Victor went over to where I dropped the phone. He’d just gotten into a knock-out fight with Yaron, but he hadn’t even broken a sweat. His movements were precise as he bent and picked up the phone, almost elegant. No shaky hands for Victor as he stopped the old-fashioned horn from blaring.

God, how many people must he have hurt or worse before to be this damn unbothered after nearly beating a man to death?

He pocketed Yaron’s phone and signed. “I’ve set the timer for three more minutes.”

He made an upward motion with his hand. And like a zombie, Yaron rose to his feet. Swaying, but weakly dragging up his fist for another three minutes of fight.

“No…” I said, my stomach rolling. “You’ll kill him.”

Victor gave me a dead-eyed blink. Then he signed, “Move. Now. If you disrupt it again, I will reset the timer for five minutes. And I will not stop until it is done.”

Oh, God! Oh, God! How did this evening escalate to murder so damn quick?

When I didn’t move, Victor pulled out his phone to make good on his threat.

“Please!” Yaron said behind me. “You’re only making it worse.”

I could see that now. But I couldn’t just let Victor kill him.

“Wait! Wait, I’m not disrupting,” I yelled out. “I’m subbing in. I’m saying I’ll take Yaron’s five minutes. I’ll do whatever it takes for you not to kill him. He has a little girl. Please, you can’t do this. You can’t take away someone’s else father.”

Victor stills. I can hear Yaron behind me, his breathing ragged and wheezing. But other than that, there’s no sound in the room.

Then Victor tilted his head to both sides like a prizefighter. But then he signed two letters: “O” and “K.”

Okay…okay, we’re going to fight.

Fear ripples through me. I don’t think those hand full of kickboxing cardio classes I took at the gym had truly prepared me for this scenario.

But you know what? Math tests, ten-year marriage sentences, physical fights with Chinese gangsters….all I could do, all I could ever do, was my best.

I swallowed and raised both fists.

But instead of raising his own fists, Victor walked over to the couch and spread his legs wide.

“This is how we will spend our five minutes,” he said, leaning back.

Then he used a series of extremely graphic signs to tell me what to do next.

I froze. My face burned, and my legs wobbled like my body was deciding whether or not to faint while my mind scrambled to catch up.