Bose charged like a bull. Somehow, he missed. Jake danced to the side, out of harm’s way. Bose turned like a big old locomotive in a roundhouse. He lunged again. The first blows landed, left-right-left, so fast that Emaline saw only a blur. Bose felt something give between his eyes. Jake had broken his nose. Another lunge and a crisp left jab on the broken nose sent a wave of red pain flowing through his temples. He got one hand on Jake’s shirt, took a flurry of blows to his belly that left him gasping for air.

It was like watching a big, clumsy dog chase a bumblebee. Jake wore three or four rings on his fingers. They were cutting Bose to ribbons. The man’s eyes were swollen shut and three of his teeth had been knocked out and he had yet to land a single solid punch. It was a terrible spectacle, but Emaline did not want it to end, she wanted it to go on and on. She was screaming, not even trying to mouth words, just screaming. She had been choking down the rage she felt for so long that she hadn’t guessed at the terrible, black anger she held inside. She wanted to see this man damaged, destroyed, turned into a pitiful, battered hulk. His nose was smashed, blood flowed from a dozen cuts on his forehead and around his eyes. He had spat out two or three teeth. When he tried to breathe, he gagged on his own blood. Bose lunged again, took a hard left that dropped him to his knees and a smashing overhand right behind the ear that toppled him onto his side. He sagged like a collapsing tent and lay unconscious on his stomach, blood from his nose and mouth pouring over the ground.

Jake stood in the shadows, grinning, waiting for her, flicking the blood off his knuckles. He saw the look in her eye, something wild and feral that had been let loose by the beating. Emaline took his battered hands and held them to her cheek. “Can we leave now?”

Jake heard the distant wail of a siren. “I’d say it’s about time.”

He held the door open for her, started the De Soto. They sped off, passing a deputy sheriff’s patrol car on the way to the Armory. Emaline saw Dexter McGuinty behind the wheel. Jake laughed and banged his palm on the steering wheel. “Dang, that was fun.”