Page 25 of Forgotten Promise

“Yes,” Benjamin said softly. “We’ll get what we want.”

Chapter Seven

Kailani kept her eyes closed, feigning sleep.

It had been a fucking day, between the keyholder call, the fire, and now this trip to the mainland with…God…at this point she didn’t know who Benjamin and John were to her.

There was a chance that at the end of this mad dash journey, she would be the Grand Master of the Trinity Masters, and the society was under attack.

Dealing with that had to take precedence over everything else. Including the future of…her trinity. Because if she did become acting Grand Master, she would have the power to dissolve her own trinity.

That should feel like a relief, but when she considered leading the entire secret society, all she felt was panic and a fair amount of nausea.

How would it look if her first act if she became Grand Master was to serve herself and end the engagement, rather than focus on the needs and interests of the society?

Her mind was whirling over a million things, so many that trying to hold her own against Benjamin simply wasn’t possible. He kept her on her toes on good days. This was not a good day.

She needed time and space to think. To take a breath.

Since being alone wasn’t an option, she’d decided to create her own space, even if all that entailed was sitting here with her eyes closed.

Her naptime act must have fooled them. Benjamin and John must have believed she was asleep because they spoke for a few minutes in hushed tones before falling silent. Sneaking a peek, she saw that each of them had slipped in earbuds and were looking at their phones.

She might have expected the quiet to soothe her rough edges, and after everything she’d been through today—not to mention a month’s worth of anxiety since the binding ceremony—she was surprised she hadn’t fallen asleep for real.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t.

It was this damn plane.

It was evoking too many memories, things she’d buried away for ten years, refusing to give them even a passing thought.

The last time she’d been on one of Dara’s private planes, she’d been nineteen years old and head over heels in love with Benjamin.

She might have expected to feel the same anger that always struck her whenever she and Benjamin were together, but sitting here, jetting across the ocean with him, was having the opposite effect, reminding her too much of the good times—brief though they had been.

She and Benjamin had embarked on a summer romance, one that had lasted four weeks, three days, and a handful of hours. He’d been her first love, and in truth, her only love.

It wasn’t that she’d been so devastated by their break-up that she refused to fall in love. She wasn’t that much of a sad sack. Her lack of romances since him had more to do with the Trinity Masters, her job, and—if she was being honest—a change in her ability to trust others.

She’d licked her wounds over Benjamin for almost six months, then she’d done what any strong woman would do. She’d picked herself up, dusted herself off, and started dating again. However, with experience came wisdom, so she’d held back parts of herself from the men she went out with and slept with because they hadn’t been members of the society. Falling in love would have been stupid, as her future partners weren’t hers to choose. She’d made that mistake with Benjamin and she wasn’t going to do it again.

When she was twenty-four, one of her mothers had a stroke. Mom had recuperated, and was fine now, but it had been a long haul. As such, Kailani had taken on more responsibility within the family businesses—a lot more. It wasn’t unusual for her to work sixty-, sometimes seventy-hour weeks. Not because her family expected that but because she genuinely enjoyed what she did.

As for her ability to trust—not just men, but everyone—it had definitely been impacted by Benjamin’s perfidy. He’d shaken it when he’d betrayed her by casually using information she’d given him to turn around and damage her uncle’s career.

Kailani dared to sneak another peek through lowered lashes, glancing across the aisle at her ex. John and Benjamin appeared to be following her lead, both of them partially reclined, eyes closed, trying to grab some rest while they could.

Kailani took a moment and studied Benjamin in profile, her mind drifting back in time…

* * *

“Tell me where we’re going,” she demanded for the fiftieth time. It had been a long flight, almost all of it over water, so she assumed they were headed for Europe. The problem was that didn’t narrow it down much.

Benjamin merely shook his head. “I’m not spoiling the surprise, so you can stop asking.”

“How will I know if I packed the right things?” she said, trying a different tack.

“If you don’t have the clothes you need, I’ll buy them for you.”

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