Aidra didn’t stay much longer, drifting back out of the room and leaving Luna to her thoughts—which ultimately turned to Kit.
Or Nix, since it felt like he had been a different person down in that gym.
For a long while she sat there, thinking of the past, of the girl that had always wanted to fight back against her captors though she knew her efforts would be futile.
Before that place, she had never been in a fight, and that coupled with her lacking strength, there was no way she could have gone up against Lawrence and won.
Kit was giving her a chance to change that.
She wouldn’t fuck that up.
Taking a breath, Luna exited the room once more, following the same route they had taken earlier to get back to the gym. Before she got close, she heard someone’s fists hitting hard against the heavy sand bag.
She hesitated in the doorway, watching Kit as he sent his fists flying into the bag. There was power behind his hits, so much that she wondered how he was able to look so unassuming in a suit.
Kit looked distinguished when he was fully dressed—nothing like any killer she had ever seen.
But he was.
“Come to try again?” he asked, looking back at her, his hands going out to steady the swinging bag.
She toed her shoes off before stepping back on the mat.
A curious expression crossed his face as he watched her draw near. Maybe, in the short time she had been gone, he had thought she wasn’t capable—that she was quitting well before she started.
Was he already regretting his choice?
“Don’t go easy on me,” she said once she was in front of him, then held her hands out for him to tape.
She was ready to fight.
Chapter Ten
“If I recall, you were the one telling the Kingmaker not to start a war with Lawrence Kendall. I’m eager to know when you changed your mind since you decided to execute his closest associates.”
There were days when Kit questioned whether it was he working for her as opposed to the other way around considering the way she lectured him.
Aidra, in most instances, was like his own personal checks and balances—though he usually didn’t need one.
Whereas his brother was known for reckless decisions, Kit was always careful about the moves he made, ensuring that before he ever raised a hand, everything was in place and there would be no potential blowback.
With Lawrence’s associates, as Aidra had put it, he hadn’t considered the ramification of his actions, merely sent Fang and his crew to round the men up and bring them back to the chateau.
If he were to be honest, he had known for some time now that he was going to find the men that had raped Luna of her innocence—it felt right.
Though she wasn’t supposed to matter—she was merely there as a favor to a brother who often exasperated him—talking to her had caused a familiar itch to settle beneath the surface of his skin.
When she spoke of them, everything about her changed. He didn’t think she was aware of it, else she would have masked it, but as soon as she was made to mention them, her gaze would sink to the floor, her hands twisting in her lap.
Luna tried to hide it, but they still had a hold over her, though Kit didn’t doubt why. They were still out there, free to come after her again if they so chose.
Kit didn’t begin to think he could heal whatever memories she had of the place, but he thought he could offer a helping hand in leading her toward recovery.
“Lawrence wouldn’t have gone to my brother if he wanted a war,” Kit said as he dragged on a shirt. “He would have killed Emmett himself and shown everyone what he was capable of—instead, he contracted it out and made it look like it was one of his girls that had done it.”
Cheap, but effective.
“Besides,” Kit went on, “he’ll go to my brother again once he realizes his associates are missing.”
One by one he had had the men picked off and brought here, leaving only just enough evidence to show that the men hadn’t just disappeared, but they had disappeared violently.
“And if he does go to your brother?” Aidra asked, trailing after him as he started out of his room and downstairs.
“As you’re aware, my brother likes his games. Undoubtedly, Luna’s first assignment will involve Lawrence.”
And following his timeline, by the time he was finished training her, she would be more than ready.
Aidra was silent a moment. “That still doesn’t explain why you went through the trouble of bringing them here. They weren’t a part of her training, or you would have had her do it. This was … personal.”
Kit barely spared her a glance though he could feel her gaze boring into the back of his head. “You’re reading too much into this.”