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