Akara grips my shoulder with a love we can’t justly explain. Respect, pride, and something deeper wrapped into an eternal light. Like a torch unable to burn out in the darkest spaces of time.
He starts to smile.
We hear Ryke tell Sulli, “Your life is different now, and shitty things are going to happen. Shitty things that I can’t prevent. That security can’t prevent.”
Tension stretches along the bank of the river. Everyone watching Ryke and Sulli. Clearly, shitty things have been happening. Building up like bricks mortaring a house.
“I know,” Sulli breathes. “I’m ready for the unpreventable things. I told you, I would be willing to take all the fucking risks for my relationship. But the Jeep—”
“Is just a fucking Jeep.” Ryke tries to hold her gaze, but something raw surfaces in his eyes. A pain that causes him to look away for a beat.
“You know that’s not true,” Sulli whispers.
Ryke shifts his hands to her hands. Eyes on his daughter. “You’re more important than that Jeep. Adam Sully would have agreed with me, if he were here now. Fuck, he’d tell me it’s just a stupid Jeep, man. He’d be fucking shocked it’s still running.” He puts a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “My friend isn’t just in that car. He’s in the mountains. He’s in the sky. Every time you climb. Every time I climb. Every time you reach a summit. He can feel that.”
Sulli wipes away her tears. “I still want to keep looking, Dad. I’m not giving up.”
“Then we won’t fucking give up.” Ryke gives her a hug.
“Price!” Daisy jogs over to her bodyguard, probably to inform him of the news.
I’m not excited about Triple Shield trying to rub our faces in this loss. When there’s nothing we could’ve done.
I feel the disdain in my grimace. And when Ryke returns to the dry bags, he’s eyeing the mother-loving hell out of me.
“Two teams are better than one on this,” he says roughly. “Unless you have a fucking problem with Triple Shield helping look for the Jeep?”
“We don’t,” Akara says quickly, trying to keep the peace. Bringing Ryke and Daisy into our issues with Price, Greer, and Wylie is plain unprofessional. And I won’t ruin Akara’s reputation as the CEO of Kitsuwon Securities over my beef with Price’s men.
I shut my mouth.
When the gear is safely in the dry bags and clipped to the paddleboards, we all head down to the river. It’s idle here but up ahead, rapids swell and roll the water.
Price puts an inflatable kayak into the river. He’ll be kayaking beside us, while Greer and Wylie meet us at the end of the river with the vans.
I don’t have an earpiece in.
No radio.
I’m here as Sulli’s boyfriend. Same as Akara.
But I still find myself scanning the area. Vigilance sharpens my senses. Alert. No humans in sight. We shook off paparazzi somewhere around Salt Lake City, and they shouldn’t know our destination.
Less people and no paparazzi are some of the few saving graces of traveling to more remote locations.
Nature practically hums in the air. Didn’t think I’d like the outdoors as much as I’ve come to love them. But really, I think it’s because of the company I share when I’m here.
Shielding the beating sun with my hand, I see Daisy, Ryke, and Winona easily stand up on their paddleboards. My muscles tense, watching them glide around the water with clear agility and balance.
Fact: my ass has never been on a paddleboard before.
“It’s easy,” Akara says beside me as he fixes the straps of my life vest. He tightens them like he’s choking the last bit of oxygen from me.
“You trying to kill me, man?”
He laughs. “It’s supposed to be tight.”
“I’m about to take my last breath,” I refute.
Sulli pushes her board into the water. “Don’t say that.”
“Yeah, don’t say that,” Akara snaps like I invoked death into our relationship.
“You know what we are?” I tell him.
“Hot,” he answers with a self-satisfied smile.
“I was gonna say a bunch of superstitious freaks.”
Akara laughs.
I cock my head. “But yeah, we’re fuckin’ hot too.”
“And she knows it,” Akara states while we watch Sulli bite her lip and check us out. We’re in swimming trunks. Sun beats on my olive-skin, and Akara’s stab wound is visible from his waistband. The healed cut puffing in the heat.
Sulli’s life vest covers her sporty bikini top, and unlike Winona’s water-resistant cargo shorts, Sulli just wears bikini bottoms. I sweep her long, long legs like she continues to take us in, like we’re something unreal. Something she’s dreamed up from the motel on the road trip to now.
From bodyguards to boyfriends to soul mates.
My mouth curves up more.
“Is she drooling?” Akara tells me while we stare at our girlfriend.
“I think she’s blushing.”
Sulli blushes more, then kicks the reddish sand at Akara’s ankles. “If I’m drooling, it’s over Banks.”