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She wrinkled her nose. “We’ll just tackle the housemate, then. Leave Dad until you’re both available. He never really talks to me anyway.”
All the more reason to suggest he’d seen her as disposable. Or usable.
I knew the reason Raphael and his siblings kept in touch with their father was because he’d had a fourth child—their younger sibling—with his new wife. But also to keep track of the man. He claimed to be sorry for what he’d done but he didn’t strike me as a man who was good to his word.
Raphael agreed, and with that, we had a plan. I needed to get back to the office, and my friend clearly needed more sleep.
“I’ll see ye out,” he said.
I stood, packing away all the things I wanted to say to his sister, and gave her only a short nod because anything else I said would be nowhere near enough. Then I followed Raphael down the spiral staircase and to the front door.
There, he paused me. “I want to thank ye for helping to protect my sister, but also, I need to ask a favour. I’ve got a problem. The final block of my training starts midweek. It was booked and paid for ages ago, but it’s offsite with a specialist trainer. I’ll be staying over with a group of pilots, training for a few days and nights, then taking our exams at the end. Getting to this date is the reason I’ve been cramming in the hours. It brings a close to all I’ve been working towards.”
“But then all this happened with your sister,” I said slowly, seeing his dilemma.
The number one item on our protection protocol was her never being alone.
“I won’t go if it exposes Ariel to risk.”
“Will she go with ye?”
“Doubt it. Besides, I’m not her keeper, and she would hate me if I treated her like that.”
My blood rushed. “You’re looking at your solution.”
His short intake of breath and the expression of hope in his eyes showed me exactly how he’d agonised over this. “For real?”
“Do ye even need to ask?”
Raphael’s shoulders sagged. “If she has someone overnight, she can find other company for the daytime. I know it’s a lot to ask, but ye can have my bed, and the tower’s a fuck ton warmer than the bunkhouse.”
“You’d need to ask her first,” I said, my mind spinning off in multiple different directions.
I shouldn’t have kissed Ariel. It blurred the lines when it came to protecting her. I couldn’t explain myself, except that I’d been rattled by the requests from my mother and the memories that brought with it.
I’d lost my sister, and now, I had the chance to protect someone else’s.
Raphael shivered in the cold, his plaid pyjamas and grey T-shirt no match for the icy draught. “Of course I will. I just wanted to have a plan before even considering going ahead with it. I’ll let you know once I’ve spoken to her. You’re a good friend, ye know that? There’s no one I’d trust more with my family than ye.”
He opened the door for me, and I stepped outside, the daylight bright and the winter air the right degree of cold to wake me up.
I’d been anything but a good friend, but right now, I couldn’t bring myself to regret a single second spent alone with his sister.
Or even comprehend nights locked away in her tower.
Chapter 10
Ariel
“You asked Jackson?” I repeated. My voice came out strained.
Raphael leaned heavily on his bedroom doorframe. “Is that okay? The timing is shite, but I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t trust him. He’s better trained than me and he’ll keep ye safe.”
I tapped my lip, a confusing scene opening before me.
The kiss my brother interrupted had been mind-blowing. I had no job to go to, an empty apartment, plus a list of things I wanted to try and a man I’d asked to do them with me. If he’d said yes, then talk about making lemons into lemonade. But Jackson had rejected me.
Then kissed me. This was a bad idea.
