House Without Lies (Lily’s House Book 1)

by Rachel Branton

  “I told you we shouldn’t let anyone up there, even with you,” Ruth said. “Elsie thinks none of the rules apply to her.”

  She had it wrong. I was pretty sure I knew what had spooked Elsie. I pushed a sack at each girl and reached for the box. “Sorry,” I told Jameson. “Gotta go.”

  His eyes went from me to the girls and back. “You need some help?”

  “No. Elsie will only get hurt if she thinks you’re here for her.”

  “Here for her? Why, what’s she done?” A crease marred his forehead.

  Great. I’d known his following me home like a Boy Scout was a bad idea. I yanked the box from his unwilling arms and shoved it at Ruth. “Nothing. Goodbye, Jameson. And thanks.” I pushed past the girls and entered the apartment, leaving Ruth to get rid of him. She was a protective mother hen, and she’d know his presence here was dangerous.

  “So no nickname?” he called after me.

  I didn’t answer. What had I been thinking? Any kind of a romantic relationship now was completely out of the question. I had to think of Elsie and the other girls. Two of them had already tried to kill themselves.

  The balcony ran the length of our apartment, which meant the living room and the bedroom, but the ladder that led to the fire escape and up onto the roof was located on the living room side. I stepped over blankets and backpacks and other strewn belongings on my way across the tiny living room, where a lump told me one of the girls was still sleeping. I kept walking a few paces until it dawned on me that I had no idea who the lump might be. Elsie was on the roof, Saffron at her interview, Ruth and Halla were here, and the other two were in school. I shook my head. I’d have to deal with whoever it was later.

  It was my fault Elsie was on the roof. One night I’d climbed up in search of privacy, and when a couple of the girls had come looking for me, I’d answered their calls. Before long, all of us were up there.

  Now it had become almost a nightly ritual for whichever girls were home, a place where we could talk in the dark with only the stars as witnesses. I’d learned more about their lives there than anywhere else. Except for Elsie, who never talked but would sometimes reach out and clutch my hand.

  The rules were that no one could go up without me because while the roof was large and barely slanted, we were on the fourth floor and some of the girls were still recovering from substance abuse. A couple of them also had quick tempers or were big jokers and as of yet didn’t understand things like gravity and permanent consequences.

  I jumped on the chair and climbed the ladder, easing over the edge on my hands and knees for a few feet until I reached the almost flat part and could walk upright. Elsie wasn’t in plain view, but I found her hiding behind several air conditioning units that were already working overtime. Her forehead was pressed to her bare knees, and her long hair splayed outward in a wild, tangled mess, looking dark against her pale skin.

  “Hey,” I said, sliding into the empty space next to her.

  She looked past me before replying, her brown eyes deep and unrevealing. “Is he looking for me?” The throaty words were full of dread.

  “Oh, honey. No. Never.”

  She gave a little sob and pushed into my arms. At twelve, she was the youngest of the girls, and with how beaten she’d been when she arrived, the rest of us felt protective toward her—a good thing, or Halla and Ruth wouldn’t have even noticed she was on the roof.

  “Who is he?” she said after a few moments.

  “Payden’s cousin. He helped me bring home some groceries.”

  The remaining tautness in her body eased. “Good.”

  “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

  Elsie pulled away and nodded. “Yesterday when everyone was gone, I was on the balcony and I saw a little cat out in the parking lot. I thought I’d just go down to pet him for a minute and see if he was hungry, but that guy downstairs saw me and followed me, so I ran around the block and snuck back in.” Elsie’s teeth clamped down on her lips. “It was like he knew something and wanted to ask me more questions.” Tears filled her eyes, spilling over when she blinked. “I won’t go back. I’d jump off this roof before I’d go back.”

  Terror clutched at my chest. “No, Elsie. That’s not going to happen. We’ll find a way. Once I graduate, it’ll be different. You’ll see.”

