Page 35 of Redeem
The doorbell rings, and Madden drops Lily to the ground and pulls out his phone as he moves toward the front door. Lily stays in the living room, moving toward the corner of the room where a large Barbie campervan and Barbies are set up. She starts playing with them quietly, occasionally looking over at me. I smile and the corner of her mouth lifts before she continues to play.
Madden appears in the doorway with a girl around our age behind him. She looks at me, glaring, eyes glued to Keegan’s hand on my knee. Who is she?
“Lily, Lucinda is here to look after you. Why don’t you take your Barbies to your bedroom with her?” Madden says, and Lily looks up with a grin. She gathers up her dolls and follows Lucinda out. Madden shuts the door behind him and the air instantly shifts.
Keegan’s grip tightens on my leg, and I lick my lips, waiting for someone to break the silence. My leg starts bouncing up and down from the nerves.
“What’s going on?” I ask when Madden drops into the chair in front of us.
“I’ll cut straight to the chase, Addie. Lily is in danger from my father,” Keegan says, and my heart breaks for Lily. I take his hand in mine, interlacing our fingers. I wish I could do something. Help her.
“It’s always been our plan to leave here after we graduate,” Emilio says. I look to him, and he gives me a small smile.
“When you came into our lives, everything changed,” Keegan says. “But we can’t stay here any longer. My father is going to use Lily to hurt me, and I can’t let anything happen to her.” Keegan squeezes his eyes shut and pinches the bridge of his nose.
“I’m coming with you,” I say, looking at each of the guys. “Wherever you go, I go.”
CHAPTER25
EMILIO
Ican’t believe I have to speak to the fucker, but she’s in. Izzy’s coming with us. But she wants us all. She wants Arrow.
I know he’s never gonna leave her, and I have to accept that. But it's hard. I don’t want to share her with him. Hell, do I want to share with my friends? Deep down, no. But at the same time, I know she's good for them. And she needs them too.
But Arrow. He’s been by her side for her whole life. As much as he doesn’t admit it, he’s always been watching her. From the sidelines, at least.
It was nothing more than an innocent friendship at first. At least, that's what it looked like from the outside. Arrow, he's a hard guy to like. I’ve always found him closed off. But if there's anyone out there for him, it's Izzy.
It wasn’t until she came to Roxbury that I noticed the way he watched her. It’s no longer innocent; there’s more there. I could see it under the surface, even if she didn't. It made me angry. Hell, just her being back here made me angry. But now I'm glad she's back.
Arrow sees me approach his car on the dark street, and the window comes down. “What do you want?” he grumbles.
I’ve seen him out here in his car all night, watching and protecting Izzy as he always does. “You know we can protect her, man.”
I hate that he feels the need to be here, watching her, as if we can't stop my father from taking her. That shit at school...that was a one-off. We thought she’d be fine with Adrian gone. My mistake was to think my father didn't have a back-up plan. It angered me at first, that Arrow didn't think we could handle it. But then I came to realize that's just what he does when she's involved.
He gets out of his car and softly closes the door. Leaning against it, he crosses his arms against the snow that's falling. The one thing I don't like about Boston is how much colder the winters are. I miss New Jersey; it's warmer there.
“Yeah, I don't doubt you can. I just have nowhere else to be.” He shrugs, like it's nothing, but I know it’s the truth.
“I could think of a hundred places you could be. But I get it. You won’t leave her.”
He straightens, then lets out a sigh and slumps back against his car.
Arrow might be six years older than me, but he’s the same as me. We both have nowhere better to be than with her. I used to look up to him when I was a kid. I loved how tough he was, and how he didn't let my brother give him shit. But I hated him too...hated what he was for Izzy when she wasn't around me. He was good for Izzy. But now I’m older, we’re both more mature, and we understand the world is a fucked-up place.
And I want him on my side.
“Look, we’ve been planning to leave after graduation for years. Before Izzy came back. But that changed. Shit went down with Keegs’s father, and we need to leave sooner,” I explain.
He grunts, but doesn’t say anything.
“She’s coming. She said she won’t leave us, and we couldn’t leave her, even if she wanted us to. We want her...” I see his jaw tick, and as much as I want to make him suffer for a few more minutes, I’m not that fucking cruel.
“But, Arrow. She won't leave without you. And, hell...you’re out here at night in the fucking snow. She needs you. You need her...we all do.”
He doesn't speak, and we both stand there, looking over at the house. I can see them all in there through the sheer curtain. Their shadows as they move around the room...like a real family.
