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Well, other than a less than pleasant call to Jarrod, who evidently knew all about this, the asshole.
“Is Kenz safe with that guy?” Char, the redhead, asked. His hair was the only redeeming thing about him that I saw, the shade similar to my own. His gaze was still locked on the door, as though he could see Kenz and Dane.
“She’s safer with him than she has ever been with you.” I walked farther away from the house, each click of the heel of my boot against the wooden deck loud in the silent backyard. “Dane, Rune and Bray will take her to where we are staying and ensure her safety.”
“And you’re comfortable here without your security?” Hayden asked, the sharpness of his gaze making it clear that he was dangerous. Bray had managed to look up his information easily, and he sure did move the way a bodyguard would. “I’d think a person with as many enemies as you have would keep more people with you.”
His words might have sounded like a threat from anyone else, but he struck me as far too noble a man for that. In fact, a part of me disliked him for that reason alone. A man who cared about getting his hands dirty wasn’t a man capable of protecting my sister.
I offered him a smile, the sort I knew unnerved others. “I’m a woman who can take care of myself. I don’t require bodyguards for that. However, even if I did, I can assure you that Colton here is more than capable of doing so.”
The man in the back, the silent one with the golden eyes, Tor, stared not at me, but at Colton.
And wasn’t that the look of a man who seemed to know exactly who Colton was? It made me curious just who he was. His expressionless face, his stance, it all said he wasn’t afraid.
“You mentioned Lorien. Is that a problem I need to take care of?”
“No,” Hayden assured me. “We’ll handle that. We just needed to make sure Kenz is safe, that she isn’t here.”
“She had bandages on her arm, and the way she walked implied those aren’t her only wounds.” I didn’t need to add a threat to that—I was pretty sure my voice alone made the danger clear.
Vance, the blond playboy in the back, answered this time. “It’s why we called you in. I don’t want to see her get hurt again.”
“You want to tell me what happened?”
Hayden sighed, then gestured at the chairs on the deck. He sat on the sofa across from them, the action heavy as though he wasn’t worried about me in the least. I doubted it was because he wasn’t aware of my history or reputation, but more that he thought I’d have no reason to harm him.
That really all depends on what you say right now.
I took the seat, but Colton remained standing and behind me. Likewise, Tor stayed on his feet, the two like an odd, deadly mirror of the other.
“I gave you a general idea of what happened. Lorien is a dangerous man who is determined to have her as his wife.”
“And you’ve done nothing about this problem?”
“I wouldn’t say nothing,” Char said, seated beside Hayden, a creepy smile on his face that wasn’t in the least bit real. “We were able to find out his identity and stop him from buying her at an auction. In addition, we drove a wedge between him and his mother, which removed most of his backing and support.”
“And you didn’t realize that when you back a tiger into a corner, they tend to swipe?” I shook my head at the gross misunderstanding.
Then again, I thought back to Kyler, to Kenz’s father, and how I’d done the same. I’d pushed him, bit by bit, inch by inch, until he’d reacted in a way I hadn’t expected. The truth was, playing games like these led to reactions no person could ever fully predict.
People were just too difficult to fully predict.
“So why not have me clean up the mess?”
“Why would you do that?” Vance asked.
“Not because I care about you at all, I assure you. However, if Kenz is endangered by this Lorien bastard, wouldn’t the smarter choice be for me to handle it? I imagine the Quad could quietly take him out. Would that not resolve this?”
Hayden shook his head. “You can’t do that.”
“And why is that? Because, I can assure you, I’m fully capable of it.”
“For a few reasons. One, I contacted you because I want Kenz safe. I’d rather you use your resources to protect her rather than splitting them. Two, if you attack him, it makes it clear where Kenz is, thus putting her in danger again. If you simply take her back to California, or better yet, hide her somewhere, it’ll take Lorien far longer to narrow down her whereabouts. Lastly…” He paused, then slumped forward, folding his hands together and resting his elbows on his knees. “Kenz has lost too much already. If you—any of you—were harmed going after Lorien, she’d blame herself. I can’t be responsible for taking anyone else away from her.”
I sat back, staring across the short distance to take him in. He struck me as honest—frustratingly so. I lived my life around criminals, around liars and thieves, and this man before me made me want to yank back, as though his earnest nature might just infect me somehow.
Honest people were dangerous, driven by needs that I neither had nor understood. It was why Sasha always made me uneasy, why I struggled to connect well with Kenz no matter how much I adored and cared for my sister.
