think I could keep up?” she asked.
“I think so. If you feel differently after a class or two, you can always come back to this class.”
“And is self-defense the only thing you learn in the intermediate class?” she asked before she thought the question through.
His brow creased. “What else would you be looking to learn?”
She cleared her throat. “I just meant—there’s more to protecting yourself than just being able to get out of physical situations, isn’t there?”
Mike looked at her for a long moment, then jerked his attention away, his gaze shifting across the gymnasium, as if he’d just remembered that he was supposed to be supervising the class. “Darryl, the padding doesn’t mean you can be a brute. This is our first time out. Try not to break Melanie’s neck, how about it?”
Charlie watched the rest of the class giggle and grunt their way through the exercises while Mike went through the group, offering suggestions and gentle correction. Right about now, she’d give anything to be one of them, one of the group instead of standing here like a flagpole in the middle of the desert, visible from every direction.
Mike finally wandered back to where she stood. “The intermediate class is mainly about physical self-defense,” he finally answered in response to her earlier question. “But if you have any specific questions about how to protect yourself, you can always ask.”
“If I do, I will,” she said, not sure she meant it. He was giving off all the vibes of a man who was suspicious of her motives, and considering her little freak-out a few minutes ago, she couldn’t really blame him.
The last thing she needed to do was pique his curiosity.
“So, I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon in the intermediate course?” Mike glanced at her, his expression suggesting he wasn’t sure she’d say yes.
But he wanted her to say yes, she realized.
The question was, why?
“Yes,” she said finally. “I’ll be there.”
“Can you stick around for the rest of the class?”
The twinkle in his eyes gave her pause, but she made herself smile. “Should I say no?”
He laughed. “There are still a few moves I need to show the class. And since you’re here...”
“I get to be the damsel in distress?”
He shook his head slowly. “The one thing I’m pretty sure you’ve never been, Charlie, is the damsel in distress.”
* * *
“SO, WHAT DO you think?”
Mike turned his head away from the window, dragging his gaze from Charlie’s little blue Toyota. She hadn’t emerged from the gymnasium yet; when he’d left, she’d been talking to a couple of the other students.
He met Maddox Heller’s gaze. “I don’t know. She’s hard to read.”
“In what way?”
He thought about her reaction to being called to the front of the class that morning. “She can be shy. And then turn around and be assertive. But there was something that happened today—I’m not sure how to describe it.”
“Give it a shot.”
“I was demonstrating how quickly an assailant could strike. Partly as an example, but also because I wanted to know how she’d react. I expected her to fight.”
“And she didn’t?”
“No, she fought. But there was something about the way she did it. It was as if she was somewhere else. Seeing something else.”
Heller’s expression was thoughtful. “Post-traumatic stress?”
“Maybe. She was able to keep herself together enough to escape my grasp, though. And she did it pretty well. Bowled me over.”
“There wasn’t a lot in the background check other than what I told you. The sheriff’s department never liked her story that she could remember nothing. But I don’t know if that’s because of who she is. Or, more to the point, who her family is.”
“Who are they?”
“The Winters, according to my source with the local law, are one of those families that just spell trouble. Two of her brothers are in jail. Daddy died in a mining accident when they were young, and apparently Mama tried and failed to replace him with a series of men who all brought their own brand of trouble to the family.”
“Does Charlie have a record?”
“Nothing as an adult. If she had any record as a juvenile, it’s sealed.”
“I’ve moved her up to my intermediate class,” Mike said. “The beginner class will just bore her. She might quit.”
“And you don’t want that?”
He didn’t. “Something strange is going on with that woman. I don’t know what yet. But I think it’s in our interests to find out what it is.”
He turned back to the window. Charlie was out there now, unlocking the driver’s door of the Toyota. She slid behind the steering wheel and pulled out of the parking lot, heading onto Poplar Road.
Mike’s gaze started to follow the car up the road, but something in the parking space she’d just vacated snagged his attention. There was a wet spot on the pavement beneath where the Toyota had been parked.
Right about the place where her brake line should be.
He muttered a curse and strode past Heller, already running as he hit the exit. He skidded to a stop at the empty parking place and crouched to look at the fluid on the ground.
Definitely brake fluid.
He gazed at the road, spotting the Corolla just as it started the climb up the mountain.
Without a pause for thought, he pulled his keys from his pocket and sprinted toward his truck.
* * *
THE TOYOTA HAD to be on its last legs. Fifteen years old, well-used before she’d ever bought it, the little blue Corolla had put up with a lot in the five years since she’d bought it with cash from a small used car lot over in Mercerville. The heating and air were starting to falter—never good in the dead of winter or the dog days of summer. And as she crested the mountain and started down the other side, she realized her brakes felt unresponsive, spongy beneath her foot.
That was not good.
She dropped the Corolla to a lower gear, and the vehicle’s speed slowed, but only a little. She thought about putting it in Neutral, but in the back of her mind, she had a fuzzy memory that doing so wasn’t the answer.
Damn. Why hadn’t she read that road safety brochure her insurance company had sent out last
