Taking a deep breath, I jogged a little slower up the remaining flights, coming to thirteen and opening the stairwell door.

A stitch cramped my side, and I swallowed through the dryness in my throat. I thought I was in good shape, dammit.

I stepped into a dim hallway and looked left and right, the gray carpeting with a white filigree design slowly fading into the black voids down each dark hallway.

“Hello?” I called out.

I turned right, switching on my flashlight, but a draft hit my back, and I looked behind me. A subtle wind cooled my lips.

Turning left instead, I walked down the hallway, inspecting each door as I passed and finally noticing one that was wide open. I peered inside, seeing white sheer curtains on the other side of the room whipping in the wind.

The balcony doors must be open.

I walked into the room, looking both ways as I crossed, and finally noticed Kai’s form out on the balcony. Peeling back the curtain, I stepped outside.

“The twelfth floor balcony,” he said, leaning over the railing and turning his head to look at me.

I followed his lead, peering over the railing and looking down. Every floor had a balcony on it, and the one directly below us was no different. Intricate carvings in the stone, a thick bannister, everything wet from the rain…

I straightened, cocking my head at him. The twelfth floor.

Suspicion started to creep in.

“Did you really think I’d help you search The Pope if I thought Damon was hiding here?” I asked. “You’re not buying this hotel because of some story I told you when I was seventeen, are you?”

I saw the corner of his mouth lift in a smile. “A. Yes,” he stated. “I think you’d help me search it, if for no other reason than to point me in the wrong direction.” He pulled himself back up and looked at me. “And B, I’m not sure Damon told you where he was hiding.”

“And why’s that?”

“Because I remember him being particularly possessive of you,” he said. “I think you know he’s in the city, but I think he might be watching you as much as he is us.”

I laughed to myself.

I’d heard about the twelfth floor after I moved in with Damon and my father. Gabriel fiercely protected his privacy and had built four hotels back in the day: one in Meridian City, San Francisco, St. Petersburg, and Bahrain—the places he traveled most. Privacy, security, and a need to be invisible were sometimes a necessity to someone who made at least some of his money outside the law.

But my brother wasn’t here. At least not the last time I checked. Kai was wasting his time.

“We already explored this place once, remember?” I told him.

He flashed his amused eyes to me, sounding cocky. “We didn’t get very far, remember?”

A blush instantly heated my cheeks, and I turned away.

Kai peered over the railing again, and I did the same, taking in the vast drop to the ground below. I looked back at him, studying the curiosity written all over his face. The way his dark eyebrows pinched together as if he were calculating his next move, and the way his neck stretched as far as it would take him for a better look. He seemed so young. Like a kid trying to find the courage to follow his friends off a cliff.

What was he doing?

Straightening, I unwound the scarf around my neck and pulled it off, out of the jacket. Kai watched me as I held it over the bannister.

Gauging the light wind, I lowered it as much as possible, finally letting it drift out of my fingers and float down to the twelfth-floor balcony. The fabric billowed as it sank and finally caught on the bannister spokes, the wind plastering it to the inside of the balcony.

Without looking at him, I headed back into the room. He had no choice but to follow.

Seriously, if he wanted to climb over the railing and kill himself, it was no skin off my nose, but…

He could be right. Damon wasn’t here when I looked for him, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t changing hide-outs, either. He could be here, and I needed to buy some time.

Walking into the corridor, I turned right, heading toward the stairwell exit I came through.

Both of us quickly descended the stairs, but after taking two flights, we came to the next landing where a door should’ve been, marking the twelfth floor. The wall was bare, though. No door. No marking indicating what floor it was, nothing. Just a white wall.

I spared him a glance, an unspoken understanding passing between us. We continued down, both of us reaching for the knob of the eleventh-floor entrance at the same time. His hand brushed mine, and I quickly pulled away, an electric current flowing up my arm. He pulled the door open, and both of us raced through, heading straight for eleven-twenty-two, the room directly below thirteen twenty-two.

I twisted the knob and charged in, making my way for the balcony doors which I swung open, a gust of wind instantly hitting my face. Kai and I stepped over the threshold, looking around for the scarf.

It only took a quick survey, but there was nothing, as I knew there wouldn’t be. Nothing except a dead potted plant, a rusted, wrought iron table, and a leaf.

The scarf wasn’t here, of course, but…

I walked over to the right side of the balcony, hung my head over, and peered up.

And there it was. The black scarf whipped happily, a few inches hanging off the side of the balcony right above us.

“There.” I nodded upward.

Kai pinched his eyebrows together and stepped over, leaning over the side and turning his head up. He stared, either confused or annoyed, but I smiled a little all the same.

“What the hell?” he grumbled.

“We need to get up there,” he told me.

And how do you plan on doing that? The elevators weren’t working at the moment, and it’s not like we had rope.

I watched as he started to climb up on the railing, but I immediately reached out and pulled him down.

“It’s fine,” I said curtly. “It’s not valuable. Forget it.”

His eyebrows shot up. “You’re worried about me?”

“Yeah. Like the price of tea in China.”

He shook his head, smiling to himself. But again, he made a move to climb up.

I pulled him back. “I can’t spot you. You’re too big. You can spot me, so let me do it.”

Stepping around him, I hopped up on the railing, and he darted out, grabbing my arm to steady me. I knew if I looked right, I’d see the drop below that was only one mistake away, so I didn’t look.

My legs shook, but I curled my toes, gripping the thick bannister. Dammit. I didn’t need the fucking scarf back, but I didn’t want to find out if he was able to scale his way up there. Not yet.

Squeezing his arm with one hand, I held out the other arm for balance and slowly rose up to stand. My belly flipped.

“I’ve got you,” Kai told me. I glanced down, seeing his dark eyes holding mine as he wrapped his other arm around my legs. My hands went weak, and for some reason, that didn’t make me feel better.

I reached up with both hands and swiped for the frayed fabric, Kai’s embrace tightening. Unfortunately, though, I was still at least six-to-eight inches shy of touching it.

Placing my hand on Kai’s shoulder to keep steady, I slowly arched up on my tip-toes to raise myself higher. I extended my other arms, stretching my muscles and joints centimeter by centimeter until finally, I went as far as I could go. I winced, trying to catch the small thread that dangled. Shifting my body just slightly, I continued trying, but it was no use.

I let out a sigh. “I can’t reach it.”

Falling back to my feet, I looked down at Kai.

And stopped breathing.

He was just staring at me. Right there, looking up, with his arms wrapped around my thighs and his face damn near between them. I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

An amused smile hit his eyes, and my heart started pumping wildly. I didn’t want to know what the hell was running through his head right now.

“You okay?” he asked. I could tell the fucker was holding a smirk back.

I jumped down, forcing him away, and straightened my clothes, pulling down my T-shirt and jacket. “I’m fine.”

He would only use you. I had to remember that his goal was Damon. Revenge. And he knew Damon cared about me, so that made me valuable.