Page 201 of Pretty Little Lies

“Is that Judah?” Reeve mutters before I give him a curt nod of my head. “But why?—”

“Bay.” My whole body turns rigid and ice cold, a million and one thoughts slamming into my brain all at one time as my brother says her name like an unspoken prayer. “I’m good for you. I’d treat you like a queen. I’ve watched you for months get closer to Matteo and he’s gonna change, babe. He’s gonna lead this group into something violent and you’re not gonna wanna be around for that.”

“Matteo said he wasn’t,” she retorts, a sliver of the moon casting down on her. She looks different, younger, and sweeter.My girl.With my fucking brother. “It’s to protect South Shore and Shoreline Peaks from the Forsaken Crew.”

“He doesn’t give afuckabout South Shore,” my brother snaps, warning her of the dangers of the man even I tried to ward her from. “He only cares about himself and the power he’s trying to obtain. He’s not gonna get it, Bay. Emilio Wildes isn’tgoing to pay him any mind other than to play him. And if he gets in the way, Emilio is going to demolish him.”

“How would you know?”

“Because I know.”

And he did.

Lennox always knew that Emilio was a piece of shit. It’s why he left in the first place, never wanting to be part of the crew that our stepfather built with Lorenzo Black. He was building for me to have something to believe in. Something with fucking Matteo.

“You wanna go back to him?”

I can barely breathe as I watch Bay look back at my brother and it hits me then that she knew him and never told me.

Maybe she didn’t know.

Lennox went by—not only his middle name—but a new last name as well. Anything he could do not to tie himself to Wildes. And I don’t expect Bay to have done a full background check or ask questions she wouldn’t know to ask.

“Yes,” Bay replies with a bit of hesitation, as if worried. “I need to get back.”

“Don’t you want to live and make it past sixteen, Bay? Matteo isn’t going to keep you around for that. He’s not going to make you anything but his whore.”

“Really? Do you think I’m gonna stick around for that? You think I’m going…it’s not going to be like that. I just want—” My brother moves forward, cutting into her next words.

I can hear the desperation in his voice, and it cuts right through me. The way he wanted to save her.

The wayItried to save her.

“What do you want? I can give it to you.”

“Judah, please leave me alone,” she says with a heavy and exhausted sigh. “For your sake and mine. I’m not even the type of girl you like.”

“And what’s that? You’re beautiful and smart. One day, you’ll fill out into something so fuckin’ killer it’ll be sick. And I’ll be there to protect you from everything. From the war between The Landings and South Shore. From men who will try to hurt you.”

Jealously rips through my chest then. I can hear it in the way he tries to safeguard and keep her. The promises he’s trying to instill—to keep her for his own.

“How would you protect me?” she asks, as if entertaining the idea. “You’d have to be with Matteo and the Pistol Posse to have support and?—”

“Ihavesupport,” Judah barks back. “I left the most powerful family alive to…to just get the fuck away from them. You’re the only thing I’ve seen since leaving that’d make me go back to keep you from harm. I can change everything. We—together—could be the most powerful couple in all of Rhode Island and the surrounding states.” The screen goes black, the moonlight disappearing and erasing my brother and Bay from the frame. “I can’t bear seeing you with him anymore.”

How fucking ironic is it that my brother was possibly in love with the same woman I am?

He couldn’t be, she’s mine.

Nonetheless, I’d have to be an idiot to believe such a feat. Lennox and I are similar. Having the same interest, in the same girl, wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. But the idea pisses me off just the same.

What if he got to her first? How would that change the dynamic of Bay and I? Would I be able to look at her like my brother’s girl and not have that itching need to make her mine?

“Don’t do this, Bay,” Judah warns through the darkness right before a gunshot violently rings through the air and slices right through my resolve. I flinch and Reeve leans closer to the phone.

“No,” he mumbles. “She couldn’t?—”

“You were meant…for so much more,” my brother chokes out and she couldn’t have…she wouldn’t have shot my brother. Not Bay. Not my girl. “You’re in…so much danger, Bay. I can…keep…you safe.”

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