Answer me when I'm talking to you," Derek demanded. Marcus finally looked up, meeting Derek's eyes with steady calm. "You're teaching him wrong." "That defense will get him hurt." The room erupted in murmurs.
Derek's face flushed red with embarrassment and rage. He'd just been challenged publicly by the help in front of paying customers who expected him to be the unquestioned authority. "Wrong!" Derek laughed, but there was no humor in it. 20 years of training and you think you know better.
I know that keeping your chin up in a choke is suicide, Marcus said quietly. Derek's humiliation was complete. His students were looking at him differently now, questions forming in their eyes. He needed to destroy this challenge immediately and permanently. "Fine, show us your expert technique."
Derek pointed at the heavy bag. Demonstrate proper form for the class. Marcus shook his head. "I just clean here." "I'm ordering you to demonstrate."
Unless you're admitting you don't know what you're talking about. The trap was perfect. Refuse and look like a fraud. Comply and reveal himself. Marcus looked around the room at Tyler's confused face at Sarah's worried expression at the students holding their phones.
He walked to the heavy bag and dropped his mop. What happened next would change everything. Marcus' first combination flowed like water. A perfect jab, cross hook sequence that snapped the 100 lb bag back 3 ft. The chain groaned under the impact.
His footwork was textbook perfect, his form flawless. The second combination nearly tore the bag from its mounting. Dead silence filled the gym. Derek's mouth hung open. Tyler's eyes widened in recognition.
This was how real fighters moved. Marcus stepped back immediately, regretting his decision. Derek's face had gone from red to purple, his humiliation complete and public. "Don't ever disrespect me in my own gym again," Derek whispered, his voice shaking with rage. "Or you'll be looking for a new job tomorrow."
But they both knew the damage was done. The students had seen something that would haunt Derek's nightmares. Proof that the janitor knew more about fighting than their expensive instructor. Derek Stone spent that entire night researching Marcus Williams on every database he could access. By dawn, he'd found fragments of a story that made his blood run cold.