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I laugh, shaking my head at him. “You knew about that?”

He moves his eyes back to me. “I know about everything.” He pats my shoulder and leans forward to press a kiss to my cheek. “I’m glad to see you take a leadership position, Nadia,” he murmurs, “even if there was no democratic process involved. I hope you wear the responsibility well.”

“I will,” I say, nodding to my dad, my eyes shining a bit as he stands up and gives me a nod, reaching for the laptop.

“Thank you, sir,” Cole says, handing the laptop back and keeping his seat. “I’m glad to know this. I’ll marshal the guards and contact the closest military units in the rare case that we have to evacuate the volunteers.”

My brows raise. Could it seriously come to that?

But dad and Cole just nod to each other before dad strides away.

“This is getting…real,” I whisper, twisting my hands in my lap as I watch dad go.

“It’s been real,” Cole says, sighing. “For those in the Children of Solace, at least, it’s their everyday lives. We have been…remiss in letting it go this long without attention.”

“Yes,” I say, turning back to him. “You have.”

He holds my gaze seriously. “You realize that our nation has many crises to deal with every day, yes? And that we needed information – goodsolidinformation on this cult before we could move on it? We can’t just go running after every rumored threat to our people.”

I shake my head at him, not letting him get away with that flimsy excuse. “Your family has all the money in the world, Kincaid. It’s not enough to point to the bigger bear as the true threat and ignore the little cub massacring your people. You have the capacity to deal with many problems at once. If you have all of the privileges, youhaveto do better.”

Cole holds my gaze steadily and nods to me, just a tiny dip of his chin. My lips turn up a little despite my generally worried mood because I can tell that he doesn’t agree with me. But…I mean, he’s listening, isn’t he?

A real smile takes my lips and Cole grins too.

“I can’t believe I actually got a smile out of you,” he murmurs, his eyes shifting to my mouth.

“Yeah, well,” I say, laughing softly. “That’s what happens when you –“

“Hey!” a cheerful voice calls.

We both turn towards the blonde vision that strides towards us, a dark-haired therapy student by her side. My smile wipes instantly away.

“So, what was that about?” Rose asks, looking after my dad. “That was the General in command, right? Did he give you some news?”

“Hello, Rose,” Cole says, sounding glum.

Rose just turns her head back to him and beams, clearly picking up on his tone and ready to cheer him up. I narrow my eyes at her, thinking that she’s probably got some salacious ideas in mind for precisely how she’s going to do that.

The therapy student looks awkwardly between the three of us, not understanding the source of the very clear tension in our group.

Chapter 14 – Old Habits

Nadia

“Hey, Cole,” Rose says, laughing and twisting her hips as she says it. She wrinkles her nose at him and my hands clench in my lap. God, this girl thinks she’ssocute.

And I mean, she is. But…whatever. I hate her anyway.

“So?” Rose asks, lifting her chin again after my dad. “Updates?”

“Sorry,” Cole says, smoothly standing from his spot next to me on the log. “That’s classified information, Rose.”

Suddenly aware of being the only one sitting and peering up at the rest of the group like a toddler, I stand too.

Rose scoffs, I think genuinely surprised to be denied. Suddenly, she turns her head to glare at me. “Well, why doessheget to know?”

“Hi, I’m…Jeanie,” the therapy student says, giving an awkward wave and attempting a smile that doesn’t stick as she looks around at us. I glance at the girl, taking in her dark eyes and her cute chin-length bob. I mean, she seems perfectly nice, but I don’t have time to deal with her right now.