Lisa Harper walked across the Crossroads Crisis Center exercise studio to Kelly Walker. “In that position, he’ll attack you from the left. You need to be able to pivot and get your arm up. Then when he does attack, you twist and bring your arm down. That will break his hold.” She hiked her leg and feigned a kick to Kelly’s right knee. “Pop his kneecap and he’s down. You can get away.”Sweat-drenched, Lisa dabbed at her face with her sleeve and shoved strands of damp hair that had escaped her ponytail away from her eyes. She addressed the twenty-four students in her self-defense class: all women-in-jeopardy from people who wanted them hurt or dead. Her chest went tight. “Everybody got that?”Some mumbled, Kelly nodded, and Melanie Ross, the Crossroads Crisis Center receptionist, groaned. “Not me,” Mel said. “Not yet. Can you show us again?”If it would help, Lisa would show them fifty more times. “Sure.” Movement from the door caught her eye, and she glanced over just as Mark walked in with a man she didn’t recognize.
