"I'll be waiting. But, Lily." Cupping her jaw, he brought her eyes back to his. "I won't let you run from us forever."
With that, he stepped away, and even though she was the one who insisted he go, her body ached as she watched him leave.
Back inside her house, she activated the alarm and went to find Rhys. He was in his exercise room, laying on a weight bench, steadily doing reps with dumbbells that looked strong enough to break her.
He glanced over when she appeared in the doorway but didn't stop lifting. "Why didn't Burke stay?"
Lily leaned her shoulder against the frame and sighed. "It's complicated. Why didn't you tell me you were flying back today?"
Rhys let out a grunt. He lowered his weights and sat up to grab a towel. "We need to talk."
Weary from the day she'd had, she just waited while he wiped his face and collected his thoughts. It had never done any good to try and rush her hard-headed brother.
"You weren't responsible for that night," Rhys said. He planted his elbows on his knees and looked sideways at her. "Jim Katt was blitzed and you know it. You were going five miles over the speed limit, which wasn't fucking unreasonable. He was the one who decided he had enough time to cut across three lanes of high-speed traffic."
She hugged herself to still her shaking body. "I panicked and jerked to the wheel toward him when I should have steered in the other direction, Rhys. I drove you into his car."
"Jo." He dropped the towel and raked his hands through damp hair, growling in a way that reminded her of Jude. "Katt t-boned your car. You couldn't have dodged that if you were fucking Mario Andretti and you know it."
"But you wouldn't have been with me if-"
"If you hadn't taken me with you to break shit off with Paul, I would have beaten your ass myself. I have zero opinions about the kinds of relationships you want, but you're my sister, and that bastard was dangerous. I have zero regrets, Jo. You hear me? Zero. And if I never walk again, I still won't blame you for any of it."
She just … stared at him, with no idea at all how to respond to his speech. Until he balled up his disgustingly damp towel and threw it at her face, leaving her both gagging and laughing at once.
"You're still the grossest boy," she said with a mock-shudder, and threw the towel back at him.
"Smart one, though. I'm serious, Lily. So is Burke. Any idiot can see that. You want him? No." He held up a hand. "Don't tell me. But if you do, stop fucking around and be with him. I'm ready to go back to Seattle and I can't do that while you're still shambling around here like you're the one who nearly lost a couple of limbs."
Her chest tightened. Softly, she asked, "You want to go back? But … "
"Who will take care of me?"
She nodded. Their mother, herself crippled by an ongoing battle with mental illness, could barely take care of herself, let alone a disabled adult son.
"Me," Rhys said. "I can take care of myself, whether you're ready to believe that or not."
"I believe you." She exhaled deeply and looked up at the ceiling. "When do you want to go? Because if it's not soon-and I am not kicking you out-there are some things going on that you need to know about."
"Not until I find out about the job I interviewed for this week, so you might as well start talking."
"Yeah, okay, first thing's first. I need to grab the bug spray from the kitchen."
16
After leaving Lily, Jude headed for the Jungle. During the drive, he left voicemail for Summer and pulled some strings to have a trusted associate ride by his house for a visual check of the property. His gut told him he and Lily were dead-on with her stalker's role as a puppet.
When he reached the Jungle, he circumvented the public lot and descended into a private underground garage. Cavin, Ares and Bailey were already there, all three of them near Lily's car-and they weren't alone. Cavin had called in three other people who Jude recognized as representatives of avian, draconic and ursine clans. As he climbed from his SUV and slammed the door, he spotted another figure and his eyes narrowed.
"What are you doing here?" He asked of Summer, who leaned against a concrete wall, filing her fingernails and looking both bored and annoyed.
She stopped and pointed her nail file at Cavin. "He kidnapped me. It wasn't so bad at first, was actually kind of hot, but this isn't exactly a pleasure palace lined with silks, pillows and gilded mirrors positioned for optimal stimulation."