Becoming A Vincent (The Wild Ones Book 1)(43)

“Then introduce us to her!” my mother says excitedly. “Is she a local? I truly find them riveting.”

She’s going to regret that if Lilah’s brothers really do show up. Mom doesn’t understand the four corners of crazy in this town.

Surely Penny wouldn’t do that to me. It had to be a bluff.

The doorbell rings again, and I try calling Killian—I’m desperate, obviously—but it goes to voicemail.

“He’s still with Lilah,” I hear my stepfather chirp, then he laughs when someone else squeals. “This is oddly fun. I can’t wait to meet Lilah.”

My mother gasps, staring out the window to the lake. “What?” I ask, still distracted as I try to dial Hale…and get voicemail.

“Two boys are being beaten to death by a girl near your steps on the bank,” she answers in fascinated horror.

“Awesome,” my nephew says, his face pressed to the glass as he gawks.

I rush to the wide, massive window, seeing the scene before me play out. Lilah is in cutoff jean shorts and a “Doc Holiday” T-shirt, as she shoots Hale with a BB, simultaneously kicking Killian in the stomach while he’s on the ground.

Hale screams when she nails in him the nuts with another BB, pumping the Daisy for the next shot she aims at Killian when he tries to get up.

Her combat boots come up to her calves, pink laces made out of survival cords, and she kicks Hale in the kneecap this time, utilizing said boots like this is a war zone.

I idly notice the bat and shovel abandoned by the shore, and groan when I realize Penny did sell me out.

“Who on earth is she?” my mother asks as she looks on in guilty pleasure.

With a deep exhale, I answer, “That is Lilah.”





Chapter 18



Wild Ones Tip #584

To piss off a Wild One, you have to really fuck up. Then learn how to hide.





LILAH



“Stay down,” I bark at my annoying brothers as they whine and pant from the ground.

Yeah, I have an unfair advantage, because they won’t hit me back. And usually I don’t exploit it, but today, lives are at stake. Mainly, Benson’s. He owes me so big.

Now if I can just get us out of here before—

“Any reason why the entire town thinks we broke up?”

I close my eyes at the sound of the voice too close to my back. Damn it.

Until this moment, I saw no real reason for him to be ashamed of me. But now, I totally get it. I’d hide me too if my family was…not like my family.

I turn around as my brothers continue to groan on the ground, and drop the Daisy by my side as I look up at a very amused Benson.

“Sorry. Just help me get them into the boat, and we’ll be out of your hair. I get it now. Really. I do. It might have taken this—” I gesture to the family I had to wrangle into submission. “—to make me see it, but now I see it.”

His amusement dies, and his brow furrows. “See what?”

“Why you were too embarrassed to introduce me to your ritzy family.”

A little humiliated, I turn around, kicking Hale when he glares at Benson. He grunts, crawling toward the shore.

“We’ll get him later,” Killian mutters petulantly.

They bump fists while continuing to crawl, but before we can make it to the dock, a hand clamps down on my arm, and my breath gets sucked out of me as Benson spins me back to face him.

He looks angry. I don’t know if he’s ever looked angry with me. At least not this angry.

“You think I’m too embarrassed to introduce you to my family?” he asks incredulously, and I shift uncomfortably.

“Well, yeah. Isn’t that why you essentially told me to stay on my side of the lake while they’re here?”

“Dead. He’s dead,” Killian groans, still trying to stand up.

Benson shakes his head, grunting something under his breath that sounds like unbelievable.

“No, Lilah. I’m not at all embarrassed about being with you. And I guess I should have elaborated, or at least tried to, but my family is a little more complicated than I explained. I just wanted to get this week over with, keep you out of the drama, and then it’d be just us again. In our motherfucking perfect bubble. I’m not embarrassed about you. I’m embarrassed about them.”

A small smile tugs at my lips, and something suspiciously like tears fills my eyes. Maybe this was bothering me more than I care to admit. His look softens as he strokes my cheeks with such sweet affection.

“I can handle crazy,” I assure him.

“Not crazy,” he says on a sigh. “Complicated. There’s a difference.”

“So we don’t have to kill him?” Killian asks disappointedly.

“You don’t have to try to kill me,” Benson tells him dryly.