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“I had Tabitha run his background after I saw his name on a document,” Kael admitted. “Is that a problem?”
“No,” I said quickly.
Kael cupped my jaw. “Mattie, are you in danger from this person?”
Heat suffused my neck, climbing up to my face and all the way down to my toes. I wanted so badly to tell him, to confide in him. Kael was as close to a friend as I’d had in a long time. More than a friend, maybe. I trusted him with my life. But that was because he valued mine, and if he knew what Jonathon wanted, he would sweep me away before we could finish this exit plan. We were so close. I just had to fend off Jonathon, expose my parents, cash in my inheritance, and get the fuck out of Dodge.
So, I couldn’t confide in him. I couldn’t give in to the insane urge to throw myself into Kael’s arms and unravel into the mess I really was. I didn’t know what waited for us when all of this was over, but I knew I wouldn’t forgive him if he hauled me away from my goal when I was this close to the finish line. I molded my features into nonplussed amusement. “Jonathon?” I asked with a soft snort. “No. He doesn’t even send his steak back if they overcook it. He’s a total pussy.” The memory of his wide, flat knife against my cheek surfaced in my mind. Lies, I thought with a pang of fear. He’s dangerous. Tell him, Mattie.
Kael’s grip shifted to my chin. “You wouldn’t lie about your safety, would you?”
“Of course not.” I smiled slightly. “Although… I like knowing you care.”
He lowered my arms slowly, unraveling the shirt and then tossing it aside. “You’re literally going to drive me to insanity, Mattie.” He took both my hands and cupped them between his, warming them after he’d cut off some of my circulation. “Why don’t you trust me? Still?”
“I trust you more than I’ve ever trusted anyone,” I answered honestly. “I trust you with my life.”
“But not your secrets,” he whispered. His eyebrows tilted up with concern, and it nearly chipped away at my defenses. The problem was, I got the feeling that although my walls had retained necessary layers, I had cracked Kael’s down to the foundation.
My high heel caught on an uneven stone in the old warehouse-turned-restaurant, and I barely managed to keep from falling on my face. Kael steadied me, his arm held out far and well within professional boundaries. I glanced at him, trying not to linger. “Thanks.”
“Watch your step, Miss Thorne.” He looked like an A-list Hollywood star playing a bodyguard with his form-hugging, black button-down shirt that he’d rolled up to his elbows. He somehow managed to look simultaneously laid back and able to lay out a person if they pissed him off.
I swallowed against a dry throat and faced forward again, following my parents through the former warehouse. We strode past an open kitchen with busy servers and cooks who all looked like they’d shoved spatulas up their asses. The atmosphere was disproportionately serious to the odd, whimsical dishes they appeared to be turning out. Everything smelled delicious, wafting through the air in waves of savory spice, followed by the kind of sugary sweet smell I could almost taste on my tongue.
“Auggie!” a chipper, male voice called. I turned, and my hollow stomach sloshed with nausea. Jonathon stood from a leather bench that curved around the distressed, exposed brick wall.
My father met him, holding out a hand to shake. “Jonathon. So good to see you.”
“You made it,” Jonathon smiled disarmingly as he took Dad’s hand. He reached up and fixed his soft, curly, brown hair as Mom and I approached, and his disproportionately wide mouth revealed a set of straight, artificially white teeth. He had a dark brown sweater tucked into a pair of enormously wide-legged, corduroy pants. It made him look like a deranged, mechanical bear from Five Nights at Freddy’s. Although, his build was quite trim despite that, and although he wasn’t as tall as Kael, he still seemed to tower over me as we approached.
“Of course we made it,” my mother crooned. She grasped his elbows and air-kissed each of his cheeks.
My mouth slid into a frown of distaste before I could help myself. Jonathon turned his attention to me, his dark brown eyes twinkling with interest. “Matilda. You look ravishing.”
I didn’t even bother glancing down at my simple, black sheathe dress. Mom had made me take off the sweater I’d worn over it, so I was left shivering in the sleeveless, simple outfit. I nodded to him, grasping my clutch tightly. “Jonathon.”
Jonathon cocked a smile over to Augustus. “Always playing hard to get, our Matilda.”
Kael cracked his knuckles audibly behind me, but no one else heard over the loud guffaw my father made. “You have no idea, Jon. I have stories for you.”
“I’m looking forward to them,” Jonathon smiled, barely crinkling his eyes at the corners. At thirty-eight, his lavish lifestyle had afforded him the resources to age subtly, and he looked closer to my age. He gestured to the booth and chairs. “Please, have a seat. Oh,” his gaze connected with Kael behind me. Jonathon pressed his hands together. “I’m so sorry. I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”
I threw up in my mouth a little. What a two-faced shithead. “This is Kael,” I offered, gesturing to the tense pillar of muscle behind me. “My… bodyguard.”
“Oh, excellent,” Jonathon said with apparently genuine enthusiasm. “Keeping our Mattie safe, are you?”
“Always,” Kael replied softly. “Good to make your acquaintance, Mr. Cohen.”
“Well, any friend of Mattie’s is a friend of mine,” Jonathon said with the bravado of an asshole who liked being the main person in everyone’s lives. “So, I appreciate it. I think I have it from here, though,” he winked, sliding his hands into the pockets of his trousers. “She’s perfectly safe with me. I’m an old family friend.”
“Oh, yes, Jonathon is very attentive,” Alicia agreed hastily. “You can wait in the car.”
The strain required to keep from whipping my gaze to Kael’s and pleading with him to stay actually caused a muscle cramp in my neck. In my periphery, I saw Kael nod, and then without an ounce of hesitation, he left. I knew there wasn’t anything he could do about it—not with my insistence that he keep up pretenses. But I felt his absence like having a life jacket ripped off my body in the middle of a sea storm.
I practically shook with pent-up nerves when I realized what this was. Setting expectations. Jonathon and my parents wanted to make sure I knew how alone I was.
My parents bracketed me, and then we were all seated in the leather booth, the three of us facing Jonathon. As the waiters came by to take drink orders, Jonathon and my father chatted about his excursion to the trench and then something about marine biology. I tuned them out, unwrapping a piece of gum and shoving it in my mouth so I could chew it loudly while they talked. I wasn’t about to make myself more appealing for this ass wipe.