  Changing my major twice now seemed ridiculous. The nursing classes had come in handy when Elsie arrived, but I should have pushed on with the business degree my parents had wanted—or at the very least avoided the year deviation into psychology. I could have finished by now, and have a good job cutting paychecks and balancing books at Crawford Cereals, even if it was a job I knew I’d detest. At this rate, I’d be an old woman before I graduated and had a job with enough money to do my dream work of helping lost girls.

  The terrible irony was that I had money—a lot of money—just out of reach. An inheritance left to me by my grandfather, who’d founded Crawford Cereals: a half million dollars and monthly payments thereafter. But I had to be twenty-five and married, or thirty if I was still single, to access the funds. My parents had means, but convincing them would be impossible.

  I needed to find a way to become legitimate, so the girls could get health and dental coverage and other benefits, but I didn’t know where to begin. Risking that Elsie or any of the others might be sent back to the horrible situations they’d run from was not an option. At least with me, they didn’t have to prostitute themselves or endure abuse by the very people who were supposed to protect them.

  “Thanks, Lily.”

  At Elsie’s soft words, the fear in my heart melted. I would make it work. Somehow.

  Until I did, gorgeous and witty guys like Jameson were a distraction I didn’t need.

  2

  After another twenty minutes, Elsie was calm enough to climb down from the roof. Heat gathered on the tile, so we were drenched in sweat, and all my thoughts were on how fast I could get into a cool shower and then to work. Had Saffron returned with my car? If she hadn’t, I’d need to call my sister for a ride.

  What I didn’t expect to see was Jameson sitting on our ripped-up couch from Goodwill with girls perched on either end, huge slices of pizza in their hands.

  “Wook!” Ruth said, her mouth crammed full. “Pipa.”

  “Pizza? At”—I reached into the pocket of my jeans to check my phone—“ten in the morning. Seriously?”

  The girls laughed, but Jameson had the grace to look embarrassed. “We got hungry waiting for you,” he said. “Ruth mentioned you had to go to work, and she wanted to make sure you got food, so I suggested pizza.” Of course Ruth had been thinking of me.

  “It was a good idea.” Halla finished her piece and reached for another.

  Jameson had no idea what he’d gotten himself into because these two and Elsie would probably eat the entire pizza inside ten minutes. Good thing he’d ordered a large.

  I was more worried about why he was still here.

  “You want one?” Jameson leaned forward and offered the box to Elsie. She didn’t smile, but she took a piece after Ruth nodded encouragingly.

  “You?” Jameson moved the box toward me. He held my gaze, his smile tentative. I became all too aware of my sweat-drenched body and my messy hair.

  “Maybe in a minute. I need to shower.” What I really needed was for him to get out of here. I couldn’t exactly leave a man I didn’t know with my underage girls, even if he was Payden’s cousin.

  I took a step forward—and my foot landed on the lump I’d seen earlier.

  “Umph!” groaned the figure.

  Trying to keep my balance, I whipped my other foot forward, but I was already falling. Jameson obligingly leapt up, grabbing me with his free arm, and we tumbled to the couch together.

  “Beans!” I muttered. I didn’t allow cursing in the apartment, and that included me, so some days we heard more about beans than we did most any other word. Jameson laughed and released me.

  Seated on the
couch, I reached for the blanket and pulled it off to reveal my best friend, Makayla Greyson. “Makay! When did you get here?”

  She sat up, her single dark braid hanging over her shoulder. She rubbed her eyes with one hand, the other still protectively touching the small figure of a sleeping child. “Sorry. My place got too rowdy last night. I couldn’t keep Nate there.”

  I wasn’t surprised. Makay’s roommates were so awful that the landlord had threatened to evict them five times in the past two weeks since she’d found me this place. “Well, that’s why I gave you a key,” I said. With Makay’s stepmother descending into substance abuse, Makay had taken over the primary care of her little brother, and she didn’t have a lot of options. “How’s Nate?” I added.

  Makay smiled, revealing a slight gap between her two front teeth. “Better than me—he sleeps like a rock.” She sniffed. “Is that pizza?”

