Ultimate Courage

by Piper J. Drake

  The other man crossed his arms, following his gaze toward the main building. “Some nice new scenery in your reception area there, Rojas. Sorry about this morning.”

  Uh-huh. Cannon needed to tread carefully. Even if he’d been referred to these classes to train his rambunctious pug—Revolution and Hope’s Crossing tended to give referrals to each other when it made sense—Rojas wasn’t inclined to be friendly toward the guy today, or any time soon.

  “I’m going to pretend I don’t know what you’re talking about for now.” Because Cannon had been a dick this morning and Elisa wasn’t scenery ever. Rojas’s temper, never too far beneath the surface, simmered. He clamped down on his reaction. Cannon wasn’t a complete ass, just not the most thoughtful person out there. Guy tended to talk without a filter for polite company. Most times, he got along fine with the fighters at Revolution MMA and he was a good dog owner, too. But there was a reason the man didn’t have a steady girlfriend.

  “Your new employee. I should go introduce myself to her and apologize for making her drop her coffee.” Cannon jerked his chin up toward the window Elisa had been in a minute earlier. “Very ho—”

  “Stop. Don’t finish that. Don’t approach Elisa without me there when you go to apologize. And you will.” Rojas didn’t even bother to try sounding nice. “And if you don’t adjust your thought process, maybe we need to take up this discussion next sparring session at Revolution.”

  Cannon turned to look at him and gave him some more space, lifting his hands in a surrender gesture. His pug grunted as his leash grew taut. “Ah, hey, no offense intended.”

  The other man visibly struggled with the awkward moment, the tips of his ears turning red in embarrassment. Rojas let him stew a while longer. But the situation had caught him by surprise. Women attending classes at the kennels had no problem expressing their interest in Rojas or any of the other trainers. It was a sort of easygoing thing to fend off those advances. However, having Elisa there was new, and she shouldn’t have to fend off anything untoward. It’d be good to nip this in the bud now, and Cannon wasn’t actually a bad guy. Plus, he’d spread the word if Rojas set the precedent.

  “Same rules as Gary and Greg have at Revolution,” Rojas said. “Don’t say anything about anyone you wouldn’t say to their face, and I don’t want to hear you saying anything like that to any of our employees.”

  “Yeah. My bad.” Cannon bent to pick up his pug and backed away. “Seriously, man. I’m sorry.”

  Rojas waved it off. “Time to focus on your dog and this morning’s agility elements.”

  No need to think too deeply about why he was so short-fused when it came to Elisa. After the scare this morning, he was completely justified on her behalf. Maybe later he’d consider whether he’d do the same for anyone else employed at the kennels. Most likely he would. But he was a special flavor of irritated at the moment, and it was better to work that sort of thing off with some exercise.

  Rojas put his thumb and middle finger to his mouth and whistled to bring in the rest of the class. About half a dozen men and women approached with their dogs. Mostly herding and sporting class breeds this morning, plus Cannon’s hyper pug. “Everyone warm up with a jog around the outside of the course.”

  Cannon gave him a wry smile, knowing the warm-up was mostly to get him running instead of his mouth. It wouldn’t hurt to burn off a little energy for the rest of the class, too. The dogs were all game for it, and their humans could use a few extra minutes of cardio.

  After watching them all do a lap, Rojas joined them. He could do with burning off some excess energy, too.

  Chapter Nine

  An hour later he checked on Boom, then headed to the main building for a glass of water and figured he’d grab a glass for Elisa, too. They kept bottled water in a cooler out by the kennels for convenience, but using glasses was better for the environment, or so Boom told him repeatedly.

  Or he could quit justifying his impulse to come by and check on Elisa.

  They had an hour break between classes this morning, and there shouldn’t have been anyone in the front reception area besides her, but the sound of her talking accompanied by a low male voice came down the hallway. Rojas’s grip on the glasses tightened, sloshing water over the rims.

