Page 10 of Fighting Fate (Monsters of London #4)
Vince
Six months later.
The young woman in front of me is practically vibrating with excitement as I show her what to do. I bite back a smile. It’s not her I need to focus on. The sounds of the self-defence class I’m teaching echo around the community centre, and they’re making her companion, a guy in his late twenties, flinch.
“Okay, Enza, come here,” I say to her. She moves closer, dark ponytail swishing as she looks between me and her friend, Silas. He just about whispered his name when I asked for it. “You’re going to be the assailant, okay?”
“She is?” Silas frowns at me.
He’s got nothing on me in terms of muscle, but Enza’s a tiny slip of a thing, so he’s bigger than her. But he’s also far more nervous. He pushes his braids back from his face with a faintly trembling hand.
“Yeah,” I say, with what I hope is a reassuring smile. “Hold out your arms for me?”
Silas does as he’s told, though not without shooting me a wary look first. Enza bounces from foot to foot next to me, gaze darting between Silas’ and my faces.
“Okay. This isn’t what I’d usually cover in the first session, but we can go through some of the other basics later. And, you’re right, Enza’s physically smaller, so some of the stuff I’d teach her, I’d have to show you with someone else.”
Silas nods like he understands.
“You remember what I showed you before?” I just demonstrated how to break out of a wrist hold with Annie, one of the women who comes to my classes every week. Silas was standing at the back at the time, so I’m not sure how closely he followed the movements.
“Kind of.”
“Okay. Enza?”
She takes hold of his wrists exactly as I ask her to, and Silas at least doesn’t seem more nervous when she does. I walk them through the move, taking it slowly at first, before I encourage Silas to try again, only faster.
By the time the class is over, he’s just about got it. I don’t know how useful the move will be for him, but he smiles when I tell him he’s done a good job.
“Thanks.” His teeth flash white against his dark skin when he smiles, and I don’t hesitate to return it.
He’s cute enough, if way too nervous for someone like me. He’s got Enza, though, who tucks her arm through his. “We can practise later, can’t we?”
Silas laughs quietly. “Yeah, sure. You need to learn it more than I do.”
She shakes her head. “You say that like I’m always getting into trouble.”
I leave them to their bickering and wrap up the end of the class. Annie always stays, too, to help me put the mats away, but we’re a while into it before I notice that Enza and Silas haven’t left yet.
They’re talking to someone—someone I can’t see from the angle I’m at. I take another mat from Annie and shove it into the small storeroom at the back. “I think that’s it,” I say.
“See you next week?”
“Yeah, of course.”
She smiles and leaves, saying a quiet goodbye to Enza and Silas as she does. I look up then and realise I recognise the man they’re speaking to.
Kieran?
I scowl, crossing my arms over my chest. Kieran meets my gaze and gives me a rueful smile.
Oh, absolutely not. He’s not getting away with it that easily.
He says something else to Enza and Silas. Silas looks back at me, worried again, but I can’t bring myself to care. Did Kieran send them here? Why would he?
“Hey,” he says, approaching slowly.
“Really?” I sigh and snatch up my hoodie from the floor. “I haven’t seen you since November.”
“Yeah, I know, I—” A pained expression crosses his face. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean for it to be so long—I honestly didn’t realise it had been so long—”
“Doesn’t matter.” I grab my phone and my keys. “I’m glad to see you’re alive, I guess.”
Kieran flinches. I pause, staring at him a little more intently. He looks healthy enough, if tired.
I’m not an idiot, despite what some people think. I know something was going on with Kieran last year. It was pretty obvious when he up and left for a few days, saying he had a family emergency.
When he came back, things still weren’t settled. He was in and out of work at the gym, and then eventually… he just stopped coming in. I checked with Carey, and she said the same. He stopped turning up for his shifts at the shop, too.
He’s not dead. He’s not injured. And I get it. He’s been dealing with whatever. Only, I’ve sent texts. I tried to help him keep his job at the gym when he was coming in sporadically before Christmas.
I’m not owed an explanation, but at least occasional proof of life would have been nice.
I sigh again. “Is everything… Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” He shoves his hands into his pockets. “Listen, you wanna come grab a coffee with me? I wanted to talk to you… about some stuff.”
“That’s ominous. And it’s late for coffee.”
I shouldn’t go. Everything in me is screaming that I should just walk out of here. My life will stay the same. I’ll be down a friend, but I have been for the past four months, so that won’t be any different.
Nick and Jamie are back at home, I’m sure. We can watch a film, hang out. Try to get Jamie to open up about his shitty ex some more.
Kieran looks at me with his big, sad eyes—I don’t know how he does that, when he’s so serious-looking the rest of the time—and my tentative resolve crumbles.
“Vince. Please.”
“Fine. Let’s go.”