Her cheeks burned. She hadn’t thought the woman would hurt her, she just didn’t want to be touched. Nia pressed her lips together. She shouldn’t have to say it.
“Let’s go into the back,” the woman said after an awkward beat, pointing the with excessive gestures like she had a hearing problem instead of a touching problem. “I can get you started.”
Nia glanced at Mace. He was leaving her here? Tightness squeezed her chest.
“How long will you need?” he asked, a strained expression on his face as he glanced between them.
Without looking at him, the woman waved over her shoulder. “Give us an hour.”
“Thanks, Dee.” Shooting Nia one last glance, he left.
Unreasonable panic shot through her a second later.
The fragile expression on Nia’s face was almost too much. But Mace knew not to worry. Dee was safe, reliable. She wouldn’t do anything to upset or hurt his ward.
Running a distracted hand through his hair, he strode to the lift, then hit the control panel for the fifth deck. He had an hour—one hour to relieve the strain in his shoulders and try to rid himself of these protective,possessive, feelings that arose whenever his ward was near. Emotions he had no business having.
Striding past the barracks, Mace walked through the double-wide doorway of the sparring arena and jogged down the set of stairs immediately right. Grey, along with two other of his top instructors, worked with the new batch of tyros. The novice warriors were unarmed—standing orders until some of the more eager ones understood what control meant.
Mace gave Grey a two-finger salute and kept walking until he passed through the wide doorway leading to the target ranges. Returning the nods of the warriors who acknowledged him, he kept going until he reached the end of the corridor.
Four private rooms were housed in the rear corner, and two were empty. He scanned his hand and stepped into a small sparring space, everything matted from deck to overhead. One bulkhead held numerous weapons, but he didn’t reach for one, instead, pressing the control beside the door.
A cylindrical matted column rose from the deck until it connected with the overhead. Mace didn’t bother to wrap his knuckles before he started to beat the shit out of the thing.
The woman disappeared through a doorway behind the counter while Nia remained frozen in her spot.Abandoned.He’d left her there.
Black hair and outlined-eyes poked around the other side of the bulkhead, then she stepped fully into view. “I’m Deesha by the way. Everyone calls me Dee.” Cocking a hip, she raised her eyebrows expectantly.
Nia cleared her throat. “Nia.” She pushed at the torn edge of her uniform, trying to cover exposed skin, but it flopped forward again.
“Nice to meet you.” Dee waved her closer, gesturing to the counter. “Why don’t we look at a few things first, get used to each other.”
Forcing one foot in front of the other, Nia joined her, the counter separating them.
After a few taps on its glossy surface, Dee said, “Let me know if you see anything you like.”
Images of different fashions materialized in front of them, and Nia’s jaw went slack. It was beautiful work, but Dee couldn’t expect her to wear this stuff. She might as well walk around naked.
A few more pages of three-dimensional outlandish fashion and finally Dee arrived at more conservative styles. They still weren’t anything Nia was used to.
“Stop, please. That’s nice,” she said pointing to a woman wearing a long-sleeved tunic style top with leggings underneath. Despite it being rather formfitting and having a wide neckline, it would cover most of her skin, more than most of the styles she’d seen.
“Good choice.” Dee scrolled through more images. “Anything else catch your eye?”
“No. Thank you.” She stepped away from the counter so she didn’t have to look at the revealing fashions anymore.
Dark-lined eyes blinked at her. “What? No. You’ve got to take advantage of Mace’s creds while you can.”
Nia’s cheeks burned.
“Look,” Dee said when Nia didn’t respond. “I’ll fabricate the first one, and we’ll go from there.” Her hand stretched out, like she was going to grab Nia’s elbow, then she stilled and dropped it to her side. “The change rooms are in the back. We need to get you out of that icky stuff.”
Following Dee, Nia smoothed the wrinkles in her uniform. Three frosted glass doors lined one side of the narrow space.
“Get out your clothes,” Dee said, sliding one door open with a touch of her finger. “Boots too. All of it. I’ll make you some underwear. The room will scan your measurements, and I’ll return momentarily.”
The door to the change room slid shut behind her. Hesitating a moment, Nia kicked off her beaten-up boots and undressed. As soon as she stood naked except for her bonds and locket, the room scanned her with white light. Her mind returned to her first few minutes on this station, and she began to breathe fast. Exposed, she crossed her arms over her chest, and stared at the frosted glass door instead of the floor-length mirror. She didn’t want to see the defeated circles under her eyes.
