances are he’ll be able to evade that move.  One thing that you can do if he grabs you from behind and your arms are down at your sides when he does, is go for his family jewels.  Your hands and lower arms will be free.  So you can reach back with your hand and grab his nuts.  That’s one of the soft targets.”  He paused.  “Most of the time,” he joked, and the other guys laughed with him.  “Let’s try it with Emily.” 

He looked at Emily and smiled.  “You ready, Counselor?” Michael said, looking intently at her.

She looked up at him.  “Yeah.  Just take it easy on me, will ya?”

Jonathan cleared his throat, hiding another laugh it seemed.  Ayanna turned to look at him, but he waved her off directing her attention back to the mat.

“Okay, so I’m gonna come up behind you and grab you in a bear hug.  We’ll take it nice and slow, step by step.  Don’t be scared.  Like I said, we’ll take it slow.  Turn around so your back is to me and I’ll come up from behind you.”

Emily turned around and was facing the girls.  She looked calm and Ayanna was looking forward to seeing how she was going to try to get out of it. 
Go for the nuts, Em
, she thought.

Michael stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her chest.

Then all hell broke loose, with the next few seconds passing in a blur. 

Somehow, some way, in three quick moves, Emily grabbed his nuts and twisted, Michael released her with a howl then she slapped the side of his neck with the palm of her hand, grabbed his arm and flipped him onto his back.

Everyone blinked, their jaws practically on the floor.

Then Luke and Jeremy burst out laughing, holding their stomachs and wiping at their eyes due to the tears streaming down their faces.

Ayanna, Tiffany and Ryann all looked at each other, completely stunned.  Ryann had her hand over her mouth trying to stop her giggles, and Ayanna turned to Jonathan giving him an evil look.

“You totally knew this was coming.”

“Of course I did.  Do you think I’d miss this?”

Ayanna guffawe
d.  “What is she, like a judo, jiu jitsu person or something?” she said waving her hand.

“She’s a black belt, in like
everything
,” he chuckled.

“That’s fuckin’ beautiful,” Ayanna said with awe in her voice, then tried not to laugh at poor Michael who was still flat on his back.

But damn, it was priceless.

They all looked at the mat just as Emily looked down at Michael and said, “Did I do okay, Detective?” she asked in her best Betty Boop voice.  “I know I’m just a tiny little thing, and all.”

She was looking down at him with a sweet innocent look.  Michael not only looked annoyed, he looked turned on.  He looked like he was about to have a go at little Miss Emily White.

She reached her hand out to help him up, but when he accepted her hand he yanked so she fell forward onto him.  Anticipating that move, she cartwheeled over him carrying his hand with her.  When she landed behind him, she had his hand bent back in the other direction and him yelling. 

“What the
fuck
, woman?”  His face looked pained.

“Oh, I’m sorry.  I must’ve lost my balance.”  She released his hand and stood up.  With her hands on her hips, she said, “How ya doin’, Detective?”

He got up and straightened his shirt, then cracked his neck to the left, then to the right.  He walked up to her and put his finger right in her face looming over her like a demon from hell.

“You’re a cheat, Counselor.”  Then he leaned in further and whispered something to her that no one could hear.

Emily stood right up to him and smirked.  Throughout the gym everyone could hear her say, “Any time, any day, Detective.  Name it and I’ll be there.”

He licked at his lips, looking like he was anticipating his favorite meal, “Oh, I will Counselor.” 

Then he turned to the group and sighed dramatically.

“Well, that was interesting,” Michael said in a dry tone.  “Obviously th
e Counselor here has had a little bit of training already.”  He gave her a dirty look.  “Ryann, this all began for you.  Let’s see how you do.  You wanna give it a try?  The same move.”

Ryann looked a little nervous, but then walked onto the mat. 

Ayanna clapped and yelled as if she were at a ball game.  “Come on, Ry!  You got this!”

Ryann laughed and went through the move, successfully reaching back and grabbing at the ‘soft target.’

When it was Ayanna’s turn, Michael asked her to share her encounter with Robert from the restaurant.  He wanted the others to hear how she got out of it.

She did and then she added, “And Jonathan came in right after and punched the asshole’s lights out.  It was awesome.”

All of the men grunted their approval, the women “woo hoo-ed”, and Michael went through the moves with Ayanna who was able to successfully remove herself from his grip as well.

“Alright, my nuts are starting to shrivel up over here.”  Michael stopped and welcomed the two other detectives who had just walked in.  They were apparently there to help with the demonstration.  “Finally.  Time to bring in some reinforcements so I’m still able to have kids someday.” 

The next 45 minutes were spent going over the other target areas to aim for on the attacker.  Some of the soft targets they were taught to aim for were poking at the eyes, grabbing and twisting the ears, and punching at the nose with the palm of the hand.  Another important move was to slap hard at the carotid artery found on the side of the neck which runs from the ear to the shoulder.  When slapped hard with the palm of the hand, it alters the oxygen flow and brings the attacker down. 

Other soft targets were the groin, fingers, and toes.  Time was spent on various holds and how to get out of them, along with ways the women could be more aware of their surroundings when walking about in the City.  All in all, it was a very informative time, and with Emily, Michael, and other detectives there to help, it was a good class.  

Toward the end of their time together, one of the detectives hit on Ayanna asking her if she was doing anything afterwards, but she immediately deflected and said she was seeing someone already.  She looked over and made eye contact with Jonathan whose jaw was so tight it looked like it was about to break.             

He started to walk over, but she put her hand up as if to say
don’t worry.  I handled it.

Tiffany and Janie made quite a stir
with their looks as well.  Ryann would’ve too, had Jeremy not been watching the other men like a hawk.

And of course the other great entertainment was watching
Luke
watch
Janie
, especially when the other detective made his interest known.  The detective and Janie were laughing it up while going through the various moves and Luke was starting to fidget, murmuring things to Jeremy.  Jeremy had an amused look on his face then murmured something back.  Luke, who apparently was not happy with Jeremy’s response, finally walked over to Michael who listened, then looked over to where Janie and the detective were laughing.

“Yo, Fernandez!  That’s my sister, bro,” Mike yelled.

“Yeah?” he laughed.  “That’s okay.  She ain’t
my
sister.”

“Would you stop?  He’s not doin’ anything,” Janie had yelled back then turned and
smiled at the good looking detective. 

At that point Luke excused himself to use the restroom.

Yes indeed.  Things were getting interesting.

At the end of the time, Michael and the girls all went into their respective locker rooms to wash up and change
. They then met in the precinct’s lobby to head out for dinner.  Ayanna sidled up to Jonathan.

“You looked good out there,” he murmured while stroking her hair which was now down after washing up in the locker room.  She had on a pale green fitted sundress with little orange polka dots on it.  He was looking down at her appreciatively.

She beamed at his praise, “Thanks.”

He looked around to see if anyone was listening then said, “I’m looking forward to trying out some of those moves on Day 41.”

She chuckled low and sexily.  “I bet you are, champ.”

He let a lazy smile rest on his lips while his eyes lowered to her mouth.

“You have no idea what I wanna do to that mouth of yours.  Like, right now,” he said quietly.

She felt a zing.  “I think I have an idea,” she breathed.

Emily walked over and gave them both a smile.

“So, where we goin’ for dinner tonight?  Ryann said someplace nice.”

“Gramercy Tavern.  It’s over on East 20th Street.  Have you heard of it?” Ayanna asked. 

“Yeah, actually,” she said, looking at Jon with a strange look.  “I haven’t lived here that long but I’ve heard of it.  It’s supposed to be really good.”