Rainne let her tears fall.
Lake heard the calls of “fire”. He didn’t let it distract him. His focus was on the fight. On beating sissy boy Brandon to a bloody pulp. He just wished the crowd wasn’t watching as he did it. They moved with him up the street, keeping a perimeter around them and chanting as though they were at a boxing match.
He watched as Brandon wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.
“You don’t know who you’re dealing with,” he told Lake.
Lake shifted to the left. His toes were now completely numb from the ice underneath them. At least he couldn’t feel the cuts from the broken glass. Still, he needed to end this. Fast. He manoeuvred Brandon, and the crowd, towards the wall beside the church.
“Go, Lake! Go, Lake!” the crowd shouted.
He circled Brandon and jabbed him in the kidney. Brandon swung at him. He was fast. The tip of the blade left a line of blood trailing down Lake’s right arm. The crowd booed.
“You think I’m scared of you?” Brandon mocked.
Lake knew Brandon should be scared. The fact he wasn’t meant he was stupid. And stupid was dangerous. Lake aimed a fist at his shoulder, kicked at this knee and punched him in the stomach to send him back into the wall beside the church. Brandon recovered quickly and lunged at Lake. He turned the knife so that it was point down and sliced at Lake as he came at him. Lake blocked his moves, but Brandon kicked his knee and Lake’s jaw clenched with pain. As Brandon passed him, he elbowed Lake in the back, hard. Lake rocked forward, spun and kicked, getting Brandon in the side.
“When I’m done with you,” Brandon said, “I’m going out there and I’m going to get Kirsty. I have some unfinished business with her.” He leered. “Maybe I should see for myself what it is that she has to offer that’s worth fighting for.”
Lake jabbed him in the jaw, then threw his body into Brandon, capturing his knife hand. With Brandon at his back, Lake bent the scumbag’s right arm in the wrong direction in an attempt to shake the knife free. Brandon wrapped his free arm around Lake’s neck in a chokehold. The guy was strong. Brandon stamped on his foot. Lake clenched his teeth, but didn’t let go of the hand holding the knife.
“Go, Lake! Go, Lake!”
“Smash his smarmy face in,” Betty shouted.
At last, Brandon’s grip loosened. The knife fell on the snow.
There was a loud roar of approval.
Lake elbowed Brandon in the stomach, once, twice, three times, pushing him back into the wall. Using his weight, he rammed Brandon against the wall and freed himself from the chokehold. Brandon regrouped. He wrapped an arm around Lake’s shoulder and with his free hand punched Lake’s kidney until it felt like the blood vessels in his eyes were bursting. Brandon slid out from behind Lake and kicked him hard into the wall. Lake grunted as he felt a rib crack.
“Come on, Lake,” someone shouted. “You can do it!”
He took a deep breath and charged Brandon. He grabbed him around the waist and together they flew forward and sprawled in the snow.
Lake was on his feet first.
“Get him, girls,” a woman’s voice cried.
Before Lake could do anything, Jean launched herself through the air and landed on Brandon. A second later she was joined by two other women.
“Geronimo,” screamed Betty as she threw herself on top of the heap.
The town descended on Brandon. Suddenly there was a pile of people where Brandon used to be. For a second Lake didn’t know what to do. He stood poised to fight, ready to finish things, and couldn’t even see his opponent. He took a step towards them. He couldn’t let the women get hurt. He’d pull them off the idiot if he had to. Then he saw one of the men remove his belt and hand it to Heather.
“I’ve tied his feet,” Heather called. “Who’s got his hands?”
“Nearly done,” came the reply.
“Gag him too,” shouted Betty. “I’m sick of his whiny wee voice.”
Lake stopped dead. Slowly, he shook his head as he smiled. One thing was for sure, Invertary had never needed his self-defence classes.
Kirsty arrived at the fight in time to see Betty launch herself on the Brandon pile-up. She faltered slightly at the sight then she saw Lake and no longer cared about Brandon, or what the women of Invertary would do with him. She rushed towards Lake as he smiled at the people piled on top of Brandon.
“Lake,” she shouted.
Her heart beat so fast it was painful as he turned towards her. She had no words for the look in his eyes. It was just for her. She threw herself at him.