Page 42 of Selling Innocence

Hayden sped the car off just as the sirens blared in the background, the sound like a reminder that this had been real.

Sure, I’d understood I was in danger, but it hadn’t hit home before. It had felt like some distant worry, with this Lorien person not even seeming real. I knew differently, now.

Worse, it wasn’t just my life on the line. I thought about the man who died, the bystanders who could have been hurt, the two men who had protected me.

So many lives in the balance and for what? I took a deep breath, wishing it shocked me more, that this was the first time I’d been in this position.

Instead, it just felt like the suffocating cage that I’d always existed in. It seemed like it didn’t matter what happened, how far I went, I was always going to find myself locked in here.

* * * *

Hayden

Kenz had said nothing on the way back to the house. I would have preferred to check her for injuries there, to reassure her, but all my attention went to ensuring we didn’t have a tail. While taking care of her emotions was important, it wouldn’t matter if she was killed.

Now inside the house, safe from prying eyes, I had Kenz wait in her room as I checked in with Tor.

A text back and forth let me know the police had arrived, but they knew nothing. Tor had snuck into the local shops and erased their camera footage to ensure we weren’t caught there. People ran away when it came to violence, which meant the odds of anyone getting a clear look at us was slim.

Even if anyone had, they’d know we weren’t the aggressors.

My old life would have had me reaching out to the police, to explain the situation, but now?

That wasn’t the life I had, not right anymore, not for this. It was far too personal and much too dangerous.

Vance was still out—who knew where—and Char was meeting with contacts. Tor would remain out of sight, at the place of the attack, to see if anyone showed back up there.

It left Kenz and I alone for the evening.

I carried a warm sugar-free chai latte in one hand and a package of graham crackers in the other. My knuckles struck the door, knocking softly so as not to startle her.

Most people, after living through something like that, crashed. I expected to walk in and find Kenz a mess.

Thus the warm drink and carbs.

“Come in.” Her strong voice took me by surprise.

I entered the room, leaving the door open behind me. Kenz sat at the desk, her planner open, her pen sliding across the page smoothly.

She glanced over her shoulder, taking notice of what I’d brought. “I’m not hungry.” She turned back to the journal.

“People tend to crash after things like that. Some food can help that not happen.” I set the items on the desk beside her instead of giving her another chance to refuse. My job was doing what a client needed, no matter how they felt about it.

“I’m not about to crash. You don’t need to worry so much.”

I sat at the end of her bed, making it clear I wasn’t going anywhere until we spoke. “I had a client, a singer, who was getting stalked by a crazy fan. The man jumped out of the shadows and grabbed her arm, trying to yank her into the bushes. I saved her and apprehended the stalker, who got arrested. She said she was fine, so I left her be.”

I took a deep breath as the memories of that night came back to me, the way the girl had looked fine. “The next morning, she didn’t get up on time. When I went in to wake her up, I found her unconscious with an empty bottle of pills beside her. That attack had been the last straw for her. Even though she survived it, it had made her feel hopeless, and I hadn’t seen it. The ambulance got there in time, and she pulled through, but I learned my lesson. I’d trusted that she told me the truth, that she was okay. I won’t make that mistake again.”

Kenz sighed and set her pen down. “I appreciate that, but that girl isn’t me. I really am fine.”

“It’s okay to be upset, to freak out. Anyone in your position would after going through something like that. You don’t have to pretend to be okay, especially not in front of me.”

“Do you really think that’s the first time I’ve been attacked? That it’s the first corpse I’ve seen?” She twisted, and her expression chilled me to my core.

I’d expected her upset, even frantic, especially since she took anti-anxiety meds. People who took those weren’t usually the steadiest, after all. Instead, here she was, appearing entirely unbothered by what she’d just gone through. It took me so by surprise that no words came to me, nothing to help me make sense of this.

She didn’t raise her voice, didn’t yell. In fact, she spoke with such an even tone that it seemed what happened hadn’t touched her at all. “You really don’t know me at all, do you? You all laugh at me for being naïve and young, but you know nothing about me. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen someone die, that I’ve walked away from something knowing it had been close, that I’d almost been the body on the floor. So if you’re here to reassure me or because you think I’m going to break down…”

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