The wooden, one-story house brings the outside in, which sounds nice, until you’re on your own… in the dark. Grabbing the comforter off the bed, I sit down on the sofa, wrapping it around me while keeping my gaze attached to the cell Luke gave me.
The minutes slip by, each one later than I should be awake.
Maybe I should call him? Tell him I’m scared. But the woman inside of me that wants to be independent shouts not to, however the girl screams for me to pick up the cell and dial the only number saved in it.
I pick it up, debating whether I should or not, but the choice is made for me when it starts to vibrate in my palm.
I click the answer button with lighting speed, not letting my brain think about it for a second before bringing it up to my ear and answering with a, “Hello?”
“Hey, darlin’.”
The sound of his rough voice over the speaker has a genuine smile gracing my face. “Hey.”
His breath comes over the line before he asks, “Why are you awake?”
“Why are you awake?” I counter, leaning back against the sofa and cuddling up inside the comforter.
“Just got home,” he grunts out, not expanding on it any more than that. I want to ask him where he’s been, but I know I can’t. I have no right to know where he was or what he was doing.
The line is silent for several beats, until I tell him, “It’s quiet here without you.”
“Yeah?” His deep chuckle rings across the line. “Because I’m a big talker, right?”
“Tell me about it!” I lean forward. “Sometimes I just wish you’d give your voice a rest. I mean, it can’t be good for your vocal cords to be talking as much as you do.”
“What can I say?” I hear some rustling. “I like to talk, it’s my favorite pastime.”
I snort with laughter, and the snort makes me laugh even more. Most people would feel mortified to do that while on the cell with a guy, but Luke eases a part of me I never thought could be relaxed.
When my laughter dies down, I bite my bottom lip, waiting for him to say something, but when he doesn’t, I ask, “You still there?”
“Yeah, angel. Still here.”
I turn around on the sofa, lying down and putting the cell on speaker. “Can you stay on the line until I fall asleep?”
Closing my eyes, I wait for his reply, and when it finally comes and he says, “I’ll be here,” I let myself drift off to the sounds of the wind and his breath through the line.
LUKE
Leaving my house, I lock the front door, knowing I won’t be back for a few days. Hauling my backpack over my shoulder, I head to my SUV, putting it in the trunk and closing it up, spinning around and catching Dean watching me from outside the warehouse door.
I walk toward him, growling, “What are you looking at?”
“Nothing in particular,” he chirps back. “Just wondering where you’ve been lately.”
“None of your fuckin’ business,” I sneer back, pushing open the warehouse door and walking to the office, slamming the door behind me before throwing myself down on the sofa.
My eyes are sore, not that I’m not used to them being like that. I’m a pro at working on little-to-no sleep, but somehow worrying about Lily is a different type of exhaustion. It drains me, my body calling for me to drop everything and go to her. But I can’t. I’ve got to do what is expected of me, do what everyone else needs me to.
Scrubbing my hands down my face, I try to get the images of her injuries out of my head.
It took me two days to get her to let me check them, and after explaining I’ve seen much worse while on tour, she finally let me.
Bruises marred her stomach and back, scars on her legs from previous—I don’t even want to think what they were from. The finger mark bruises on her neck were starting to fade, and she could open her eye fully by the time I left. But none of it compares to the scars inside. I know they’re there, I can feel them when she looks at me. Maybe she’ll open up about them at some stage, but the thought of having to do the same back has me grimacing.
“Someone doesn’t look happy.”
I turn my head to face Ty where he sits behind his desk, his gaze focused on me. “Just tired,” I tell him, sitting up and clasping my hands on the top of my head, pushing Lily to the back of my brain—at least for a few minutes anyway. “I’m starting the undercover job today and Dean is watching me.”
“Dean is watching you?” Ty stands up before walking over to me, and when I look up at him, his chocolate-brown eyes shine with the same suspicion I feel.
“Yeah, he said he wondered where I’ve been lately.”
“Hmmm.” Ty sits down in the seat to my left, pulling his beanie hat off and running his hand through his hair. “I put a tracker on his car, I was just downloading the information now.”
“Yeah?” I sit up straighter, moving to the edge of my seat. “Where has he been?”
“Fuck knows.” Ty’s gaze pierces mine. “It’s been wiped.”
“He knows we’re onto him.”
“Either that, or…” Ty trails off when the door knocks and Kay steps inside, her gaze flitting from Ty to me and back again before she closes the door behind her.
“Or?” I ask, knowing Kay knows everything that’s going on at the moment.
“Or there’s more than us suspicious of him and he doesn’t know who it is.”
We’re all silent a beat before Kay says, “Then there’s more to him than we originally thought. Do you think we should let Evan and Kitty know—”
“No.” Ty shakes his head, standing up. “Evan has too much going on at the moment with Lexi, and Kitty is too close to him.”
Kay heaves a breath as Ty comes to a stop in front of her. “I don’t like lying to her.”
“I know, sweetheart. But it’s only until we figure out what Dean’s up to.”
