I don’t say a word, and neither does she as her breath catches and I move closer. I stop halfway, my gaze flicking down to her lips and back to her eyes.
My skin is on fire as she places her hands on my forearms, lifting up onto her tiptoes and coming closer. Our breaths mix as we stand and take each other in. The things unsaid between us so big I’m not sure either of us understands it.
I don’t think—don’t question any of it—as I close the gap, my lips connecting with hers, and I know there’s nothing else in this world I should be doing right now.
Her soft moan vibrates through me and I pull her closer, my arms wrapping around her waist as I kiss her again, closed mouth and gentle. She’s not the kind of girl who needs it hard and fast, she’s someone you take your time with. She’s sweet, gentle; the opposite of me.
Placing one more kiss against her lips before I pull back slightly, I smile at her and watch her eyes light up as they open.
“I’ve wanted to do that all night,” I confess.
She smiles, dropping back to the flats of her feet before pulling away. Taking several steps back she only turns at the last minute and I watch her go, wondering if I just made a huge mistake or not.
LILY
For several days it felt like I was flying high on a huge fluffy cloud. My dad was barely home, Jonah hadn’t spoken a word to me at school, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss. Luke’s lips against mine, his hands on my body, the way he held me, strong but gentle at the same time.
Nothing else mattered, not the fact that I’d messaged him and he hadn’t replied—he could have just been busy. Not the fact that any other time I’d be stressing about my dad ignoring me, knowing something bad would surely come after a break from him. Nothing mattered but our kiss.
I unlock the cell Luke gave me as I walk home, checking the messages just in case he’s replied and I missed it. How many messages can you send before it starts to look creepy? Three? Four?
My thumb flies over the keyboard on the screen but a deep voice pulls my attention away.
I blink, and blink again, wiping my eyes and shaking my head, sure I’m seeing things.
“Lily!” Nope, definitely not seeing things.
“Aiden?” Pushing my cell back into my pocket just in time for Dad to walk out the front door and toward where Aiden is sitting on the bench out front, I push the gate open. “I didn’t know you were coming home.”
“Dad didn’t tell you?” He frowns, but it’s gone as quick as it appeared, and he’s standing up and walking toward me, meeting me halfway down the path before wrapping me up in a hug.
I melt into his embrace, feeling like things are back to normal with him home. He’s been away for four years, and will be for another two doing his master’s degree.
My breaths come easier as he surrounds me—much the same as they do with Luke.
He pulls back, his dark-blue eyes staring at me, his golden-blond hair moving over his face as the wind whips around us.
“Senior year, not long until you’ll be off to college, huh?”
Turning around, he puts his arm over my shoulders, and walks me up the rest of the path.
“Your sister doesn’t want to go to college. Isn’t that right, Liliana?”
“You don’t?” Aiden asks, his eyes wide, a frown marring his face. “Why?”
“I—”
“She wants to stay home and help me run the church,” Dad interrupts, not giving me a chance to tell him I really do want to go to college.
Aiden sits down and they start talking about what he’s doing on his courses and I stand here awkwardly, feeling Dad’s eyes burning a hole through the side of my head. Then it all starts to make sense, everything clicking into place. He knew Aiden was coming home, that’s why he’s been ignoring me, giving me a reprieve from his anger.
I grimace, knowing when Aiden’s gone I’ll be punished worse than usual so he can make up for lost time. Swallowing, my hand moves over my pocket, the cell feeling like a safety net I never had before.
“I was thinking I could take us out tonight, like old times.” Old times... as in before Mom left us.
“I have a church meeting tonight. When will you be heading back to college, Aiden?”
He shrugs, not committing to anything as he says, “Monday or Tuesday.”
“Good, you’ll be at Sunday service then.”
Aiden looks over at me, rolling his eyes with a grin on his face. “Looks like it’s just me and you tonight, Lily. What do you say? Wanna come out with your big bro, or will I cramp your style?”
