I let Thor out in the yard, then came back to Jenna. “Ready?”
She nodded, steel determination in every inch of her body.
“I’m going to grab you. Scrape your foot down my shin and stomp on the top of my foot. Use a little force to get the feel ofit, but not too hard. The beauty of everything I’m going to teach you is that it’s easy to put power behind it and you’re hitting vulnerable spots. In real life, you’ll do it as hard as you can. If I loosen my grip, you try to get away. If you can’t, follow up with a fist to my dick or an elbow to my ribs. Then try to get away. If you still can’t, repeat those moves. Got it?”
“Got it,” she said resolutely.
Don’t screw this up.I grabbed her from behind and held her tightly, but I kept some distance between our bodies. Jenna slid her foot down my shin and gently stepped on my foot, then she froze.
“Elbow. Fist to the dick.”
She did both, carefully pantomiming the moves.
I held tight to her. “Again. Harder.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I can take it if it keeps you safe. Well, not too hard on my cock.”
She repeated all the moves with a little more force, moving quickly from one to the next. I let her go and she looked at me. “Run, Jenna. Yell and run.”
She did.
“Good girl. Come back.”
I opened my arms and Jenna walked right into my embrace. I swallowed the lump in my throat and kissed the top of her head. I would’ve loved to teach her self-defense for a hypothetical threat. But now, with this fucker circling her, it killed me that we had to do this.
“Again.” I released her and walked a couple of steps away. Even for the sake of her training, I wouldn’t let a real hug turn into a threat. Not when touching her still felt tenuous.
I turned and lunged for her. She gasped in surprise when I pulled her against me.
“Fight!”
Jenna did the moves like a champ.
“Well done,” I said after I released her. I skimmed my knuckles down her jaw and tilted her head up, forcing her to meet my eyes. “You good?”
“Yeah.”
“Want to keep going or do you need a break?”
“I’m good.”
“If you want to stop, tell me to stop.”
“I’m good. I need this.”
“You’re doing great. Make some noise, too. Yell and shout. If you can reach anything, throw it. Break shit. Knock things over. Use anything available. Even if it doesn’t hit him, it’ll distract him and may get someone’s attention. Do whatever it takes to survive, Firefly. Fight with everything you have.”
“Got it. Make noise.”
“Ready?”
Jenna nodded and I grabbed her in a front bear hug. She struggled for a quick second, then she perfectly dropped her weight, pushed my hips back, and gently kneed me in the balls. I released her from the bear hug but held onto her wrist, and she came down on my forearm with a yell and a hard hammer strike.
I let go, and she lunged for the remote on the couch and chucked it at my head. I ducked, and it crashed into the picture of the guys and me, shattering the glass.
“Run.”