“I saw Lilly the night we all went to Lucius.”
“His daughter?”
I nodded. I felt saying her name would free me.
But actually, I felt trapped. I didn’t want to hurt her. I didn’t want Lane to equate her with the Fallen Saints. She was related by blood, but nothing more. She didn’t deserve to be entangled in this.
“I told you last week I was frustrated because I didn’t see Lucius, but I saw Lilly. I... I pried her for more info. Well, I couldn’t get anything out of her. Not because she was hiding it, but because she didn’t know. But she was trying to run away from her father. I helped her; I took her to Ashton. But other than that... I haven’t done anything with her. So the Saints were probably looking for her in Ashton.”
Lies. Lies. Lies.
Everything Lane said about you is right.
You’re so desperate and fearful of losing a woman that you’ll protect one who’s known you for a week.
Fucking pathetic coward.
“Why didn’t you just say something in the meeting then?” Lane said.
“Because…”
This part was true, the thought that came to mind. It just wasn’t the reason I’d stayed silent.
“Because, Lane, I’m tired of feeling like the shittier President between the two of us.”
Lane’s expression softened. But still.Lies. At best, truths in the wrong direction.
So, lies.
“You have been the one to inflict more damage on the Fallen Saints than I have. You’ve been the one leading the charge against these assholes. And I don’t begrudge you that, but I feel like I have to live up to you. So I had a chance with Lilly to try to get info out of her, and all I got was the Fallen Saints coming to my town at a time when we have managed to keep them away.”
“You had to know them coming to you was inevitable, though,” he said. “Especially once they knew you were there.”
I knew that.
“But still,” I said. “We managed to keep them at bay. We understood it was never going to be forever. But now we’ve got a chance. I’ve got to put my ego aside, and you... I guess just keep doing what you’re doing.”
“Hey, don’t sweat it,” he said, although there was something about the way he said it that made me wonder if he was leaving words unspoken. “Important thing is that we take out Lucius. I don’t care which shade of Reaper kills him, so long as he’s killed.”
“Agreed,” I said, mustering a weary smile.
“By the way, something I’ve been wondering, now that you mentioned it,” Lane said. “How the fuck did you stay hidden for so long, anyway?”
I laughed, not because there was some magical answer, but because I was really fucking happy to change the subject. I was going to be in enough deep shit when Lane found out Lilly was around for more than just an encounter that night; I didn’t need to throw more shit onto the pile before I was found in it.
“You’d be surprised how well you can stay hidden when you only use cash and you stay in a small town,” I said.
“Angela said she found you because you just popped up?”
I shrugged.
“You can only run away for so long before you realize that you can’t keep running from, you have to run to, at some point,” I said.
“And what were you running to?”
This was as deep a conversation as my brother and I had had in ages. And it was making me feel so uncomfortable, knowing that a dark lie was between us.
“Justice,” I said.
