by Tijan
“I never would’ve. You have to know that.”
He scoffed. “And I never thought you’d defy your family for a rat either. How can you not look at him and see what he’s doing to his family?”
It was like the bad mood from yesterday had spread so he could torment his sister, but I had to admit he was asking good questions. Hard questions, but ones that needed answering. I also began to realize why he was pushing Brooke.
Because she didn’t want to face it.
She had the wool over her eyes—she’d put it there herself—and she was fine with that.
Even I knew how dangerous that was.
“Because she’s in love with him,” I offered.
“Riley, don’t—” He lowered his voice, though.
“Love is blind. It’s a cliché for a reason. She doesn’t want to see what he’s doing.” I turned toward the bed. “But Brooke, you have to answer him. You have to hear what he’s saying.”
Her eyes went to mine, hurt. “Don’t team up with him.”
I rose from the couch. “But if these things are true, don’t you want to know who it is you’re loving? If he’s like this now, what could he do to you?” I met Kai’s gaze for a moment. “You love him. What then? You get married? You bring him into the family? You run the risk of him turning on you too?”
I hated what I was saying. It was hurting Brooke, but this wasn’t about Levi himself. She had to see that. It was his betrayal. Once a cheater, always a cheater. It could just as easily be once a betrayer, always a betrayer.
“Kai’s trying to protect you from yourself, just so you know. You should appreciate having that in a brother.” I turned and locked eyes with him. “I would.”
An emotion flickered in his depths before he pressed his lips together.
Brooke made a gurgling sound. “God, Riley. You’re sleeping with him; that doesn’t mean you should take his side. I’m your friend.”
A friend who lied to me, but then again, Kai wanted to murder my father. And so did I.
“I’m on your side. Kai is too. But you’re right.” I turned back to look at her. “Maybe I’ll go hang out with Jonah today.”
I’d headed for the bathroom when Kai called after me. “If you leave, let the guards go with you.”
I paused, turning to walk backward.
It was a different feeling, this freedom with a leash, but I understood. I’d just been advocating a form of this to Brooke, so I nodded. Kai and I needed to talk, but right now, I felt like heading out.
With an entourage.
So that’s how Jonah and I came to be sitting in the back of an SUV, heading toward the Lakeshore Wharf.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“The Wharf. It’s been so long since I’ve been there. I want to see what’s all still around.”
He tugged at his shirt collar, watching the businesses go by as we whipped down the back streets. “We don’t really do touristy stuff. This is weird.”
“Come on.” I patted his leg, looking out my window. This had been my home once upon a time. It felt good seeing it again. I’d missed it. “Think of it this way, Kai was laying into Brooke about why she loves Levi. I’m getting you out of an uncomfortable family drama.”
“Well…” He sat back. “When you put it that way, you’re completely wasting your time.”
“What do you mean?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Brooke and Kai don’t talk, really at all. Kai barely talks to anyone. If he does, it’s just to bark orders. And we realize he’s the head of our family. There’s a shared respect we all feel for him and what he’s done for us, but you need to understand, there’s no confrontation with Kai. He tells you how it is, and you can either accept it or not.”
“And if you don’t?”
“Then he’ll bring it up later.” He rolled his head from side to side, moving back to watch out his window. “Mostly until his point is proven right.”
Well, there was that.
After a few more turns, we pulled up to the front of the wharf.
Jonah made a sound. Everything was bustling with activity. “I can’t even remember a time we did something so normal like this.”
“Normal like being a tourist?” I couldn’t hold back my grin.
Forget Kai for the day. Forget Brooke. Forget everything. A part of me wished it’d been a different brother beside me, but I was still happy to experience a little piece of my old home again.
Jonah’s eyes clouded over. “You know we’re not going to blend in.”
I lifted a shoulder, tapping on the door, and the guard opened it from outside. When I’d learned to do that was beyond me. But it felt natural.
I got out and began noticing everyone noticing us, and that part didn’t feel so natural, but falling in step as two guards started ahead of us was second nature now.
They did attempt to blend in with the crowd, but it was an awkward fit. If someone broke through their circle around us, one of them stepped forward and steered the person—or a child, one time—away.
Still, I wasn’t going to let it stop us, or stop me.
We picked up some breakfast first, but we didn’t sit down. Eat. Grab. Go. Let’s keep it moving. The guards nabbed some food too. They tried to sneak their eating, but when one saw me watching him, he just smiled and finished up his breakfast sandwich. These guys moved almost as one being. They had their ways, and an hour later, after hitting some shops and the Ferris wheel, I saw more guards coming and switching out. So that was how they did it.
One ride on the Ferris wheel wasn’t enough, not for me. For Jonah, yes. But he was trying to be a polite companion after I caught him wincing as I steered him toward the wave swinger. I heard a mumbled “Oh, God,” but he climbed on next to me and rode like a trooper.
I took pity on him after that.
We did the carousel next, though I selected one of the benches in the middle.
“Thank God.” He sighed.
I laughed, tipping my head back.
He smiled. “Sorry. This is just not what we do.”