Laughing, I’m about to say hell to the yes, but again Dad interrupts, “She needs to be home by eight.”
Standing up, Aiden throws his arm over my shoulder again. “She’ll be eighteen in just over a month, Dad. I had a curfew of midnight. Plus, she’ll be with me.”
Watching Dad’s eyes, I see the flames inside them, the warning for me not to go out, but I can’t seem to care about it right now. It’s been nearly two years since I saw Aiden, and if my plan goes off without any hiccups, this could possibly be the last time I see him for years.
“I’ll go get ready,” I whisper, pulling my bag up my shoulder and stepping out from Aiden’s hold.
Running inside the house, I don’t give Dad a chance to say anything else, afraid of what he’ll do or say in front of Aiden. To Aiden, he’s like any normal dad: fun, loving, kind, and strict in some ways. He doesn’t know the real him, the him with evil running through his veins. He only sees the mask, whereas I see the true form.
I try to push it to the back of my mind as I get changed and check the cell again, but I can’t stop the anxiety flowing through me at knowing what will happen when Aiden’s gone.
I have three days, possibly four where I can pretend to be like any other high school senior and not worry what will greet me at home, not worry about what I’m saying and the punishment that’ll come after it.
Pushing my shoulders back, I shake all the thoughts from my head before deleting the message I was going to send to Luke. If he wants to talk to me, he’ll message me back. I can’t be that girl, the kind who messages nonstop.
“Come on, Lil!”
“Coming!” I shout back to Aiden, looking in the small mirror at the jeans and top I’m wearing. Shoving on a denim jacket, I declare myself ready and run a brush through my wavy blond hair before pushing the cell back into my pocket and heading out of my room.
I’m halfway down the stairs when Dad starts to walk up them. He doesn’t stop when he sees me, he keeps going, getting one step above me before growling, “You keep your mouth shut.”
I nod, my hands starting to shake as he waits a beat before continuing up the stairs and out of sight.
Maybe I should stay in? I could end up causing more trouble than—
“Come on! I’ve been waiting hours!”
Blinking, I clear my eyes, seeing Aiden standing at the bottom of the stairs. It almost hurts to look at him. Looking so much like our mom is both a blessing and a curse, but he’s the perfect mixture of Mom and Dad. The way his nose hooks at the end is just like Dad’s, and I have to stop myself from letting him morph into him in my head.
He’s not like Dad. Not in the slightest. In that way he takes after Mom—kind and gentle.
“No, you have not.” Rolling my eyes, I walk down the stairs and out the front door. “So where we going?”
“That’s for me to know and you to find out,” Aiden singsongs behind me.
“You’re such a douche.”
He raises his brow as we come to a stop next to his car. “Someone got sassy while I was gone.”
“I have not!”
“Mmmhmm.”
Pulling open the door, I laugh and slip inside before putting my belt on and readying myself for his driving.
“Ever been to a bar?”
“A bar?” I whip my head around, my eyes wide as I stare at Aiden as he pulls away from the curb. “Why would I have bee
n to a bar?”
“You’re seventeen, Lily. Not seven.” He rolls his eyes, leaning back with only one hand on the steering wheel. “I’m taking you to a bar.”
“I don’t think Dad would—”
“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” He turns his head, smirking at me.
Well… okay then.
LUKE
“We got the warrant, you want in?” Swiping my hand over my face, I look at the time on the clock next to my bed, gripping the cell harder in my hand. I lasted an hour before the memories surfaced in my mind—having no control over them.
“The fuck? It’s twenty-two hundred hours.”
“Awww, was Luke tucked up in bed?”
“Damn fucking straight I was.” I don’t tell him that I was up last night doing the night shift watching the compound and then spent the rest of the day in a movie marathon with Eli because he was sick.
“Well? You want in on the op or not?”
Yanking my covers aside, I plant my feet on the floor. “Be there in twenty.”
