“I need to hit the cage today.”
Frankie took a long look at his face.“Sure thing, kid.”
After a sweaty hour, Trent hit the locker room and put his head under the cold tap.Once his breathing got back to some semblance of normal and his muscles stopped screaming, he’d be fine.His body might be in agony, but finally his mind had stilled.
“You wanna tell me what’s got up your ass this morning?No one has come that close to laying me out since I quit pro.”
Trent turned off the tap and pushed his dripping hair back over his head, letting it drip onto his already soaked shirt.
“If I could, I would, Frankie.You know that.But I do need a favor.”
“Hit me.You know I got your back.”
“I have a friend, a woman, who needs to learn how to fight her way out if she gets into a tough spot.”
“So get her to sign up for the ladies’ classes.We run ’em twice a week.”
“No can do.She’s already been attacked.Badly.Needs confidence as much as she needs moves.Doubt she’d come here to a room full of people.Doesn’t like being touched either.I’m working on that, but it’ll take time.”
Frankie looked down at his watch and pursed his lips together.“I got nothing that can’t be changed for the next couple of hours.Your girl around?”
It was Harper’s day off and she was swinging by for her next appointment in the afternoon, which he seriously couldn’t wait for.Inking a girl had never been such a turn-on.
“I’ll jump in the shower then give her a call on the way to the shop, see if she can come down.”
“Okay, have her swing by and she and I can have a chat, no fighting today, just understanding what she needs.Figure out what we can do.What’s her name?”
“Harper.Harper Connelly.”
“Harper Connelly, huh?Should I be reading something into the cheesy grin that went with that?”
Trent shrugged.“Probably.”Frankie slapped him on the shoulder, laughing, and left him to his shower.
***
Harper left Trent’s condo and navigated her way to the address Trent had given her.The single-story industrial unit looked vacant from the outside.A simple black sign with FRANKIE’Sin gold lettering hung above one of the dirty windows.Trent had warned her not to be put off by the exterior.
His call had caught her off guard, and Harper tried to embrace the adrenaline buzz that vibrated through her.The idea of training to fight back seemed so obvious, yet she hadn’t thought of it herself.Or perhaps the idea had never occurred because the concept of placing herself deliberately in the path of another person wasn’t something she’d been willing to entertain.Until Trent.
She pushed the heavy door open and was immediately hit by the smell of sweat and bleach.The sound of a skipping rope hitting the concrete and the monotonous thud of a speed bag being pounded echoed in rhythm around the gym.She walked farther into the gym, pushed at a suspended punching bag as she passed by.“Hello?”Her voice echoed in the cavernous space.
“Hey, Harper.I’m Frankie, good to meetcha.”Harper jumped as Frankie came up behind her from a hidden office.He was taller than she, wearing warm-up pants and a vest that showed a tight physique.The gold chains he wore matched the gold in his teeth, but he had kind eyes.
“Trent told me very little, except you need some self-defense and it might be tough for you.You can tell me everything or nothing, makes no difference to me.But if I know what it is that troubles you, it might help you for us to focus on it.”
Harper studied him closely for a moment.She trusted Trent and something told her she could trust the man in front of her.She needed all the help she could get.
The words jumbled up in her head, and it took Harper a moment to straighten them out.“I was attacked.By a man.I ended up in the hospital.It’s made me… nervous… around people, I mean.”
Frankie nodded.“Two questions.Is the bastard in prison?”
“For now,” Harper responded.She tried not to think about how much longer that would be the answer.
“Second, d’you want to do this for you, or are you doing this because Trent suggested it?”
Harper pondered the question for a moment.“For me,” she answered confidently.“I want to know if he comes for me again, I’m better prepared.But I’m really not sure I can do it.”
“Good.It won’t work if you aren’t here for yourself.Let’s take a walk around the gym, talk some more, see what kind of plan we can figure out.”
