“Yeah. We can talk about… I dunno. Other stuff,” Ronan offers with a shrug, and this time Jude doesn’t protest.
Okay, so it’s not perfect, but theyarewilling to give it a try, and that’s all I can ask.
I know it will take time. I don’t expect miracles, but fuck, what I’d give to have them look at me like they did the day I stepped out of those prison gates.
“So does Dad know about you?” Jude asks his mum, his tone not as harsh now, and Lily nods before filling them in on Tamara, and how she was the one who went to the police.
“So, you’re really a killer?” Ronan asks, and Lily nods, biting her lip like she’s contemplating something.
And then she opens up to them.
“I’d just turned thirteen when I was kidnapped,” she starts to explain, and I relax back to hear about Lily’s life. “The Marx family has a lot of enemies, and one of them stole me off the beach. I’d been there with friends, and they had gone in for a swim…” she trails off, her eyes dropping to the table like she’s remembering the day. “I shouldn’t have gone to the toilet block alone, but I did, and the man was waiting for me.”
As Lily keeps talking, I glance at the twins, both of their expressions pinched with worry as they stare at their mum, and I can see the love they have for her despite the things she’s done.
When I refocus on Lily, I notice the story she’s telling has moved along without me realising that I’d zoned out.
“Anyway, I rammed that firepoker right through his eye and straight into his brain, then found a phone and called my dad.” Lily shrugs like it was no big deal. “My brothers and cousins taught me some basic self-defence after that, and well…” she trails off again, glancing at Devon who snickers.
“Your mum has a crazy streak. Never seen a girl fight like she does, so we kept teaching her even though the olds disapproved.”
Lily smiles at her brother and shrugs.
“That’s how I learned the craft of killing, and my first kill on British soil was when you were about three years old. I stumbled across a woman running from a laneway, blood trickling down her legs, her face beaten.” Lily’s gaze turns hard then, and I know the Crimson Angel is here now. “I went down that laneway, found the coward who raped her, and cut his dick off.”
The twins gasp, their hands going to their crotches, and I can’t help but laugh.
“Really, Mum?” Ronnie squeaks. “His dick?”
Lily grins. “I killed him after that, which was the beginning of my extracurricular activities.”
“Shit,” Jude breathes, raking his hand through his hair as he shifts uncomfortably.
“Over the years I’ve taken paid jobs,” Lily continues. “But a lot were just me, making sure predators suffer and removing them off the streets.”
“It’s kinda hard to be angry at you about that,” Jude admits, and Lily offers him a small, relieved smile.
She keeps talking, telling them about the hit on her, and how the MacKenzie brothers put it in place, working with Monty and the Black Taipans. And then she tells them that they are all dead now, but she doesn’t give details about how they died.
Jude’s gaze softens towards me a little when he realises Monty is dead, knowing he’s the man who destroyed my mum and made sure I got sent to prison.
The conversation gets steered to Alexander, and how he’s going to visit with their little sister Melanie when things die down in England. And then it gets steered to Australia, and the long-lost family the twins knew nothing about until a few days ago.
I listen as Lily explains what happened when she fell pregnant on her gap year over twenty years ago, but the distaste she’s expressed to me about her uncle Ewan and the thing he’s forced on the women of the family never leave her lips, and I remember, there are still secrets she needs to keep.
Because while wedoneed to find a new country to live in, returning to Australia isn’t just about relocation for Lily. She’s on a personal mission. A vendetta against her uncle, something she can’t reveal to her sons, and especially not to her cousins, since it’s their dad she has it in for.
I wonder if she’ll tell her brothers though.
It’s hard to say. There’s still tension between them, but maybe with time she’ll learn if she can trust them.
She tells them that her father, their pop, is the brother of Ewan Marx, the head of the largest organised crime family in the state of Victoria. She gives details about her childhood and how there were always bodyguards around after she’d been kidnapped.
“So what you’re saying is, our family is badass?” Ronnie chuckles, and Lily grins while shaking her head.
“That’s all you took from that?”
Ronnie shrugs, glancing at his twin. “Aussie chicks love British accents.”
