Ma?l stirred and groaned. His head felt funny. He opened his eyes and found Kaori cuddled up to him, using his chest as a pillow. Typical, he thought with a smile, though he couldn’t believe this was now normal. He was still dressed, his new clothes crumpled and he stank of booze… or was that Kaori? Probably them both. It was as if they had been dunked in a barrel of sweat and Lao Khao.

  An apt description for last night, I guess.

  He admired the beauty at his side, her ruffled hair covering his shoulder and part of his chest. She slept so innocently. He recalled the day before. She’d called him her man and she had been extremely possessive of him, clearly laying her claim on him any time one of the girls had tried to approach him—and that had happened more than a few times through the evening. He’d gone with the flow, mesmerized by Kaori, but in hindsight, he’d been incredibly popular.

  Where had all these women been back when he was single and desperate to find someone?

  He glanced at Kaori’s face and realized he didn’t care one bit. She was the one, there was no one else for him, and he just had to confess his feelings to her. How hard could it be, she was in his arms and she had already claimed him! It would really happen this time.

  He caressed her visage, softly brushing her hair with the tip of his fingers. Now that he had made his decision, waiting was torture, but she was sound asleep and he couldn't bring himself to wake her up.

  Let her sleep, he commanded himself. He calmed his growing desire with breathing exercises. In. Pause. Out. Pause. In. He listened to the surroundings sounds. Out at the end of the corridor, he could hear the “ding” of the lift. He focused in that direction and soon detected the faint sound of footsteps muffled by the thick carpet. He looked out at the balcony. Sun was streaming in. Housekeeping.

  Did he put the “Do not disturb” sign on the knob? Of course not. Dammit! Kaori hadn’t thought of it either, but she'd been barely conscious when he carried her back in.

  Sure enough, the footsteps came closer and stopped outside of their door. The lock beeped and the door began to open.

  Don’t these people ever knock?

  “Still sleeping! Come back later!” he barked.

  The door swung open and he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. Not a vacuum cleaner, a real gun! Holding the gun, a slim Japanese man. Beside him, a larger man with his hands in his pockets, was staring at them, looking amused.

  “Wakey-wakey, dumb-ass!”

  These were definitely NOT from housekeeping.

  Ma?l considered briefly his options. He’d trained gun disarm techniques and was therefore well aware of his chances. None whatsoever. Lying in bed, trapped in a blanket and Kaori’s weight pinning his arm… he’d be turned into a sieve before he could grab the gun, and there was at least one more opponent. Two in fact, as a third man now walked in the room, pushing a luggage trolley.

  Kaori awoke as the second man grabbed her arm, dragging her over Ma?l’s body. He went with the flow, falling off the bed to the floor, next to the Japanese man’s feet, Kaori draped on his back. She screamed something in Japanese and one of the men clamped his hand across her mouth as she struggled to get free. Ma?l scrambled to his knees. The man with the gun yelled and fought to pin her arms, but he did not fire.

  They need Kaori alive, Ma?l realized with a start.

  That changed everything.

  Springing forward, he tackled the first man’s knees, lifting him up on his shoulder and smashing him into his friends in a giant tackle. The gun fired at the ceiling as they collapsed backward over the trolley. Ma?l kept rushing forward, slamming the combined mass of bodies in the corner of room as if he was trying to score a touch down through three defenders. The impact didn’t take the men out, but at least, they couldn’t use their guns. The guys below would have to shoot their friends for a chance to hit him, assuming they could even get their weapons free. Kaori fell off his back, rolling away as he pinned his opponents on the trolley’s metal frame.

  They couldn’t move under his crushing weight. Ma?l was heavy, a solid mass of powerful muscles driving hard on top of the tangled pile of bodies. His pressure was enormous and the man on the bottom whimpered, his back crushed against the trolley’s metal bars. Unfortunately, that meant Ma?l couldn’t move either, or they’d escape. For now, it was a stalemate. It wouldn’t last though, he couldn’t control three men for very long. He knew that much. Without guns, he’d win—probably. If they managed to shot however… He had to find a way to finish them, somehow. He tried a headbutt but he was too close to do any real damage.

  Something sharp pressed into his thigh, trying to pierce the skin above his knee. A knife? The man under him had no leverage, but the blade still managed to slice in slowly, parting the skin and penetrating his taut muscles. Warm blood trickled down his leg. The cut wasn’t deep—not yet at least—and he was full of adrenaline, which made the pain secondary. The awareness of the steel blade cutting through muscle however sent him into panic mode.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  He shifted violently to his side, he freeing his leg and digging his shoulder deep into the top man’s floating ribs. They snapped under the violent pressure and collapsed, causing the man to scream in pain.

