Unbreakable 2, The Mystery of Lilly (Cypress Grove Series)

by Nichols, Amie

  "So you got what you needed?" I ask, feeling queasy and ready to leave as I dry my hands.

  "That and so much more. Let's just say Matt Henning will never see freedom again," Westchester says, patting me on the back as I leave the little room.

  Sitting in a chair outside the room is Jacob with a seriously pissed off look on his face.

  "How'd you know I was here?" I ask him, plopping in the chair next to him.

  "I saw the agent’s card by the phone. You checked yourself out AMA," he grates looking straight ahead. "Sounds like you got him to spill his guts, are you happy now?"

  I rest my head on his shoulder, the tears start rolling down my cheeks and I am sobbing like a child in a matter of seconds. Jacob puts his arm around me as I cry into his shirt.

  "No I'm not happy," I mumble into his shirt now damp from my tears. "Everyone hates me." I sniff.

  "No they don't, Lilly, I don't hate you. I'm mad that you didn't tell me you were coming here because I think I should have been here," he says, rubbing my shoulder as I cry.

  "I want to find Luke. Do you know where he is?" I ask now sitting straight wiping my tears.

  "No, he's not answering his phone. Let's get you home," Jacob says while guiding me toward the exit. "I'm proud of you, you know. That took a lot of guts, what you just did." He gives me one of his cheesy smiles.

  "Thanks." I give him a weak smile back. Now if only Luke was.

  Jeffery had been very busy getting Cypress Grove cleaned up, since my house was blown to pieces we were going to need a place to live. It was all good because it was bigger. Miss Finnegan was going to have a bigger room and I wanted the servants’ hallway remodeled so there were bigger bedrooms with bathrooms in them. Lucy and Jacob would move in with us and Jimmy would also stay for a while. I was fine with it because I loved having everyone around. The baby's room was going to be sealed up again per my request. I wasn't ready to face it. I didn't want to destroy its pristine condition.

  Seeing Cypress Grove for the first time since Jeffrey had started the cleanup and construction was amazing. He hired a whole construction crew to get the place in order. It was magnificent. All of the grounds had been manicured and there was a fresh coat of paint on the outside. The boards were off the windows and it had a brand new roof now. It was almost unrecognizable.

  "It looks so different," I tell Jacob as he pulls to a stop in front of the house. There was no garage yet, but there was one in the works. Men were all over the place working hard on the remodel. The attached garage was just a frame right now, but I could tell that they were going to make it look like it had been there all along.

  "Jeffrey has had crews here 24 hours a day. It's amazing what money can get done," Jacob says with a half-smile.

  I keep playing the last time I saw Luke over in my head. I told him I loved him and he left without saying it back. My heart is heavy with ache to find him and make sure we are okay. As Jacob helps me out of the car, I see Luke come out of the house and he rushes to help. Getting out of the large SUV with broken ribs is no easy task.

  "I didn't know you were discharged yet. Lucy thought another day," Luke says and I see Lucy on the porch. After I have my feet on the ground, Jacob rushes to her giving her a kiss and hug. I watch them for a second feeling the tension between Luke and I. They go in the house leaving us alone.

  "What's wrong, Luke?" I finally ask after a second of silence and him not making any move to touch me.

  "Nothing" he snaps. His tone hurts more than the pain in my ribs and I couldn't hide the hurt from that. I walk up the steps of the giant front porch away from Luke as I feel the tears prick my eyes.

  "Lilly, stop," he says while running to catch up to me. He grabs my arm to turn me around. I still have bruises up and down my arms from being dragged in the woods and Luke lets go of me as soon as he realizes he was causing me more pain.

  "Do you still love me?"

  "Lilly," is all he says and it feels like a sucker punch right in the middle of my gut. Oh my God, what is happening, he doesn't love me and he probably never did. All of what has happened has made him realize this.

  "Oh my God!" I start hyperventilating as it starts to sink in. Bending over, my hands on my knees, I feel as if I'm going to faint.

  "Lilly, look at me," he says softly and all I can do is try to breathe. "I love you, God do I love you. I love you so much it hurts."

