by C. M. Owens
“Who’s Lilah?” my mother asks again.
“Yeah, Benson, who’s Lilah?” Sadie drawls, but I ignore them all.
“Anyone want some wine?” I hear my brother asking.
Penny picks up on the first ring. “Hello,” she says calmly, almost sounding a little eerie.
“Lindy just showed up at my house, presumably thinking Lilah and I broke up, and Lilah isn’t online. Anyway, can you take your phone to her?”
“I’m afraid not. Her brothers are over there right now, and I’d fear for your safety if they learned you broke her heart. She hasn’t even told me yet, but I heard from Jillian who heard from Karen who heard from Janice that she’s been crying nonstop. I’m just waiting on those two knuckleheads to leave before I go over there.”
What the fucking hell?
“I didn’t break up with Lilah,” I tell her. “And I can’t picture Lilah crying. She’d be beating my head in with a frying pan, but not crying.”
She makes a disgruntled sound. “She never wanted to date,” she says on a sigh. “This is all my fault. I kept pushing her into it. Now you’ve gone and ruined her. I doubt she’ll ever date again.”
A long, sad sigh follows that, with a dramatic huff tacked on for good measure, letting me know she’s truly disappointed in me.
“Penny, I swear to you, I haven’t broken up with Lilah. And I don’t want to,” I growl, making sure no one can hear me as I go outside, eyeing Lilah’s red flag that is waving in the air with a dead chipmunk on it.
An image of a dead chipmunk, that is. Not an actual dead chipmunk.
Why a chipmunk? Because the Wilders have raccoons on their yellow flags, and the Vincents are a tier or two below on the crazy corner scale from them.
Because this is Tomahawk.
It’s how we do things.
Penny is silent for a moment. A really long moment.
“Just let me talk to her, please. I’m sure this is all one seriously screwed up misunderstanding.”
She sighs long and loud. Again. “Is your family there? Is that why you can’t go over there yourself? Her flag is up.”
Sometimes I’d like to choke this woman…
“I know her flag is up. I can see it from here, which is why I asked you to go over there. And yes, I’m busy and can’t go over there.”
“Why wouldn’t you invite her over if your family is there? Is my niece not good enough for them?” There’s a harsh edge to her tone that I’ve never heard her use before.
“No. Of course not. It’s nothing like that,” I answer, confused about why she would even assume that.
“Then what is it?”
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“It’s a long story. I need to talk to Lilah so I can stop worrying about—”
The door opens, and I look back to see my brother poking his head out. “There’s a Janet here to see you. Says she brought cupcakes to help with your breakup.”
“Janet Lowery?!” Penny screams in my ear, forcing me to hold the phone away or go deaf. “Janet is good enough for your family, but not my Lilah?! And everyone knows you don’t bring cupcakes to anything but a celebration. That little brat is celebrating!”
Kill me now.
“No, Penny, that’s not—”
“Fear the wrath of the Vincents, Benson Nolans,” Penny seethes. “I’m turning them loose on you now. No more mercy.”
She hangs up on me, and I quietly remind myself that I love Tomahawk because of the crazy people who live here. Though in this moment, I wish there was some sanity.
I stalk toward the front door where Janet is waiting. “I’ll give you two seconds to leave, and I won’t tell Lilah you showed up. We’re still together.”
Her eyes widen in horror before she drops the cupcakes and darts back to her Mustang, squealing out in reverse before her door even fully shuts. Another car is trying to pull up—I think it’s Jessica Sparks—and Janet pokes her head out to yell at her.
“They’re not broken up! Lilah will kill you! Or worse, turn her brothers loose!”
Typically, these girls would be considered the town’s “mean girls,” but in Tomahawk, crazy trumps mean any day of the week.
Jessica squeals out just as fast, the two vehicles narrowly dodging a collision with each other.
“For heaven’s sakes, just who is this Lilah?” my mother asks, too intrigued for her own good now.
