Page 85 of Lilly

I need to talk to him and find out if any of this is true.

"Can he come with us to Garret's house?" I ask.

"I just told you I don't want you seeing him."

"I'm not going to stop seeing him based on some made-up theory that he's doing something wrong. So either you let him come with us or I'll drive down to L.A. and see him myself."

"If you do that, then you will be grounded and your car will be—"

"Pearce," Rachel says. "Can we talk outside for a moment?"

She gets up and the two of them go out to the patio.

I turn to Garret, my hands on my hips. "Tell me what's going on."

He shrugs. "Sounds like Dad found out some stuff about Dean."

"So you're just going to lie to me? I know you know what's really going on. Why won't you tell me?"

"This is between you and Dad. I'm not getting involved."

"So you DO know what's going on."

He sighs as he pushes his chair back and stands up. "I don't know all the details. All I know is that Dean can't be trusted. He's involved in something bad that could be dangerous and because of that, I agree with Dad. You need to keep your distance from Reed."

"Just because Dean is involved in something doesn't mean Reed is."

"Maybe not, but he's around it and we don't want you getting messed up in this."

"How would I get messed up in it? I'm not even going down there. Reed is coming up here."

"And what if he was being followed?"

I roll my eyes. "Why would someone follow him?"

"Because his dad pissed someone off. So to get revenge the guy follows Reed. Tries to scare him. Tries to hurt him."

"Are we talking real life here? Because things like that don't happen in real life. Bad buys following Reed to get revenge? I think you've watched too many action movies."

He comes around the table and stands in front of me. "You're seriously not that naive, are you? You really think this doesn't happen?"

The way he asks sends a chill down me. His tone was sharp, angry.

"Yeah, maybe it happens in the dark seedy parts of town," I say, "but that's not—"

"It happens everywhere. And it happens all the freaking time, especially if you're involved in bad shit, like drugs, or whatever it is Dean's involved in. Dad wasn't joking around. He knows what these people are like. He knows what they're capable of."

My mind flashes back to the dreams I've had where my dad comes home wearing a shirt that's splattered with blood.

"How would Dad know?" I ask. "Are you saying Dad's involved in something bad, like Dean is?"

Garret pauses a moment, his eyes on mine, then says, "He knows because he has money. He's a target. We all are. Criminals try to come after him and there's always a chance they'll come after us. This isn't anything you don't know. We've been telling you this your whole life."

"Yeah, but nothing's ever happened."

"Are you kidding me? Lilly, someone took you when you were a baby."

"That was a long time ago. Nothing's happened since then. Has it?" I nervously chew on my lip, not sure I want the answer.

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