  Muttering a curse, he relaxed and headed right on to the reception area. There was no good reason for him to get worked up about Elisa talking to a man. And if it was Cannon pursuing her, Rojas could always run the guy off. Especially if Cannon was making her uncomfortable.

  As Rojas came around the entryway, taking the time to visually pie the corner out of habit, he noted there was no one in front of the reception desk. No. Whoever was talking to Elisa was behind the desk with her.

  He entered the room and strode to the near end of the reception desk, setting the glasses down with a thunk. Elisa jumped in her chair and swung around to face him.

  “Yo.” Cruz sat on the counter along the wall behind the desk area. Plenty of space between him and Elisa.

  “Hey.” Rojas paused, sparing himself a moment to let go of the building anger he’d been gathering. “Didn’t recognize your voice from down the hallway. What, you swallow a frog?”

  Cruz waved a hand. “Caught a cold on the flight back this morning. Lyn took it harder. She’s staying in bed until her fever goes down. But Forte said our new admin might need some additional IT set up to organize our stuff.”

  Elisa gave Rojas a shy smile. “I’ve got the client spreadsheet started, but I figured it’d be good to set up a new calendar to help schedule the private lessons. Maybe set up a newsletter, too.”

  Cruz nodded. “We’ve been using the private e-mails so long it’s about time somebody set up an e-mail and calendar specifically for the kennels. Elisa here is on the ball.”

  Rojas agreed. He also wanted to tell Cruz to quit breathing on her, but his friend was sitting a decent distance away. “Maybe we have some vitamin supplements around here somewhere to ward off whatever plague you’ve got.”

  Cruz pulled a tiny bottle from his pocket. “Have some hand sanitizer. Feel free to chug it.”

  Elisa wrinkled her nose, laughter sparkling in her eyes.

  Okay, at least she was being entertained. Rojas relaxed some. “Don’t let me stop you all from doing the tech thing. Carry on.”

  Leaning over, he slid the glass of water across the desk to Elisa. She gave him a smile, and he figured it’d been worth the extra few steps into the kitchen after all. “Thank you.”

  Cruz looked from Elisa to Rojas and lifted an eyebrow. Rojas pointedly ignored him.

  “Back to what I was saying before someone interrupted. It’s safe to log in to any websites you need from the computers here.” Cruz tapped the laptop in front of Elisa. “Go ahead and create the accounts you need for the plans you had in mind: general e-mail for the kennels, calendar, newsletter. Just make a list of the sites where you created accounts so I know about them and can add them to the trusted sites list for the firewall.”

  Cruz paused and gave Rojas a different, more sober look, then returned his attention to Elisa. “You can check your personal e-mail and online stuff here, too. We won’t pry, and you keep your own passwords to yourself. We’re set up with a proxy server, so it’d be hard for anyone to track you down by IP address. But if you’re someplace else on Wi-Fi or at a public computer terminal, log in using a free proxy site.”

  Apparently, Cruz had talked to Forte before coming to meet Elisa. Good. The three of them kept each other in the know when it came to important information.

  “I…” She hesitated, glanced at Rojas and sat up a little straighter, then pressed onward. “I use an incognito window.”

  Rojas liked the way she was gaining confidence. Yesterday, he thought she might have held her peace and not spoken up. He was not going to admit that her warming up to Cruz was getting under his skin, though. Nope.

  Cruz bobbed his head to one side then the other. “An incognito window isn’t horrible, but
it’s insufficient. It protects the computer you’re using from any websites that leave cookies or similar information-gathering tools on your machine. It doesn’t hide your tracks, your IP address.”

  And that was at least one way her ex had been able to find her in the past. Rojas figured there were any number of ways the asshole had tracked her, maybe laughed every time he’d found her location by tracking down her IP address. It didn’t take much specialized skill, either. Once a person learned how to look, an insane amount of information was available to the regular public.

  “I didn’t know enough,” Elisa said in a small voice, but the delicate muscles in her jaw jumped as it tightened. She was frustrated, maybe, but not defeated.

