Page 34 of Forgotten Promise

“We should hire security, bodyguards,” Benjamin said.

“No,” Kailani said again. She checked her phone. “It’s six in the morning, but where I’m going is an hour away according to Google maps. Hopefully I’ll catch the keyholder at home before they leave for work…” Her voice trailed off as she looked at Benjamin, then John, and back. “You’re not going to let me go on my own, are you?”

“Nope,” John said. “We’re going with you. I’ll drive.”

Chapter Nine

The massive house in Malibu had tall windows and walls of glass, the white of the building a backdrop for the greens and browns of palm trees and massive coastal sunflowers. Situated on a hill, no doubt with gorgeous views, the dwelling’s modern architecture was both geometric with lots of straight lines and corners, and delicate. The curved uphill drive let them out onto a large level area flanked by an L-shaped garage on one side and the house on the other. A white sports car was pulled up near the steps at a casual angle.

“That gate probably meant security,” John said as he climbed out of the driver’s seat.

“Or it’s just about privacy,” Benjamin said. “Gates with call boxes can be a pain unless you have full-time staff to respond to requests to enter.”

John looked over and shook his head.

Kailani had been nervous when they pulled up at the address and found a solid black-and-gray gate at the foot of the driveway, but as John pulled closer, and while they looked among the vegetation for a call box, the gate had swung open automatically.

If there’d been a call box, she wasn’t sure what she would have said. Should it have been cloak-and-dagger—should she recite the Trinity Masters’ Latin motto? Should she just say her name and hope that curiosity meant they let her in?

“Are you alright?” Benjamin asked quietly.

She looked up into his face, and for the first time in over a decade, her first impulse wasn’t to defensively brace herself or launch her own verbal attack.

“Yes, just…thinking about what I’m going to do.”

Aware that this was taking too long, that it had been over twelve hours since she’d gotten the call, Kailani squared her shoulders and walked up the handful of wide, shallow steps to the massive, smooth white front door.

She raised her hand and knocked. She’d googled the name of the person she was here to meet and found a picture, so she knew who she was looking for.

A figure moved through the house, just a shadow until they walked by the glass wall beside the door.

Kailani put her hand to her throat, fingers hooking under the chain.

The door opened.

Preston Kim stood in the doorway. He wore exercise clothes and had a towel slung around his neck. His gaze moved from her to John and Benjamin, who’d taken up positions behind her.

Kailani hooked her fingers under the chain and pulled out the key, letting it rest on her shirt.

Preston’s gaze dropped to it, his eyes going wide with surprise, before he shifted his attention to her face.

Kailani met his gaze. “Can I speak with you privately?”

* * *

John stood in the foyer next to Benjamin, feeling out of place. Put him in a back alley, questioning suspects or witnesses, surrounded by the worst humanity had to offer, and he was just fine. Throw him on a private plane or in—fuck—a Malibu Barbie mansion like this, and his confidence wavered.

The man who’d opened the door had invited them in, then excused himself and Kailani without a word of explanation.

They weren’t there more than a second or two before another man and a woman appeared.

“Preston?” The woman called out to Kailani and Preston’s retreating backs as she and the other man approached him and Benjamin, still hovering by the front door.

The four of them stared at one another. Then the man stuck out his hand. “Lance.” That was followed by a quick round of introductions. Benjamin smiled when the woman introduced herself as Carly.

“You two care to explain that?” Lance asked with a nod to where Kailani and Preston had disappeared.

John hoped Benjamin, as the legacy, would take lead on the conversation because he wasn’t exactly sure what was known, not known, and who could be read in on the situation. The fact Kailani pulled Preston out of the room told him some level of secrecy was required, but how much?

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