"What do you want it from me?" she screamed out.
"Leave her alone now, Mister," Henry said in a low but confident tone.
The troublemaker turned his face to Henry, still holding Cara by the arm. He pushed Cara away to the machine and took a short step back.
He tilted his neck to the left and stared at Henry with a crooked smile. "So what are you going to do, man? Beat me up? Or are you gonna beat us all up?" he said, taking a brief glance at his men who had now arrived behind him. They stood side by side on a straight line, exactly a metre behind him.
Henry hurried to Cara and helped her stand well, then he held her hand and helped her turn to the other side of the machine.
"Please let us go," Cara pleaded in a shaky voice as she stared at the five men standing at the other side of the machine.
"No, I would like to see what your strong man would want to do to us." the troublemaker replied.
Henry remained silent.
Cara was greatly afraid. She looked at the men faces and could see they really meant business. The face of one of the men behind the main troublemaker looked somehow familiar and she did not take much time to think before she recalled several occasions when she had seen him and Tom discussing when she came with Tom to this same fitness centre. That was months ago when she first started her workout program, but she had totally forgotten his face until now. She realised that they were in a big mess. The men seemed to be Tom's friends and had heard from him how Henry took him out. They probably wanted to get revenge for their friend.
"Please, let us go. I promise he doesn't want any trouble with you guys." Cara pleaded again.
The men were unwilling to listen. They all shook their heads in a negative way and began to move their fists and muscles in preparation for a fight.
"Someone, help, please. Where are the officials around?" Cara screamed out loud but saw no one around.
The men appeared more confident on seeing Cara so afraid, and they began to move their muscles and straighten their fists for a fight.
Henry still remained silent. His face was expressionless, and no one could tell what was on his mind.
"Please, we don't want any trouble with you. Let us go, please. " Cara was almost crying now.
"Your man isn't talking, I guess he wants to show us the stuff he's made off." the main troublemaker said, smiling devilishly at Henry.
Henry reacted for the first time. The skin on his forehead squeezed as he closed his eyes for some seconds and opened it, letting out a deep breath.
He had a strange feeling and he couldn't understand what it was. All five of the men before him were muscular and almost the same height as him. One of them was slightly taller about an inch. These men were his match in terms of size, and there was no doubt that they were also strong men. He realised he was afraid of what would happen, not afraid of being beaten up by the men but afraid of anything happening to Cara, especially if they were men from his past.
"Please let us go," Henry finally spoke. "We don't want trouble from anyone, I beg you."
"Hahaha," the men jeered.
"So your man is a sissy, he cannot even protect a woman." the trouble maker spoke. "We are going to teach him some lessons today."
Cara realised that the men's minds were made up to involve them in a fight and it was obvious that a combo of her who was just trying to build strength and Henry were no match for the heavily built men. She reached for the bag in Henry's hand to attempt her final hope of avoiding trouble. She took out her phone and quickly unlocked it, hoping to dial a number quickly.
"She wants to make calls right in front of us?" the leader of the trouble makers said in a loud voice and proceeded forward to walk past the stationary bicycle. Cara moved back in fear, and he tried to follow and grab her, but Henry stepped in his way and landed him a quick blow on his cheek.
The blow was unexpected due to Henry's plea a minute ago, it caught the rest of the four men in surprise as they watched saliva being splattered out from their leader's mouth as he staggered back from the impact of the blow.
The impact of the blow was more than what the treblemakers' leader had anticipated. It felt at first as if his head had fallen off his neck and was now replaced by a big heavy rock. His vision also turned blurry, and he began to see stars.
Cara, who had taken only two steps back, was also shocked to see Henry hit the man so hard. She paused with her phone for a moment and saw as the other four men rushed towards Henry one after the other in a rage. She knew Henry had stepped beyond his limits, and there was no way he wasn't going to get beaten. She walked further backwards as she scrolled through her contacts to find a number.
"Henry, I need to learn how to fight like you." Cara continued with her demonstration as they stepped into the living room.
Henry smiled. He moved close to her and lifted her in his arms. She shouted in surprise at the ease with which he lifted her. He dropped her on the one-seater sofa and stood in front of her.
"Why did you do that?" She asked, raising her brows and feigning anger even though she enjoyed the comfort of his arms.
"Can we discuss something more serious now?" He said with a partially serious tone, the smile on his face gradually disappearing.
"What?" She yelled. "What serious discussion are you talking about?"
"Before we keep on rejoicing about beating those guys at the centre. Do you know who they are or why they attacked us?"
She inhaled and exhaled deeply, still keeping her eyes on his face. "I've only seen one of them before. He's Tom's friend."
"Tom's friend?"
Cara nodded.
"Let's go, Cara," he said as he stepped out from the middle of the groaning men.
He opened his palm wide for Cara to hold, and she put her palms in his as he led her out of the workout centre.
Cara couldn't keep to herself all through the five minutes journey in the cab back home, she kept talking excitedly about how she watched up kick their butts and dealt them jabs, blows, uppercuts and kicks, making Henry laugh hard at her demonstrations and facial expressions. The cab stopped at the front of the gate, and Henry had to pull her out gently as she kept demonstrating without stepping out.
"Whoops! Uppercut, rolling kick, jaw breaks," Cara kept on with her demonstration after they stepped into the compound, now squatting like a Kung Fu fighter.
"Hahaha," Henry laughed out loud as he looked back and saw her performing at the gate.
She ran to meet up with him and clung to his arm as they both walked into the house.
They left the security men and other workers in the compound with something to gossip about. The workers had not seen their boss so excited in a long time.