“Why, Trey?” Kyon asks in a low tone, holding me closer to him. “I’m the answer to all your prayers. I’ll take her far away from here where you’ll never have to see her again, never have to wonder if she’ll be at the dinner party you have to attend or the swank you’re required to be at.”
“Kyon, put me down please,” I say softly, dropping my arms from his neck and seeing the deadly look on Trey’s face. Kyon lowers me slowly to my feet, but now I’m sandwiched between them. “Trey…Trey…” I say with both my hands on his chest. Trey’s eyes meet mine, but I’m not sure he actually sees me.
In an instant, Trey has me safely behind him and Wayra takes it from there, leading me away from them. “Wait,” I say, trying to see what’s happening, but Wayra doesn’t listen, ushering me to the waiting skiff. Wayra stuffs me in the backseat, shutting the door and climbing into the driver’s seat. We wait for several minutes before Trey gets in.
When I glance at Trey’s face, he looks like he could chew steel. “What did he say to you?” Trey asks stiffly as the skiff moves forward.
“When?” I ask, not liking his tone because it sounds more like an accusation than a question.
“Before you speak again, know that I’m not playing games. You’re entirely too brilliant not to know what I’m asking you, so don’t evade my questions with your own.” Trey’s hostility simmers just below the surface.
“Kyon said a lot of interesting things. He let me know what was really happening on our ride today,” I reply with my own hostility. “Maybe you should’ve told me that I was being paraded around like a piece of meat. I like to know what I’m facing when I go into battle and you didn’t have my back.”
“I had your back! I thought that if you knew, you’d feel awkward and say something off color to make a bad impression.”
“SO! You did know!” I retort with my eyes narrowing at him.
“It’s PR, Kricket! The goal is to help you fit into society. Being sought after by the elite means that doors will open for you.”
“Do I look like I care about any of that, Trey?” I ask, seething. “I have a job—one that will pay me more money than I could ever have expected to make. I’m an advisor to the Regent. I can save my money, maybe buy an apartment in the city and have my own life.”
“Kricket,” Trey says, rubbing his eyes. “You know that’s not an option for you.”
“So you agree with Kyon—that I either have to commit to some powerful Rafe jerkwad who can try to protect me from the Alameeda or accept the ultimate, blond jerkwad and whatever the Brotherhood has in store for me?”
“You will be protected from the Brotherhood! There’s no way you’re going to commit to Kyon, no matter how cozy you get with him!” he retorts, like he has the ultimate say in this.
“Cozy? Did you just say cozy?” I sputter, glaring at him.
“You had your arms around him!” Trey says, like I threw myself at Kyon.
“I was afraid he was going to drop me!”
After we pull up in front of the hunting lodge and Wayra stops the vehicle, I open my own door and storm into the manor. Jax rises from his seat with the other Cavars in the room near the fireplace. He drops his cards when he sees my face and asks, “Kricket?”
I hold up my hand, blowing by him and heading to the staircase. I just make it to the first step when Trey’s hand wraps around my upper arm, ushering me with him to the second floor. Trey enters my bedroom with me and slams the door shut.
Trey points his finger at me angrily. “No matter what Kyon says to you, he’s not your friend. He is smart and manipulative and he knows exactly what to say to get you to…”
“To get me to what?”
“To get you to trust him.”
“Trey, you don’t understand anything,” I mutter. “He has information that I need…that I crave. He knew my mother—he knows about precognition—”
“You can develop your gifts on your own—in your own time. You don’t need to learn anything from him. And the proof is that you’re already more powerful than they ever expected.”
I take off my riding helmet and toss it on the chair. “Kyon said I could ask him anything and he’ll give me a straight answer. I have to find out what the Narc meant when he said that I’m the prophecy,” I rub my chin.
“No,” Trey says sternly.
“No? Why not?”
“Because Kyon is dangerous,” Trey replies, like I’m a child.
“Well, so am I,” I say, lifting my chin a notch. “I can handle Kyon.”
“Handle him…did you say handle him?” Trey asks rhetorically. “You’re no stronger than a kitten. How are you going to handle him?”
“Uhh,” I mumble as Trey comes closer to me, invading my personal space again. “I’m stronger than I look, Trey. Even Jax said so.”
“You think you’re strong? Handle me then, Kricket,” he says, pulling me to him with his hands on my upper arms.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I whisper, feeling my entire being light up at the nearness of him.
“How can you hurt me, Kricket, when I’m so much stronger than you?”
I gaze into his eyes, seeing his brows drawing together in anger. “If I lean in…” I say softly, focusing on his lips, “close to you…so close that it makes my breath catch in my chest, and then I…” Closing my eyes, I brush my lips gently against his, feeling heat rush through me as Trey’s hands slip to my back, crushing me to him.
I wrap my arms around the back of his neck and speaking against his lips, I continue, “then I could just let the common symmetry that exists between us force you to see that you’re mine...” I kiss him, “and I’m lost without you...”
Slowly tracing his lips with mine, he begins responding to my kisses with his own, before I pull back from him a fraction. I squeeze my eyes shut tight and say, “And then, I could tell you that none of that matters in this world…that because we share this common symmetry, the space between us will be filled with an undeniable gravity…pulling us toward one another. So that, when you commit to Charisma, we can’t be friends, because my heart won’t understand the distinction. It won’t understand that you’ll be hers…not mine.”
Trey’s arms tighten around me as he leans his forehead against mine. Softly, he whispers, “Kricket…”
I give a humorless laugh. “As it turns out, my heart isn’t made of stone…no matter how much I wish that it were.” My fingertips slip to his chest, feeling his rock hard strength beneath them. “But it doesn’t matter.”
“It doesn’t?” He lifts my chin so that I’ll look in his eyes.
“No…I’m going to ask Manus to replace you as my bodyguard, Trey,” I reply, feeling like I’m choking.
“WHAT?” Trey scowls, like he can’t believe what he’s hearing.
“You can’t stay here. Kyon isn’t blind—it must be written all over my face when I look at you. Anyone I love is a threat to him and he has the Brotherhood behind him,” I say, feeling adrenaline ignite in my blood as the look on Trey’s face goes from angry to deadly.