  Jameson leaned over me and offered her the box. I could smell his cologne, and that meant he could probably smell me. I stifled a groan as I pushed myself out from under his arm and stood. “Sorry for stepping on you.”

  “Believe me, I’ve had worse,” Makay said. “Anyway, I needed to wake up. I have to work. Can any of you watch Nate today? I can’t pay, but I’ve got some great coupons for some free stuff I’m going to pick up on the way home. I’ll share it all.”

  Ruth reached for the toddler. “You kidding? I’d love to. He’s such an angel. You don’t have to buy me nothing.”

  “Thank you, but I will anyway.” Makay looked at me. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

  “Sure.”

  Feeling eyes on my face, I glanced over at Jameson. His expression was just the slightest bit confused, and I had to give him points for that. Most people would be really over-the-top crazy with all the chaos here.

  “Go ahead,” he said. “I can wait until you need to go. I’ll walk you down. Got some pizza to finish.”

  Fine, he could eat his stinking pizza and then get out of my life. Because even if he wasn’t over-the-top crazy, he was still a complication I obviously couldn’t afford. I had to put these girls first. End of story. “I won’t be long.”

  Makay and I went to the bedroom together, where the double mattress I’d bought at a yard sale rested on the floor near our two single Walmart-special, fold-out chair mattresses, leaving an open path around the outer edges. Blankets, pillows, backpacks, clothing, and other belongings lay heaped on top of the mattresses. I made the girls organize it every day, but it was hard to keep it clean with four of them sleeping in this small room and so few places to store things.

  Makay shut the door and grabbed me with the hand that didn’t hold the pizza, squealing softly. For a moment she looked like the almost nineteen-year-old she was. “Who’s the hunk? He’s beautiful!”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “What?”

  “He’s the cousin of the boy at the grocery store.”

  “Oh, I see.” But her smile was knowing as she took another bite.

  “There’s nothing going on. I just met him.” I took out my phone and checked the time.

  “Well, there should be. Look how well he gets along with the girls.”

  “Yeah, maybe too well.” Seeing how much they’d been hurt—mostly by men—I wasn’t sure letting him get close to them was a good idea. I didn’t even know him.

  Makay frowned. “You’re probably right. Still, there have to be some great guys left in the world, right?”

  “Maybe.”

  There was a hurt in her face that I knew was because of her father, who’d become an alcoholic after her mother died. Makay’s life had gone downhill from then, and by twelve she’d pretty much been on her own, sleeping at friends’ houses or in parks. That hadn’t stopped her from somehow finishing high school, but she’d flunked out of college last semester because she’d missed too much class taking care of Nate.

  “So how’s Fern?”

  Makay’s expression sobered. “Actually, that’s what I want to talk to you about. She’s getting worse. Ever since my dad died, she’s like an accident waiting to happen. I’m scared about what this’ll mean to Nate. I mean, it’s not like he’s a newborn and isn’t aware of what’s going on. He needs me.” She paused and said, her voice almost angry, “He’s mine, but you know they’ll never let me keep him. So I can’t call anyone about Fern. I just have to keep him with me and hope she straightens up.”

  “You’re doing the right thing. Nate needs you.”

  Tears gathered in her eyes. “I love him so much. I’d give anything for him not to go through what I went through, but Fern, she won’t sign him over to me. She doesn’t care about anything except her next fix. So I just have to keep taking him back to visit whenever she calls.” She sighed and added, “I can do this. I have to.” She nodded hard, as if to convince herself.

  “You can,” I said. “And I’ll help. We’ll help each other.”

  “You have already. A lot.” She grinned suddenly. “You’d better get going with your shower. I need to run back to my place and get some clothes for Nate, and something to eat. I doubt there’ll be any pizza left by the time he wakes.”

  I laughed. “I’m sure of that.”

  When I emerged from the bathroom, I found Jameson waiting for me in the tiny kitchen that adjoined the living room. Surprisingly, he and Ruth were washing dishes. Halla was playing with Nate, who’d awakened, her shaved head bent close to his.

  “I got it from here,” Ruth said to Jameson. “But thanks for the help.” He nodded and pulled his hands from the suds.

