"They were gone," he guessed.
"No," she snorted, shaking her head. "They were waiting for me to wake up. They obviously had no problem with rape but I guess I had to be conscious for it. Guys like that, they like a fight."
"Sweetheart..."
She shook her head, shook off his sympathy. "One of them had me down, he had my shirt up and my bra down and his hand was slipping under the waistband of my pants. But then the guy my mother mentioned before, the one sitting in the car, I guess he got tired of waiting. He came in and froze for a second, taking everything in. Then he was screaming at them and they all begrudgingly left, but not before one of them took a boot to my temple again."
"Did the cops ever..."
"The next day," she said, brushing off a line of questioning that was none of his business, "I walked into Axe's Self-Defense and I demanded they train me. And I trained my ass off. Once I was good enough, I volunteered at every women's shelter in the city and at the Y. I wanted to make sure I could prevent as much damage as possible."
His arm folded around her waist, pulling her tightly against him as his other hand folded across the upper part of his chest and his lips pressed a kiss into the side of her head.
"I think I get you now, baby," he murmured and her belly did a little flip at the words.
He got her.
She was pretty sure no one she had ever met had ever gotten her before.
"Your mom?" he prompted, his face ducking down and nuzzling into her neck. There was nothing sexual about it either. It was just sweet, comforting, intimate.
"She survived," Faith said, and that was about all she was willing to say about that.
"And you became some kind of badass, butt kicking, takes no shit from no one, warrior goddess."
"'Goddess' is really pushing the line of cheesy there, Danny-boy," she teased, trying to lighten a very heavy mood.
"Daniel," he corrected, squeezing her tighter when she tried to jolt away.
"What?"
"Daniel. My name is Daniel," he said, further proving his resume and all his credentials were fake. His official paperwork had his name listed as Danny. "Someone once told me that Danny was the name of a five year old boy," he added with a smirk.
There was never a better time, she decided with a sinking feeling. She didn't want to ask. She didn't want to confront him. But she gave him something real about her. He owed her something real about him.
"Daniel, why does..."
"Faith, we have another class in five," the girl from the front desk called after rapping on the door twice.
"Right. I'm coming. Sorry, I just needed to change," she lied as Daniel seemed to begrudgingly release her and step back.
She threw on her shirt and jacket over her workout top and opened the door, going out like it wasn't somewhat suspicious that she was locked away in the bathroom with a man.
If they wanted to think they were fucking in there, so be it.
If they thought her neat hair, not sweaty body, and un-flushed cheeks spoke of a good romp, then they were idiots and she didn't give a damn what idiots thought.
"Faith," Daniel called as he caught up with her on the street out front.
"It's broad daylight, Daniel. I don't need a walk home," she said, shivering slightly against the cool air.
"What were you going to ask me in there?" he asked instead.
Faith exhaled, looking around at the street.
The moment was gone.
It didn't feel right to ask him in crushing foot traffic in the middle of the sidewalk.
"It doesn't matter," she lied with a shrug. "I'll see you at work," she added for good measure as she brushed past him and walked a little faster than necessary away from him.
NINE
Danny
He went back to his apartment with way too much rolling around his head.
First, if he wasn't mistaken, the shift the night before had Faith watching him. For the most part, that was nothing new. She had been keeping a too-close eye on him since he started. At first, he figured, because she wanted to make sure he was doing his job well. Then after that because she was equally annoyed by and attracted to him. But this was different. If he didn't know any better, he would say she was onto him. She seemed almost... suspicious.
And that, well, it wasn't fucking good.
He needed to know why she was suddenly suspicious.
Was it just because she had decided to open up to him? Because he could handle that. While his intentions at Lam might not have been what they appeared on the surface, his intentions toward Faith were sincere. He had no plans to fuck her over.
From the looks of it, she wouldn't have let him get away with that anyway.
It was just fucking serendipitous that when he walked down the hall of his gym toward the locker room, he caught sight of a self-defense class. Having had training himself, he had stopped to check out the technique of the instructors. He saw first the latino guy- tall, strong, with practiced, easy moves as he lifted a girl up from behind by the throat.