Kian

“True.” Snark reached for the door and held it open for me.

When we got to the elevators, I asked, “Where are we?”

“Your new boyfriend’s ritzy place. The Maston.”

“Oh.” My eyebrows shot up.

I’d forgotten Kian’s family business wasn’t just in restaurants but also hotels. I thought the Seton was the ritziest in the city, but I’d forgotten all about The Maston. If a hotel could be a six-star, this one would’ve been. It was exclusive. Even some celebrities couldn’t get rooms here.

The elevator door slid open and revealed a glass box. A pool glistened up to us from beneath, reflecting the light from the sky above us. As we traveled to the top floor, I noticed each floor had a different theme. The lobby was extravagant with fountains and gold lining everywhere. That was the only glimpse I got. Then, we were going past the second floor, which was blue. The third was red. The fourth was silver. The fifth…

I got dizzy from trying to take everything in, and I closed my eyes. When we stopped, there were three doors in a small hallway.

The far one opened.

Kian stood there. “Snark.”

Forgetting the impressive setting or how gorgeous Kian looked in a lightweight hoodie that molded to accentuate his broad shoulders and trim waist, I looked between the two as we went inside Kian’s penthouse suite. “You two know each other?”

Snark didn’t answer. He went into a living area, complete with two couches, a fireplace, a desk, an entire wall of books, and a wet bar at the other end.

Kian followed behind and took a small breath. His eyes narrowed, resting on Snark. “Only by reputation.”

Snark grunted, glaring right back. “His family asked enough higher-ups to figure out that I could have been one of the agents who had helped you disappear. But, no, we’ve never formally met.”

“Until today.” Kian hid a grin.

Snark’s lips pressed in a flat line and he acknowledged, with a clipped head nod. “Until today.”

“Okay.” A headache was pressing against my temples. “Kian, what are you still doing here?”

“I wanted to stick around.”

“Why?”

Snark grunted. “To be close by when his team threw you to the wolves.”

Kian’s eyes narrowed to slits. His face wore an unreadable mask, but I caught the dark heat stirring in his eyes. A shiver wound down my spine, but I wasn’t sure if it was the bad kind or not.

His voice was low and controlled. “They’re searching for Jordan, not Jo. They have no idea who she is now.”

“I got a phone call this morning from one of my supervisors.”

“You did?” My chest was so damn tight. “What did your supervisor want?”

“For me to give you up, but I don’t have to, and my supervisor knows that. I have no legal obligation to hand you over, and even if the police issue a warrant for your arrest—”

Kian cut in, “Which is highly unlikely. There’s nothing to incriminate Jordan for the angle they’re going toward.”

Snark kept talking as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “The FBI doesn’t have to help out the local police department, but having said that, you didn’t officially go into the Witness Protection Program.”

I was left hanging. “So? What does that mean? I know I’m not officially in the program, but you helped hide me anyway. What does that mean?”

Kian stepped toward me, turning to face me squarely. His back was now to Snark. “That means”—his soft voice turned my shiver to the bad kind, the really bad kind—“that they can find you.”

“Fuck that.” Snark came around. “They will find you. This one found you. I take it, the guy you used isn’t on your daddy’s payroll?”

Kian cast him a disdainful look. “No. I learned long ago to employ my own people and”—a glimmer of a smirk showed—“my people are better.”

“You haven’t given her up yet, or her new name would be plastered all over the news. Why not?”

“Because I don’t want that to happen.”

“So, this is okay? It’s your team who got the DA to go after her. It’s your team who spun everything around, and it was you who did that interview.”

That interview…Erica’s interview. I was still holding on to the paper. I looked down at it. What had Kian said in it? What had I avoided that I could’ve been prepared for by now?

Kian took the paper from me and threw it on the couch. He pointed at it, his jaw clenched tightly. “What I said signified nothing. They’re reaching for a crapshoot.”

“They have a witness. They’ve talked to someone who’s backing up the new investigation.”

“They have nothing. If they do, it’s someone from high school who has an agenda and wants to be famous. That’s it. The witness will be discredited. It’s only a matter of time before that happens, and, no, they won’t find Jo. I’ve made sure of that.”