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LUKE
As soon as I pull up to the private road to the compound I know today’s shit fest is only gonna get worse. Charlie’s police cruiser is blocking the gate, so I slam on my brakes.
His gaze meets mine through the windshield before he gives me a small shake of his head in warning, and that’s when I see Lily’s dad being led into the back of the car, her brother standing to the side, his face pale.
Pushing my door open with more force than I thought possible, I let the rage consume me as I storm over to Charlie, but he’s got her dad inside before I can blink and then it’s only Aiden in my view.
“You’ve got some fuckin’ nerve!” I shout, running over to him and grabbing him by his shirt. “The fuck do you think you’re doing bringing him here?”
“I didn’t know,” he whispers, his eyes misting over as he looks at me and then at the gate. “I didn’t know he hurt her.”
I throw him down on the ground. “How the fuck could you not know?” His body hits the concrete with a thump and I hear the clink of the gate opening. “You were right there! How could you not know?”
“What… what did he do to her?” His eyes close, a pained expression drifting over his face. “How bad?” he chokes out before holding his hand up. “In fact, don’t tell me that, I already know what he did to my mom.”
My hands ball so tightly at my sides I can feel my knuckles popping from the force. I want to take it out on him, shout that he should have done more, but when he opens his eyes and stares at me, I see the truth there.
He really didn’t know.
“Get up,” I command, walking away from him and past Ty before saying, “Take him to the warehouse.”
“Luke?” Kitty says, running up next to me. “She’s in your house, I can’t get her to open up.”
Whipping my head to her, my nostrils flare. “What?”
“She answered the buzzer and came out and saw them. We couldn’t stop her, it was like… it was like she wasn’t really there.”
My heart sinks as my feet pick up their pace, sprinting to my house and barging through the door, not giving a damn that I just broke the lock.
“Lily!” Looking in the living room and kitchen, I see no sign of her so run up the stairs, my boots echoing around me. “Lily!” I shout again, pushing into the bedroom and trying to open the bathroom door. I hear her sniffles and my heart breaks. “Darlin’?”
The silence surrounds us, louder than it’s ever been before.
“Let me in, darlin’.” I hear her hiccupped sob as I rest my forehead against the door. “I need to see your face, angel. I need to know you’re okay.”
“I—he—I…”
“I saw, angel. I saw him.” I take a breath. “Aiden didn’t know.”
“How—how do… how do you know?”
“I saw it. I saw it in his eyes.”
The silence stretches between us before she whispers just loud enough for me to hear, “All I can see is him—his eyes. They’re so evil.”
“I know, darlin’.”
“No!” There’s a bang and then footsteps before the door is flinging open. “You lived with evil too; I get that, but you don’t know what it feels like to have your choices taken away from you.” I open my mouth, wanting to go to
her—to comfort her—but I know it’s not what she needs right now. I’ve been waiting for her pent-up rage to finally unleash itself, I just hope it doesn’t make her feel worse than she already does.
She barges past me, pacing the room. “I should have known it was coming.” She grips the sides of her head.
“You couldn’t have known,” I try to tell her, keeping my voice low.
She ignores me, her chest heaving as she tries to catch her breath. “Maybe I should have done more to stop him.”
“You couldn’t have—”
