CHAPTER SEVEN

Monday, September 26th

KANDICE'S ALARM SOUNDED AT 7:45 AM. She laid out her one Sunday church outfit that still fit and then got into the shower.

When she was locking up her front door, her upstairs neighbor was on the stairs again.

"We've got to quit meeting like this," he said.

Kandice locked her door and turned around to face him on the stairs so he could see her eyes roll, "Yeah." The guy's stare gave her a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She walked into the parking lot, keeping an eye on him as he followed.

"Where are you headed?"

Kandice turned around and faced him dead-on, dropping her leg back into a fight stance out of instinct.

"I'm not interested, you need to leave me alone."

"I'm just trying to be nice," he kept walking toward her.

Kandice regretted wearing heels even if they were short ones. She dropped her tone into the most forceful octave possible.

"You need to back off, or I'm going to hurt you."

"I'm not trying to hurt you. I've just seen you around, and I wanted to see if you wanted to get lunch sometime."

"No," Kandice said, keeping her leave-me-the-fuck-alone tone.

He reached for her arm.

Pure instinct from years of training took over. In the moment between breaths, she grabbed hold of his wrist with both hands—pivoted her body weight—and tossed him over her shoulder. In a fraction of a second she had his cheek pressed to the pavement while she used her heel to apply pressure to his armpit.

He screamed in pain, and she could see blood from where the pavement had scraped the skin on his cheek.

"I don't know who the fuck you think you are. But when a woman says no, it means no."

She kicked him with all her might in the ribs.

"If you ever try to touch me again, I'll put you in the hospital. This is Texas. No jury will convict me. Now, fuck off"

She applied pressure on his wrist, right up the point where it would break, before letting go.

"Embolize, not kill, is the goal," Master Monroe's words echoed in her mind.

The neighbor rolled himself into a ball and cried in pain. She didn't look back, as she got on her moped and drove away.

Technically it was a crime to attack him, but he'd been in the wrong. No jury would convict, so it didn't matter. The pervert deserved it. The average man in Texas would think the guy was lucky they weren't there, and women would congratulate her for standing up for herself.

* * *

WHEN SHE ARRIVED AT LANCE'S HOUSE in the evening, Blake's moped was already there but not Lance's SUV. Slava opened the door to greet her before she got to the front step.

"Come in," he said. "Lance and Blake are out buying credit cards."

Kandice followed him into the living room, "How long have they been gone?"

"About an hour," he said. "Lance wanted to buy the cards from several locations. He figured if Blake helped, they could cut the time in half."

Slava opened a new bottle of vodka and offered Kandice a drink. She only took a small sip.

"When did you get back?"

"Maybe two hours ago," he said. "I left early. I drove up to Waco and worked my way back down."

They drank in silence for a few minutes until Slava spoke, "Do you feel ready to infiltrate the mayor's compound?"

"I think so," she said. "I'm stronger than Lance, but he still wins most of our sparring matches."

"He has years of experience. You should be proud that you can win any of your matches."

"Yeah," she thought back to their last sparring match. "He pushed me to my limit last time. I nearly passed out."

"Did he tell you about when I trained him?"

"Not really."

"Lance was stubborn. He was much faster than me, but I was always a move ahead of him. It took almost six months before he beat me the first time. My abilities allowed me to know where he would be before he got there. He had to learn how to fake his intentions.

"If you learn how your opponent thinks, you can know what they will do. Then you will never lose."

Kandice already knew that from Master Monroe drilling it into her, but it didn't work with Lance. She couldn't figure out what he planned to do. The few times she did, Lance was too quick, and would change mid attack.

About thirty minutes later, Lance and Blake came back.

"I've never seen so much money," Blake said.

"I still have my cash," she said. "I got $14,000. It made me nervous carrying around so much."

"I know what you mean," Blake said. "When I finished selling the gold, I sat down with the cash and just looked at it. I only got $12,000 though."

"Use the cards to pay your hackers," Lance said. "We've got enough cash left to buy you the car, Kandice."

Lance handed Slava a stack of cards, along with a large stack of cash, "That should be enough for a few months. We'll need to get money orders for rent."

Blake clicked away on his computer, and after about twenty minutes he got the other's attention, "I've paid the guy his Bitcoins. He said it will take him a few days. He'll send me a message when he's done."

"Excellent," Lance said. "Let's celebrate. Tomorrow, we'll buy your car, Kandice."

"Are you sure?" Kandice asked. "It's a lot of money."

"Don't worry about it," Lance said. "Besides, we've been over this. You need a car that can go fast."

Everyone helped make dinner and drank quite a bit.

When they were finishing up with dinner, Lance told Blake and Kandice they could stay the night. They both agreed. Neither of them was in any condition to drive. They were on the cusp of devolving into sloppy drunks.

It was hilarious to see Slava and Lance drunk, with all they drank this was still the first time to reach that point in front of her. They started singing Russian drinking songs. Lance tried to teach Blake and her how to sing them, but the words were too much and Lance's slurring speech didn't help.

It was past 2:00 AM when they called it a night.

Slava had staggered off to bed after midnight, and Blake passed out on the couch. Lance told Kandice goodnight and gave her a kiss on the cheek before stumbling up the stairs to bed. Kandice laid down on the other end of the couch with her head next to Blake's. The stale liquor on his breath lingered in the air. It only took a few moments, and she was out cold.