Page 26 of Rebellious Hearts

Don’t think about that.

I focused on the passing landscape instead.

We drove through the outskirts of Harborview. The once-thriving town was now cloaked in decay. Dilapidated buildings lined the streets, their paint peeling, and the façades were weatherworn from years of neglect.

Storefronts were abandoned now, with boarded-up windows.

Once upon a time, this place must have been beautiful—a quaint coastal town that drew tourists, a pleasure to live in. Some of the buildings still had the faded glory tugging at them. We passed a historic building with grand architecture, the kind of thing that would have been built in a time when things went well.

“This is so sad,” Sofia said softly. “So much potential has gone to waste.”

“Well, that’s why we’re here.”

“Sure.” She glanced at me but I refused to make eye contact. When she sat this close to me, looking at her would be dangerous.

We finally arrived at the hotel. The Seabreeze Grand sat like a gem on the coastline. This part of the town was beautiful and less neglected. Rugged cliffs, lust vegetation, and golden sandy beaches surrounded the hotel.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

The driver opened my door, and I got out. Sofia followed. The sound of crashing waves close by made it feel like we were on holiday, and the squawk of seagulls in the distance just made it that much more like a fairy tale.

We’d somehow stepped out of reality and into some alternate dream world or something.

I walked into the grand lobby and up to the reception desk.

“Oh, wow,” Sofia breathed behind me. She looked up at the high ceilings, took in the marble floors, and looked at the artwork on the walls. “This place is incredible.”

“A far cry from the rest of the town we just saw,” I muttered. “Thank God.”

“I wonder why this place is so different,” Sofia said.

“If it wasn’t, we would have stayed somewhere in Georgia and driven all day. I wasn’t going to stay inthat.”

“It might do us some good to understand what the townsfolk are going through with how things are right now,” Sofia pointed out.

“We don’t have to know what they’re going through. We’re here to change it, and then it doesn’t matter.”

“It helps to know why you’re working on something, you know…”

I glanced at her.

“Do you know what your problem is?”

I turned to look at her, surprised. “I don’t have a problem.”

Sofia snorted. “You do. And it’s the fact that you miss the human element in everything. It’s not just about places and money, you know. The people are the heart of everything we do.”

“I don’t miss that part,” I said. “I just don’t see the point in spending energy on something when it won’t change the facts.”

Sofia narrowed her eyes at me. “And you only spend energy on the things that are important?”

“Yep.”

“Then your view is a lot more skewed than I thought.”

I turned around to stare at her. People didn’t usually talk to me that way. I was Ben fucking Blackwood, for God’s sake. People feared the four of us, just because of our name, and they were extra careful around me. Of the four brothers, I was the one who took the least amount of shit from anyone.

And here Sofia was, telling me to my face that my views were skewed.