Annoyed, I go back to trying to figure out what to do. I need to just drive over there, but now isn’t the best time. My family is already too curious about Lilah. The last thing I need is for them all to collide.
I should have just been upfront with Lilah about the complications, but it’s a little fucking late for that now.
My doorbell rings as I try calling Bill, hoping he will be more practical than Penny.
“Run,” is what he says when he answers. Then he hangs up on me before I can get a word in.
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
“He’s still with Lilah,” I hear my brother saying, seconds before someone squeals and runs away. “That’s just fascinating,” he adds, amused as he shuts the door.
“What the hell is going on around here?” my stepfather asks, a small smile on his lips. “You finally back in the saddle, champ? Is that why you cut off that horrid beard?”
Sadie bristles, my brother smiles, and my mother claps her hands together in glee.
“I’ve been in the saddle for years,” I point out dryly. “It’s not like that. I’m dating someone—”
“Then introduce us to her!” my mother says excitedly. “Is she a local? I truly find them riveting.”
She’s going to regret that if Lilah’s brothers really do show up. Mom doesn’t understand the four corners of crazy in this town.
Surely Penny wouldn’t do that to me. It had to be a bluff.
The doorbell rings again, and I try calling Killian—I’m desperate, obviously—but it goes to voicemail.
“He’s still with Lilah,” I hear my stepfather chirp, then he laughs when someone else squeals. “This is oddly fun. I can’t wait to meet Lilah.”
My mother gasps, staring out the window to the lake. “What?” I ask, still distracted as I try to dial Hale…and get voicemail.
“Two boys are being beaten to death by a girl near your steps on the bank,” she answers in fascinated horror.
“Awesome,” my nephew says, his face pressed to the glass as he gawks.
I rush to the wide, massive window, seeing the scene before me play out. Lilah is in cutoff jean shorts and a “Doc Holiday” T-shirt, as she shoots Hale with a BB, simultaneously kicking Killian in the stomach while he’s on the ground.
Hale screams when she nails in him the nuts with another BB, pumping the Daisy for the next shot she aims at Killian when he tries to get up.
Her combat boots come up to her calves, pink laces made out of survival cords, and she kicks Hale in the kneecap this time, utilizing said boots like this is a war zone.
I idly notice the bat and shovel abandoned by the shore, and groan when I realize Penny did sell me out.
“Who on earth is she?” my mother asks as she looks on in guilty pleasure.
With a deep exhale, I answer, “That is Lilah.”
Chapter 18
Wild Ones Tip #584
To piss off a Wild One, you have to really fuck up. Then learn how to hide.
LILAH
“Stay down,” I bark at my annoying brothers as they whine and pant from the ground.
Yeah, I have an unfair advantage, because they won’t hit me back. And usually I don’t exploit it, but today, lives are at stake. Mainly, Benson’s. He owes me so big.
Now if I can just get us out of here before—
“Any reason why the entire town thinks we broke up?”
I close my eyes at the sound of the voice too close to my back. Damn it.
Until this moment, I saw no real reason for him to be ashamed of me. But now, I totally get it. I’d hide me t
oo if my family was…not like my family.
I turn around as my brothers continue to groan on the ground, and drop the Daisy by my side as I look up at a very amused Benson.
“Sorry. Just help me get them into the boat, and we’ll be out of your hair. I get it now. Really. I do. It might have taken this—” I gesture to the family I had to wrangle into submission. “—to make me see it, but now I see it.”
His amusement dies, and his brow furrows. “See what?”
“Why you were too embarrassed to introduce me to your ritzy family.”
A little humiliated, I turn around, kicking Hale when he glares at Benson. He grunts, crawling toward the shore.
“We’ll get him later,” Killian mutters petulantly.
They bump fists while continuing to crawl, but before we can make it to the dock, a hand clamps down on my arm, and my breath gets sucked out of me as Benson spins me back to face him.
