Signs of Life (13 page)

JEREMY STOOD
on his porch, watching as the dirty blue van rolled to a stop. After a moment the side doors opened and four young men stumbled out, standing hunched against the chill of the early morning air, muttering and shuffling their feet, all of them dressed in jeans and thick sweatshirts.

The driver, a muscular, dark-haired man, climbed out next, and he gave Jeremy a half salute as he took off to presumably circle the property, get the lay of the land.
He must be the off-duty police officer
, Jeremy thought, then promptly forgot about him when Kai appeared. Jeremy drank in the sight of him. It had been three weeks since their confrontation in the school parking lot, but he’d been on Jeremy’s mind a lot since then, mostly starring in his jerk-off fantasies.

Kai walked over to the steps to the cabin and climbed halfway up before turning to address the ragged little group in a loud voice.

“Okay, listen up, guys. A few rules before we get started, and these are absolutely nonnegotiable.” The boys looked nervously at each other, and Kai continued, “First, no phones. Hand them over.”

He stood firm against the immediate chorus of protest and outrage, holding his hand out silently as the boys stomped over and slapped their phones into his palm. Kai pocketed them.

“You’ll get them back when we leave. You’re here to work, not tweet your friends, check your e-mail, or play games. Understand? Your parents and guardians all have my and Officer Smith’s phone numbers, so there’s no need for your phones. Subject closed.”

The boys glared at him but subsided, their faces sullen.

“Rule number two. You are not under any circumstances to go into Mr. Speer’s home. That is one hundred percent off-limits. If you need to take a leak, find a tree. If you need to do something more, we have toilet paper and a shovel in the van.”

He waited through all the “What the hell, man,” and “You seriously expect us to take a shit
outside
?” before he went on. “We’re seeing about getting a port-a-potty out here for the next couple of weeks, but it wasn’t set up in time for today. So deal with it, guys. Just deal with it. There will be serious consequences for anyone found inside Mr. Speer’s home.”

Officer Smith finished his perimeter check and came to stand next to Kai, his arms crossed forbiddingly.

“Mr. D and I will be watching you every minute,” he said, his voice a growl. “If you’re not where you say you’re gonna be or where you’re told to be at any time, you get one warning. After that one warning, your probation officer gets a call, and boom, you’ve violated probation and you’re probably going to jail. Mr. D and I don’t want anyone to go to jail, so just follow the rules, okay?”

Kai took up the lecture again. “And guys, no matter what it seems like right now, community service is a sweet deal. Trust me when I say that you do
not
want to go to jail, even juvie. There is always someone in there who will kill you for looking at him the wrong way, and it doesn’t matter that he’s only fourteen years old. He’s killed before and he most likely will kill again. There are some dangerous, badass mofos in there, dudes, and the guards can’t be everywhere at once.”

Kai paused to let that sink in.

“Do your community service, do it well, and you still have a chance to put whatever you’ve done behind you before it ruins your future. Don’t ruin your future, guys.” Kai’s voice was earnest, and for a moment the boys all seemed to forget their pique and looked down at the ground, subdued. Kai let the silence continue for a minute, then walked over to the van and picked up something from inside.

“Help yourself to a sugar bomb or two, and let’s get to work.”

The boys grabbed for the sack of donuts, and Kai tossed their confiscated phones onto the van’s front seat before making his way up to the porch where Jeremy stood.

“Hey,” he said. Jeremy nodded, and Kai continued, “Maglio told you it was just going to be the four boys, right, not six?”

“Yeah, he said it hadn’t worked out with the other two.”

“Well, you’re welcome to hang around and supervise, but Loren and I can handle it. You can go on about your day as usual. Whatever makes you most comfortable.”

“Thanks,” Jeremy said quietly. “I’ll just kind of play it by ear.”

“Fair enough.” Kai gave Jeremy a tip of the head before turning and walking back to the group, clapping his hands with a loud “Let’s go!” Jeremy watched as they unloaded rakes, shovels, pruning shears, garbage bags, and several large trashcans from the back of the van.

