Hayley's Party Ch. 07

"I said I got it, Hayley." I think Joe got it. Maybe it was the look I'd been giving him.

"Knew you would." I smiled and kissed him again. "Now, let's get out before we freeze those balls of yours off. Can't risk those." My hand confirmed that yeah, they were still there. Just shriveled up from the cold.

He laughed and stood, lifting me easily, carrying me to the shore, my legs wrapped round his waist. The early evening sun was still deliciously warm. We dressed together, not worrying about drying. Out clothes were still wet from the rain. They'd dry while we ran. Joe watched as I slipped my Ruger back into its holster inside the back of my shorts.

"You always carry that?" he asked.

"Yeah, except at High School. They've got that gun free zone thing going. Stupid if you ask me, what if something happens? Some libtard goes nuts or something. Saying it's a gun free zone doesn't stop a libtard on medication with a gun. Guess it's a good thing there's not to many libtards around here." I laughed. "Except for Steve's parents." I could laugh about Steve now. That was all good.

Joe shrugged. "Guess so."

Yeah, I knew Joe wasn't a political animal. Neither was my Dad. Neither was I really, except when it came to guns. And that was probably Master Kim's training. At school, I was a minority of one. I knew a couple of whiggers in my grade, whining bitches both of them. They needed a good dose of reality. Maybe a few Somali's in town would help them see the light, but I doubted it. I never had anything to do with them. They were as bad as the white supremacist dick that'd been on my case since we were in elementary school together. He'd tried to push me round once. I'd thrown him on his ass. We were still in the same class. We just ignored each other. The rest of them were like Joe, they didn't give a shit. And then there was me. So, whatever. I carried outside of High School now that I was old enough. Nobody was going to make a victim out of me.

"Wanna go to the range together sometime soon?" he added.

Shrugging my CamelBak on, I grinned. I went to the range every second weekend and now and then during the week for a few hours of drills, with or without Master Kim. Actually, we were going Wednesday evening this week. "I'll beat your ass, Joe. You want a girl to show you up? How about Wednesday, I'm doing a couple of hours with Master Kim after Tae Kwon Do? Going out around seven, before it gets dark."

Joe grinned. "Yeah, love to. Want a ride?"

"Not sure, how about I give you a call?"

"Sounds good. Now come on, let's move, girl."

We jogged back together without talking about us, without talking about anything, running silently together, enjoying just being together, running together. I'd never done that with Steve, he didn't run. I liked it.

Outside my parents' house we stopped. "Want to stay for dinner?"

Joe grinned. "Love too but I gotta get home, Mom and Pop've got visitors, I said I'd be there...how about next weekend?"

"Okay, that'd be great."

"Call me, okay?"

"I will." I gave him a hug, then a kiss which turned into a long one which only ended when I drew back, smiling. "Wednesday, Joe."

"Okay, bye Hayley." His voice was soft. Soft and gentle. He gave me a wave as he jogged off. I watched him, smiling, thinking that it'd been one helluva weekend.

Hey, someone's car was in the driveway. We had guests? That didn't happen too often. Curious, I walked inside, dripping sweat, feeling good. Really really good.

"Wotcha, Hayley, looking good!" That accent! It had to be? It was! Willie! And Ms. Burns. And who was this hunky young guy around my age? Andrew? Oh my god! This must be Andrew.

"Hello Hayley, been running I see." Ms. Burns smiled. I remembered my manners and shook her hand.

"Good to see you again luv." That accent was to die for. I shook Willie's hand.

"Hi, you must be Hayley." The young guy who must be Andrew was grinning.

I gave him a huge hug and stated the obvious. "You must be Andrew!" And a lesson in how to squeal like a fangirl. "It's so good to meet you at last. Are you here for good?"

"Start High School tomorrow."

"We're going in tomorrow morning," Willie chipped in.

"Well, there's only a couple of Senior classes, tell them Andrew knows me and ask to have him put in mine." I actually let go of Andrew then. I hadn't meant to get all emo on him. Or soak his shirt with sweat. But I'd heard a lot about him. And he looked so hunky. Mmmmm. Definitely nice.

Willie looked at me and laughed. Andrew blushed. Awwwww, that was so cute.

"We're going out to dinner," Rachel interrupted ruthlessly. "Go and have a shower and get changed, Hayley. We've got a table booked at the Emerald Garden for eight. You've got fifteen minutes."

While I soaped myself down in the shower, I was singing. I was so going to introduce Andrew to everyone at High School tomorrow! This was going to be so much fun. That beautiful English accent! He'd have the girls all over him. He looked good too. I could definitely see Andrew having a good time.

