along the wharf, but most everything closed at midnight. I looked over at bright lights moving around at the end of the pier—some kind of event. We had watched couples walk past us in formal dresses and tuxedos. Glittering gowns. Pink. Black silk. Sequins. The rich and powerful. A few looked our direction with quizzical expressions, but none came over to investigate. Heads bent together. Hands came up to cover their gossiping mouths.
Maybe they’d been wondering, while attending their extravagant event, about who had been in the beer garden. There would be rumors that it was someone famous, a celebrity, or perhaps even a government official, because that’s what they did. I remembered that from my time with my family.
There’d been whispers and rumors about my mother too.
The two girls approved to go shopping with me in the mall had proved that. They’d asked if it was true that my father caught her having a torrid love affair and she’d really died trying to run away with her lover.
It twisted me up, remembering, and it didn’t help that I could’ve sworn one of those same girls had walked past us twenty minutes ago. Her hand had been tucked in the arm of a middle-aged man. Slender. Beautiful. And hungry eyes, because she’d been one of the ones to watch us for a bit.
“Did you see him?” Kai asked.
I whipped around, wandering farther down to the very edge of the beer garden. I wasn’t even sure if I was still within its borders. I’d taken some stairs down to a sidewalk. I could still hear Brooke’s laughter in the background, mixing with music and mingling with the beat coming from the event.
I sighed. “How long have you known?”
“That your father is supposed to be attending that event or that that’s the real reason you asked Jonah to play tourist for the day?”
“Both?”
He moved to my side, but he didn’t touch me.
For some reason, I appreciated that. He let me stand on my own, not overwhelming me.
“The second the guards told me where you were going.” He slid his hand into his pocket, tipping his head back, still eying me. “It’s public knowledge that he’s supposed to be attending tonight.” Kai smirked. “If he didn’t show up, people would notice.”
People would notice regardless—I realized what he was saying. I gaped at him. “You’re going to take him tonight?”
But of course. That was why he’d come here. Not to spend time with us, his brother, his sister, but because of my father, because it was already in the plans.
It burned.
I looked away. “Jonah and Brooke have both told me how much you usually aren’t around. Tonight meant the world to them.”
“Hey.” He cupped the back of my head and turned me toward him. “Look at me.”
I turned, but I closed my eyes. I didn’t want him to see how it hurt.
This was the same Kai. An agenda. Three, four, five steps ahead, and I’d thought… It didn’t matter. I’d been stupid.
“Hey.” A more insistent urge from him. “Look at me.”
Fine. I did.
And my chest was held suspended.
His eyes damn near smoldered, a fierce expression in them I couldn’t place.
“You bringing my family here, me coming and spending time with them, with you, has meant the world to me.” He drew me toward him, and goddamn, I was going. I couldn’t resist. He dropped his tone, his eyes dipping to my mouth. “This is not something that would’ve happened before you. I doubt it’ll be something that happens after—after we leave here again. But never, ever think my family is not first. They’re the reason I am who I am.”
“Where would you have been if we weren’t here tonight?”
“In a hotel. Fucking you.”
I coughed. “Ah.” Some of the burn eased. Or, well, it was washed away by a scalding pot of fire instead. A whole different type of burn took its place.
He rested his forehead to mine, his hand leaving my neck to trace my bottom lip. “I’m going to send my siblings back with some men. Stay with me. See this out.”
He was inviting me into the darkness with him, but I was already there. With this one, I’d gotten there first.
I nodded, and he stepped back. He went to speak to one of his men, and after a moment, with a short nod, the guard went to do his bidding. Kai turned back toward me. He didn’t stop. He moved past me, snagging my hand. He pulled me with him, his fingers