Page 64 of Buying Time

Jarrod held a finger up to him. “How about we start with you and that fake smile? Hard to trust Kenz to someone who can’t even show a real expression.”

Char paused for a moment, his face not shifting in the least, until he let the smile fall away. “Now I know where she gets that annoying ability to see what a person’s really thinking.”

“You can thank Dane for that little lesson, not me. I’m not going to bother asking what you all are after, because I have a feeling knowing isn’t going to do any of us any good. If I know, I’m going to want to get involved, and Kenz doesn’t want that. Instead, I want to know that you all are going to look out for her.”

Hayden spoke up this time. “I can assure you that her safety is my top concern. She goes nowhere without a guard and the house is secure.”

“Seeing how I broke in, I wouldn’t call that secure.”

Hayden didn’t even flinch. “I’ve already watched the security videos and saw how you got in. Trust me, no one can attempt that again. Besides, I’m not sure how many people could actually manage to scale a two-story building without holds, bypass a security system as good as ours, and do all of that without drawing any attention. Your reputation is well deserved.”

Jarrod didn’t respond to that, taking it neither as a compliment or a chastisement. It showed the level of control the man had over his feelings and reactions.

“Are you getting her involved in something dangerous? Because if you have problems, I don’t want to see her drawn into it something she has no business in.” Jarrod’s sharp gaze moved from one of us to the next.

Vance responded to that question. “She was already involved. I can assure youwedidn’t pull her into this mess. In fact, if we weren’t here at all, she’d be a lot worse off.”

“I notice you didn’t say she isn’t in danger, only that you didn’t cause it.”

“You told us not to lie.” Vance kept a half smirk on his lips, but at least with him, it was normal.

Jarrod nodded slowly. “I think I know enough for now. I’ll go back home, and I’ll assure her sister that everything is okay.”

“Thank you,” Hayden said.

“Not so fast,” Jarrod interrupted him. “Because I need to make something perfectly clear. The idea of leaving Kenz inanyone’scare doesn’t sit well with me. My entire life has been about fixing people’s problems myself, after all, so relying on anyone to fix her issue isn’t something I find comfortable. This matters more to me than those jobs, but I can’t intervene.”

“You being this hands-off surprises me,” Char said.

“I learned my lesson before about trying to micromanage people. They don’t tend to react well. If you have a plant that you want to grow strong, you can’t crush it—you have to give it room to grow on its own. Kenz is an adult now, and she’s got to find her own way, get her own feet under her. She doesn’t trust herself, and it’s hard to blame her when she’s always had others making the choices for her. I may not like it, and it scares the shit out of me, but I’ve got to let her handle herself. Whatever happens, she’s got to take control of her own life.”

His words left a bad taste in my mouth, probably because it brought home how many people cared for her, and how much of a risk to her really existed. If we made the wrong move, if we screwed this up, it wasn’t just us who would pay the price.

Part of me was grateful for my inability to speak, because I‘d already parted my lips as though to tell him the reality of the situation.

Except, if we called Nem, the Quad or Jarrod into this, we could kiss our revenge goodbye. If Lorien caught word of Nem sniffing around, he’d disappear. No, worse, he might take the gloves off and manage to grab Kenz before ending up in the wind.

And the man could do just that. He had the knowledge and resources to make it almost impossible to find him.

Which meant telling Jarrod the truth would only make it all worse.

“You need to understand something important. If anything happens to Kenz, you all will be held personally responsible,” Jarrod said as though reading my mind.

“You mean if we do anything to her, don’t you?” Vance asked.

“No. See, keeping her safe wasourjob before. If you want to take that over now, then you’ll be responsible foranythingthat happens to her. If she gets hurt, I’d suggest you start running right away, because you should know hell will be coming after you.”

And just like that, I knew exactly where Kenz had gotten her backbone. People like this didn’t produce wallflowers, after all.

Chapter Thirteen

Kenz

I slapped down my cards and smirked at Char. “Read ’em and weep!”

When I reached for the chips, he clicked his tongue. “Not so fast, kitten.”

The sinking feeling in my stomach came a moment before he dropped his own cards, proving he’d won. I scrunched my nose up as he gathered the chips, adding to his already large pile.

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