“That’s what you said.” I shifted slightly to face him. “It’s not what I do either, to tell you the truth.”
“Yeah. I can see that.” He eyed me. “Is it weird for you? To go from a life where you were a professional Hider to this?” He waved to the guards around us, one going up and down on a pink tiger.
I bit back a laugh. “Yes. But right now, I’m only focused on the next step.”
He nodded, not asking what that was, and I was grateful because I didn’t want to lie to him.
“Can I ask you a question?”
His eyebrows rose. “Sure.”
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
His eyebrows went higher.
“I’m not asking for me.” My grin was easy. “I’m just wondering how that part of your life fits with everything else.”
“Oh.” He settled back against our bench, mulling it over. “It doesn’t. I mean, there are questions, but we learn to lie. Every Bennett is born an amazing liar. We’ve had to become that just to function sometimes. As far as a girlfriend…” He paused, his cheeks becoming pink.
I sat up. I’d thought I was fishing in an empty barrel here.
“There is a girl.”
“A girl?”
“She’s another resident.”
“Resident?”
“Ah.” He laughed shortly. “A doctor. She’s in my year. We work at the same hospital.”
“How do you do that, by the way? What with the constantly leaving for family things.”
He rubbed at his eyebrow. “To be honest, Kai rarely calls on me. This whole thing with Brooke threw all of us for a loop. We were scrambling. Then he brought you in, and I knew what Brooke had done wasn’t the normal little tirade she sometimes throws. It was more serious.”
“You didn’t answer the first question, though.”
“Oh. Yes. Uh, I’m in trouble, to be honest.” He bobbed his he
ad forward in an easy, smooth motion. “But having my last name as Bennett helps. Kai will just step in, grease some wheels, and I should be fine.”
Why wasn’t I surprised? “That’s how it’s done? He bribes your way through medical school?”
He frowned. “Yeah. It’s part of our world. If I want to have some semblance of a normal life, I have to accept that.” His frown deepened. “I’m just grateful to have this time to become a doctor. This never would’ve happened if my father were still alive.”
“What do you mean?”
“He sent Brooke away. He killed Cord. He would’ve killed Kai too. Who knows what he would’ve let Tanner and me do, or get away with. He didn’t even let me live with the family.”
“What?” My heart twisted.
“I was sent to live with an aunt. He didn’t want me around the rest of them. I got to see them on holidays or if Cord or Kai insisted they visit me.”
The pain in my chest doubled.
He shrugged and swallowed tightly. “It is what it is. I look different. He treated me differently.”
“I’m sorry.”
He coughed, shifting in his seat. “Kai changed everything. He brought Brooke and me back…but yeah, to answer your initial question, we compartmentalize.” He coughed again, blinking rapidly. He flicked a hand to the corner of his eye. “Brooke falls in love every two months. Tanner doesn’t. I don’t know what he does. He rarely talks about women. And I…” He quieted, flashing me an uneasy smile.
I grinned back. “You have a girlfriend.”
“That I lie to every day.” His laugh was uneven, forced. “But that’s how it is. We lose our footing with the council, and we’ll all be wiped out.”
“What?!”
“You didn’t know? I thought Kai would’ve explained…” He trailed off again, frowning. “Sorry. I thought you knew.”
“No,” I gasped. “What do you mean you’ll be wiped out?”
“Um...” He hesitated.
“Tell me, Jonah.”
“We’re only at the top because they fear us. They fear Kai. If someone moves against us, they’ll have to kill us. All of us. It’s literally all for one, one for all with us.”
My head swam. I had no idea.
No wonder Kai was so concerned about who Brooke fell in love with.
“Thank you for telling me. I didn’t know.”
“About that…” He bit his bottom lip. “Can you not tell Kai you found out from me?”
I barked out a laugh, a little louder than I meant. “Yes. Of course. Yes.”
And then, because we hadn’t covered it, I asked, “What about Kai and his love life?”
The ride was coming to an end. Jonah reached for the top of the bench in front of us. “Kai has women in every city for his needs.” Then he stood and glanced at me. “I mean, that was before you. I think?” His grin turned lopsided, and he hopped off like his life depended on it.
I sat rooted to that bench.
Kai had a woman in every city? But of course. I cursed myself. How stupid was I? To think I was special? I’d been brought in because of his sister’s actions, not his.
It hadn’t been his choice. Though maybe that didn’t matter.
I stood on wooden legs and moved to where Jonah was waiting for me. The guards moved in behind me, and we were tourists for the rest of the day. But my spirit wasn’t in it anymore. The thought of Kai’s other women plagued me, sitting heavy on my shoulders. I only did one silly face in the photo booth.
I really threw myself into the movie at the theatre. And by throwing myself, I mean I sat in the darkness and pretended I was into it. Silently. Soullessly. Just imagining all those women at Kai’s beck and call.
Of course he had them.
He was powerful and gorgeous.
I was foolish not to have thought about that earlier.
It was dark when we emerged, and if someone had asked me what movie we saw, I would’ve had no idea. A guy was in it. That’s all I remembered.