  “Can you make sure Zoey and Bianca do their homework?” I said to Ruth. I usually drove the sisters to school in the mornings, but they had to find their own way home, or call me when I was off work.

  “Sure.” Ruth smiled. “Oh, and Saffron called your phone when you was in the shower. She says she’s coming home, but she ain’t gonna be here in time for you to take the car to work.”

  “That’s okay.” I’d already texted my sister. “I have a ride. Call me if you need me.” We couldn’t afford more cell phones, but there was a pay phone at the Circle K they could use.

  Ruth rolled her eyes. “It’s Wednesday, right? So you only work four hours. What could happen?”

  Right. I swept up my purse and headed for the door. I tried to ignore Jameson as he said goodbye to the girls and followed me, but every one of my senses was on high alert. What was he thinking? Somehow I had to make sure that he didn’t run off and call social services or whatever.

  He didn’t say anything all the way downstairs, and when he started to speak at the bottom of the steps, I shook my head and urged him to walk with me. I’d asked my sister to pick me up at the Circle K, so I wouldn’t have to wait for her to come all the way to the apartment, and I wanted to get there before she did. Plus, I didn’t want any of my neighbors hearing whatever he planned to say.

  The day was beautiful, not too hot now that I wasn’t on the roof, and the sky was filled with fat, puffy clouds that reminded me of teddy bears and fabric softener. Of commercials where mothers made cinnamon rolls for their children to eat after school.

  I’d always wanted one of those rolls, or at least the mother who went with them.

  When we were partway down the street between another apartment complex and a gas station, I glanced up at Jameson. “Well?”

  “Well, what?”

  “I know you have questions.”

  He stopped walking, forcing me to also come to a stop. “Oh, I have a lot of questions. Fortunately, Ruth and Halla answered most of them.”

  “No they didn’t.” The girls knew how to keep their mouths shut. Inside our apartment, we told each other everything, but not to outsiders, no matter how charming or good-looking, because that meant danger. I’d found both Ruth and Halla while serving Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless at a church here in Phoenix where we still attended on Sundays, and I was glad I’d overheard them talking about where they’d sleep, or they m
ight have ended up in danger. They had just as much to lose if they were discovered as Elsie, and they were expert at keeping secrets. Whatever they’d talked about with Jameson, it hadn’t been anything real.

  He blew out a breath of frustration. “You’re right. They didn’t say anything.” His jaw worked, but he fell silent as a Hispanic woman pushing a stroller passed us by. A car brake squealed as a driver slowed enough to pull into the gas station, and the sound was like an alarm reminding me that I needed to hurry, or I’d be late to work—again.

  When the woman was gone, Jameson said, “What they didn’t say told me a lot more than what they did. Look, they need help. You know that, right?”

  Fury waved through me. How dare he judge me from just this little bit that he’d seen. “Okay, stop right there. You know nothing about where they’ve been and what they’ve gone through.”

  “I know more than you think. The system can help them.”

  “You’re wrong! The system has already failed!” Stupid tears started as I fumbled in my pocket for my phone. “Ruth was sexually assaulted by two of her mother’s boyfriends, and the system kept putting her back there—and her mother doesn’t even want her, hasn’t even reported her missing. And Halla? She was starved into submission by her drunk father. No one believed her, and she was locked in a room for six months until she finally jumped out her window and broke her arm. She escaped from the hospital after her father convinced everyone it was an accident and not attempted suicide.”

  Jameson’s eyes widened, but he didn’t look as surprised as I expected. Maybe he didn’t believe me.

  There was much more. “Two of the girls you didn’t meet? I only got guardianship of them to stop their uncle from molesting them. The oldest still cuts herself when she’s stressed. And Elsie . . .” Finally, I found the picture on the phone and shoved it into his face. “This is what she looked like when Payden and I found her in back of the store. Ask him if you don’t believe me. If you’re going to send her back to the monster that did this, I need to know that now.” The tears skidded down both cheeks, but I didn’t care. These were my girls.