He looks angry. I don’t know if he’s ever looked angry with me. At least not this angry.
“You think I’m too embarrassed to introduce you to my family?” he asks incredulously, and I shift uncomfortably.
“Well, yeah. Isn’t that why you essentially told me to stay on my side of the lake while they’re here?”
“Dead. He’s dead,” Killian groans, still trying to stand up.
Benson shakes his head, grunting something under his breath that sounds like unbelievable.
“No, Lilah. I’m not at all embarrassed about being with you. And I guess I should have elaborated, or at least tried to, but my family is a little more complicated than I explained. I just wanted to get this week over with, keep you out of the drama, and then it’d be just us again. In our motherfucking perfect bubble. I’m not embarrassed about you. I’m embarrassed about them.”
A small smile tugs at my lips, and something suspiciously like tears fills my eyes. Maybe this was bothering me more than I care to admit. His look softens as he strokes my cheeks with such sweet affection.
“I can handle crazy,” I assure him.
“Not crazy,” he says on a sigh. “Complicated. There’s a difference.”
“So we don’t have to kill him?” Killian asks disappointedly.
“You don’t have to try to kill me,” Benson tells him dryly.
“So we got our asses kicked for nothing?” Hale asks through strain.
“Looks like it,” Killian grumbles.
I’m smiling up at Benson, slowly melting against his body as he tucks a wayward strand of dark hair behind my ear, when I notice movement. My eyes dart up to the porch on the hill, where four people are looking down at us.
Okay, now I’m really embarrassed. And that’s hella hard to do.
An older woman and man are grinning down at us, while another man is studying us with an unreadable expression. Then the last one, the girl I don’t know about, is stone-faced as she stares down.
“We have an audience,” I whisper, feeling the red rise to my cheeks.
Benson freezes for a second before peering over his shoulder, seeing his family looking down on mine—oh, the irony—from the top of the hill where his house is.
“Hello, Lilah! We’ve just heard so much about you!” the older woman calls, waving at me with a lot of enthusiasm.
I suck in a breath and force a smile while waving back.
“Hello, Lilah’s brothers!” she calls down.
“Hello, ma’am,” they both manage to say in unison, still exhausted as they lie flat on their backs and pant for air.
“This is my husband, John,” she says, gesturing to the older man beside her who gives me a thumb’s up and a grin.
Okay…they’re really accepting, obviously. They don’t seem the least bit deterred by our little fiasco. I expected snooty people. And they also seem nice? What was Benson’s problem with us meeting?
“And this is our son, Deacon,” she says. I scowl before I can stop myself, and his lips twitch.
Benson’s grip gets a little tighter on me too.
I notice a fifth face I hadn’t seen, and my stomach gets a little tighter.
“Our grandson, Ryder,” she goes on.
Grandson? I thought it wasn’t Benson’s kid. Or his brother’s…
Did his brother have a child with someone else?
His mother hesitates her introductions on the girl who is still regarding me with no expression at all.
“And this is John’s daughter, Sadie.”
Sadie.
It’s highly unlikely there are two Sadies in his life. He just forgot to mention that his ex is also his stepsister. And that she’s going to be here for a week. And that’s why it is complicated.
That’s why I couldn’t be here.
That’s why he didn’t tell me the whole story.
Just like that, the air is stolen from my lungs, and I cut my eyes toward Benson. It hurts to know he was going to spend the week with her, while shoving me to my side of the lake.
The only complications here were for him.
Unbelievable.
Benson’s hand tightens on me, but I shrug him off. Sadie makes an expression for the first time, and it’s a smile.
She knows.
I know.
And Benson knows.
We all know I’m an idiot.
Life is grand.
“As soon as you can move again, you can kill him,” I tell my brothers, walking toward the dock.
“Lilah!” Benson growls, following behind me.
“Don’t,” I say, blowing out a breath as I look at him. My eyes flick over his shoulder as he continues to stalk toward me. “Don’t embarrass me even more than I’ve already been embarrassed,” I add.
