Page 50 of Cup of Lies

Koyn’s vow is one I feel in my bones.

I hope to hell he’s right.

“You sure you’re okay?” I ask LuLu for the millionth time since she spoke to her parents this evening.

She gives me a watery smile and nods. “I’m going home tomorrow. I’m better than okay.”

My chest aches. I don’t deserve to feel anything for this girl. It was all a ruse—a story planted inside my head. When it really mattered, I didn’t help her. Only Romy wanted to help her.

We still haven’t discussed what she remembers, but I confirmed with her that she has the same scar as me. Whatever Dad had done to me, he also did to her. For some reason, her brain did a better job of fighting it.

I rub at the scar on the back of my neck. “I’m going to figure out what they did,” I assure her, “and do my best to make it go away.”

“I know,” she mutters. “You care about me.”

“I do,” I admit. “I know it was a construct in my mind, but I still feel it in my heart, even now that my head is clear.”

She flashes me one of her rare smiles. “I always wanted a big brother. Now I have one.”

Her words mean a lot to me. I store them deep inside my chest, never to be forgotten. LuLu will go back to her life in LA with her parents, but I’ll always be on the outside making sure nothing ever happens to her again.

“What do you think about these people?” I ask, gesturing to Gibson, who’s playing an acoustic guitar by the fire outside. “They’re kind of odd, right? Rough and crude, but also very family oriented and protective.”

“I like them,” LuLu says. She sips from her bottle of root beer and sighs. It’s the most relaxed I’ve ever seen her. Then she turns her intense eyes on me. “They’re going to help you find Romy?”

Earlier, I told her everything I remembered and who Romy was to me. I think LuLu is worried about a woman she doesn’t remember and only has a fragment of an image of her in her mind.

“Yep. Comes with strings, though.”

LuLu, though not quite an adult yet, has an old spirit. I probably shouldn’t be unloading on her like she’s an actual sister to me, but I can’t help it. Of everyone here, she’s the only one I trust.

“What kind of strings?” She cocks her head to the side. “Blackmail? Extortion?”

“Nah, nothing like that. They want what we want—to bring down all the predators out there.”

“That’s a good thing. Why are you hesitant?”

“What if we fail? What if I never find her?”

“You will.”

“If I don’t, where do I go? I can’t go back home. I’m all alone.”

The pain of my words sucks the air out of my lungs. LuLu reaches over and rests her hand on my forearm. Her gentle, comforting touch means the world to me.

“You’re going to find her,” she says, voice fierce and confident. “And when you do, you both can come visit me. I’m going to go back to school in the fall. I’ll be behind, but I plan to catch back up. Maybe I can go to college for art.”

Knowing that LuLu doesn’t want to be forever severed from me is strangely relieving. She’s not my sister by blood, but we’ve formed a sibling bond, no doubt.

We continue to chat until she gets bleary-eyed. I send her off to bed at the big house but don’t vacate my lawn chair. I’m amused, watching the men razz each other and shoot the shit. Isthis what it’s like to have actual friends? In my life, I’ve always been the outsider looking in. The lone wolf.

Until Romy.

She was a bomb on my life, exploding every bit of it into a thousand pieces. At first, that was frustrating as hell because she impeded on my mission to find the elusive Calista. But she quickly became my solace and then my confidant. Romy was the only true friend I’ve ever known.

Now I have LuLu too.

Maybe one day I could have a group of loyal people like these bikers are to each other. I’m envious of their brotherhood that goes beyond friendship.

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