Page 65 of Wicked Devotion
“Rockwell, Logan, Max, Charlie, and Lily.”
“Who’s Lily?”
“I’ll explain later. Please.”
“Wait, so we need—” She’s silent for over a minute, causing Sam to check if she ended the call. “Rockwell has to share a room with Charlie. Otherwise, I don’t have a room for the mysterious Lily.”
“She’s staying with me and Max,” I yell over to Sam. “But give us a bedroom with a couch.”
“Ooh.” Ruby chuckles. “You’ll have a lot of explaining to do.”
“Indeed. We should arrive in a few hours,” Sam says before he turns the speaker off and walks a few steps over to the window. As if it would keep us from hearing how he coos, “Bye, darling, I love you.”
I wipe the grin off of my face before Sam sees it and slaps it off. Mr. Grumpy himself, so fully domesticated it warms my cold heart. Max would never admit it, but he thinks he could do the same to me if he tries hard enough. He doesn’t understand that there has to be a spark of lovable human inside a person for this little trick to work. You can’t grow a tree on a pile of toxic waste, either.
Quietly, I get up from the couch while the others are busy planning the trip to Ruby. If God is gracious with me today, I’m already done packing my things before the two lovebirds arrive in my room. And if I’m not, I can take the bag I took to Red’s.
As I walk past Max and Lily, I’m surprised they are still two separate human beings. I leave Rockwell’s office without a word and let the door fall shut behind me. But the sound of it falling into the lock comes with a delay, and a small hand finds mine.
“I’m sorry,” Lily says while we walk down the hallway. I put my hands in my pockets and brace myself for a lot of words I have no interest in hearing.
“I don’t want you to take me to Ruby. I caused enough chaos. I’ll tell Max to bring me to a motel, maybe they’ll let me work in exchange for a room until things settle down.”
She continues talking as we walk up the stairs, and every sentence that comes out of her mouth causes my blood pressure to rise.
“It’s okay, Logan, just say it. I know you want me gone.”
As soon as we reach my room, I put my hand over her mouth so that she finally shuts the fuck up. My fingers itch to wander lower, to wrap around her delicate throat and just squeeze, until all that talk of wanting to leave stops being a pathetic lie.
“First of all, you don’t know shit about what I want or don’t want. You’re coming with us. You are ours.Mine. You brought this over yourself, so be a goddamn adult and live with the consequences because we’re long past a point where you could have chickened out.”
Lily looks up at me with doe eyes, gentle and trusting despite what I’ve just told her. I’m afraid she and Max aren’t too different because it’s the exact same concerning look.
“I’m really sorry,” she says as I remove my hand from her mouth. “Can I explain?”
“No. Pack your things. And Lillian—” I grab her face, and Max enters the room, quietly closing the door behind himself. “If you ever dare to mess with any form of light surveillance again, I am going to implant you a fucking tracker. Am I understood?”
“Yes,” she mumbles, sounding a little funny because of the way I’m squeezing her cheeks.
“Good.” I let go of her, and she scrambles to gather all her belongings while Max and I just re-pack our bags.
Half an hour later, we’re standing in front of our building. Max is carrying Lily’s bag for her, and I sincerely hope she packedeverythingbecause she won’t come back here, and I am not going to bring her shit to the post office.
This outcome was obvious from the beginning, no matter how deep Max already sank into his delusions. Our base isn’t a place for her to be. Our lives aren’t suitable for her. We need to find a solution soon, but for now, she really is stuck with us.
24
LILY
Ifeel like I’m being torn apart, and every moment of loaded silence makes it worse. Bitterness swirls inside of me. I am angry at the world, at Brady, at myself for acting out of spite instead of keeping a clear head, and at Logan, who’s constantly sending me mixed signals.
He obviously can’t stand me, and despite that, he hit a man who scared me—just to make me feel like I am the worst thing that had happened to him in the past ten years. Refuses to hold my hand; but tells me I’m his moments later.
With Logan, a stomach full of butterflies feels a little too much like anxiety.
Rockwell rounds the corner in a black minivan, and the collective groan coming from the guys stops my racing thoughts. I have to squeeze into the last row, right between Max and Logan, as if I am a human shield to prevent conflicts. Which is funny since I am the reason for most of them.
Charlie is getting comfortable in the passenger seat after Sam makes it clear that the entire middle row belongs to him and that he isn’t in the mood for a discussion.
