Ava's POV
The bat hit the floor.
She heard it the clatter of it on cheap motel carpet and then everything happened in the space between one second and the next.
Leo moved first. He had been waiting for exactly this, she understood that, had been holding himself in the one available position and conserving the one available moment and when the bat came down he used both. He got out from under Mark's weight with the economy of someone who had trained for exactly this geometry and came up with his good hand already moving.
But Mark was fast.
She kept forgetting that. Kept constructing him in her mind as large and slow because large and slow was easier to not be afraid of, but the truth was he was a professional athlete at the top of his physical life and when Leo came up Mark was already turning, already adjusting, already bringing his full weight to bear in the new configuration.
Leo hit the wall again.