He stops, freezing to his spot, as the first tear falls from my eyes. Both of my brothers purposely shoulder by him on their way to me, and I shake my head.
“Lilah, I swear to you, this is not—”
“I’m sure it’s not,” I say quietly, desperately ready to get the hell out of here. “But I guess I would have known that if you’d bothered to tell me. I need to go.”
Hale reaches up, helping me into the boat, and Killian starts the motor. Just as he’s about to pull away, I turn around, aim my gun, and shoot Benson right in the nuts.
He drops to his knees, cupping his balls as his face turns red, and I smile as I wave, reminding him who I am.
Yeah.
That’s right.
I’m a Vincent.
We’re one corner of the Wild Ones.
He really should have seen that coming.
Bastard.
Chapter 19
Wild Ones Tip #567
Wild Women are worse than Wild Men. Because we’ll kill any fucker that puts their hands on a woman, which means they constantly have the upper hand.
You have to be creative to one-up those vicious, untouchable little women.
BENSON
“I take it you didn’t tell her Sadie was your stepsister,” Mom says on a sigh as I ice my balls down with frozen peas.
I grimace, shifting the peas. You don’t think about a tiny little BB hurting that badly. No wonder those pricks are so tough. They’ve been conditioned by Lilah all these years.
“No, I didn’t tell her that when I was sixteen you married my girlfriend’s father. I thought that would put a kink in our new relationship to learn the woman I proposed to and thought I’d knocked up was a permanent fixture in my life. I’m Lilah’s first real relationship because she’s hard as hell to get close to. Something like that just seemed like I was pushing too much too fast.”
She sighs as she stares out the window. “I blame myself for this mess. I didn’t mean to fall in love with John. Now you and your brother hate each other. The girl who broke your heart is still haunting your life, and it’s all my fault.”
“It’s not your fault you fell in love. And John has a blind spot for his daughter, just as you have a blind spot for us. As for Sadie haunting my life, that’s normally not an issue a
nymore. I should have told Lilah everything and hoped for the best. I just wanted more time to make sure she cared about me enough to overlook it. I should have known better than to think this wouldn’t backfire, and I should have stopped to think what she’d think if I didn’t explain why I didn’t want her over here.”
She turns to face me, her eyes sad.
“What are you going to do to get her back?” Mom asks with sincere concern.
I laugh humorlessly. “Everything I can. Don’t worry. I have a fail-safe plan if all else fails.”
Deacon walks in, no expression on his face.
“There’s someone at the door for you,” he says to me.
“Tell her Lilah and I are still together.”
His lips tug into a half smile. “It’s a guy. Says his name is Paul.”
My brow furrows, but before I can ask questions, Paul is walking in, eyeing my brother and mother. No one from Tomahawk has ever seen me with them, and I usually force my family to stay out of sight.
It’s Tomahawk. I’d never hear the end of it if everyone knew exactly how privileged my upbringing was. Or what my family is known for…
“Delaney called Killian after the rumor mill exploded. Lilah got on the phone and said you two broke up because she just couldn’t do the settling down thing like she thought. I just came by to fix things, because if Delaney comes after you, I’ll have to maim your face or something.” He says all this as though it’s just a normal conversation and no big deal.
My mother blinks in surprise, and my brother’s smile grows.
“I’d hate to do that, since we’re friends and all,” Paul goes on conversationally. “But I really like Delaney, and I already feel like the runner-up since she originally went after you until she learned Lilah already had dibs.”
“In all these years, I never realized just how interesting this town was,” my brother says quietly.
Cursing, I shift the peas off my balls so I can stand up. “I’ve been in love with Lilah Vincent for almost a year. No, I don’t want to steal Delaney from you. And yes, I do want to fix things with Lilah. Tell Delaney not to tell all the other beardless followers that Lilah dumped me. Got it?”