Shade(246)

“Lily, I wasn’t—” Cash began.#p#分页标题#e#

“She sat beside your bedside from the moment she heard you were hurt. Did you even know that?”

“No.” Cash rose from the bar stool.

“Well, she did,” Lily said empathically. “The doctors didn’t think you were going to make it. She had already tried to help you the way she does her clients, but it hadn’t worked. She told Shade her gift wasn’t powerful enough to help you. I think whatever she does comes from inside her. I can’t explain it. The times she helped me, it’s like a part of her went inside of me to give me strength. When she touches you, you feel the strength of her love and caring. I think, when you and her brothers hurt her at the party, it damaged that part of her. After the doctor told us all that you weren’t going to make it, I went back to your room to talk to her because I could tell she was upset by what the doctor had told us.”

Lily paused, taking a shuddering breath. “She didn’t even know I was in the room. God, I don’t even know what I witnessed, Cash. What I saw was a man dying, but then she touched you. When she started touching your body, I could feel a presence in the room. I saw you gradually begin to move, and then she passed out.

“I ran to get a nurse and when we came back, she was sitting in the chair, and you were coming to. The nurse started helping you while I took her to Mag’s house. She was in bad shape; she was shaking and freezing. I stayed with her and saw what she suffered through for helping your ungrateful ass!”

Lily waved her hand at Bliss. “She certainly doesn’t deserve for you to be two-timing her. She was so nervous about going out with you tonight. She does everything for everyone and doesn’t ask for anything in return.”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me she had been in my hospital room?” Cash asked hoarsely.

“Rachel asked us not to; that was her price for helping you,” Shade answered, pulling Lily back against his chest.

“Do you know where she was when she disappeared?”

Lily remained mutinously silent.

“I wasn’t going to touch Bliss or any of the other women. I was pissed off, but I cooled down before I got here.”

“I promised I wouldn’t tell.” Her bravado was wavering at his explanation.

“Please, Lily. I need to know.” Cash played on Lily’s soft heart.

“I can’t break my promise, but if you figure it out for yourself, that’s not my fault, is it?”

“No.” Cash’s lips twitched in amusement.

“Rachel was in high school, but wasn’t in high school,” she hinted.

“I don’t understand—” Cash began.

“I do,” Winter broke in. She laid down the cards she had been playing in the game against Viper and Crash. “Rachel took accelerated courses in high school. By her sophomore year, she was taking college classes. She stayed at the high school because Tate had worked it out with me so she could still stay with her own age group.

“By the time the students her age were graduating, she had a Bachelor’s in Biology. I believe, for the last four years, she’s gotten her Master’s and is now almost finished writing her thesis for her doctorate in Aquaculture. I’m willing to bet she was able to find housing in the dorms at the university.” She shrugged at Lily’s accusing look. “I didn’t promise her. I figured it out.”

“So, both you and Lily knew where she was?” Viper carefully laid his own cards down on the table.

“We talked about it. It wasn’t rocket science for anyone who knew her.” Winter’s snide tone had Viper, Cash, and Shade all turning red.#p#分页标题#e#

“Then why didn’t Tate know?”

“Because she didn’t tell him she was working on her doctorate. Seems that was why Greer had gotten busted selling weed to that undercover cop. They were trying to sell extra to pay for her tuition. She’d told them she had dropped out; she didn’t want them to go to jail to pay for her education,” Winter answered.

“So, how’s she been paying for it?” Viper questioned.

“Her parents left each of them a plot of land. She sold hers,” Diamond spoke up from Knox’s lap on the couch. “I handled the paperwork. After the clients left, she went to the restroom, and I heard her crying. She told me that property had been in her family for generations.”

“It has. Who bought it?” Cash asked.

“Drake Hall,” Diamond answered.

“So, let me get this straight. While we were all looking for her and her brothers were worried sick, none of you told?” Viper glared at his wife then each of his men’s insubordinate wives.