Page 124 of The Explorer
“But Kya said that she’s not back yet. She should have been back or at least close enough to home that Kya could reach her. What if the drone crashed?”
“Thor’s drone didn’t crash. He would have been alerted. It’s still in Europe somewhere.”
“Then maybe they were attacked by wolves.”
“Stop focusing on the negatives and look at the positives. We’re not talking about two helpless Motlanders here. Banni is hard-core and used to being in the wilderness. Sparrow has training and she’s done survival camps since she was eight years old.”
“How can you not worry about them?”
“I do, but my worry isn’t about them surviving in the middle of nowhere, but rather the insane fact that Sparrow is alone with a man without anyone to protect her.”
Aubri stopped and stared at me. “Are you implying she’s in danger from Banni?”
“There’s always a risk, isn’t there?”
“You think he’s capable of raping her?”
“He’s strong enough to do it and he called her the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. What I don’t understand is why Sparrow would take off with Banni alone. What was she thinking? She could have at least asked Jones or one of her brothers to go with her.” Raking a hand through my hair, I groaned. “And to think we trained him to become a better fighter.”
“Indiana, stop. Now you’re the one spinning out of control. Banni is our friend. He’s not a rapist.”
I groaned. “If he is, he’ll be a dead rapist when I get to him.”
“Sparrow isn’t a fragile flower. If she doesn’t want to have sex with him, she’ll hurt him if he tries.”
“Okay, but what if he seduces her?” I asked.
Aubri went quiet and came to sit on the bed. “That would be awful. Sparrow has no idea what she’s dealing with. She has never known a man like Banni. Even for you and me, who have lived here for a while, it’s hard to wrap our mind around the fact that the French will be charming and seductive toward a person, but as soon as they’ve played with that person three times, they’ll move on as if nothing happened. If Banni turns on his charm, Sparrow could fall head over heels for him and that would be a disaster.”
Aubri was right, but I hated seeing her so worried about our friend and leaned closer to rub her knee. “You will have to trust that she can get over it and forget him.”
Letting her head fall into her hands, Aubri sighed. “Except we’ve told the French that we want Banni to come to the Northlands and help train the Explorers. My idea was always to include Sparrow in the project. She’s obsessed about working to help others. That’s why she wanted to be a firefighter. Taking part in a salvation project for the planet will be the best thing that ever happened to her.” Aubri’s large blue eyes grew moist. “I can’t have Banni ruining it all by seducing her now and breaking her heart. I know he isn’t a bad person, but he’ll never be capable of loving her back the way she deserves.”
Kissing Aubri’s forehead, I muttered, “I could tell him to stay away from her.”
“How? We can’t get a hold of him or her. If the two of them are alone in the wilderness chances are that it will bond them. If she falls in love and he leaves her… argh, it’s such a mess. Sparrow of all people doesn’t need this shit. Do you know what her childhood trauma was?”
“Ehm.” I thought about it. “Was it that time she fell through the ice?”
“Well, yeah, that was probably traumatic as well, but she once told me that what hurt the most as a child was always sharing her parents with a whole school of children.”
I was stroking her leg while Aubri continued talking.
“You and I shared our parents with our siblings, but she had to share Kya and Archer with both her brothersandall the children living at the school. Remember that time Seamus called her selfish when she wanted her parents to herself?” Aubri’s hands fell and her voice broke a little. “If Banni steals her heart and then shares himself with other women, it’s going to be a fucking repeat of her childhood trauma.”
With another deep sigh, I pulled Aubri onto my lap and hugged her. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves here. Maybe Banni and Sparrow are arguing and fighting right now. Maybe she dumped his ass in the middle of no-where. Or maybe she’s a lesbian and isn’t into men at all.”
“She is.”
“Yeah, but if she’s got any common sense she’ll be into Nmen and not French men. I mean you were never attracted to Banni, were you?”
“No. He’s…” She paused and shook her head as if stopping herself from saying what was on her mind.
“He’s what?”
Aubri hid her head in the crook of my neck. “I didn’t like the idea of how experienced he was. Even before I realized my true feelings for you, I preferred to experiment with you over any other.”
“Because you felt safe with me.”