Kai assigned the boys their jobs and Jeremy left them to it, heading inside to his laptop and some paperwork. During the day he periodically checked on their progress, shaking his head at the boys, who were moving as slow as molasses, obviously not wanting to be there, trying to do the least amount of work possible. At one point Jeremy watched Craig rake leaves, the term “rake” used very loosely for what the young man was actually doing, hacking desultorily at the ground and then sort of kicking the leaves he stirred up into a haphazard pile.

“You can do better than that, LeClaire,” Officer Smith—Loren—growled from across the yard. “Lemme see you do some real work, or today won’t count.”

“What the fuck, dude?” one of the other boys exclaimed, glaring at Craig. “If today don’t count, I’m gonna kick yo ass!”

Craig’s eyes widened and he suddenly found some energy, putting his back into the raking. Loren admonished the other boy for his language and then moved off, winking surreptitiously at Jeremy.

Jeremy shook his head ruefully and went back inside. Finally at about four o’clock, he heard the sound of doors slamming and he peeked out the window, seeing the crew apparently wrapping it up for the day. He went out to his porch, watching as the boys finished what they were doing and gathered all the tools, putting them in the back of the van before trudging down to the end of the driveway over and over with lawn bags laden with leaves, sticks and trash. Then one by one, they heaved themselves wearily into the van to head back.

Jeremy looked around appraisingly. Kai and Loren had made them cut down straggly bushes, prune other healthier ones, rake, fill in holes, and lay some decorative rock along the edge of the driveway. It looked very nice, and he saw the two men bump fists, Loren giving Kai a wink. Were they lovers? Jeremy got the feeling they were, but there was nothing overt about the way they acted, and if Jeremy hadn’t been watching Kai so closely all day, he wouldn’t have even noticed the small interactions that gave them away: a wink here, a hip bump there, a smirk.

Jeremy never considered the fact Kai might be taken, and his hopes for a fun few weeks of sexual romping took a dive. Besides that there was the fact Kai hadn’t looked his way once since that exchange between them first thing; every time Jeremy came outside to check on their progress, Kai seemed remote, unapproachable. To him. But with the boys and Loren he seemed comfortable and easy, friendly while keeping that air of authority the boys responded to. Jeremy was impressed with Kai’s skill in dealing with recalcitrant, surly teenage boys; he must be a hell of a teacher.

He was also one hell of a sexy man. Jeremy found himself at the window upstairs more than once, watching Kai bend over, reach, and stretch. At one point he took his sweatshirt off, the motion making his T-shirt ride up briefly, giving Jeremy a mouthwatering glimpse of muscled belly and the enticing trail of hair that led from his navel down below the waistband of his jeans. Jeremy saw Loren give a mock leer at the sight, and Kai elbowed him discreetly in the gut as he passed. He was almost certain they were lovers, and Jeremy was surprised at his level of disappointment.

Jeremy straightened from his slouch against the wall as Kai approached and spoke to him for the first time since that morning.

“Well, we’re off. It went well, I think.”

“It looks great,” Jeremy said awkwardly. “I—uh—I appreciate how you supervised them and made sure they respected my property.”

Kai’s face unexpectedly softened. “Loren and I won’t let anything happen while these boys are around your home. Okay? You don’t have anything to worry about, man.” Jeremy nodded and Kai turned to leave, throwing over his shoulder, “See you next Saturday.”

Jeremy tried not to overtly stare at Kai’s incredible ass as he walked away and climbed into the passenger seat of the van. As Loren backed the vehicle down the driveway, Jeremy could see Kai redistributing the confiscated phones, grinning at the boys’ obvious delight in getting them back. His smile lit up his face, and Jeremy’s gut clenched with desire and also sorrow at lost opportunities.
You fucking tool
,
Jeremy told himself harshly, heading back inside his cabin and slamming the door hard.

KAI LUNGED
and wrapped his hands around the woman’s throat, pushing her back against the wall and moving in. Like lightning she brought her forearms up and broke his hold, grabbing him and levering one of his wrists back painfully in the opposite direction before, using all her body weight, taking Kai to the ground. He went easily to keep his wrist from being broken, and the woman planted her knee on the side of his face while she bore down on his shoulder and bent wrist, immobilizing him.

