Page 41 of Hell to Pay

I’d been texting him for the past two weeks, ever since we’d gotten back from Greece, and he’d been radio silent.

Plus, he never called.

I sat up. “Hey!”

“Lilah?” I stood before he said anything else. I could already tell something was wrong. “Can you… can you come get me?”

“Yes,” I said it without hesitation and started for the front door of the house to get my boots, my keys. “Are you okay?”

“I’m…” He shuddered, like he was trying not to cry. “I’m okay. I just really need you to come get me.”

I slipped on my jacket. “Are you at the house?”

“No, I’m in town. In front of the deli.”

“Stay there.” The deli straddled the upscale part of town frequented by tourists and Southside, where the gangs and MCs hung out and where fight nights — and other things — were held at the Orpheum. “Like right there. In front of the deli. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“Okay.” He sniffled and my heart squeezed. “Thanks, Lilah.”

“I told you I’d always come.” I slipped my feet into my boots. “I love you. See you in fifteen.”

I hung up my phone and when I straightened to grab my bag, the Bastards were standing around me. Rafe’s face was unreadable — no big surprise since it was pretty much always that way unless he was pissed, which come to think of it was a lot of the time — but Nolan and Jude were obviously concerned.

“What’s going on?” Nolan asked.

“My brother, he’s…” I shook my head. “I don’t know. He’s upset. He needs me to go get him.”

“We’ll go with you,” Nolan said.

I imagined rolling up to get Matt with the three guys who’d texted my nudes to the entire high school. “That’s… no. It’ll just freak him out.”

“You can’t go alone to the deli this time of night,” Rafe said.

I still couldn’t read his expression, but his giant arms were crossed over his chest, and his voice made it clear this wasn’t a negotiation.

And I saw his point. It would probably be fine, but with everything that had happened, I wasn’t exactly dying to ride around town alone at night, especially on the border of Southside.

“Fine.” I looked at Nolan. “You can come with me. Or Jude.”

I thought I saw Rafe flinch, but it was probably my imagination. We weren’t exactly close, and it wasn’t like an emergency with my brother was going to make everything that had happened between us water under the bridge.

“Unless…” I was beginning to realize I only had two choices after I picked up Matt: take him back to my empty apartment or bring him back to the Bastards’ house when Matt didn’t even know I’d been living there.

Jude started pulling on his jacket. “Unless what?”

“You didn’t sign up for me to bring Matt here. If it’s an inconvenience, I could just go back to my apartment.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Rafe said, pushing off the wall and heading back into the living room. “We have plenty of room.”

Nolan held my face in his hands and kissed me. “What he means is no way do we want you and Matt anywhere but here, sweetheart. We’ll give you space if you need it.”

I looked up at him. “Are you sure?”

“Hundred percent.”

Jude grabbed his keys. “Let’s go, boss."

29

---