Free Henchgirl (Dakota Kekoa Book 1) by Rita Stradling

touched my bracelet; the ridges of the charms jagged and rough on my fingers. The bottom line, I told myself, is that my grandfather gave me an order. If I disobeyed a direct order from my grandfather and he found out about it, I would end up begging to be only ‘kicked to the curb’.
    “What is that?” Keanu said, because my fiddling had drawn his attention to the charm bracelet.
    “Just an old bracelet I wear.” I held out my wrist so he could see it.
    His fingers played along the little charms. For some reason, whether it was exhaustion or I was just past my capacity for lies for the day, I told Keanu a little of the truth. “My dad was a lawyer when I was little. He used to take me everywhere with him, he called me his mini-legal because I would doodle all over his important papers. Every time he left on a business trip, I used to have panic attacks. So he would order a charm online from where he was going and I would hold it when I felt an attack coming on.”
    “Isn’t that backwards? Don’t people usually buy the charms while they’re at the monuments?” He asked as he gave me a sympathetic smile and still played with my bracelet. His fingers paused at the clasp. “May I?”
    “Yes,” I said, after a long pause.
    His fingers deftly unclasped the little metal clasp and he lifted the chain to see it better. “Did it work? Did your panic attacks stop?”
    Keanu’s soul immediately washed around me. His soul was absolutely unique, if I had enough energy to muster amazement, I would feel it. If other people had light waves streaming from them, his soul would be pure liquid, water, like a gentle playful ocean pooling around him and me. His outer emotions were cerulean, warm and rocking me in gentle waves. Remembering that he had asked me a question, I said, “No, I still have them.” I curled in closer to Keanu.
    Placing my hand on his arm I probed the first surface emotion layer of his soul, just brushing against it, not pulling anything into me or pushing anything into him. I delved just a little deeper, trying to read his surface emotions…and everything went black.
    “Wake up sleepy girl.” An arm squeezed around me.
    I looked around, my gaze not quite bringing my surroundings into focus, completely at a loss for where I was. The only two other times I had woken up in unfamiliar surroundings, it had been because I had passed out from blood loss; I half-registered that I should be panicking, but for some reason I could not.
    Looking up into Keanu’s face, everything came back. I was wrapped in Keanu’s arms, flying down a highway in a silver metal truck-bed. Thankfully I did not lash out and attack, which should have been my first reaction. I could almost see the cooling soothing waves that spread from Keanu and seeped into me. If he was a ‘bad-guy’- I would have been screwed. My first thought was, ‘he’s not human.’—yet that was impossible. His father was the leader of the shoot non-humans on sight club.’
    I knew better than most.
    Keanu was just exceptional, his soul abnormal, plain and simple.
    I checked his shoulder, my pillow, for any sign of drool, that would be just great; but he was dry. “I’m sorry,” I said, knowing I should be embarrassed, “I guess I’m tired.”
    “Don’t apologize,” he said, smiling, “Watching you sleep was actually nice.”
    “That’s not creepy,” I said with a groggy smile.
    He grinned wider.
    Seriously, I was supposed to be wrapping him around my proverbial little finger; so-far just touching his soul knocked me out, on top of that I seemed to be seconds from swooning. And I realized, as the truck slowed down and pulled off onto a small paved road leading to a bustling parking lot, I had an hour to complete my mission, and slept through the whole thing.
    Bad, really bad. My only possible way to redeem myself was to ensure that we’re alone on the ride home. I reached out with my power, testing the liquid waves that made up his soul; I