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Colton pressed his lips together in displeasure, the sight reassuring. While I’d never heard Colton was the type to kill innocents while doing his job, seeing his unhappiness at hearing Lorien was that type helped assure me he was different. “And why would a man like that be after Kenz?”
He was her advisor at her college. It seems like he ended up with some obsession with her. He believes she’s his soulmate. In fact, he’s gone out of his way to even win her over and to protect her.
“That makes this even more difficult,” Colton said softly. “If he just wanted her for her name, people like that are a lot easier to deal with. People like that are practical. They see things as risk and reward. If they’re shown that the risk is too great or the reward too small, they’ll back off. However, someone driven by something like love?”
It isn’t love,I signed back, my hands flying so fast I was amazed he caught it.
He lifted his hand to calm me. “Are you sure? Love—it’s confusing, isn’t it? It’s hard to pin down and impossible to prove. No matter what I think about his feelings, he believes in them. His feelings are as real to him as yours are to you. That’s a lot harder to deal with, and it makes a person a lot less likely to give up. Knowing Lorien is that type—he sure is a problem.”
I nodded, agreeing at least to the last part.
“Do you really think you all can handle him?”
I didn’t tell him yes right away. Colton was a colleague, in a strange way, and I felt the need to offer him the truth.I don’t know,I admitted.I know that I won’t give up, though.
“For revenge?”
No. It was for revenge at first, but not anymore. Now I just want to remove the threat from Kenz. I want to keep her safe.
“But after turning her over to us, I doubt she’ll ever forgive you. You want to know a secret? Not just about women in general, but about those Hester girls? They hold grudges. Kenz has wanted to belong so badly for all the years I’ve known her. I remember when she was little and she chased after all of us, always trying to keep up, always wanting to belong. In fact, I remember when she asked if she could join the Quad when she grew up.” Colton’s expression softened in a way that I hadn’t thought him capable of, and I knew he saw her as she’d been back then.
Jealousy stirred inside me, not because I thought he saw her romantically, but because he had a connection with her that I lacked, because he had a long history with her that I didn’t.
He went on. “Letting her come out here alone wasn’t easy. Do you have any idea how many nights I stayed up late, worried? I tried to talk her out of it, wanted her to stay closer to home, but she wouldn’t listen. She looks fragile, and I know I often see her as the little girl she used to be, but she’s tough. She wanted to live on her own, to make her own way, and she did what she had to to make it work. Still, in all that time, she never really got close to anyone.”
She doesn’t seem to have any real friends here.
“Yeah, she doesn’t make friends. I think she’s too afraid of having to lie to them, of putting them in danger because of her. It’s why it surprised me so much to see her that upset earlier. Girl was downright broken-hearted.”
Yeah, I know.
“At least you look just as unhappy. If you were all smiles, I might just have slit your throat over it. Seeing that girl cry makes me stabby.”
I never wanted to make her cry.I sure as hell hadn’t ever wanted her to regret meeting us.
No, not just meeting us, but regretting having moved to Florida, for her to regret having spent time at that school, having gone out on her own. Because of us, she wished she’d never done what she used to be most proud of.
We’d not only ruined all that, made it so she couldn’t continue in her school, but we’d tainted her entire time on her own.
Colton sighed, then leaned forward to stare right at me. “Deal with Lorien. This all rests at his feet, at the end of the day, so make sure the son of a bitch paysdearlyfor every tear that girl cries. You do that? We’re good.”
And finally, something I could do. If he’d asked me to make Kenz happy, to fix what I’d broken with her, I wouldn’t have had a clue how to do it.
Taking out Lorien, though? Making sure that asshole took his last breath? If that was for Kenz, that sounded just fine to me.
I’d happily use my vast skills to get rid of him, especially because I had a reason far better than revenge.
For Kenz, I could do anything.
Chapter Sixteen
Char
Nem was an enigma I couldn’t get a real read on.
“Staring is rude.” Nem took items and carefully packed them in two large duffel bags that she’d brought with her. She picked the things she took with great thought, and the way she did it suggested she knew her sister well.
It was strange, given the fact they’d barely spoken since Kenz had been with us. I’d thought them estranged, yet here Nem was, going through Kenz’s things without hesitation.