Suddenly releasing him and standing up straight, she delivered a vicious kick to his kidney before he could react, then turned and ran away.

“Ow!” Kai complained. Even though Elise had mostly mimed the kidney kick, it still hurt. He sat up and watched as she approached him again, grinning in triumph.

“That was great!” he said, grinning back at her. “Much faster, and much more decisive. You can’t hesitate for an instant, and I know it’s hard to move in closer to your attacker when your first instinct is to run, but now you’re starting to see how using your body weight and a painful lever can take down a bigger, stronger guy.”

They stood up and went through the move again and again, with different variations of attack: Kai grabbing her from behind, or by the hair, the direct frontal assault by the throat they’d started with. Even though Kai knew he’d be a mass of sore muscles and bruises the next day, he worked with her tirelessly and patiently, letting her put some of her demons to rest through empowerment.

He told Elise to take a quick water break, pride burning through him at how far she’d come since they started training several weeks ago. It took a lot of patience on Kai’s part at first, because even though Elise had the desire and the resolve to work hard, sometimes the memory of trauma overwhelmed her and she shut down, not able to cope with even Kai being so near. But they’d persisted, taking baby steps until they overcame that particular obstacle. As Elise approached him now, glowing with vitality and self-confidence, Kai knew they were ready for the next one.

“Okay, badass.” He grinned at her, bumping her knuckles with his when she got close enough. “Now you need to mix it up, switch up sparring partners.” She blanched and Kai said firmly, “You can take down any one of these guys here, no sweat. And you need to know how to adapt and adjust to different body types, different weight loads. Not everyone who would attack you is gonna be like me. You know me too well, and it’s starting to be too easy for you.” Elise still looked like she was going to protest, and Kai repeated, “You can take down anyone here. Show yourself that you can do it, and next month we’ll start with weapons training.”

Her mouth snapped shut and her eyes filled with satisfaction at those words. She’d been begging Kai to teach her how to escape from knifepoint, from gunpoint, for a while now, but he had held that back as an incentive for just this very reason; he knew she’d need a firm push to take the next step of sparring with different men, not just him.

“Okay,” she said warily. “Next session? I want to try and psych myself up first.”

“Nope,” Kai said. “On the street a rapist is behind the bushes. He’s not gonna give you a chance to ‘psych yourself up.’”

He nodded to George, one of the other instructors who had been waiting for Kai’s cue, and the big man rushed up and grabbed Elise from behind. Without even a second’s hesitation, she broke his hold and took him down hard, one knee shoved into the back of his neck holding him down, one of his arms wrenched up high behind his back, his wrist levered to a painful angle. She kicked him and backed off, her face alight with triumph and bloodlust.

Before she could even take a breath, another instructor grabbed her by her hair and tried to drag her off, with the same result; she had him immobilized in seconds.

“Yeah!” Kai shouted, giving a fist pump, laughing as she launched herself into his arms. He spun her around once before setting her back on her feet.

“I did it, Kai!”

“You did it, babe.”

She suddenly started weeping, and he pulled her into his arms and held her close.

“You’re gonna be okay. You’re gonna be okay.”

“YOU TOOK
a big chance, man, getting those guys to come at Elise like that.”

Kai glanced over at Loren, who was sitting in the passenger seat of Kai’s Jeep. There wasn’t any censure in his voice; it was just an observation.

“I know. But I also knew she was ready, that she could do it. She needed that boost of confidence, and if I had given her time to think about and dread what was coming, it would have been all that much harder.”

“You have the psychology degree, baby, not me,” Loren said. “But I gotta tell you, I felt like I was gonna throw up when George first grabbed her.”

“She was one hundred percent ready. She just needed to see it for herself. That’ll be a turning point for her; it was for me.” Kai parked the Jeep next to Loren’s sleek pickup truck. They rode to Krav Maga together from the police station after dropping the community service boys off at the school. It had been a long-ass day, and Kai was exhausted.

“She whipped my ass so good tonight I won’t be able to walk tomorrow,” Kai groused. “I’m already stiff.”

“Stop teasing me.” Loren winked. “I’ll make sure you don’t walk tomorrow, that you’re ‘stiff.’”