  "My love is not enough, I have never protected you like you deserve. I couldn't keep you safe from Jane and I couldn't keep you safe from him." Luke's voice cracks as he talks and I look up at him.

  "What are you saying?" I don't want to hear the answer because I don't think I can take it. My heart is being shred into a million pieces and I can barely breathe.

  "You deserve so much better and you deserve someone that can keep you safe." His eyes are looking everywhere but at me. Is he really trying to leave me, because he doesn't think he can keep me safe? Is he really going to break me into so many tiny pieces that no one will ever be able to put me back together again?

  "Is this a joke, Luke, some kind of sick fucking joke?" I scream wanting to get into his head and shake some sense into him. My body is trembling so hard that I feel like the ground is shaking below me. He won't even look at me and it makes me mad, it makes me so mad that I don't even want him to look at me and I don't want to look at him.

  "You're a fucking coward!" I shout and this makes him look at me and the stunned look in his eyes gives me satisfaction. That's right, Luke, I just called you a coward. What do you have to say to that?

  What he did I did not expect, and what was left of my heart went with him as he turned and got in the SUV and drove away from me. Breaking every promise he ever made to me, leaving me like he said he never would again and I could do nothing. I didn't yell after him, I didn't go in the house. I just stood there in complete shock. Tears streaming down my face uncontrollably, I stood there for what seemed like hours before Jacob came out of the house and guided me inside.

  He sat me down at the table in the freshly painted kitchen, everything clean and shiny. New state of the art appliances had replaced the old ones and I didn't care.

  Lucy sat next to me not saying a word, neither of them asking what was wrong or what happened. No doubt they heard the shouting and already knew. I didn't want to talk and I didn't want to be in this house. I didn't want to be anywhere and I didn't know what I was going to do. My whole world was crashing around me, and what I thought was the worst experience I would ever have to face when I was kidnapped by Matt Henning was nothing to what I was experiencing right now.

  Jacob places a cup of tea in front of me and takes the seat across from me. "Lilly, he'll come back. He is just scared of what could have happened and he needs to work through it." Jacob states so matter-of-fact that I wonder if he is speaking from experience.

  All I can do is look up into his eyes, see the worry in them, and the certainty of what he just said. "You didn't run away," I tell him. The crying has stopped and all there is now is hurt. So much hurt that I can't even move.

  "No, but we all deal with stuff differently. I saw it in him and was afraid this was going to happen. When he woke up and we told him you had been taken it was as if we told him the whole world had ended. It had for him, Lilly."

  I understood exactly what he was saying because I felt the same way when I thought he was dead. I feel the same way now, but he left, he just left and now in this house I sit. In this house where I was going to be with Luke and share our lives together, was now tainted with the worst day of my life.

  We all turn our heads to a noise as Jeffrey walks in the back door.

  "Oh good, you guys are here. I need some direction on how you want me to proceed with the servant...what's wrong?" He stops mid-sentence as he stares at my blank expression on my face.

  Then the anger comes again as I stare at Luke's father, staring at the man that looks so much like him. His eyes, Luke's eyes, are looking at me with concern, an
d I get out of my chair and approach him.

  "He left me. He left me just like you always taught him to do!" I am screaming at the top of my lungs. Without even thinking, I am hitting Jeffrey in the chest, my fists clenched as he stands there letting me do it. His eyes wide with worry, I scream over and over, "Are you happy now, he left me, he left me! You always taught him to leave me and he always did!" Jacob is behind me pinning my arms to my sides so I quit hitting Jeffrey. "He left me," I sob out loudly, resting my head against Jacob’s shoulder as he rocks me making soothing shh sounds in my ear.

  Jeffrey doesn't say a word, only looks from Jacob to me then back to Jacob. Jacob quietly tells him what happened in a few words, and just like his son, he turns and walks out the door. What the hell is with these men?

