Page 86 of Forgotten Promise

“You don’t seem happy about that.”

She looked up at him. He had been a complete stranger a couple of days ago, yet she felt a bond with him, forged by their shared heritage and their role within the society.

“I’m not.”

Preston nodded slowly. “I didn’t think you were. And it was clear Benjamin wasn’t either.”

His comment sliced through her exhaustion. “What?”

“I was looking right at him when Selene told him she’d granted his request. He looked miserable.”

He did?

Kailani had been looking at him too, but she hadn’t seen that. Why hadn’t she?

“Are you sure?”

Preston gave a slight shrug. “I realize I don’t know Benjamin as well as you do, but I can recognize a man in pain.”

Pain.

Oh God.

“I need to talk to him,” she said, standing, resisting the urge to run from the room in search of Benjamin, hating the thought that he was hurting, alone, without her and John.

She didn’t move, though, because the Grand Master had given her a direct order.

Preston seemed to understand her reticence. He looked around the waihona. “This is going to take days to go through, not a single night. Why don’t you take the list of what we’ve found so far to Selene, give her a progress report?”

“Progress report?”

He was giving her a way out.

“Yeah. I’m tired too,” Preston lied. He looked well-rested and too intrigued by everything they’d uncovered so far to quit now. “We can start back again in the morning.”

“Okay,” she said, tearing the top few pages from her notebook so that she could leave it and the pen behind for him. “I think that’s a good idea.”

He took the notebook from her, giving her a gentle smile. “Can I tell you a secret?”

She nodded. She genuinely liked this man.

“I was glad it wasn’t me.”

Kailani grinned. “I was too.”

“I know you want to talk to Benjamin, but can I give you some advice?”

She nodded.

“Get some sleep, Kailani. I have a feeling after you’ve gotten some rest, things will look clearer to you, and you’ll be better able to figure out where to go from here. You’re in love with Benjamin?”

She nodded, unable to deny that truth any longer. “And John, our third,” she added, acknowledging that the sexy detective had stolen her heart within mere days.

“Then you’ll definitely need to sleep. Because it sounds to me like you have a trinity to fight for.”

Chapter Twenty

John walked into the little conference room, aware that he’d missed the meeting Selene had called earlier. He’d finally wrapped up the investigation of the theft, getting the answers he wanted from Mark, who’d at first smugly asked for a lawyer and threatened to sue all of them.

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