  “Hey.” Rojas touched her shoulder, making sure to move slow and keep the pressure as light as he could make it, but wanting to give her more than just words. Contact. Comfort. “You’re a fast learner and you’re smart. Don’t doubt it. There’s always something new to learn out there. None of us is perfect.”

  “I don’t know.” She reached up and placed her fingertips on the back of his hand to let him know his contact was welcome. The contact zinged through him, short-circuiting his original train of thought. “Boom is close to convinced that she’s omniscient.”

  Cruz chuckled.

  Rojas groaned, but he didn’t withdraw yet. Her touch was featherlight on the back of his hand, and her shoulder was warm under his fingertips.

  “Anyway, we’ve got your back now and we’ll make sure you’ve got the knowledge you need to protect yourself.” He cleared his throat and withdrew his touch.

  Cruz didn’t add to what Rojas had said but nodded in agreement. “Stick around and Boom might teach you a few things none of us know yet.”

  Rojas’s phone buzzed in his back pocket. He retrieved it and gave it a swipe. “Speak of the devil.”

  “I’m not a devil, Dad!” Boom’s laughter filled his ear, and he grinned despite himself.

  “You okay? Need something?” He’d been up there only a few minutes ago and she didn’t sound like she was in distress, but a gang of worry hit him in the chest anyway.

  “Yeah. I forgot, though.” Boom dropped her voice the way she did when she knew he wouldn’t be thrilled. Which meant it probably had to do with schoolwork and maybe not the best study habits ever.

  “Homework?” He figured it couldn’t be all bad. It was only Saturday, after all. He wanted her to rest, but if she was going back to school on Monday, which the doctor had said she should be able to do, then she should have her homework done.

  Technically, she should’ve had any homework from the last day of school she’d attended done before they’d gone to Revolution MMA for her class in the first place. House rules: homework done before martial arts class or going out to play. And her teachers hadn’t sent any assignments for the day she’d missed.

  “I finished most of it.” The statement came out in a rush. Meaning it hadn’t been done before she’d gone to class and broken her arm. “There’s a project due on Monday and that’s not the same as homework.”

  He frowned. Technically, she had a point. “What kind of project?”

  “I need to make a presentation for science class. It’s supposed to be of the solar system.” She went on to tell him about what she had planned. “I really want to set it up to put a spotlight on Pluto. I feel bad for Pluto because at first they thought it was a planet and then they thought maybe it wasn’t and now it’s supposed to be a dwarf planet. And there’s all these cute pictures on the Internet of Pluto and how happy it was to have the New Horizons spacecraft fly by and take pictures.”

  His eyes glazed over.

  Not that he didn’t like science. He did. But there were only so many facts he could absorb about a planet that wasn’t a planet in the space of thirty seconds. Which was about how long it took for Boom to tell him all of those things.

  He glanced at Elisa, who now had her hand covering her mouth as she unsuccessfully hid her giggling. Cruz had a grin on his face, too. Great. Well, it was what Rojas got for keeping the volume up on his phone.

  “Okay, slow down. The bottom line is you need to go to the craft store. Yes?” He was fine with briefings, but he always wanted the takeaway, the action items.

  “Yes.” Boom sighed. “Can you take me now while my arm isn’t hurting and I’m still awake?”

  Rojas chewed on the inside of his cheek. No way was he going to be able to make it out and back before the next class started. On the other hand, Boom had a point about her arm and being awake. There was a relatively small window in which she was alert and not in pain with the current medication schedule. He didn’t want her to get overtired rushing, either. He looked at Cruz.

  Cruz’s eyes widened and the other man whispered, “I would, but sick. Remember? Last thing she needs is to catch a cold on top of that broken arm.”

  Man had a point.

  Rojas wrestled with the problem. Boom needed supplies, and as much as he hated going to public places filled with strangers—especially stores where there was always someone with the kind of twitchy habits to push his buttons—he still went because his daughter needed him to. But he’d already burned his fuse short with Cannon, and it didn’t bode well for his temper for the rest of the day. He knew his limits and his own warning signs. It could be bad news for him to go out and around people today. Hell, the upcoming class would be tiring for his tolerance levels, but at least he’d be on home territory and in control of his environment.

