“Aikido?”

“Yeah,” Rachel said.

“Nice,” Adam replied. “What else happened during the attack?”

“Not much,” she said. “I pushed him into a wall and then—well, then I ran here.” Rachel took another sip from her glass and ran her fingers along her coat sleeve until they encountered a cut in the fabric.

Cut?

Her movement drew Adam’s attention, and his expression darkened.

“You are hurt.”

Sure enough, when she looked, she found her attacker’s knife had sliced through her coat and nicked the skin. Until a minute ago, she hadn’t even realized it. Now, the cut stung. She shrugged. “It’s only a scratch.”

“A scratch that bled quite a bit.” He stood. “Wait here. I’ll get a first aid kit.”

He left her there in the kitchen for an inordinately long time, and for a while, she passively waited. But once her water was finished, and her purse mess tidied, and Adam still hadn’t returned, well? Her curiosity got the better of her.

Slipping off the stool, Rachel left the kitchen. In the hall, there were some stairs and straight ahead, the room with the blue mats. Figuring Adam had gone there to get a first aid kit, Rachel headed that way, intent on saving him the trip back to the kitchen.

Walking into the room, she stumbled to a halt. Oh, wow, she mouthed. The exercise room appeared to be a converted warehouse nearly a city block long and was filled with everything a human-turned-squirrel could ever want.

Along one wall was a pair of faux buildings, complete with roofs, balconies, windows, and doors. There was a foam pit underneath each balcony, obviously placed there for safety, as well as drain pipes running up the side of the buildings, several sets of stairs, and Rachel even saw a concrete sidewalk with a few fake trees set into the ground. Between her and the urban landscape were the blue exercise mats she’d seen from the hallway.

What did this place teach?

Glancing around, Rachel looked for some marker, some identifier, to let her know what she was looking at, but there wasn’t even a front desk. Turning, she went back the way she came and stopped at the stairs. Adam hadn’t been in the exercise room, so he had to be up there. Offices? she wondered. She took a step, then another, but stopped when she heard his voice.

His agitated voice.

She paused and listened with curiosity to his conversation.

“Dar—No! She’s a random civilian and doesn’t need to come in. She didn’t see anything.” Adam was clearly talking about her, but why, and why did it sound like he was getting a dressing down from a superior. Adam had been cordial—even if a bit odd—and they’d done nothing, as far as she could tell, that would warrant his defensiveness or a report to a manager, for that matter, even if her arrival was after hours.

Rachel strained to hear more.

“I am not compromised. She is not one of the Org…” The Org? Okay, Rachel’s weird-o-meter ticked up another notch.

Again, she lost the rest of his sentence as he moved away from her position and since Rachel didn’t hear anyone else up there with Adam, she concluded he must be pacing while on the phone.

As the silence dragged on, she began to think Adam had concluded his call, but then he said, “They are going to find me soon and I need to get back into the game. I want a target. When will you reinstate me?”

Reinstate? Target? Like the military? Rachel shook her head. I shouldn’t be hearing any of this, she thought, and her heartbeat chose that moment to ratchet up. Her palms grew moist with sweat, and it wasn’t only due to the failed attack of earlier. Something was seriously “off” with this Adam guy. Maybe he was a serial killer or some unhinged conspiracy theorist.

Adam’s steps drew closer, and her eyes darted around the hallway; getting caught eavesdropping wasn’t an option. She hadn’t understood half of what she’d overheard, but she knew she couldn’t be caught listening in. Rachel felt as if her very life depended on it.

The sound of footsteps nearly at the top of the landing snapped her out of her thoughts, and there was no more time to retreat all the way back to the kitchen. Fortunately, a bathroom was a lot closer to her current position.

Heart hammering in her chest, she hustled toward it and slipped inside. Now that she was here, she might as well use it.

After she finished, she made sure to turn the sink’s tap open all the way. The sound of running water was unmistakable, but it at least gave an excuse for her being out of the kitchen. A second later, a knock on the door confirmed Adam was coming to check on her.

“Rachel?”

“Yeah,” she replied and winced. Her voice had quivered, and she sounded guilty.

“Are you feeling unwell?”

Rachel splashed some water on her cheeks before she turned off the faucet. After drying her face, she opened the door to find Adam on the other side, first aid kit in hand.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I know you told me to stay in the kitchen, but you were taking a long time and I needed to use the bathroom.” She gave him a sheepish smile and she didn’t know if he believed her, but after a moment of intense staring, he nodded slowly.

“I had a call to make,” he said. “It lasted longer than I had planned.” He shook the kit and indicated she should follow him. “Let me patch you up.”

As she followed, Rachel took off her coat and laid it on the counter next to her purse while Adam grabbed a washcloth. He ran it under water before handing it to her, so she could clean her cut. The warmth of the wet towel soothed the sting of her raw skin.

“How long have you been doing aikido?” he asked her as he checked out her arm.

“Since I was ten. Some bullies attacked me, and my mom thought it would be a good idea for me to be able to deck an attacker and then outrun them,” she said with a chuckle. As Rachel spoke, Adam removed the washcloth and gently rubbed the ointment on her cut before checking the placement of the gauze and taping it down. Her heart fluttered at the contact and she felt a blush creep up her cheeks. “I’ve been going once a week ever since.”

“You earn your black belt yet?”

“No. Nidan second dan,” she replied. “It will take many more years before I master all the levels.”

“Not an easy discipline,” he remarked.

The way he said that, made her curious. It was almost as if he knew the martial art himself. She didn’t think that was what the studio taught, but maybe it did. Only one way to find out. “So… what do you teach here?” she asked.

Adam opened a drawer and pulled out a piece of paper. Handing it to her, Rachel read Gateway Parkour on the top of a simple pamphlet. “Parkour?” she asked. “Like free-running?”

“Yes.”

Huh. Maybe she’d sign up. “Can I keep this?”

“Yes,” he replied, a corner of his lip turned up in a cocky smile. “We’re accepting new students for the upcoming session.”

“Great,” she murmured, tucking the brochure into her purse and grabbing for her phone, she swiped the screen to find the time and was surprised to see that less than forty-five minutes had passed from when she’d been attacked until now. She wondered if it was too late to call the police.

“At this point, it’ll be futile,” Adam said.

“I’m sorry?”

“Calling the police,” Adam clarified. How did he know? “I’m sure your attacker is long gone. Besides, you didn’t even get a clear look at him. Seems pointless to call them now.”

“But—” she started to protest but then sighed, filing a report at this point probably wouldn’t yield a positive result. Besides, she didn’t relish the idea of losing the rest of her evening dealing with the police. In the end, she agreed, defeated. “You’re probably right.” Standing, she slipped her coat back on and grabbed her purse. “Thanks for the bandage and your time. Maybe I’ll see you around.”

Adam nodded and followed her to the door. “You okay? Need a ride?”

Rachel waved away his concern. “I’ll be fine. Like you said, that guy’s probably long gone by now and the MetroLink station’s only a few blocks away from here.”

“Well, if you’re sure.”

“I am,” Rachel reiterated, stepping through the door. “And thank you again,” she said over her shoulder as she resumed her trek home.

*****If you like Innocence, please add it to your library!