But why had Dad and Willie and Ms. Burns been looking so serious. Okay, not serious, worried. I was used to my Dad looking serious, but not worried. I wasn't going to say anything though. Dad always told me not to be nosey. I was, but I'd learned not to show it.

I wondered if I'd find out what they were worried about. Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't. Probably not. Dad didn't talk about his clients much. Anyhow, food. I needed food. I was starving. Hurry, Hayley. I dressed quickly. My usual. Black panties and a black sports bra, one of my black Giordano t-shirts and some black jeans, grabbed my pink leather jacket (this evening was starting to get chilly) and dashed down the stairs.

"Hurry up Hayley! We're going!"

Rachel was tapping her toes at the front door as I slipped my feet into my Doc Marten boots. They were bright pink, I thought it made a nice contrast with the black jeans, my black Giordano t-shirt and my pink leather jacket.

"Sorry, sorry, I hurried. I really did." I had too.

"That's a horrible combination." Rachel had never liked my pink boots. She hated that jacket. I grinned, shrugging. Dad was pulling the car out of the garage.

Dad beeped. Usually I race for the front seat but this time I let Rachel have it. I really was looking forward to dinner now. I'd hardly eaten a thing all day, then that run and that workout with Joe and the run home afterwards. I was hungry and the food at the Emerald Garden was always good.

Young Freddie saw us, waved us past the queue straight to a table, the way he always did. Sometimes I thought they kept a table just for my Dad. Willie and Modesty and Andrew arrived a few minutes after us. My Dad stood and waved, like he always did.

"Willie ... Hey Willie ... Over here."

Dad had already ordered the food, it began to arrive a couple of minutes after Willie and Modesty and Andrew had joined us. Evenings, the Emerald Garden was a lot quieter than it was when you went there for Dim Sum. The service was slower, there wasn't the same frenetic atmosphere. It was a lot more relaxing.

I was busy telling Andrew all about our High School when Modesty leaned over. She looked like she wanted to ask me a question about something so I stopped talking. I know. It's hard to imagine, but I did it.

"Hayley, I really was serious about coming along to Tae Kwon Do with Willie and Andrew," Ms. Burns said. "Now that we're back, we'd love to come along and do a bit of training. I'd really like to see about starting Andrew in on Teukgong Moosooi training."

"Yes of course Ms. Burns, here, let me write down the times I train. You could come along any time this week, I'll let Master Kim know tomorrow." I REALLY wondered if Andrew was up to Teukgong Moosooi. I didn't train with anyone else that could train at that level, but looking at Willie and Ms. Burns and then at Andrew, I thought, yes, he'd probably be up to it. He looked in really good shape. Like, REALLY. The girls at school were gonna die! And really, it'd be good to train seriously with someone other than Master Kim. I glanced at Andrew. "Would Andrew like to come with me after school tomorrow? We can go straight there."

Andrew grinned. "Would that be okay, Auntie Modesty? I'd love to do that. Need a good workout to get rid of the airline kinks."

"That sounds wonderful, we can meet you there, thank you so much Hayley, we'd really appreciate that. I'll call Master Kim myself tomorrow afternoon as well."

"Shit." I very rarely heard my Dad use that tone. Or swear in front of guests.

I looked up right away. Dad's face was frozen. Cold. Eyes narrowed, concentrating, looking towards the entrance. Willie and Ms. Burns were looking in the same direction. Even my step-mom Rachel was, although her face had a different look to it, kind of weird. Not scared, not excited, not worried, just ... weird. They all seemed to know what they were looking at. Even Andrew, who looked worried. He was edging his chair backwards.

I didn't have any idea what was going on. I was looking the wrong way. I glanced over my shoulder, then did my own double take. Bad guys. I knew they were bad guys. Or at least, I knew that three of the five were. It wasn't that they looked bad or tough or anything. They were the guys that had tried to drag me away from Steve a few weeks ago, outside that nightclub. I smiled. They saw me smile. The looks that came back weren't friendly. Not at all. Mind you, neither was my smile.

I nudged Ms. Burns accidentally with my elbow as my hand dipped into my handbag. Ahh, there it was. My Vipertek. Out it came, my left hand keeping it under the tablecloth. Ms. Burns saw the movement, glanced at me. I shrugged. If it wasn't needed, it could slip away just as casually. I'd never needed it before, but hey, Master Kim had taught me well. A girl should always be prepared. I'd met these guys before. And not in a friendly way. And I was keeping it low key. My Ruger was tucked away in my ankle holster, under the jeans. I wasn't going to shoot anyone, not in a crowded restaurant.

