Bennett Mafia(59)

I hated what he did. But I didn’t hate him.

I lusted after him. But I loathed his job.

Still, my physical weakness—or whatever was going on—wasn’t right. Remembering how I’d felt when I got Blade’s text, I knew my decision. Kai wasn’t the issue, not really. I wanted to remain with the Network. I wanted to keep helping people. I had to. It had once been me who needed help. It’d been my mother. There were others out there like us.

Kai and me, we had to end. No more.

I returned to my seat by the window and thumbed up my volume. Anything to distract me, because I didn’t want to feel the boulder in my stomach.





CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR


We landed in Minneapolis and were quickly swept into the back of a car this time, rather than an SUV. The guards had those. Kai and I had two guards with us, counting the driver, but it seemed more intimate, more quaint.

I looked over at Kai, who was watching out the window, and for a split second I felt like we were all friends road-tripping to see another friend.

“Aren’t they supposed to have snow here?” I asked.

Kai turned to look at me, his eyebrows pinched together. “You live in Canada.”

I kept my face neutral. “I know.”

His eyes narrowed. “You’re fucking with us.”

It was summer. Of course I was fucking with them.

But I still hid my grin, feeling a bit punchy. “Can I choose the next house we stay at? I mean, you guys rent them, right? You haven’t bought all of them…”

Kai’s expression didn’t waver.

Shit. He did.

“Really?” I choked out.

His nod was faint. “Except the hotel. And who said we’re staying anywhere?”

That shut me up—for a moment. “We’re going to Brooke right now? I thought there’d be a plan, a meeting time, blueprints plastered on the wall. You know…” I waved my hands in the air. “A whole marker board that we can flip over and start writing on the other side when a new idea comes to us.”

He sat motionless. “Is that what you do on your 411 missions?”

“No.” Look at that, my pants became so interesting. I dusted off some lint.

Kai must’ve taken pity on me. “We are staying somewhere,” he relented. “But we’re picking up my sister first.”

Forget the lint. My head whipped back up. “We’re going now?”

He nodded, returning to his phone. “Mmmm-hmmm.”

“But—” My mouth was gaping.

They were moving too fast. Things had to be planned. I wasn’t kidding now.

“What’s the plan?” I snorted. “Going up and knocking?”

“Generally. Yeah.”

Again with the gaping mouth. “Are you serious? You can’t be serious. Brooke will…” Jonah had told me to go. Wait. No. Tanner said that. “Tanner said you needed my help or Brooke will do something stupid. She’ll get someone killed.”

Kai remained focused on his phone, scrolling up to read something. “Tanner lied to you.”

“But, why would he lie to me?”

“Because he didn’t want to babysit you?” Kai sighed, putting his phone away and resting his head against his headrest. He looked me over, a faint trace of amusement tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Tanner had a friend putting on a show at Fortune. He didn’t want to drive all the way to Cowtown with you.”

I… I had no words.

Not just because of Tanner, who was an ass, but because of Kai, who was smirking at me.

Smirking.

It was doing dangerous things to me. “Stop that.”

And damn him, because he knew what I was talking about. His smirk only deepened.

“But Jonah said—”

“I don’t know what Jonah said, but he wanted to get back to his job. He also didn’t want to have to stay and babysit you.”

“Both your brothers lied to me?”

He nodded. “They did, yes.” There was a twinkle in those dark eyes now. He didn’t look like the head of an international mafia family. He looked like a guy Carol would’ve fawned over if she saw his picture in a magazine.

I felt a flutter in my chest.

Kai was young for what he had to handle. He’d taken over the family at sixteen. And he’d murdered his father to do it.

Clearing my throat, I said, “What assholes.”

“Can you blame them?”

No. “Jonah wanted to get back to his job?”

“His residency.” Kai kept watching me as he spoke.

It should’ve been even more unsettling, but it wasn’t. He was warm. He was being honest. I could see that, and somehow we felt like friends in this moment.

“He’s wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember. It’s difficult at times, though. Family comes first. A job like that, a family like ours, he gets caught in the middle a lot.”

“He’s young to be a doctor.”

“He’s a genius.”

That’s right. So was Kai.

My words were out before I realized I was going to ask. “How do you do it? Handle everything, think the way you do? How do you… I think I’d go mad just trying.”