Page 11 of Twilight Tactics

“That’s really cool.” Ollie frowned. “In a weird kind of way. What else?”

“Um ... well, I had to learn how to defend myself, of course. Dad was trained as a black belt in various forms of martial arts, and he taught me and my sister.”

Ollie’s eyes widened. “So you’re a black belt?”

“I am.”

Piper came into the great room area. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to interrupt. I just came to scrounge for some food and something to drink.”

Ollie motioned to the leftovers in front of her. “Help yourself.”

“Or there’s some chicken salad,” Elena said, “cooked burger patties, and a rotisserie chicken in there if you need something with more sustenance.”

“A chicken salad sandwich sounds lovely, thanks.”

Ollie snorted. “Sully didn’t tell me about that stuff.”

Piper rolled her eyes. “Men. He probably didn’t notice.”

The woman busied herself making the sandwich, and Elena stood. “We’ll start tomorrow if you like,” she said to Ollie.

“I like.”

“Start what?” Piper asked, turning from the refrigerator to look at them.

“I want to learn to defend myself,” Ollie said. “Elena’s a black belt and is going to teach me.”

“Oh. How nice.” She hesitated and frowned at Ollie. “You think that’s a good idea, what with—”

“It’s a good idea,” Ollie said with a thread of steel in her tone.

Elena caught the undercurrent of words left unsaid but had no idea what it was about.

Piper nodded and looked at Elena. “You’re very kind.”

Elena gave a small shrug. “It’s what I do here with some of the vets. You wouldn’t think guys who’ve fought in wars would need help building confidence, but they do.”

“I can see that. Let me know if I can help. I’m not a black belt, but I am trained in self-defense.”

“I’ll do that.”

“Great. I’m going to eat and then do a little perimeter patrol.”

“Felicity Bowman has a kennel here where she trains dogs.Some are being trained for intruder protection, so that could be an option.”

“That would help, but the dogs can’t be everywhere.”

“True enough. Then have at it.”

Piper gave a small smile, grabbed her plate of food, and walked into the great room.

Ollie snapped her head toward Elena. “Wait a minute. Dogs?”

“Felicity was in the military and used to train dogs for things like sniffing out bombs, search and rescue, patrol, and so on. Now she does the same thing here and gives a portion of the sales of the dogs to the ranch.”

“That’s incredibly cool.”

“I think so too.”