Maybe I needed to turn off the emotions and listen to him as a Hider. My training said no emotions. I was embarrassed because in that regard, I knew he was outdoing me. He was winning. I didn’t know quite what the battle was, but I knew I was losing.

“Blade sent you new coordinates for Brooke then?”

He loved his sister. Perhaps I could turn the tables? Get him to talk.

He smiled at me, and I knew he was laughing. I saw it in his eyes.

“I’ve been doing this all my life. You’re playing catch-up, but it is fun to see.”

He sat back, turning away and pulling his phone out.

The conversation was done. He had dismissed me.

And damn him, because now all I wanted to do was to get him to talk.

Instead, I sat back and plotted.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

When we stopped again, it was in the basement parking lot of a hotel.

Vehicles surrounded us, and I was stunned that Kai had let us get so close to others. The guards stood around us. Kai stepped to the side and talked to one of them before the man nodded and left us, hurrying across the lot.

A door closed in the distance.

We could hear conversation, a laugh, a baby crying.

“We’re in Kelowna.”

I didn’t know what surprised me more, that we were in a small city a few hours from Vancouver, that Kai had told me, or that Blade had sent us here.

I only said, “Oh.”

Kai eyed me again, his eyebrows up. “You’re not surprised? You expected this?”

I shot him a look. “I thought you were better at this than I could ever be?”

He grinned. “I am, and you seem confused. I’m wondering why.”

I shrugged. “Maybe I’m just surprised you told me where we are.”

He laughed. “Maybe I’m lying, checking to see if you’d be surprised at our location.”

The guard was returning, hurrying with a hotel worker alongside him.

Kai glanced over and saw them, but turned back to me. He ducked his head down, stepping close, and everyone else was pushed aside. It was just the two of us.

“I thought you’d be happy to be returned to your friend.”

I flushed, but it was an angry flush. I was heated all over. “I would be happy, if that were the case. If it is, you get your sister, the sister who ran from you. And maybe I don’t trust you, and I don’t believe you’ll hand me over when and if everything works out.” My eyes narrowed. “Maybe I don’t believe a word you say.”

He was silent, observing me.

I had a feeling he was considering my words, sifting through them.

And then I knew he had been, because he said, “I don’t believe you.”

“What a surprise.” I sneered.

He stepped even closer, softening his tone. I could feel the heat from his body. “You have claimed over and over that you don’t know where my sister is. That’s what I don’t believe. You do know where she is.” He stepped back, and when he spoke again, tone matched his gaze, both suddenly cold and calculating. “My sister isn’t here, but it’ll be fun to find out how your friend thinks he can fool me.”

With that, he turned and started forward.

I was stunned enough that I didn’t move, and a guard had to grab my arm and guide me forward.

I almost stumbled over my feet, but I couldn’t go there. I couldn’t think about Brooke, or Blade, or what was going to happen next. If I did, I was going to do something to get myself killed. And I couldn’t do that. Not yet.

I had people to live for. I had a mission to live for.

Pay attention! I heard Blade reprimand me in my head.

He was right, or my training was right.

I had to take note of what we were doing, always. I had to remember everything.

We went to a back elevator, in a back hallway. It was the cargo elevator, the one the workers used for food and laundry and who knew what else. It took us to the top floor, and the hotel worker seemed nervous. She dropped the key card twice before the guard used it instead.

The doors opened.

We stepped out to a small hallway, turned immediately to the left, and another door opened for us.

It was the penthouse. Or so I assumed because it was grand enough to overlook the bay behind the hotel.

It had a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, and there were three rooms just off the main one. Three bedrooms.

I knew, without looking, without asking, that Kai Bennett had rented the entire floor. He wouldn’t let his privacy or security be challenged by having outsiders so close.

The worker spoke to him as I walked to the window, looking out over the pool and water beyond. She was still nervous, but there was also a hitch in her voice. She wanted to impress him. She would’ve slept with him. I heard that too in her voice. She was offering her body, and when he didn’t reply, but his guard did, it was a rejection.

Why I cared was beyond me.

It just made me burn even more with hatred. I hated Kai Bennett.

He could fuck whoever he wanted.

The worker said her goodbyes, adding that if we needed anything, her number was on her card. She was the manager, I realized, but it didn’t matter. She still wanted Kai, not even noticing there was a female in his presence being kept there against her will.

Maybe that was on me? Maybe I should’ve made it more apparent, but chancing a look at Kai where he stood a few feet away, I knew it wouldn’t have mattered.