“It’s not that,” I assure him. “You were all right. I bring trouble everywhere I go. If I stay, it keeps Hopper far from home.”
“Listen to yourself! You’re talking crazy, Lily,” Slade barks losing patience.
Glancing at my watch, I’ve wasted eight minutes. “I have to go.”
“I’ll throw you over my shoulder if you force me,” my brother threatens, and I smile.
“I love you, but I have to do this. I’ve brought it on myself, and this is how I try to mend it.”
“We don’t have much time, grab her, and let’s get out of here!” Myles chimes in.
“Slade. Listen to me. I’m safe here, I keep my head down, and it’s not that bad. I love that you came all this way for me, but if I run with you, he’ll kill everyone, and I don’t want any deathson my conscience. Go, I’ll get myself away one day, but it isn’t today.”
I push past him to get to the store when Shane blocks me. “Listen to your brother, Lily. You’ll end up dead if you stay.”
“It’s a chance I’ll take for the club.”
He glances over my shoulder and Slade must give him the go ahead, he steps to the side.
It takes me sixteen minutes to get what I need and be on my way back to the club. Before taking the last corner, I pause and exhale long and hard. Clearing any and every emotion from my face, I walk back into the club and take my haul up to the room I share with Hopper. Setting my toiletries on the dresser I hear the creak of the floorboards just outside our room.
“I’m shocked as shit you came back.”
“I told you I would.”
“Yeah, but with your brother in town, it’s surprising you didn’t cling to him while he took you home.”
A ball of tight tension drops in my stomach, and I turn to see Hopper isn’t as cool as his tone first implied.
Chapter Eighteen
Shane
We’ve been waiting for days to catch a sighting of Lily and when we finally had her, she flipped the damn script. It was all for nothing.
“I still don’t get why you let her go back. We should’ve just grabbed her, we could’ve been out of this shit hole and on our way home,” Zach rants.
Slade doesn’t mutter a single word. My phone rings and Annie’s name covers the screen. I send her to voicemail and focus on the here and now.
“We should just grab her and when Hopper comes for her, we wipe him out,” I tell them all like it’s the simplest plan ever created.
“Why are you so desperate to get her back?” Slade questions accusingly. “You’re acting like she’s your old lady.”
I step back as he steps closer to me. I can’t answer fast enough before he’s in my face.
“Tell me what’s going on between you and my sister.”
Taking a deep breath, I take my chances and tell him, “I spent the night with her when she first got to town. I fuckin’ swear it to you, brother, I didn’t know she was your sister!”
I see his fist hurtling toward my face and though my instincts are screaming to move, I take the hit on my chin. I fucked the man’s sister, more than once not that he knows that. What shocks me is what next comes out of his mouth.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have hit you.”
What shocks me more is the words out of my mouth, “It’s fine. I get it.”
“Nah, it’s not fine. It weren’t your fault. My sister would sleep with the devil if it meant not being alone.”
No one says anything in Lily’s defence because they all agree with him. Slade paces the motel room and I fall onto the bed and kick back. It’s obvious that whatever happens next is Slade’s decision. Myles switches on the TV, and Zach watches his father.