“Where to now?” Jonah asked.
We had switched places at some point after the carousel. Jonah had begun to enjoy himself, and I was the one not really here. I could hear his reluctance to go home. Hell, I didn’t want to go there either.
I moved behind him. “I think there’s a beer garden here.”
He brightened. “That’s a great idea. We should call Brooke and Kai.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Brooke burst on the scene like a four-year-old colt getting her first run through the field. She zipped in, ignoring the guards in front of her, her arms swinging and her braids flying. Almost in sync. Spotting us in the back, she stopped and did a hop-skip-jump before twirling around and landing on the seat across from me.
“Hi, guys,” she said in a rush, smiling from ear to ear.
Dressed in leather pants, a silky, shiny skin-tight tank top and a faux fur vest, she had glammed up for the night. Her hoop earrings swinging with her braids, she was embracing her freedom.
“Finally, finally, some booze and boys.” She clapped to herself, doing a little shuffle in her seat. “I’m free!”
Jonah and I had picked the back table for a reason. It afforded a modicum of privacy, and there was a walkway beneath us, so if we had to do an emergency getaway, we could go out that way. Plus, just as we figured, the guards were already spreading out to surround us on both fronts.
The place was full, and all eyes were on us.
They’d been watching us since we entered. Two of the guards had taken position at the bar. One was trying to lean against a post, pretending to be on his phone the whole time, but people noticed. Another guard had claimed an entire table behind us. When the staff tried to fill it, he walked off with them, and I saw the manager coming out seconds later.
That table remained empty the whole night. I could only imagine they’d paid them well for it.
The attention from the other customers followed Brooke, because who acted like that? Apparently Brooke did, and I now remembered a time we went to a mall and she decided to start dancing in the food court. I’d forgotten she had that side. She didn’t care who was around. If she felt something, she did it. Tonight, she’d wanted to come in swinging, literally.
As she grabbed a menu, I knew who else was coming.
I felt him. A little tingle on the back of my neck.
He walked in at a more sedate pace, with no dance moves, but it wouldn’t have mattered how slow or fast he came. Power and authority rolled off of him in waves. His aura filled the entire beer garden, and even the staff paused to watch him walk past.
I heard someone whisper to their friend, “Is he famous?”
“Sssshhhh,” was the response.
The closer he got, the more evident it became that guards were following him. More whispers started. Someone pulled out a phone, but the guard closest to her moved to block her. He said something, and the phone disappeared. I had no clue how he managed that, but I tried to fixate on it, focus on that woman whose eyes were suddenly much bigger than they’d been mere seconds ago, because while I was watching her, I wasn’t watching him.
Closer. Closer.
The tingles rose in power, zapping me. But I was calm.
When I looked up, he was staring right at me, a mocking glint in his eyes. He smoothed a hand down the front of his shirt, as if stroking a tie that wasn’t there, before he folded into the chair beside me. He moved the chair over as he sat, and his thigh pressed against mine for a moment before he settled in his seat.
“What?” I asked.
He didn’t answer, shaking his head before turning to face the manager as she approached.
“Mr. Bennett.” She folded her hands in front of her, her head dipping as if she were going to bow, but decided at the last second just to lower her head in a brief nod. She cleared her throat, her neck becoming red. “It’s a pleasure to have you here tonight.”
Oh, yes. That guard had really schmoozed her.
She
reached up, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.
She was a plain-looking woman, and she wore the same uniform as her staff: a white button-up shirt over black dress slacks. The only thing setting her apart was the manager tag on her blouse and the fact that she was the one greeting us.
Kai spoke to her as Brooke leaned over the table, talking over them.
“All I have to say is if there’s a chance we can get this one—” She pointed at Kai. “—to a nightclub, I will have died and gone to heaven.”
Kai shot her a look, but continued speaking to the manager. She had stepped closer, bending her head, and oh—what a coincidence—the top three buttons of her blouse were open. I was fairly certain only one had been opened when the first guard bought the table behind us.
Shifting in his seat, Kai reached over to touch my side, but he continued as if he wasn’t aware of the touch. He knew. His fingers pressed into my side before drifting to the top of my leg. He so knew. I caught the faint grin teasing his mouth. He was enjoying this too.
He must have seen me eyeing the manager like a starved hawk seeing a rival falcon on the next perch. And why I was using animal metaphors was beyond me. I needed to get out. Well, I needed to get out more than I had today.
Maybe a nightclub visit was in order…
But no. I had plans.
There was a reason I’d asked to come here, had asked to stay here. I just hadn’t entirely figured out my plan. But glancing at a nearby clock, I saw I still had time.
“Thank you,” the manager finished, nodding before she left.
Kai leaned back, putting an arm over the back of my chair.
I stiffened.
Brooke and Jonah noted the movement, but Brooke didn’t stop talking.
I tried to tune in. She was asking for Jonah’s recommendation on the first shot for the night when Kai touched my shoulder, pulling me back into his side. He moved his head as if he were looking past me, his lips right next to my ear.
