Brad laughed. “I’m not alone. Tim’s on vacation, but Bill’s out doing the first night check on doors and gates.” The team made the rounds to all exterior access points to the buildings three times every night. Nick nodded and left the room, waiting until he got to the hallway before closing his eyes in frustration.
Bill Chesnutt was even older than Ken Taylor had been. The guy was a retired marine, but he’d retired a long time ago. So basically they had Paul Blart and Andy Griffith watching over the resort on a Friday night. Perfect. He was going to need to make some changes here, but he didn’t want to rock the boat too early. He’d have a sit-down with Blake when he returned and discuss the options—better training, better people or both. He headed out the side door toward the employee parking lot.
Cassie was walking in the next row over from him, head down and looking tired. There were nowhere near enough lights in this damn lot. Nick headed in her direction, making a mental note to talk to the employees about using a buddy system to walk to their cars after dark until he could get more lights out here. This might not be the streets of LA, but there were bad guys everywhere.
Nick walked up behind Cassie, not happy that he was able to get this close without her noticing. She should be more aware of her surroundings. He was only a few feet away and she didn’t even know...
In the blink of an eye, Cassie spun and swung her fist at him. He dodged just in time, and something glinted in the light. Her car keys were sticking out between her fingers. That would have left a mark if she’d connected. She was digging in her purse with her other hand.
He barely had time to register what was happening before the pepper spray hit him in the face.
“Agh! Son of a bitch! What the hell is wrong with you? God damn it, that hurts!”
Cassie watched in horror as Nick West covered the side of his face and doubled over, yelling in pain and letting out a string of curse words.
“Oh, my God. I didn’t know it was you!” She stepped forward to help, but her lungs started to burn and she couldn’t get a good breath. She started coughing, her chest burning. Still hunched over, Nick grabbed her arm, spinning her around and shoving her away with a hand to her back.
“What are you...?”
“Get away from me!” Nick’s growl was rough and loud. “Get away!”
He was angry. He pushed her. She immediately fell back on a practiced reaction.
“I’m sorry...”
That wasn’t what she was thinking. She was thinking Nick was an idiot to frighten her like that. But before she could take back her apology, coughing overtook her. Tears ran down her face.
“Damn it!” Nick’s hand wrapped around her wrist and he dragged her to the grass along the dark edge of the lot. Then he propelled her even farther away from the cars, sending her stumbling. He was bent over, looking up at her with one eye tightly closed, like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Rage burned in that one open eye. His voice was tightly controlled. Almost calm.
“Stay back. You inhaled some of your own pepper spray. Hell, Cassie...” He dropped to his knees, raising his hands to his face but not touching them to his skin. “Water...”
She dived back into her bag and pulled out a water bottle. She started to hand it to him, then realized he couldn’t see her. “Turn your face up toward me, Nick. I’ll pour the water.”
He tilted his head. “Just the left side...” She poured the water slowly over the side of his face, and he took a deep, ragged breath. She did the same, noticing her lungs didn’t feel like they were in spasms any more.
“What were you thinking, sneaking up on me like that? I thought you were kayaking.” He didn’t answer, just sat on the grass, his head between his knees, both eyes tightly closed. A low, steady groan was the only sound he made. She sat next to him. “I was only defending myself...”
Sun Tzu said it perfectly. Invincibility lies in defense.
His whole body went rigid and he raised his head, glaring at her with his right eye. The left side of his face and neck were bright red in the glow of the parking lot light, his left eye tightly closed.
“Defending yourself? I could write an entire training manual on what not to do from your performance just now.” He closed his good eye and grimaced. “Damn, that hurts.”
Cassie was caught between sympathy and anger. Anger seemed easier. “A training manual, huh? Since you’re doubled over in pain right now, I’d say I did a pretty good job of rendering you harmless.”
Before she could blink, Nick’s hand snaked out and grabbed her wrist, yanking her almost onto his lap. His face was so close to hers that she could smell the pepper spray on his skin. She was too stunned to scream, but her heart felt like it was going to leap straight out of her chest.
“Do I look harmless to you right now, Cassie? If I’d been an attacker, you’d be dead, or worse. I could have forced you into your car and...” He growled to himself and released her with another curse, driving his fist into the ground at his side. “You did everything wrong. You let me get too close. You used the keys first when you should have used the spray. The keys-in-the-fingers trick only works when you’re in close hand-to-hand combat, which should be your last resort. You took so long getting the pepper spray that I would have had your purse away from you before you could reach it.”
Nick picked up the water bottle and poured what was left down the side of his face and neck. “You gave me time to turn away, so you didn’t completely incapacitate me. And then, instead of running when you had the chance, you stepped forward, right into your own cloud of pepper spray, and nearly incapacitated yourself.” He turned to focus his good eye on her. “So, yes. A whole training manual. On what not to do.”
Cassie stared at the dark ground, focused on bringing her pulse under control. Nick had been careful not to hurt her when he’d grabbed her, but he’d still frightened her. On purpose. She’d hate him for it if it weren’t for the truth of what he’d said. If he had been some random attacker—if he’d been Don—she would have been a victim. Again.
“Why are you armed with pepper spray? Did something happen to you?”
She didn’t look up.
“Yes. Something happened.”
“Here?”
She shook her head, her body trembling so badly she didn’t trust her voice. The only sound was his wheezing breath. He finally cleared his throat.
“Okay. Something happened. Somewhere.” His voice was gravelly from the pepper spray, but it was calmer than it had been a few minutes ago. “And you wanted to protect yourself. That’s smart. But you need to do it right. I’ll teach you.”
Her head snapped up. He was doing his best to look at her, even though his left eye was still closed.
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ll teach you self-defense, Cassie. The kind that actually works.”
“Are you talking karate or something? I thought the pepper spray...”
“It’s a tool, but you need more than that. If some guy’s amped up on drugs, he’ll just be temporarily blind and really ticked off.” He picked up the pepper spray canister from the grass at her side. “This stuff will spray up to ten feet away. You never should have let me get so close before using it.”
“I didn’t know that.”