  "Lucy, will you take her to her room so she can get cleaned up and rest some?" Jacob says to Lucy in a kind gentle tone. She is instantly by my side guiding me out of the kitchen. Lucy is looking a hundred times better with the drugs finally out of her system. That's all it took to make her get back to normal. She has still been through a lot and the last thing she needs is to be taking care of me.

  Once we reach the stairs, I look up and remember the first time I climbed them was with Luke at my side. They were different now, all the intricate wood carvings shiny and well-polished. The stairs heading toward the servants’ hall had plastic covering it, and I could hear walking around and banging as the construction team was working on the remodel.

  "Lucy, I'm fine, you don't need to help me." I stop at the bottom of the stairs to let her go and be on her way. She wasn't my personal servant that needed to cater to me like this. Right now all I want to do is crawl in a corner and cry myself to sleep and wake up to it all being a horrible dream.

  "I know you don't need my help, but you are getting it anyway," she firmly says, guiding me up the stairs. I don't want to go into the master suite, that was supposed to be mine and Luke’s room. I don't want to see it, I never want to see it if I don't have Luke.

  "No, I can't go in there, Lucy." I won't, I stop halfway up the stairs and turn around heading back down them. Lucy doesn't stop me, but follows me as I rush out the front door. "I can't be here, I can't be here. Where are the keys, I need to not be here." I plead with her as I reach Jacob's SUV.

  "Lilly, wait, let me go get Jacob." She looks panicked as I open the door and climb into the driver's seat. She rushes in the house and I see the keys are in the ignition. Without thinking, I start the car and drive away. I have no phone, no money, and no place to go. All I know is that I can't be here.

  Chapter 9

  LUKE

  I beat on the steering wheel as I drive away from Cypress Grove doing the one thing I swore I'd never do again, leave my Lilly. But how can I stay with her when I know that I can’t protect her? She deserves so much more. I have brought her nothing but pain since I met her.

  She was an angel, a precious angel that deserved so much more than me. I had nothing, and she was giving me everything, her trust and her love, and I just broke her heart. The hurt in her eyes when she yelled at me and called me exactly what I was, a coward; she hit the nail on the head. She was strong and had so much fight, and I was weak and she needed someone that could take care of her the way she deserved.

  My phone was ringing off the hook as I drove north. I was driving absent-mindedly with no idea where I was heading. The first call was Dad, then Mom, and then Jacob. I ignored them all, but like they were taking turns, my phone kept ringing. Never once was it Lilly, but then her phone was destroyed in the fire and it hadn't been replaced yet. Then a name flashed on my screen, and I answered that call. It was Sidney, the only girl that I ever cared about other than Lilly. Not like I cared for Lilly, but I did have a connection with her.

  "Hi." I don't know why I answered this call, but I did.

  "Luke, it's Sidney." I knew who it was not only by the caller ID, but I would know her voice anywhere. We had spent many a nights on the phone, and she was the only one that kept me from running to Lilly. She knew how to talk me down, and could always put things into perspective.

  I don't say anything because I don't know what to say. Talking to her almost feels wrong. Even though there is nothing between us, I feel as if talking to her is cheating on Lilly.

  "Your sister called me. Everyone is worried about you. Where are you?" She asks after a minute of silence, and everything spills out of me all at once.

  "I fucked up, Sid, I don't know what to do. I can't think straight, and all I want in this world is Lilly and I just left her." I am crying now like an idiot, a stupid fucking idiot.

  "You haven't done anything you can't fix yet. Sarah told me everything, Luke, you need to turn around and go back before something happens you can't fix." She's right and I know it, but I am so scared that I am not strong enough. Lilly was so right, I am a coward, I'm a stupid fucking coward. And now she will probably never look at me the same way again.

  "I know. I don't know what happened, I just freaked out and left. I am so fucked up right now." I explain everything to Sid and she just listens to me talk. Even though I know that she has feelings for me, and has always wanted more from me, she knew my heart belonged to Lilly and never pushed it.

  "Where are you? I can meet you and we can talk." She asks and I tell her that I am almost to Shreveport, realizing I have been driving for hours in the SUV. Lilly's armored SUV that was made to protect her and I took it and drove to Shreveport. Goddamn I am such a stupid idiot. I decide that I will meet her at a little restaurant that we used to eat at all the time and I hang up with her.