Quickly having a shower to wake myself up, I brush my teeth and dress in all black, my combat boots going on last before I head out the door and across the compound.
“Woah, where’s the fire?” Dean asks as he passes me.
“Up your fuckin’ ass,” I murmur.
Jogging across the rest of the compound, I then jump into my SUV and start it before peeling out of there toward the precinct. It’s not until I park the car next to the front doors I realize I forgot my cell. Fuck’s sake. Fuckin’ Charlie calling me in the middle of the fucking night. Okay, so it’s only 10:30 p.m. now, but I’ve been awake for way too many hours.
Pushing inside the precinct, Charlie is waiting at the side door for me.
“We’ll go through the plan and then get going,” he tells me, leading the way up the stairs and into his section.
Grunting in reply, I lean against a desk toward the back, listening as he tells us our positions, ending with, “Luke, you come through the back with me.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “Everyone ready?”
A chorus of “yeses” vibrate, and then everyone is moving.
“You can ride with me,” Charlie says, moving toward me and asking, “Weapons?”
“Don’t leave the house without them,” I tell him, following him out and into his SUV. Once inside, I cross my arms over my chest and lean my head back against the headrest. It’s a sixty-minute drive to the bar and I want nothing more than to get a little sleep, but I can’t.
I need to be on alert, ready for anything. That and I don’t want Charlie to see anything he’s not supposed to. The last thing I need is someone knowing what I go through every time I sleep.
Sitting up straight, I scrub my hands down my face, shaking the tiredness from my head as I stare out the front window.
“Fill me in,” I tell Charlie, needing all the details he has.
He shuffles in his seat. “I took your surveillance to the judge and he called me in this evening and approved it.” I raise a brow as I turn to face him. “He said he wanted to keep it on the down low and to use it right away.”
Tilting my head to the side, I watch Charlie, several things running through my head at once. Why would the judge approve the warrant so late? And why weeks after giving him the evidence?
My gut tells me something isn’t right, and after continuing to watch the bar, I know there’s more going on here than meets the eye.
“It’s a setup,” I grunt.
“What?”
Shaking my head, I cross my arms over my chest again. “It’s a fucking setup, Charlie. Think about it. He has the surveillance for weeks and then says you can go and raid them... but it has to be right now?”
His gaze flicks side to side, the silence hanging in the air around us before he explodes, banging his fist off his steering wheel. “Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!” He comes up to the intersection where the bar is and swerves to the right, parking in the lot I sat in when I was gathering surveillance before he turns the engine off.
“Abort!” he shouts into the radio attached to his chest. “It’s a fucking setup!” Several voices shout over the radio at once but Charlie cuts them all off. “Head back to the precinct, I’ll fill you in when we get there.”
I watch several sets of lights move as they turn around in the other cars, but Charlie doesn’t move, instead he turns his body toward me, raising a brow.
“What?” I growl out.
“Mole.” One word and he has my body jerking forward. “There’s a mole somewhere. Any idea where it could be coming from?”
Fuck. He’s right, there’s a mole somewhere down the line. “Who knows about this case?”
“My team and MAC.”
“You trust all your team?” I ask, my gaze finding his in the darkness.
“I thought I did… but now I’m not too sure.” We both stay silent for several minutes before he says, “I need you to go undercover.”
I scoff. “You ain’t my boss.”
“I’ll talk to Ty.”
Blowing out a breath, I lean back in the seat. “If Ty gives the go-ahead.”
“Good. And don’t tell anyone.”
“Who the fuck would I tell?” I roll my eyes as he starts the ignition, switching the lights on and illuminating the front of the bar.
I snap my attention there, leaning forward. No fuckin’ way. “Stop!” I shout, holding my hand out.
He halts, looking around. “What?”
I don’t answer him as I jump out of the car, sure I’m seeing things, but as I jog across the road and see Lily sitting on the curb—throwing up—I know I’m not.
