Page 73 of Selling Innocence

Tor

Kenz was unsettled. The way she avoided my gaze and fidgeted, twisting the silver rings, on her fingers made it clear.

I wasn’t sure what had happened inside the office, between Kenz and her student advisor, but whatever it was, didn’t seem to sit well with her.

Then again, she had a lot going on. Her entire life had changed over the course of a few weeks. She lived with four men she didn’t know, virtual strangers to her, and had no freedom or privacy from us. She couldn’t leave alone, couldn’t go anywhere without a shadow. Danger plagued her, and she wasn’t foolish enough to not know it. On top of all of that, she had an important event in school coming up.

That sort of stress would wear on a person, and the bags under her eyes said she struggled.

“Where are we going?” Kenz sat up straighter, peering around when I took a left instead of the normal right. Tension lined her features, fear bleeding into the expression.

Right. She might worry it’s a threat.

I reached over and took her hand, squeezing gently to reassure her.

She let out a shaky breath, suggesting she’d understood the gesture for what it was.

I steered the car through the smaller streets. In my experience, stress was best dealt with through physical exertion. There was nothing better for sleep than a good workout, and from what I’d seen, Kenz had had little chance to work out the nervous energy inside her.

The small parking lot had many open spaces, and I pulled the car into one of them. Once I’d turned the ignition off and removed the key, I got out.

Kenz followed suit, not asking me again what we were doing. At least she didn’t appear fearful. She walked beside me, trusting me as we went.

I didn’t think I’d ever had a person trust me like that, someone willing to follow a man like me in the dark without knowing where we headed.

Her gaze lifted to the lit sign above the front door. “Steel Self-Defense?”

I nodded and tucked my hands into the pockets of my jacket. Through the large glass windows, a class of students worked out on the large mats inside.

I held the door open for Kenz, and when we stepped inside, the young man behind the counter smiled.

“Tor! I didn’t know you’d be here today.”

I nodded in acknowledgment, then scanned my card at the reader on the desk to check in.

“Who’s this?” the man asked, grinning as he looked Kenz up and down.

It wasn’t an appreciative look, one that made me want to warn him off. Instead, he seemed pleased that I had brought someone along with me, like an old woman thrilled her grandson finally brought a girl home.

I didn’t think I appreciated that sort of reaction.

“My name is Kenz.” Kenz put her hand out, that sweetness that was so much a part of her capable of winning over the hardest of hearts.

The man shook hands. “Tor never brings anyone. Usually, he just comes here to work out. Sometimes he’ll run classes for us if we’re short, but he never really spends any time around people. To be honest, I was starting to think he was antisocial.”

Kenz laughed, and already some of the tension she had melted. “He’s a little antisocial,” she whispered as if it were a secret. “But honestly, I have no idea why I’m here.”

“Sounds about like him.” The man peered at the class, then back to us. “We’ve got back-to-back classes today, so the main floor is full. Are you wanting to join?”

I shook my head. The last thing I would allow was for Kenz to practice or spar with amateurs. She might end up hurt, and I was far from okay with that.

The man took one look at my expression and laughed. “A little protective, are we? Well, private room three is open. Why don’t you use that?”

I nodded and let his comment go, because what was the point in arguing over that? Especially because he was right…

Anyone else and I would have seen sparring as a necessary risk. A stray punch or kick were part of the reality. Why then was it that imaging Kenz in such a situation made my hands clench into fists?

The man typed into his computer, the keyboard noisy as he clicked the keys. “Okay, you’re all signed in. You’ve got the room until we close.” He smirked, then added on, “and don’t worry, no one will bother you.”

---