  Jacob rings me again, and I ignore it again. I'm sure he wants to give me an earful, but I know Lilly is safe with him and he won't leave her alone. Not like me, not like I did. If there was ever any doubt that I didn't deserve Lilly, it was for sure now.

  I walk into the small diner and see Sidney sitting in a booth. She is a beautiful girl, but not as beautiful as my Lilly. She sees me and her face lights up as she stands to give me a hug.

  "Oh, Luke, I've missed you so much. If it's possible, you’re even more drop dead gorgeous." She gives me a tight hug, and I hug her back feeling as if this is all wrong.

  "I'm a mess, Sid, I am a fucking messed up bastard." I can't believe I am sitting here with my ex-girlfriend and am so far away from Lilly. What am I doing here?

  "No you're not, Luke, you have been through a lot and are having a hard time wrapping your head around it. I'm sorry, but you have never thought straight when it came to that girl." Her tone has changed, she has changed. "She really has never caused you anything but trouble. And then she went to see the man that kidnapped her. I mean, really, what was she thinking?"

  "What?" She already went to see Matt Henning?

  "Yeah kind of stupid if you ask me, but it's all over the news. Whatever Lilly did, she got him to give up Senator Magado. Can you believe it? He was indicted just a little while ago." Sidney rambles on and on.

  I can't believe what I am hearing, she went there without me. Did she ask Jacob to go with her? Of course, Jacob is her protector not me.

  "Apparently your girl got him to admit to a whole slew of stuff. Heads are rolling I guess you can say. Of course, they aren't saying her name, but your sister told me that it was because of Lilly."

  "I didn't know she went." I tell Sidney half mad, half dumbfounded.

  "According to your sister no one did. She checked herself out AMA, called the agents and just did it. Emma said you all were fighting her on it so she just went and did it. She's got some guts. Albeit, I think it was stupid as hell."

  "So, is that why you left her, because she didn't listen to you? Smart really, you need a woman who listens to her man, like I always did, Luke. I'd do anything you'd tell me to. I would be a proper southern wife, the kind that respects her man. Not the kind that spits in his face," Sidney says taking my hands in hers.

  I stare down at our hands for a second. Is that what I am really mad about? Lilly neve
r listens to me, it makes me so mad, but that's not what I want. I love that she is independent and has a mind of her own. I love her feisty side, oh God do I love her feisty side. What the hell am I doing here holding another woman's hands? I jerk my hands away like hers are on fire.

  "This was a bad idea, I can't be here, Sid," I blurt out, seeing the shocked look on her face to my sudden withdrawal.

  "Do you wonder why you started driving toward Shreveport, Luke? I let you go before because you were never going to be with me with her in your head, but now you see it, don't you? We belong together, we always have." She is snide and I see her game now, but I drove to her. Why in the hell did I drive to Shreveport?

  "Now I see what, Sidney? My sister lives here, too, and I lived here, so it was just instinct."

  "No I don't think so, I think you see that Lilly is not for you, and you drove here to see me. Don't fight it, Luke, you know we have chemistry. You know you have feelings for me, and I love you, I always have." She is pleading now. I make to stand up, but she grabs my arm. "On the phone I told you to turn around and go back to Lilly, but you kept driving to me. I gave you an out, and yet, you are sitting here with me.

  "I need to go, this was a mistake," I tell her twisting away from her grip.

  "Luke, no please, just give me one night and if you still want to go back to that pathetic little rich girl, then fine." She stands and starts to follow me out of the diner. I know I have to go back, I know I have to go back to find my girl and make things right. Beg her forgiveness and hope she takes me back.

  "Sidney, I am going. I am sorry if you got the wrong idea, but you have always known where my heart belongs." I get in the SUV and she steps in front of the door before I can close it. "Sidney, please move." I am trying to keep my calm. Even though I never gave her any indication that I was here to be with her, she seems to have worked that out in her mind.