Page 9 of Captivating

How many innocent people could have been hurt because someone was trying to get to me? I lift my tea with a shaking hand. “I know you mean well?—”

“Lilah, we don’t mean well,” Mom interrupts. “We’re terrified.”

“That call...” Dad starts with a gravelly voice, then clears his throat. “I hope to God you never have to get that kind of a call from your children. Nothing, and I mean nothing, has ever shaken me to my core the way that call did. Tink, you’ve got to understand, your mom and Igethigh-profile. We understand it in a way most people can’t. We’ve both been there. This entire family has lived it. But you’ve taken that to new heights we’ve never had to deal with, and we’re learning as we go here. These last few years have taken you away from us and given you to the world, and we don’t know how to protect you in this new rarefied air. But I’ll be damned if we don’t figure it out. For both of you.”

I look across the island to Noah. His head is tilted to the side like he’s trying to figure out a chord that just doesn’t sound right, and I know a split-second before he opens his mouth that he’s about to give in. “You’re right.” His dark blue eyes beg me to understand. “What do you think we need to do?”

I open my mouth to argue, but the pleading look on Dad’s face is enough to break me. He’s never scared. Never. He never loses his cool. He’s the calmest person I’ve ever seen under pressure. But this scared him. I lean further into his side and look around the room. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to be selfish. I just hate having security around twenty-four seven. I love my life, but I miss my freedom. You’re right. I’m not sure what’s going to happen next, but until this all dies down, we need to be better prepared.”

“We’ll figure it out together,” Mom offers softly. “But so help me, if your label can’t guarantee your safety, you are not going back out on tour, even if it means I have to lock you both in your old bedrooms.”

“They can just shimmy out of the window like Asher’s girlfriend does.” Dillan pops a berry in her mouth and purses her lips toward Asher, challenging him to say she’s wrong.

“Again, it’s not like I’m the twenty-two-year-old still living at home with Mommy and Daddy.”

“Whatever.” She flips him off and slides her phone across the counter. “How about starting with self-defense classes? Uncle Coop is teaching a class at Crucible. He’s been bugging me to come.”

“That’s a great idea,” Mom chimes in, and I fight my knee-jerk reaction that I’d rather it be anywhere else but there. Especially after last night.

“He’s got one later today,” Dillan adds, and I bite down on my lower lip so hard, I’m surprised blood doesn’t trickle down my chin.

Crucible.

Killian St. James’s gym.

The one his father owns, where I have no doubt Killian trains. Daily.

Shit.

“Damn it. I’m meeting with my editor this afternoon. But you two should go,” Mom pushes. “I’ve already talked to Cooper about the security system at your new house.”

“We don’t have to,” I tell her, dying for an excuse to delay the inevitable. “I mean, we could wait for you.”

“Please...” Dillan mocks. “It will be way easier to check out the hot fighters training if you’re not there, Mom.”

Dad lifts a brow, and Noah smothers a laugh. “You going to learn how to keep attackers away or how to pick up a man, Dillan?”

She smiles my way. “Both.”

“Take Xander with you,” Dad warns, and my heart sinks. They didn’t push Xander on me like this last month when I was home, and I’m not sure how I’m going to deal with it now.

There’s safety, then there’s suffocating.

“Thanks for coming with me, Tink. I really wanted to do this, but I didn’t want to do it alone,” Dillan muses as Xander turns off Main Street, and a pang of guilt hits me hard. I’m a shitty sister. Noah and I have always been thick as thieves. It’s what happens when you spend nine months in a womb with someone. We’ve been inseparable our whole lives. We’re also a few years older than Dillan, so she’s always been just a little left behind. Even before we left for our first tour.

I think I need to take whatever time off I’m about to be handed and maybe fix the distance the past few years have cemented between us. “Why would you have to do it alone? None of your friends would have come with you?”

She shrugs and looks out the window as we pull into Crucible’s parking lot. “They’re working.”

Shit.The all too familiar gesture makes me think I’ve just hit a nerve.

“I should be thanking you. I think agreeing to do this got Mom off my back for now,” I admit and look at the familiar building in front of us.

Crucible.

This gym holds a ton of memories. The boys spent so much time here in high school, which meant I did too... Good memories. Memories of them sparring on the mats while I sat against the wall writing songs—and maybe trying to hide the fact that it was harder to write every single time Killian took his shirt off.

No sixteen-year-old boy was supposed to be that defined, and I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Every girl in school did. Even a few who had already graduated noticed because when you’re Killian St. James, of course the college girls are interested, even though you’re a lowly high schooler.

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