Page 26 of Selling Innocence

Tor

Kenz’s apartment was both what I expected and what I hadn’t. It amazed me how she challenged my preconceived notions while also living right up to them.

“Nice place.” Hayden whistled low as he peered around the large penthouse apartment. It fit perfectly with the idea of her being some rich, spoiled brat who lived off her father’s estate. The views were fantastic, even during the day. After sunset, I would bet it all lit up, sparkling as bright as the night sky.

It was the sort of place that cost millions, though from what we could find, she didn’t own it. Instead, she rented it. The bank records Char had managed to get showed five thousand dollars rent paid on the first of every month to a rental agency, the payments made automatically.

It all seemed above board, even if the apartment itself was far more than a kid her age needed.

It had four bedrooms and five baths, according to the records online. The furniture was nice, but it all matched perfectly. Either she’d rented it furnished or she had a decorator to pick out pieces like that.

I pulled at the coat I wore, disliking the uniform. I’d worked jobs that didn’t require uniforms like that, which meant it chafed. Still, I knew exactly how useful a good costume was when it came to getting into places I wasn’t supposed to be.

Such as Kenz’s apartment without her. A tan jacket with the name of a repair company worked wonderfully to make people look the other way.

Hayden walked into the space with more comfort than I had. Then again, he had more experience dealing with others, with spending time in close proximity to them. As a bodyguard, Hayden had to often spend time in the homes of others.

Me, though? I rarely interacted with others beyond the absolute minimum necessary. I didn’t enter a home unless I intended to kill the person in it, for the most part.

Which left me with a strange sense of unease in Kenz’s living room.

It felt like signing Kenz’s death, as though by my presence in her home, I’d marked her in some way.

I shook off the sensation, needing to focus on our task.

With Kenz at the school, all eyes should be there. It gave us a great chance to check out her place, to see if there was anything we needed here, any clues as to why Lorien wanted her.

Hayden started in the living room, immediately opening drawers and cabinets without the least bit of hesitation. Since he had this area worked out, I headed for the hallway.

As far as I understood, Kenz lived alone. The penthouse took up half of the top floor, which meant only her one neighbor shared the hallway. It limited the number of people who would notice guests.

From what we had found out, she didn’t have friends come over. The people she knew at school, from her job, had never come to her place. However, the lobby security notes did show visitors from time to time. Those visitors did not sign in with names as everyone else did, telling me they held some amount of sway to convince security to let that pass.

It made me uneasy, wondering why they had come, how she knew them and just who they were.

I opened the first door, frowning when I found an empty room.

No bed, no dresser, no desk. It appeared by all accounts that no one used this room. The closet had no belongings and the bathroom showed no signs of use.

If the place had been furnished, they would have put things in the extra rooms, right?

When I couldn’t figure it out, I went to the next room. The same store repeated in three of the bedrooms—empty.

It wasn’t until I went to the first door on the other side of the hallway that I found anything. Inside was a bedroom that brought me up short.

It looked like the room of a teenager…

Never had Kenz seemed quite so young as she did when I looked in here. A large bed sat in the middle of the room with a pink comforter, the bed unmade and messy, as though she’d gotten up in the middle of the night and never made it back.

Then again, that’s exactly what happened, isn’t it?

The bed had a white lace canopy over it, with strings of lights that ran along the fabric.

A fluffy white rug sat on the floor, though it showed signs of use. This room didn’t fit the rest of the apartment in the least.

A reluctance kept me at the threshold, some knowledge that I didn’t belong in a space like this at all.

I certainly wouldn’t have pegged Kenz as the sort of woman to have a room so comfortable.

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