The old guy in the lead wasn't anything much to look at. Much like my Dad in fact. Average height. Average build for a middle-aged or slightly older Chinese businessman, a bit on the overweight side. Except for his face, that was. That looked not just mean, but evil. The kind of face that gives you nightmares.

The sort of face my Dad was now wearing. My Dad's don't-fuck-with-me face.

The second one, right behind the old guy, he was something else. Chinese. Shades. Six foot and obscenely broad across the shoulders. I'd seen guys like him at the gym. Weightlifters that over-trained the upper half of their bodies. The muscles of his arms swelled out, something the sleeveless shirt he wore accentuated. His hair was long and jet black, tied in a thick braid, kind of like those old Chinese coolies from the nineteenth century. He wore faded denim jeans stretched tight on slender hips. No good for kicking, he probably relied on those gorilla arms.

A couple of the older guys I trained with had that look. They'd been in prison. They'd told me a bit about what that was like. A second glance at his arms told me they hadn't been bullshitting me. Macho man had a barbed wire tattoo around one arm. He'd been in prison. He had his own version of the "don't mess with me" look on his face. The other three guys were nothing compared to him. Nothing I hadn't met before anyhow.

What was stranger was that Dad and Willie and Ms. Burns seemed to recognize them, or at least they knew the middle-aged guy in the lead. The five brushed past the receptionist at her kiosk. Ignoring her, they walked towards us. Everybody seemed to know what was happening except me. That pissed me. It also worried me that those three guys were here. Something was going on and I was sure it wasn't good.

They walked right up to our table.

"Harry," my Dad said, "you brought some friends." It was my Dad's voice but different, colder, much more dangerous. I'd never heard him use that tone but I knew it. That was how I talked when I was furious. Goose pimples stood out on my skin. I breathed in and out, slowly, relaxing, clearing my mind, centering myself, prepared now to move fast.

"Yeah," Harry said, his voice as cold as my Dad's. "I figured you and I should have a little business chat with our two friends here."

"We had that discussion last month Harry." Ms. Burns sat coolly relaxed, unconcerned by the tension that crackled around her. "I told you then we wouldn't be doing business with your outfit."

"Kam and Woo okay then," Willie asked conversationally. "They seemed a little out of sorts after our discussion ended."

"We're not Kam and Woo," macho man interjected, moving up next to the table. Next to me. "You really should listen to Harry."

"I don't think so," my Dad said. He really didn't sound like my Dad. He sounded cold, icy cold, his face a mask, his eyes slits. I'd seen that face before. It was the face I wore when I went into a tournament against someone I didn't like much. I'd seen myself in the mirror. "I think you and Harry and your friends should leave. Now." There was no inflection to his words. None. It was like watching a mask slipping off someone you knew intimately. What was beneath the mask was something I didn't want to see. Not from my Dad.

Macho man glanced at me, back to my Dad. "You're daughter's kinda cute Eagle," he half-whispered. "Be a terrible tragedy if anything happened to her."

The air around our table turned to ice.

Nobody moved. Nobody spoke.

Except me.

I shrugged. I picked up one of those delicious dumplings from the dish in front of me with my chopsticks and took a small bite. A tiny nibble really. Andrew glanced at Ms. Burns. Willie stirred. Ms. Burns placed a hand on his arm. I glanced at the other three behind macho man. I could feel my expression changing as my head turned, morphing into my cold face. The face my Dad wore. Dad and I looked at each other. It was like looking into a mirror. Did I really look like that? I didn't want to, but it just seemed to come naturally. I glanced back at the three stooges. Two of them edged backwards. The other one looked like he wanted to but there wasn't any back for him to back into.

"That'd be you would it, cutie-pie." My upward look was coldly disinterested. Macho man didn't blink. I hadn't really expected him too.

He looked down at me. Looked? He leaned forward, hands on the table, placing his face right in mine. Andrew stirred. I took another little nibble from my dumpling and smiled into those dead looking eyes. He smiled back. One of those bad-ass you're-fucked smiles.

"Your Daddy better stay out of our way or you're gonna get hurt real bad little girl."

I glanced past him at my Dad. Raised an eyebrow. Macho man caught that.

"Daddy can't do shit for you little girl." He sounded like he was having a good time. One of his hands snaked out and grabbed one of my breasts. He squeezed. Hard. Now he really looked like he was enjoying himself. I guess some people just get off on terrorizing eighteen year old girls.

