He understood her cousins’ reservations. He understood their desire to save and protect.
Brooke had tried to protect him like that. He’d never appreciated it. He wondered why he couldn’t accept it back then when he’d needed it most. Why now, when he didn’t needanyone protecting him, he could look back and understand what she’d been doing and appreciate it.
Life was a hell of a ride.
He looked up from his coffee mug at the sound of footsteps. Franny stepped in, looking back over her shoulder with some concern.
He dumped the terrible coffee, rinsed out the mug. “Ready to go?”
She nodded. “I distracted Audra with baby talk and ran, so we might want to hurry.”
He chuckled, led her back outside. There was the hint of a sunrise on the horizon as they got into his car. At first, they drove in silence.
He didn’t really know what to say to her. He wanted to offer reassurances, but then wondered if that was too personal. And she wasn’t sitting there airing her worries, so maybe she wasn’t worried. Maybe she had it all under control.
He flicked a glance at the way her hands were gripped in her lap. Like all her stress was centered there.
Yeah, she didn’t have it under control. She probably needed a good night’s sleep and a decent meal. Then she’d have the reserves to deal. Shehadagreed to stay, and not everyone would be brave enough to do that.
Should he tell her she was brave? While he was trying to decide, she sighed.
“I love watching the sunrise here,” she said as they drove toward the one bleeding out in front of them. “I rarely do it, because I also love morning sleep, but… It’s different here, isn’t it?”
He looked at the little sliver of sun peeking its way over the horizon, the colors in bright pinks and oranges slashing out across the sky. He glanced at her, because the sunrise lookedthe same to him no matter where he was. But he didn’t want to argue. “Sure.”
Shealmostchuckled. “Maybe you’re just so used to it you don’t know. Did you grow up here?”
Uncomfortable, Royal didn’t allow himself to shift. He kept his gaze resolutely on the road. “No.”
“Where’d you grow up?”
“Why are you interrogating me all of a sudden?”
“I’m not trying to interrogate you. I’m trying to stay awake.” She blew out a breath. “And not think about how on edge I’m going to be in my apartment knowing someone tried to break in.”
“So why’d you agree to this?”
She turned that gaze on him, and herefusedto meet it. Not because he was a coward, but because he wasdriving. Obviously.
But she repeated the question. “Where’d you grow up, Royal?” she demanded this time.
He sighed. He didn’t want to talk aboutgrowing up, but if she was going to be stubborn about it… “South Dakota.”
“Ooh, the Mount Rushmore state.”
“Never been.”
She leaned forward, staring at him. “You grew up in South Dakota and never went to Mount Rushmore?”
You don’t tend to go to tourist sights when you spend most of your childhood in a dangerous biker gang. It was on the tip of his tongue to say it. Not just to shock her, but because he was curious how she’d react.
But notthatcurious. “There weren’t a lot of family vacations when I was growing up.” Unless moving from outskirt nomad campsite to outskirt nomad campsite counted. Unless the one nice foster family he’d been with taking him to their biologicalkid’s baseball game in Brookings counted. Which hadn’t been half bad, compared to all the other stuff in his life.
But it wasn’t Mount Rushmore.
“Well, next time you go home to visit you’ll have to rectify that,” Franny said, as if he had a home to go visit. “It’s great. We went when I was like…twelve, I think. I loved it. Of course, I was a little history nerd.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve got no plans to return.” Maybe his father was in jail, for good this time. Maybe the Sons were dead and buried. But there was nothing for Royal back in South Dakota except bad memories.