Kay nods, placing her head on Ty’s chest and when he wraps his arms around her, I look away, my mind immediately on Lily. I’ve battled back and forth on whether to at least tell Ty what’s going on—the brief version anyway—but I can’t. However much he likes to protect his family, he protects the innocent and underage too, and if he was to know what happened to Lily and her only being seventeen, there’s no way he wouldn’t send Charlie on the case.
I get it from his point of view—a seventeen-year-old girl being raped and abused by her own father—but what good will it do for Lily for everyone to know? She’d be looked at with pity in people’s eyes and that’s the last thing she wants. She’s a person, just like you and me, and deserves to be treated like one and not just a victim. I’ve seen the strength she holds inside her.
My mouth opens as they pull apart, ready to at least tell him I have more than going undercover at the bar and Dean on my mind, but when Evan pushes the door open, his eyes wide and his face pale, I know now isn’t the right time to say or do anything. I’ll keep it locked away in the same place I store all of my memories of my childhood.
“We’re nearly ready,” he says, spinning around and leaving.
“Everyone will be here soon,” Kay says, pulling away from Ty and looking over at me. “You okay?”
“Me?” I frown. “Yeah.”
She opens her mouth to say something but Ty cuts her off, saying, “Why don’t you make sure everyone has a drink when they turn up. I need to discuss a case with Luke.”
She hesitates but finally turns around and heads back into the main part of the warehouse.
“She worries,” Ty explains.
“Yeah, well… she shouldn’t.”
The room fills with palpable tension as Ty sits back down and I can feel he wants to say something too. “Say it,” I growl out, my eyes narrowed on him.
“I know I’ve said this before, but can you handle what’s happening? If it’s too much, we—”
“Are you fuckin’ kiddin’ me?” I stand up, my hands clenched tightly, the taut string holding everything together snapping. “Of course I can fuckin’
handle it. Could I handle watching half my team being blown up over there? Could I handle watching my mom go through what she had to daily? Could I handle having to drag half of a member of my unit to safety only realizing he lost his legs and was dead after I got him to relative safety?” I take a deep breath. “I could handle that so I’m damn sure I can handle being undercover in some run-down fuckin’ bar and finding out who in the hell Dean actually is.”
“Okay,” Ty says, his hands up in the air in surrender as my breaths turn to gasps and I start pacing. The images running through my mind won’t stop, the smell of the dry, hot air in my nostrils, the feel of blood on my palms making me wipe my hands on my jeans over and over again.
My head is fucked but I need to push it all back, not let it show, and when the door knocks and Charlie appears, I push past him, storming into the main part of the warehouse and to my usual seat, waiting for everyone else to sit down too.
The place is packed and it makes it all the more relevant to keep my calm, to not let any of my anger show.
Taking a breath, I mentally push everything back into the boxes I keep them in, locking them up tight and pulling the mask back over my face.
I close my eyes, getting ahold of myself and opening them back up, looking around and seeing the whole team here as well as Seb, West, Evan’s parents, Livvy, and Charlie and his team.
We’re all here for one reason: to bring down the fucker who framed Lexi. To show him you don’t mess with our family and get away with it.
Charlie steps forward and I focus on him.
“Her uncle was the DA. He didn’t have grounds to try her as an adult, but from what we can gather, he had all of the judges in his pocket. This guy is dirty… dirtier than dirt.”
I look over at Evan, knowing this doesn’t bode well for him and Lexi. It’s all gone to shit for them, but at least he has us at his back. That’s more than Lily has right now.
“So we need to get her off on the original charge: that’s the best way to do this,” Evan’s pop says from behind him.
“How do we do that?” Evan’s dad asks.
“We expose him,” Ty answers, standing up. “That way any case he dealt with gets brought into question.” He widens his stance. “And as soon as that happens, we jump on it and bring Lexi’s case forward.” He stares at Evan for a beat. “Have everything ready to go.”
Pop nods his head at him and Evan pulls his laptop open, his fingers flying over the keys.
“Evan—”
“Already on it,” he says, cutting him off.
“Good. Charlie, do you have enough evidence to bring him down?”
I hear his grunt before he answers. “No… we only have enough to raise suspicion.”
The atmosphere becomes tense at his words. Evan wants to bring this guy down and I don’t blame him. It’s all because of him why Lexi has been treated the way she has. There was so much more behind her than I first thought when Evan brought her to the warehouse needing to be fixed up.
Evan raises his hand saying, “Shhh,” as some other voices come through the speakers on his laptop.
We’re all on alert, straining to hear what’s being said on the line that Evan tapped when he figured out what Lexi’s uncle was doing.
“You said this would be easy,” her uncle sneers over the line. “You asked me to arrange this and I did. Alexis was put back in prison and even the hospital. I want my payment.”
“Tsk tsk.” My brows rise at the sound of Darrell’s voice and Evan’s head snaps up. “You may have distracted them for a little while, but what about when they get her out? Evan will be onto me again.”
The realization that both Lexi’s uncle and Darrell were behind it comes over Evan’s face. It’s just another piece to add to the puzzle.
“I don’t give a fuck! You promised me my money if I planted the drugs on her!”