  Elisa raised her hand slightly and wiggled her fingers. “Does Boom know where to go? If you have a car to lend me and she gives me directions, I could drive her.”

  It was a generous offer. And at the moment, the best solution Rojas could think of outside of making Boom wait until this evening, when the stores might be closed. She’d need all the time she could get to work on her project. He was predicting she’d be working on it in bursts of energy and napping hard in between to heal. The earlier she got started, the better. Even then, it might not get done before Monday.

  Shame spread across his tongue with a bitter taste. It’d been a couple of years since he’d left active duty and every day was still a balancing act like this. If he wasn’t so messed up in the head, he’d be able to juggle teaching the class and taking his own daughter to the damn store. It irked him to admit the biggest hesitation was exposing himself to random people right now.

  “You can borrow my car.” Rojas fished for his keys and handed them over.

  Elisa took them then narrowed her eyes at him. He hadn’t mentioned his car when he’d ridden with her to Revolution MMA the night before. Honestly, he’d ridden with her so she’d be less likely to drive off and not stay. Then this morning, he grumped about not liking anyone driving his car but him. It’d been to give her an excuse to settle into the passenger seat and get her nerve back after the scare she’d had. Those instances hadn’t exactly been lies and could arguably be considered manipulation, but with good intentions.

  This was probably how Boom felt after she’d pulled a similar set of actions on him and he caught her.

  The thought diffused some of his tension, and he grinned at Elisa. It shouldn’t amuse him so much to make her irritated with him, but it was turning out to be a lot of fun.

  After a moment, she seemed to get over it. “Should I wait until the next class comes in and then go get her?”

  He nodded an affirmative then addressed his phone. “How you feeling, Boom? Think you can wait another twenty minutes and still make it out to the store and back? You okay if you go with Elisa and not me?” He paused, back to being a concerned father. “If you’re too tired, just make a list and we can go get it for you.”

  It’d probably mean a few repeat trips. Even if Boom made a list, she was a kid. There’d be something she’d forget or described vaguely. It was going to be a relay run back and forth to the craft store.

  “I can make it. I’ll get dressed now and wait downstairs.” There was a
pause. “So she came back?”

  He’d told Boom about Elisa’s visit yesterday and caught hell from his daughter for not bringing Elisa to the house to see her. As far as Boom was concerned, Elisa was a new friend.

  “Yeah.” His face was heating up as Elisa stared at him. “She came back.”

  “Good! I’ll be ready.” There was a rustle as Boom apparently scrambled out of bed.

  “Careful, take your time.”

  “Dad.” Boom drew out the word with exasperation. “I’m ten, not two. All I’ve got to do is pull pants on. You helped me into a clean shirt this morning. I’m totally okay with Elisa taking me. She’s not a stranger. We met her the other night and you offered her a job and everything.”

  His daughter was talking about Elisa as if she was a longtime family friend. He wasn’t exactly sure how he felt about that.

  “If you’re not comfortable, it’s okay,” Elisa whispered. “I could hold the class or something until you got back.”

  He waved in the negative. “It’s a plan. Take your time and go slow, Boom. It’s okay to sit and rest. Got it?”

  “Got it!” And his daughter very obviously was not going to go slow at the moment. Maybe he should head over to the house to help her.

  “You sure you’re comfortable?” Elisa asked, her eyes filled with understanding. “I am a stranger and it’s completely reasonable.”

  Her consideration was exactly why he nodded in the affirmative. She was good people and they weren’t going any place out of touch. It’d be fine.

  “The craft store is right near Revolution MMA. Same shopping center.” He paused to consider this morning again, and the reason Elisa had been so scared. “I’ll call ahead to Gary and Greg so they know to look for you in the parking lot. If you run into any issues or if Boom needs a break, you two can duck into the school for a rest. Gary and Greg are literally within shouting distance of the store. I appreciate the help.”