Free Skin by Kate Krake Page A

surface
polished, there was nothing for me to do.
    “ You’ve
hired me to do a job that doesn’t exist,” I said to Sveta, leaning
against the door jamb of her office.
    “ I hired
you to be a gym room attendant. It’s not my fault you’re so very
efficient at your job. Why don’t you just take advantage of the
space. Maybe make some friends?”
    I had
spent most of my work day at Saturn ’s lifting, so
there wasn’t really anything that different in Sanctuary. Why then
did it feel like such an indulgence?
    I slid
under the chest deck and steadied my breathing before the lift.
I ’d racked a bigger weight than I was used to. It was
a challenge, I told myself, that had nothing to do with the fact
that I knew Darius was lurking about somewhere, probably watching
me in the same way I watched him.
    I needed to
focus and get back on my game. With everything that was happening,
I had slipped lately and my strength was starting to pay the price.
I was half way through working my pecs when Imogen approached,
setting up her yoga mat next to me. She waited until I was finished
the set before speaking.
    “ Rumour
has it you’re shacking up with the boss,” she said.
    “ Does
rumour?” I said, my breathless panting was a good hide to mask the
surprise.
    “ The
latest addition to her menagerie. I’m sure Mariosa will be beside
herself with jealousy.”
    From the
look on Imogen ’s perfectly painted face, I saw that it
wasn’t just the mountain lion who might be jealous that I was
moving in with Sveta. But I wasn’t, I reminded myself. It was just
a rumour that even I was starting to believe.
    “ It’s
not true,” I said and set to setting up the dumbbells for a lot of
shoulder flies. “Where’d you hear that anyway?”
    “ Cato
told me,” she said, twisting her body into a shape roughly
resembling a paper clip. “Darius told him. Sveta told
Darius.”
    Why
would Sveta tell Darius of all people? I caught myself again, there
was nothing to tell. I wasn ’t moving in with
Sveta.
    “ So
Darius and Sveta,” I panted between reps. “They’ve got a history,
right?”
    “ Are you
jealous, Priest?”
    “ Priest?”
    “ That’s
what they’re starting to call you now,” she explained. I didn’t ask
her to explain who they was. “My money’s on that becoming your
arena name when you start on the cross.”
    When
were people going to stop going on at me about appearing in the
arena? It wasn ’t happening. Sveta had said it was fine
for me to stay as a spectator, and that’s what I was doing. If
watching those ghoulish displays of ego was what it was going to
take for me to stay in Sanctuary, and all of the other perks that
offered, then that’s what I’d do.
    “ Can we
get back to the topic?” I said, my voice hissing though a
lift.
    “ Sure,
Darius and her ladyship have a history of a sort,” she said. She
pressed herself into an upside down position and lifted her legs
above her head so that she was standing pin straight upside down,
her weight balanced on her forearms. “Actually, now that you
mention it, I’m not exactly sure if they divorced formally or if
they’re still in separation mode.”

Enemy of My Enemy

    I sat in
the shower room, dressed in the standard Sanctuary post workout
sweats and ready to witness anther atrocious performance. Darius
was showering but otherwise, I was alone. I had seen the giant
lifting on the floor, racking a barbell squat that
would ’ve weighed as much as a house. They were
married? Even if it was past tense, it burned.
    It was
eight o ’clock. Victoria would be waiting at Novo by
now. She’d be starting to check the time on her phone. She’d
probably be updating some kind of status line about the fact she
was waiting, uploading a picture of her drink, some outlandish
cocktail, to Instabook or whatever it was called. My phone was
probably going crazy with increasingly pissy messages right at that
moment.
    Darius ’ cubicle was closed, but he had not
locked