Page 104 of Her Brother's Billionaire Best Friend

“There he is!” said Laura. “KYLE! IT’S ME!”

Laura waved, and in the distance, I saw the tiny silhouette look up, then back away.

“No,” I said, waving an arm in front of Laura. “No, Laura. Don’t…you’re spooking him.”

“Don’t be silly,” she said. “Once he sees it’s me, he’ll…”

“Laura,” I said. “We don’t know what’s going through his head right now. Maybe he doesn’t want to see us.”

But Laura was already jogging ahead, waving at Kyle, who was shrinking under the lamps back towards the other side of the bridge.

“David,” I said. “Let’s go around.”

“Huh?” he said.

“We can jump the stones on the river here,” I said. “Remember?”

“Right,” said David. “Come on.” And we began to make our way down to the bank.

The water was an inky-black and fast-flowing, and I could see that the rain was only going to make things worse.

“Don’t fall in,” I said. “We’re only a few hundred feet from the top of the Falls.”

“You’re kidding,” said David. “I hope she can get him down.”

At the end of the path that led down from the trail, there were a set of old stones in the river. Kids often hopped across them—it was something of a rite of passage back in my day. I hopped my way over the stones and onto the other side. Then, I turned.

“Okay,” I said. “Now you.”

“Remind me why we’re doing this?” said David.

“Because,” I said. “He’s going to try and run for it. Look.”

We both turned our gaze to the bridge. Laura was almost at the road leading over it, and through the rain and the orange lamps, I could see Kyle had backed away onto the other side now. He was moving away from Laura. We had to head him off if we had a hope of catching the kid.

“Come on,” I said. “Now.”

David tried, but he wasn’t quite as nimble as me. He shopped well over the first two, but his footing was unsteady on the third and fourth. He was about to tumble into the water when my hand snaped out instinctively and I grabbed him, yanking him onto the bank. David let out a gasp of shock and swore.

“Jesus,” he said, breathing hard. “Thanks, I guess.”

“Don’t mention it,” I said. “Come on.”

We came up the bank and around to the other side of the bridge. My plan was to try and corral Kyle towards his mom. Then she could talk some sense into him. But by the time we got there, Kyle was standing with his back pressed up against the railing, on his tiptoes.

“Kyle,” said Laura. “It’s me.”

“Go away!” said Kyle.

“Kyle,” I called out, my voice ringing deep across the valley. Kyle turned to me.

“Lucien,” he said.

“Kyle,” I said. “It’s me. It’s…Conor…not Lucien, okay?”

“I don’t get it,” he said. I could see his face was red, that he’d been crying. “I don’t understand any of it. The book says you’re Conor. But you’re not Conor. You’re Lucien. And my mom was…”

“Your mom and I knew each other a long time ago, Kyle,” I said.