I turned around and looked out over the city. I heard the roof’s door open and close, and I knew he was gone, but I’d see him again tomorrow.

The hotel suite was dark when I got in, but there was a soft glow coming from my sister’s room and another from the living room. As I passed the doorway, I noticed the French doors had been left open, and a small lamp on the desk tucked back in the corner had been left on.

I shared this suite with Felicia.

Our dad hadn’t wanted to stray from his offices for too long, and there’d been too much traveling done already from the Primetime interview and all the appeals courts. He remained back home with our mother.

It was just my sister and me in this suite while my lawyers and all of Laura’s publicist team stayed in their own rooms. There was security, too, but only one remained inside the suite while the others stayed out in the hallway. They’d switch off every few hours, and a new set of guards would come in the morning to relieve them.

Felicia liked to turn in early—or that was what she’d claim before retiring to her room at nine every night. The smell of booze that emanated from under her door said otherwise. I was fairly certain my sister was a closet alcoholic. I only hoped it was alcohol and that she wasn’t addicted to anything else.

After going past her room, I was about to close the door on mine when her door opened.

“Kian?”

I paused and closed my eyes.

She’d forced herself on this trip. I didn’t want her here. My lawyers didn’t either, and I knew Laura thought my sister was a publicist’s nightmare. But Felicia had demanded that she come, and I hadn’t had the time to fight her, so here she was, waiting up for me.

I prepared myself for one of her lectures. I said, “I’m here.”

She came out to the hallway, so she could see me. Our rooms were right next to each other, and I hadn’t stepped back out to answer her question. I made her come to me. As she stood between our doors, she wrapped her blanket around her form. Her makeup was smudged, and she was unsteady on her feet, swaying a tiny bit before she caught her balance fully.

She asked, the rank smell of tequila wafting over to me, “Where were you tonight?”

“I felt like a walk.”

She wrinkled her nose. Walks were beneath her. “You shouldn’t do that. Or you should take some of the guys with you. Everyone was worried about you.”

No one was worried about me. “I was fine, sister dear.”

She rolled her eyes and reached for a glass on her table. “You’re placating me.”

“Of course, I am.”

“Stop doing that,” she warned in a low tone. Her blue eyes flashed in anger. “I’m not helpless, and I’m not stupid. You’ve been disappearing a lot since we got to this town. If you’re going for walks”—she pointed to my face—“at least wear a hat.”

I flipped up my sweatshirt’s hood and pulled it low. “Look, ominous and threatening. I know you’re scared of girls flinging themselves at me, but when I’m dressed like this, they tend to run away.”

“You’re so annoying.”

“And you’re wasted,” I shot back, but regretted it. My sister had reason to worry. “I’m fine, Felicia. Nothing’s going to happen to me.” I wasn’t going anywhere. That’s what she was concerned about. I lingered on the glass in her hand. I didn’t know if she was drinking more since I left for prison and more since I got out. All I knew was that it was steady and constant. She was a problem the family would have to face sooner or later, but not now. What happened to her wasn’t my problem, at least not anymore. The small fight I had in me was gone. I raked a hand over my face. “Go to bed, Felicia. I’ll fetch you in the afternoon for lunch.”

“Lunch?” Her eyebrows furrowed together, and she pulled her blanket tighter. “Aren’t you doing that interview tomorrow?”

“No. It’s been moved to another day. You can sleep in and go shopping even. I’ll be back at the hotel around two for our lunch together.”

“Where will you be before that?” She sounded relieved, eager even.

I added to my lie, “I’ll be at the gym, and then I’m meeting with Parson and Ethan. I’m sure Laura will be joining us as well.”

Felicia snorted. “Your lawyers. I don’t know why they sent two of them with us. One would’ve sufficed.”

“I’m sure the fact that Ethan has recently stopped leaving your room in the morning has nothing to do with your attitude?”

She froze, her gaze searching mine.

I lifted an eyebrow. “I might have been in prison for two years, but that’s made me more aware of my surroundings. I can recognize whose footsteps I’m hearing tiptoe past my bedroom door at six in the morning.”

She huffed out, rolling her eyes, “We stopped, okay? You don’t have to lecture me about it.”

I kept quiet. They had only recently stopped, and I was going to have a word with Parson in the morning. I had no doubt his associate would be heading back to their law firm within the next twenty-four hours, and I was hoping that I’d concoct a plan to send Felicia flying after him. I had other plans to remain in town—at least for a few more days, if not a few more weeks, if I could make that happen somehow.

No one knew Jordan lived here. No one would know. I saw the interest in her tonight. She wanted to get to know me. The feeling was mutual. I wanted to understand her more than I already did.