a gray Henley and black pants. He was devastating in a business suit, lethal in athletic clothes, but with this shirt, he looked like power. Pure and simple—though there was nothing pure about his power nor simple about him.
Nevertheless, I felt a rush of relief, as if he were an ally coming to my defense. As if Brooke were my enemy.
I looked down at my lap, not wanting to see the way Brooke greeted her brother.
I didn’t want to see her hostility, because I didn’t think I could be hostile with a brother who loved me that much. Or maybe I’d see a fond resignation toward him, because while she didn’t agree with his actions, he had moved heaven and earth to find her.
That meant something.
“I’m not being judgmental,” she said.
Her reaction was neither. They’d just fallen back in place as if they were home, as if nothing had happened, as if they were arguing whether to play Monopoly or Bunko.
“You should take that back, brother.” She mocked him. “I was just saying what I saw.”
“You saw wrong.” Kai took the seat beside me, reaching for the bottle and pouring a little into a glass he’d brought with him. “I saw the inside of her house. I agree with Riley. Her room was simple, straight to the point—a bed, a counter, a desk, a closet. That’s it. Nothing extra. It’s a room used for sleeping. That doesn’t say hippy to me at all.”
I looked at him. “When did you see my house?” My room?!
But Brooke wasn’t having it. She propped her elbow on the table and pointed. “Okay. One, when did you see her house? Two, you were in her room?! Three, you’re acting like there’s something wrong with being a hippy. I have quite a few friends who are hippies. They’re hilarious to party with.”
Kai had kept a stone face before, but a grin cracked through now. He lifted his wine glass. “I never was. I was just guessing.”
“Agh! You suck.”
But he wasn’t guessing. I saw it in his eyes.
He had been in my house, my room because he’d been right. I didn’t have keepsakes or pictures or even a Chapstick out on my dresser. Nothing except my laptop. It sat center on my desk.
Brooke slapped a hand on the table, leaning forward, still gripping her wine glass. “Are you going to tell me what you did with Levi? I know you took him. Where is he? He’s not with this caravan.” She waved her glass around the room, indicating all the guards.
I could see three standing outside the window, two farther back in the woods, and another one right next to the house.
Kai just sipped his wine, eyeing his sister.
She made another frustrated sound, pretending to wring his neck in the air. “You drive me crazy sometimes.”
“Sometimes?” he teased.
She succumbed, her face melting to a smile. “Yes. Annoying. You. You keep things from me, thinking it’s in my best interest. But you can’t make all my decisions for me. You’re only four years older than I am, Kai.”
“Four or forty. Same difference,” he shot back.
“You’re such a dick.” But she was smiling, and she didn’t mean it.
She loved him, as much as he loved her.
This was their relationship. Volatile, but well-meaning. Irksome, but loving. Reckless, but safe.
She was safe with him.
An ache burned deep in my chest.
I was jealous, again.
I wanted this relationship. Seeing it made me realize how much I hadn’t had it growing up.
Blade. Carol. I tried to remember them, because they cared.
Not like family should care.
That voice was right. It stabbed me, but it was true.
I didn’t want to feel ungrateful. Blade did care. I cared for him too, but since being taken by the Bennetts, old wounds were surfacing.
Suddenly, I didn’t want to endure anymore. I didn’t want to hear the fondness these siblings held for each other, so deep it was in the foundation of their entire beings.
I shoved back from the table. “Excuse me.”
I should’ve said something better, more convincing, but I couldn’t muster it. I fled to my room, shutting the door, leaving the light off. I stood in front of my window, my arms crossed tightly when the door opened.
“I’m sorry…”
I turned because I didn’t recognize the voice. It wasn’t Kai or Brooke who stood there.
It was a stranger, dressed head to toe in black.
He started toward me, a gloved hand in the air. “Your father se—”
No!
A white bolt of fear sliced through me, and then I screamed.