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Dante takes a defeated breath. “I just think you could be a little more considerate.”
“A little more cons—” Lilah pushes her chair back and stands up.
“Where are you going?”
“You and I are going upstairs,” she says. “I’ll stand in your room, you stand in mine, and I’m going to prove that the gold medal in Inconsiderate Sex Olympics goes to you.”
He cringes. “Lilah, can we not?”
She bolts for the stairs and Dante sighs, quickly standing to follow her stomping feet across the house.
I look at Lucy. “Are they always like this?”
“It’s oddly comforting after a while,” she says with a nod.
“Ah…”
She raises her mug. “Welcome to the family.”
I do the same and we connect our mugs as the shouting continues upstairs.
Chapter 28
Archer
After breakfast, the Harts tend to Elijah’s remains.
They wrap his bones in a few of his old pillowcases and bury them beneath the tree by the lake. They scoop his ashes into an old vase, one from their grandmother’s vast collection, and scatter the rest in the water.
I retreat to my trailer to give them the privacy they need to say their final goodbyes. Never in a million years can I imagine that kind of pain and I honestly never want to try. To share a womb with someone, to be born with them, to grow up with them, to live by their side, only to have their life snuffed out in front of you in the blink of an eye. There are many fates worse than death. I thought I knew at least one.
I was wrong.
Lilah and Dante push the empty boat back into the water and anchor it to the dock with some fresh rope before heading back inside with the vase.
A few minutes later, Lucy steps outside with a packed suitcase in each hand and Elijah’s red medkit draped over one shoulder. She carries them to Dante’s car and fits them into the trunk. I give her a silent nod from my doorway. She waves solemnly before lowering herself into the passenger’s side.
Lilah walks out onto the porch with her own duffel bag, now stuffed full of new clothes, gear, and weapons galore, I’d imagine. She drops it by the stairs and heads around the house to the dock with her head bowed.
Dante emerges, locks the door behind him, and glowers at me.
I stiffen.
“Archer,” he says as he walks across the driveway. “I need to talk to you.”
I raise my hands in defense. “Yeah, sorry about last night. We got a little carried away…”
“I don’t care about that.”
I step off the trailer stairs. “All right. What’s on your mind?”
His eyes linger down the dock to land on Lilah. “Look after her,” he says.
“Is that trust I hear in your voice, mate?”
“It’s desperation.” His expression hardens. “Lilah is all I have left in this world. I know what’s going through her head right now and it ain’t good.”
I frown in thought. “She’s a smart girl.”
