Chapter 7 - The Cornered WolfThe fall of Cole Industries was swift and merciless. Within twenty-four hours of my press conference, the federal authorities had frozen all corporate assets, and the city’s building inspectors had issued a mandatory halt on all of their construction projects. The stock value of the company plummeted to near-zero, and their board of directors began resigning in a panic.
But a cornered wolf is always the most dangerous.
On Friday evening, I was training alone in my father’s dojo back in the city. The space was quiet, smelling of worn canvas and floor wax, the only light coming from the streetlamps outside the large glass windows. I was practicing my kata, the repetitive, fluid movements of the martial art offering a welcome sense of focus and calm.
Suddenly, the heavy glass door of the dojo slid open, the brass chime ringing softly.
I didn't stop my movement. I completed the strike, turned slowly, and looked toward the entrance.
Adrian Cole stood there, his navy blue blazer rumpled, his hair disheveled, his eyes wild and bloodshot. He had removed his arm from the sling, but his right shoulder was still stiff, his hand resting near the pocket of his jacket.
"Elena," he spat, his voice shaking with a mixture of desperate rage and exhaustion. "You think you’re so clever, don't you? You think you've won because you destroyed my family's company."
"I didn't destroy your company, Adrian," I said, standing in a relaxed, open stance in the center of the mat. "Your mother's greed did. I simply showed the world the receipts."
"You ruined my life!" he screamed, taking a step onto the mat. "The feds are at my house. My mother is being questioned by the grand jury. I have nothing left!"
"You have your freedom, Adrian," I said coldly. "For now. I suggest you enjoy it before the indictment is handed down."
"I'm not going to prison, Elena," he whispered, a terrifying, manic smile spreading across his face. He pulled his right hand from his jacket pocket, revealing a heavy silver revolver. "And you're not going to testify."
I looked at the weapon, my heart rate remaining steady, my breathing deep and controlled. My father had always taught me that a weapon is only as dangerous as the mind behind it. Adrian’s hand was shaking, his stance was unstable, and his eyes were frantic. He was terrified.
"You can't shoot me, Adrian," I said, my voice calm and completely steady. "The dojo is surrounded by security cameras. If you pull that trigger, you won't be going to a comfortable federal prison for fraud. You will be going to a state penitentiary for first-degree murder. And your mother’s lawyers won't be able to save you."
"I don't care!" he shrieked, raising the gun, his finger tightening around the trigger.
Before he could pull it, I lunged forward with explosive speed.
It was a shotokan strike—a lightning-fast, linear movement that caught his wrist before his brain could register the change in distance. I twisted his hand outward, forcing the barrel of the gun toward the ceiling, and drove a powerful palm strike straight into his jaw.
Crack.
The impact was clean, his head snapping back as the revolver slipped from his fingers, clattering onto the wooden floor. I swept his legs, pinned his chest with my knee, and locked his right arm behind his back, exactly as I had done on our wedding night.
"Rule one, Adrian," I whispered in his ear as he groaned in pain on the mat. "Never bring a gun to a fight with a woman who knows exactly how to disarm you."
The blue and red lights of police cruisers suddenly began flashing against the dojo's glass windows. Maya stepped through the door, flanked by three uniformed officers, their weapons drawn.
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"Get off him, Elena," Maya said, a proud, satisfied smile on her face. "We’ve got him. He’s going under pre-trial confinement for attempted murder and assault."
As the officers hauled the weeping, broken Adrian away in handcuffs, I picked up the silver revolver from the floor and handed it to Maya. The cornered wolf had been caught, and the final piece of the puzzle was about to fall into place.
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