“Lily?”
She lifts her head slowly, her blond hair hanging in her face. “Luke,” she slurs. “I messaged you and you didn’t answer.”
“What are you doing here?” I crouch down in front of her before moving her hair out of her face. My focus bats between her and the bar, sure someone will come out any second and notice me. If Charlie wants me undercover, then there’s no way I can be seen yet. “You shouldn’t be in a place like this, angel.”
“My brother came back for the weekend.” Her lips lift up into a sloppy grin, her body swaying to the left. “He’s an awesome brother. Nothing like…” I jerk forward, taking ahold of both her arms as I hear the sound of Charlie’s horn behind me.
Ignoring it, I stand up, bringing Lily with me as the bar door opens and a guy stumbles out.
“Lil—Hey! Get your hands off my sister!”
Lily leans against my side, her head on my bicep as she tries to hold her hand up to the guy. “Iz okay… he’s….” She sighs. “Luke.”
The guy comes at me, but with one hand outstretched, I hold him back. “Fuck!” He goes for me again, trying to swing his fist at me, but instead of trying to hold him back this time, I let go and he slams onto the sidewalk, his face scraping against the rough surface.
“Aiden!” Lily gasps, trying to move toward him, but my arm wrapping around her waist has her stopping.
My frustration reaches new heights as I look at her and realize she was in this bar with a guy who’s as drunk as she is. How the hell is he meant to protect her from anyone if he can’t even stand up straight?
“Luke?” Charlie’s deep voice calls. “You need a hand?”
Taking hold of Lily’s face in my hands, I tilt it up to look at me. “How drunk are you?”
“You have pretty eyes,” she whispers, her hand reaching out and jabbing my cheek. “You know I waited for you to message me back, but you didn’t… why didn’t you? Is it because of…” She looks around, lowering her voice—or at least trying to. “Is it because we kissed?”
My breaths start to come harder and faster, and if it wasn’t for the audience we have right now, I’d tell her that it is because of the kiss. That this can’t happen. I can’t get caught up in this with her. But one look down at her brother lying on the asphalt and I know I can’t leave her here like th
is. Not only that but if she goes home in this state… fuck!
“Charlie? Get him in the car.”
“What? Fuck no!”
Swinging my head around to Charlie, I see the hidden meaning behind his eyes as I look around the bar and the cameras outside of it.
“Meet us around the corner,” I shout to him, waiting until he’s gone before wrapping an arm securely around Lily’s shoulders and moving us closer to Aiden who’s now starting to sit up.
“Hey—”
“Get up,” I thunder. He watches me with wide eyes, still not moving. “Get the fuck up, now!”
He jerks back, his eyes widening as he slowly starts to stand, failing several times before he’s on his feet. “Okay, jeez… no need to shout.”
Lily chuckles, leaning her weight on me fully. “He’s bossy.”
Aiden grins at Lily, but it’s the kind of brotherly grin when he thinks something is funny. “Like Dad.”
Lily’s body stiffens, her chest moving faster against my arm, her whole aura changing with just one name. I want to let her go and shake the guy, telling him to sober the fuck up, but right now it’s no use. So instead, I tilt my head to the corner and tell him to move it.
It takes several attempts to get them in the car, and as soon as Lily is in the back, she promptly falls asleep, her brother next to her.
“Wanna explain?” Charlie asks when I get back in the front.
“No,” I grunt in reply, trying to make a plan as I reel off my mom’s address to him.
LILY
My mouth is the driest it’s ever been, my head bangs to an invisible beat, and my body is sore in places I didn’t think it could be. Trying to open my eyes is a futile attempt, so I wait a couple of minutes, concentrating on my breathing to keep my food down.
The smell of bacon has it churning, and then my eyes are whipping open as I look around. I don’t recognize the room or the bed, but it’s distinctly male.
Shit. What happened last night?
I can’t remember anything after the third beer at the bar.
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