He didn't see my Dad nod, very slightly.

Just as macho man started to squeeze hard, I screamed at the top of my voice. Pain, anguish, outrage. The entire restaurant looked. The entire restaurant saw macho-man assaulting a pretty little Chinese girl, mauling her sweet innocent little breasts. Nobody saw my Vipertek jammed hard against his denim-covered scrotum as I triggered 53,000,000 volts through his balls and dick.

He spasmed as I held it there. He was trying to scream I could tell, but he couldn't. His fingers relaxed their grip but he couldn't move. I kept screaming though, all eyes on me. Horrified eyes all across the restaurant taking in what he was so obviously doing to me.

Somehow I doubted he was going to be able to move for at least a couple of seconds. He would though, he was a tough guy. But two seconds, that was way more than enough. That was far more than I needed.

I was already completely centered and in the moment. I had been from the moment they'd arrived at our table. My scream echoed through the restaurant. My other hand dropped the chopsticks, drew back down to the seat of my chair, my hand forming a fist, one knuckle slightly protruding. I punched upwards, straight into his larynx, my mind drawing a picture of my fist going straight through his throat and out the other side, as hard as I could, coming to my feet, my chair crashing backwards as I put my body into it. It's a blow that can crush a man's windpipe. Which was what I intended.

A guy doesn't squeeze my breasts without my permission.

Not unless he's out on a date with me.

Our bodies were so close that only our table saw the blow. Everybody else saw a screaming girl frantically attempting to escape a brutal assault. Macho man started to choke, his airflow more or less cut although I hadn't hit him quite right. Tasered or not, he'd tried to dodge that blow. I'd struck slightly off target, not quite completely crushing his larynx. I had to finish this fast.

I grabbed his braid and his head with both hands and crashed his face into the table, hard. As hard as I could, putting every ounce of my strength into it. Once, twice, three times and a fourth on the edge of the table for luck and to break his teeth. His nose spurted blood. Bits of teeth sprayed outwards. The restaurant was in total chaos, guests standing, women screaming, children crying, Old Freddie's waiters trying to force their way through to us.

Only those nearby could see what was happening to macho man's head. Lucky the table was solid. Shame about the tablecloth and the china and the food going everywhere. As he went down to the floor, I kneed him as hard as I could in the ribs, feeling a couple of them crunch. Good. As he hit the floor and bounced I kicked him in the jaw. I felt it break. He was going to have one hell of a dental bill. His ribs were going to need a bit of work too.

Looking down at him, I shrugged. "Daddy doesn't need to do shit for me, asshole."

I was breathing hard though.

Andrew was standing, his chair on the floor, facing down the three stooges. He didn't look so cute anymore. More like big and dangerous. Good to know he was more than a pretty face. It was nice to know he cared. He certainly looked ready to dance with the three stooges. Still, I knew Dad would have taken care of them if it'd come to that, but all the same, it was nice of Andrew.

I did have something more to attend to. Kneeling, I took the hand that had grabbed my breast. That'd really hurt. I was going to have bruises. Bastard. "And you shouldn't grab a girl's breasts without permission, that's not nice."

He was jerking on the floor, trying to breathe, starting to turn a bit blue. Lack of oxygen generally does that to you. One by one I snapped his fingers. Then the wrist. Dropping his hand, I stomped on it, grinding the broken bones under the heel of my boot. I doubted that hand would ever be the same. I hoped not. If it was, I hadn't stomped it hard enough. Andrew grinned. My Dad smiled that cold smile, that smile that was just like mine.

The other three tough guys winced. None of them made a move. The middle-aged guy, Harry, had taken a step back, his eyes a little wider than they had been. This time I didn't ask my Dad for permission. Old or not, Harry more than likely had something to do with those three hassling me a few weeks ago. Tonight he'd brought macho man in, turned him loose on me. Maybe that was intended to intimidate my Dad.

Whatever.

He'd threatened me. Me! Not my Dad. He was about to pay for that. In spades.

"Hayley." My Dad's voice snapped out.

I stopped, half into the first kick already, turned my head to look at him. Which of course was when one of the tough guys finally tried to take me. He hadn't learned a thing from our little meeting a few weeks ago. I moved my head a little, one hand deflecting his strike just enough as I glided in close to him, letting his fist slide by, using the force of his strike to take him off-balance, throw him, snap his elbow, a knee-strike to the ribs as I took him down, not too hard, just hard enough to break a couple.