Page 5 of Trust

Meaning that there was a whole lot more, but she wouldn’t tell him. He would find out sooner or later, but she seemed…fragile. So different from the Lani he knew. She still had that spine of steel, but he felt as if one wrong word and she might start crying. And that was not like Lani at all.

From the time he’d met her, she’d had enough moxie to match his. In fact, he always suspected she had more. But for some reason, she seemed different.

She might not realize it, but he would find out soon enough, either from her or her brother.

“I’m still surprised Ben didn’t mention your brake situation.” And he would be cornering his best friend about that.

She shrugged. “He’s been busy with the wedding stuff.”

He was calling bullshit. The guy he knew for a decade just didn’t shrug off his sister’s brakes going out. This was the guy who had threatened Jakob before he’d even met Lani.

Oh, yeah, they were going to have a chat today about that, and maybe he would discover what had Lani looking so damned sad.

Two

Dread inched down Lani’s spine as she parked the car in front of her brother’s house. She used to live here. It had long been a family compound their grandparents had built, but once Royal had moved in, Lani hadn’t felt welcome. And she hated the other woman for making her avoid Ben. They had been close at one time, but in the last year, he had distanced himself from her. Worse, he had been taking advice from Royal, who didn’t know squat about running any business, let alone a surfing giant like Kingston Surfing.

“You’re sighing more than Jules did when she was a teenager.”

She glanced at Jakob. When had he gotten so damned observant? Most of the time, he acted like she didn’t exist.

“Royal is…a lot.”

“That’s a nice way of putting it.”

Lani tilted her head. “Have you met her?”

“No. But I’ve seen her social media.”

So, he didn’t see how mean she was.

“And I smell mean girl.”

She blinked. “You do?”

“No. Not at first. I talked to Nic and Jules about her.”

Lani knew that other than his mother, the two women were the most important women in his life. Nic had been his brother’s sober companion before stepping into her role as executive assistant for the whole company. She was now also Jensen’s wife. Jules was the sweetest woman Lani had ever met, so she understood why Jakob loved his sister so much.

“And?”

“Nic said she heard things. You know how she is. She knows everyone in PR and social media, and she said Royal had a reputation for being rude.”

She nodded. Rude wasn’t a big thing. “Let’s go before Ben comes out here complaining.”

Another frown from Jakob. How did he look so crazy hot frowning? Of course, he looked crazy hot doing anything.

She opened her door, but Jakob was already rushing around the front of the vehicle. “Let me help you down.”

“What? Why?”

His mouth twitched.

“Stop.”

He cocked his head and studied her for a moment. It was an odd situation having him standing there looking up at her.

“Stop what?”

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