“And you’ll get it… all in due course.”
The line goes dead and Evan stands up. “He was in on it,” he fumes.
“What? Who?” Charlie asks as he steps forward, his gaze swinging from Ty to Kitty, trying to get a read on them.
“I think it’s time you all left,” Ty says, his voice a low growl. “This is MAC business. If we need any help, we’ll be sure to contact you.”
My mind is spinning, trying to make all of the connections all the while keeping my gaze trained on Dean. He’s good, I’ll give him that, but I can sense something about this whole thing and him is off. He doesn’t seem the least bit surprised about the fact that Evan has a line tapped. There was only two people who knew that apart from Evan: me and Ty.
Everyone shuffles out of the warehouse but I don’t take my attention off Dean. He’s calm, too calm.
“He was behind this.”
I finally rip my gaze away from Dean, focusing on Evan. “We should have known. The same day of the job and Lexi gets arrested… it was too convenient.”
He bangs his fist down on the table, his gaze flickering between all of us before he shouts, “The code!”
Evan sits back in his chair as we all talk around him, discussing best ways to get evidence on both her uncle and also Darrell now that we have a confession of him being in on the whole thing.
“He’s accessing the facility where this is being made,” Evan grunts.
“What?” Kitty asks, coming to stand behind him as I move forward too. “What does that mean?”
“He never wanted a code inside the software to spy on people when it’s released.” He looks up at Ty. “He wanted it so that he could get ears inside of the place; he’s accessing everything there.”
“Where is there?” I ask.
“Center 109.” Fuck. “He’s got access to it all: FBI, CIA, NSA, DEA, ATF, the military… there isn’t a system he can’t crack.”
“Turn it off!” Ty thunders.
Evan’s fingers fly over the keys again. “I can’t,” he says. “I can’t stop him, but…” He looks up at Ty as he walks closer. “I can see what he’s looking at.”
Ty stands next to me behind Evan, leaning down and watching the screen in the same way we all are. Someone clicks onto a file named “Derock #5629,” it opens up and several other files appear on the screen.
We all move closer, watching in fascination as he searches through all of the information in the system. What looks like several dozen alias files are flicking on the screen, all with different back stories and names, most of the information blacked out, but not enough to know that whoever this person is, they’re dangerous. No one has this many aliases for no reason.
We all lean forward when the frantic searching on the screen slows down and a picture is zoomed in on.
“Who’s that?” Kitty asks, leaning closer.
Evan swipes his fingers on the trackpad, zooming in.
Fuck.
“It’s Daley.”
This isn’t good. It’s bad, really fucking bad. He knew what he was looking for without a doubt, but what the fuck does he want with Daley?
LILY
I wait on the wraparound porch, a pair of jeans adorning my legs along with a long-sleeved top and my jacket. I don’t own one piece of clothing from my life before—that’s what I’m calling it now. My life before my dad took away the part of me he never should have.
I’m slowly starting to become the person I used to be, the one who would smile genuinely and laugh when she wanted. Freedom flows through my veins, making me lighter, and I love this new version of myself.
I can look in the mirror and see past the fading bruises; stare into my clear eyes and not feel like I have to put a front on.
I’m me. Lily. The girl who wants to run through a field of flowers and chase the butterflies.
Letting my head tilt back, I breathe in the clear, woodsy air, relishing in the sounds of birds in the trees and the leaves as the wind whips through them. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be right now.
Luke pulled up half an hour ago while I was sitting in this exa
ct position, a bag of new clothes in hand and a smile on his face as he told me to get dressed while he took a shower.
It’s been two days since I last saw him, and they were both the longest and shortest two days of my life. I wanted them to go quickly so I wouldn’t be on my own, but at the same time I wanted them to drag so I could heal and feel more like myself before I saw him again.
I’ve never had to rely on anyone for anything, and having to do that with Luke makes me want to escape and find my own fresh start, but I keep reminding myself it’s only until I’m eighteen. As soon as I hit that number, I won’t be a runaway teen, I’ll be an adult in the eyes of the law and can do whatever I want.
The floorboards inside creak, warning me Luke will be appearing any minute, and when I turn my head toward the door, my gaze clashes with his. Lifting my lips into a genuine smile, I wait for him to step toward me.
“Now that’s the kind of smile I want to see,” he says, his voice deep and rough.
My cheeks heat from his attention, and when he moves closer and cups my cheek, I don’t move away from him. I know I shouldn’t want to be touched by anyone after what happened, I know the proper way to react would be to jump away from him, but it’s not how I feel. He’s safety and that’s all that matters to me.
“You ready to go and explore the town properly?”
I nod, causing his hand to move on my face. “Sure am.”
We’re both still for a beat, our eyes saying so many things, but neither of us voice it as he pulls away and waves his hand for me to go down the stairs first.
I spin on my heels before jogging down them and stopping next to his SUV, but when the lights don’t flash, I look behind me and see a smirk on his face.
“What?”
“We’re gonna walk, that way you know which way to go when I’m not here.”
Catching Teardrops (MAC Security Series Book 5) Page 16
