Cool Hand by Mark Henwick Page A

wasn’t as strong as they were. In my favor, I was quicker and stronger than they were expecting. Best of all, I was far, far more violent than they’d come up against before. Not wild violence. Studied, deliberate violence.
    I couldn’t avoid his grab for me, so I went in and met him, hard and fast. I shattered his nose with my forehead, while the heel of my right hand punched upwards and broke ribs. Then my left fist came up and slammed into his throat.
    His arms flailed around to grab me. It was a bad idea to let him turn this into a trial of strength. I’d lose that. But I was too close to get away, and besides, the momentum was with me. So I kept straight on, shoving him back into Bone Two. When he stumbled and lost the opportunity to protect himself for a second, my knee went into his groin.
    And when he doubled over in pain, I stiffened my hand and drove my knuckles into his eyes.
    Bone One was out of it, and I lost a second pushing him down the stairwell.
    In that second, Bone Two caught me.
    This was bad. His arms pinned mine to my sides. He was too tall for me to hit him with my head and too smart to let me kick him in the balls.
    I’d started to drop as he caught me, so I straightened my legs, using his grip on me to lift him. That surprised him, even more when I ran. He was off balance, but light-footed enough not to trip. We crashed into the wall behind him. His breath rushed out, but his body was braced.
    I tried to stamp down on his foot. He nudged me off line, then he returned the favor, lifting me and running at the opposite wall.
    We both grunted at the impact. It felt like a horse had fallen on me.
    Short of dancing backwards and forwards like drunk teens at the prom, he had a couple of options. His best one was to wait for Bone Three to help him, but I was sure he was going to try and slam me into the floor. Until he did something like that, I was out of options.
    Very, very bad.
    There was a thud down the corridor that distracted him and I got my legs going, pushing him backwards again. He half tripped and I twisted in his grip and lowered my shoulder. When we hit the wall, the point of my shoulder went into his belly and then up at his ribcage.
    He grunted again, but this time I screamed. That was the shoulder that Frank Hoben had damaged just before the Assembly. Even with Athanate healing, it wasn’t a hundred percent, and it hurt .
    There was another thud that I could feel through his body, and his grip loosened even more.
    I heaved him away.
    Olivia’s third blow with the wooden chair leg broke it in two over his arm.
    With his arm out, and his head wobbling dazedly around, he made an easy target. My punch to his jaw snapped his head to the side and he dropped to the ground, folding silently like an old coat.
    Bone Three was cursing and struggling to stand up. Olivia had only hit him the once.
    I kicked him onto his back and bent over him.
    This time, my growl was pure liquid rage. It poured down onto him and pinned him to the floor. His eyes bugged and he started to shiver uncontrollably.
    When I got my voice back, it came out low and cold. “Take your friends and get the hell out of here. Stay away from Olivia. If I ever see you again, I’ll rip your throat out.”
    I stood back and let him scrabble to his feet.
    Nick had come out of the apartment after Olivia, and now he lifted Bone Two up by his jacket like he was a trash bag. He dragged him downstairs. On the way he picked up Bone One, who was waving his arms feebly and croaking unintelligibly. Bone Two was completely out of it, his body hanging limp and his boots thumping down from step to step. Bone Three scurried after them.
    I didn’t think I’d see Bone Two or Three again. I wasn’t sure about Bone One.
    I watched them as far as the next floor and then turned to Olivia.
    Of course she wouldn’t have crouched and cringed in the room. She’d been waiting for the best time to come out and make it count. Nick couldn’t get