  Ma?l dug his arm deep below the first man, trying to catch the hand with the knife. He couldn’t see it, but unless he could neutralize that knife, he would get sliced to ribbons.

  Smash!

  Kaori slammed a heavy wooden chair over the face of the man on top of the pile.

  Of course! He wasn’t alone. He just needed to hold on, she could deal the damage. The chair raised up once more. The knife-wielding bastard struggled to get free, but Ma?l’s grip was hard as steel and his weight could not be moved. The chair hovered above the man’s exposed head for a brief instant before swinging down. The leg of the chair connected with a sickening crunch and he went limp. One down.

  Ma?l pushed the man aside, exposing the next man to Kaori’s blows. The chair rose again. The chair was no katana, but a downward slash was a downward slash, and Kaori had practiced that move endlessly. She was accurate and the chair crashed directly into the man temple, knocking him out cold instantly.

  Game over.

  Ma?l scrambled on top of the last man and slammed heavy elbows in his face, opening deep gashes. Blood gushed from the wounds and the nose splattered in a spray of red mist.

  Satisfied the man was out of the fight, Ma?l proceeded to methodically break the aggressors’ arms. It only took seconds: slap on a figure four lock and rip the arm backward. Crack! The man jolted awake with a scream, but he silenced him with a hammer fist to the jaw and moved to the next arm. He secured it and yanked it backward brutally, tearing the shoulder out of its socket.

  Kaori screamed and tried to pull Ma?l from his erstwhile aggressor, but he shrugged her off and continued breaking the men’s arms, one after another.

  It was gruesome work, but it had to be done.

  When he stood back up, all three men lay limply on the floor, their faces a bleeding mess, their arms turned at weird angles. Ma?l was covered with their blood but otherwise unarmed, save for the somewhat shallow cut above his knee.

  Kaori stared at him in disbelief, still holding the bloody chair. Ma?l was truly a bear of a man. Not a teddy bear, but a grown up grizzly feeding on prey, every bit as terrifying.

  Ma?l locked the door and secured all the guns. He searched the men for other weapons. Soon, he had a neat collection of guns and knives.

  Satisfied he had found everything, he turned to Kaori and noticed her expression. His heart sank, but there was no time for an argument.

  “How could you do that?” she didn’t scream, but the distress in her voice—she was afraid of him?

  “Calm down.” he said—stupid! Did anyone ever calmed down when told to do so?

  “That’s crazy, you…” she yelled.

  “Two months!” Ma?l said hastily. “Only two months.”

  “What are you talking about?” she said, puzzled.

  “A cleanly dislocated elbow will take about two months to heal. These guys will spend a week at the hospital at most, and two months in rehab. Until then, they won’t be shooting their guns at us!” he said in a calm voice, pointing to the pile of weapons he had taken.

  Kaori stared at him, befuddled. She searched for a counter-argument but he was… right. Oroshi shot to kill, these men had guns and tried to use them. This was no game. They had to do what needed to be done or they wouldn't make it.

  If these criminals spent a few weeks in an hospital, so what? It was nothing compared to what they really deserved!

  One of the men stirred. Ma?l looked at her. Kaori hesitated, then smashed the chair on his head, knocking him out for good this time.

  Ma?l’s mouth opened, and closed without a word. She was undoubtedly upset on an emotional level, but her ability to look at the situation analytically defied all expectations.

  “Let’s go.” Kaori said.

  “Not yet.” Ma?l said, picking up his phone.

  He pointed to his phone. “Noi”

  “What-”

  “These idiots attacked us in the middle of the police’s quarters provided by Noi. Lieutenant Colonel Supatichartnapum Noi, of the Bangkok Metropolitan police.”

  Kaori looked at him, stunned. Noi was a fun loving guy and behaved so informally… but of course, he wasn’t “just one of the guys”, or he would never have been in charge of a major event in the heart of the capital city.

  “I came to Thailand for a reason, you know?” Ma?l added with a smile.

  “Girls?” she said, tongue in cheek.

  Ma?l turned a nice shade of crimson.

  “Just the one.” he said, looking directly in her eyes.

  “And don’t you forget it, Ma?l-San!”