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Miss Lulah nods. “Thank you for stopping by. Don’t forget about me.”
“I never do,” Connor tells her, standing and bending to hug the smaller woman.
He holds her for a second longer than normal, and I know he has a lot of history with this woman, maybe even reveres her as a mother figure. It makes me happy that he has someone like that and sends a pang of sadness through me that I don’t. I know that might be selfish, but damn, it’s a human need to connect with people.
“Little Wryn,” she says, turning to me as I stand and pulling me in for a hug. “You take care of my Connor, okay?”
I nod against her shoulder, and she pulls back, planting a kiss on my cheek.
“You’ll be good for him. Keep him on his toes.” She winks again at me. Then, she picks upThe Great Gatsbyfrom where I had it on the table and places it in my hands again.
We follow her to the door and say our good-byes, and I feel melancholy as we climb back in the car behind Geo. I hug the book to my chest and take a shaky breath. I knew there was goodness here, but I didn’t know how it would affect me.
16
CONNOR
Idrop my bag inside the suite door and look around. The streetlights filtering in through the slightly parted curtains are the only light until Wryn clicks on a lamp. I blink a few times and then sigh. It’s been a long day, and I’m ready to collapse.
I locate the mini fridge and sift around in it, seeing it’s stocked with small bottles of liquor and even a bottle of wine along with waters and a few snacks. I pull out a vodka and the wine, holding it up for Wryn, who is staring at me with one eyebrow raised.
Always so judgmental.
She nods, and I open both of them. I pour the wine in a glass I found in the small kitchenette and hand it to her. We stand silently as we let the alcohol wash down us, contemplating separately but together. I want to ask her what she’s thinking, but I’m not sure I really want to know. It would only complicate things—to try and get any closer to her.
The door opens, and I glance over at Geo, who strides in, dropping the keys on the counter beside me. Then, he grabs my small bottle, downing the rest of it.
“Asshole,” I say, trying to take it back. “I need you to get a courier.”
Geo pauses, dropping the bottle to the counter beside the keys, and he looks at me. “Right now?”
“Yes, we don’t need to wait any longer. The Leonis will know we are here. We don’t need to look like we are hiding.”
“We should’ve already sent someone,” Geo says.
“I fucking know that,” I snap at him. I might have been brash with my actions earlier, jumping on a plane to rescue my sister when I have no manpower to back me up and absolutely no idea what I’m walking into. “I have to consider the facts. Either Sylvia came back on her own with Lilliana or she was forced back. But either way, the Leonis don’t have any rights to Lilliana.”
“You are talking about her like she’s not a human being,” Wryn cuts in, causing us both to look her way. “She’s not a possession.”
“To the Leonis, she is,” I tell her, and her eyes widen. “In a strange way, Sylvia escaped them by marrying my father. He wasn’t a good man, but they make Bertrand look like a saint in their way of thinking toward women and children. Make no mistake, Wryn. They aren’t just dangerous; they are vile and corrupt. More so than the families in Heywood.”
I watch her shiver, not feeling one bit of remorse for what I said. It’s the truth, and she needs to hear it. She needs to understand that when we take Lilliana home, we’ll be making a statement, and it needs to be the right one.
I stride to the desk sitting against the wall beside the window and pull out the middle drawer. I find a pad of paper with the hotel name at the top and a ballpoint pen. I scribble my message down and then hand it to Geo.
“You know where they are,” I tell him, and he nods.
I watch as he checks his guns, making sure they have bullets before pulling his jacket back over them. With my note in hand, he turns to leave.
Once the door shuts behind him, I sit on the small couch in the main room, spreading my arms out and laying my head back until I’m staring up at the ceiling. I hear Wryn shuffling, and then the sink turns on in the small kitchenette. Then, it’s quiet, and I turn my head to look at her. I watch her walk to her bag and pick it up, and then her eyes meet mine.
“Which room do you want me to stay in?” she asks.
I mull it over in my mind. I should tell her to stay with me—for safety reasons. It’s best if Geo has his own room and I know where she is at all times. It’s a volatile situation we’ve entered into, and as much as I know I shouldn’t have brought her, it’s a show of good faith, and it will go a long way toward negotiating with the Leonis.
Ultimately, I decide against it. She will balk, and I don’t know that I’m ready to share a bed with her. I shouldn’t trust her—I know this. But for some strange reason, I do. I feel almost a kinship with her even though we are very different people. We’ve both seen shit—me more than her—but we are connected through Ruby’s disappearance, making it all the more fucked up that I want to put my hands all over her body.
I jerk my head to the room behind me, and she nods, chewing on her lower lip. I don’t breathe again until she walks into her room, quietly shutting the door behind her. I know I’ve made the right decision when I instantly want to bust the door down and tear her clothes off.
