Was that a rib cracking under the force of my blow?
Pritchard swore and came straight back at me, feet flying in a series of kicks. I dodged and blocked instinctively-not thinking, just reacting. The ground was getting slippery, and I had the vague impression of people around us. I thought I heard a police siren in the distance.
As a roundhouse kick came in, I made a sweeping block, putting him off-balance. I danced out of reach and retaliated with a textbook uraken to his temple.
He dropped like a stone.
I stood there, panting, staring down at him as he lay on the ground in the rain-and then I felt a hand on my shoulder, and Sensei was there.
For the first time since I'd met him, he wasn't smiling.
Chapter Nineteen
It felt like a lifetime later when I pushed open Jay's front door. Matt was on me before I'd even kicked my shoes off.
"Tim? What the hell happened? It's two o'clock!" He caught sight of my face-and of my gi, now crumpled and stained with blood and dirt. "You didn't go to see Jay, did you? You went to karate. To fight Steve … "
"You should see the other guy," I said weakly, trying to smile.
"Are you hurt?" he asked urgently, his hands reaching out as if to check me over for broken bones.
I shook my head and immediately wished I hadn't as pain flooded me behind the eyes. "I'm fine. They had a doctor look me over-there's nothing major."
"They?"
"Um. The, er, police."
"Shit, are you in trouble?"
"Um," I said again. "Probably. Sort of depends on your Steve."
"He's not my Steve!" Matt's tone was furious, and I stared at him. He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his already tousled hair. "What happened?"
"Well, ironically enough," I said, untying my belt, "I decided I didn't want to fight him. So I left the dojo."
"He came after you." It wasn't a question.
I nodded, hanging my belt over the stair rail. "Threw a punch at me before I'd even noticed he was there. The girl on reception saw us fighting and called the police before she told Sensei what was up."
"What happened?" Matt took a deep breath. "Did you-was Steve badly hurt?"
I'd known he would ask, however much it galled me to see his concern for the bastard. He'd been living with him up until a couple of days ago-of course he still had feelings for him. "Concussion, I think. Maybe a couple of cracked ribs. I think I must have lost it a bit. Sorry."
"What? He attacked you! You don't have to apologise for hitting back."
"I'm a black belt. I'm supposed to have more control." I realised I didn't have a clue what happened to black belts who got convicted of assault-did they lose their karate licence? Get ceremonially stripped of their belts? All of which, of course, would pale into insignificance if I ended up in jail.
God. How would I cope if I went to jail? I'd never even been to boarding school.
Matt ran his hand through his hair again, looking as worried as I felt. "Have you been charged with anything? What did Steve say about it-is it his word against yours?"
All very good questions. "I've been released on police bail-no charge yet. They're, um, waiting to talk to Steve. He sort of ended up unconscious." I couldn't look at Matt. "I'm sorry. He kept on coming at me, and I just sort of lost it-he was going on about poofs, and after what he did to you … "
"He had it coming," Matt said so viciously I stared at him in shock. "Shit, Tim, I'm the one who should be saying sorry. If it wasn't for me, he'd have left you alone."
"Well, to be fair I think there was a fair amount of personality clash going on too-"
"It was my fault!" He spun away from me, then whirled back. "Monday night-I asked him about karate, about if he'd seen you there-I mean, if he'd known who you were. He said he'd known since the first time you went-that was the day we met, wasn't it? He said … he said a lot of stuff about you too. That's when we had the fight."
"The fight?" I struggled to think-Matt hadn't had any new bruises in the last few days, had he? After all, I'd seen him in just his boxers only this morning, and it wasn't like I hadn't been paying attention to detail. "Did he hurt you again?"
"He … " Matt took a deep breath. "He didn't hit me that time. He just sort of shook me, and then he slammed me into the wall. I hit my head a bit hard and blacked out-only for a minute," he reassured me hurriedly. "But that's when I realised … I had to leave him."
"Matt … " I couldn't bear it. I wanted to grab hold of him and never let him go-except for the hour or so I'd be spending beating Pritchard into a bloody pulp. Maybe I'd make it two hours. I was feeling generous. "Did you see a doctor?"