I turn to face her, and now her face is etched with worry. She’s so expressive; everything she feels is right there in her eyes. “You won’t tell anyone I’m up here, right?”
“Does it matter?” I ask.
“Yes! I’m here for a reason! No one can know that I’m here, or he might find out, and…” She bites her lip again and looks like she’s about to cry.
“Hey.” I step closer and put my hands gently on her shoulders. “I won’t say anything. Okay? I’ll tell them it was a troll after all.”
She sniffs and smiles despite being on the verge of tears. “Thank you.” She swipes at her eyes with the back of her hand. “Sorry for being crazy.”
“You’re not… Okay, you might be a little crazy. But it’s not bad.”
She snorts a laugh, and I grin at her, finally a moment where it doesn’t feel like we’re at odds with each other.
“All right. You should go.” She says the words, but this time I feel like she doesn’t really mean them.
“I can come back,” I say.
She blinks at me and tilts her head. “Why would you do that?”
Good question, Lily. I don’t think I can tell her the real reason—that she’s intriguing, more than any woman I’ve been around in years. That she’s giving me a run for my money, and I like it. That her facial expressions alone have me entranced, and that I feel a strange protectiveness over her.
But to her, I just say, “You’re Peter’s little sister. I’m sure he’d want you to have some company.”
“Oh.” She deflates a little. “Yeah. Of course. No, it’s fine. Don’t come.”
“And leave you to your paper piano?”
She cringes. “Don’t worry. I won’t be attempting that again.”
“Good idea.” We stand in silence for a moment before I decide it’s time to go. “All right. I’ll head down.”
She presses her lips together and nods, and I walk out onto the balcony. Looking over the edge, I see that the kids aren’t gathered around anymore. They must have gotten bored waiting, or they scattered when Agatha came home. Either way, there’s no one to report back to.
Before making my descent, I slide my hand in my pocket and grip Galileo tightly. Then I climb down the tower, and at the bottom, take a moment to look back up to the top, hoping I’ll get one more glimpse of Lily but knowing she won’t show herself. And I feel a determination to figure out why she’s up there…and how to get her out.
CHAPTER 6
Lily
MAURICE RAVEL — PAVANE POUR UNE INFANTE DÉFUNTE
Well, my day is shot.
Why do I say that? Oh, I don’t know. First, utter humiliation that I was caught playing on a paper piano, looking like a psycho. And then RYDER HAWTHORNE, stuntman and muscles extraordinaire, just scaled my tower, the place that was supposed to be untouchable.
Oh, I was so awkward and weird. Why was I so ridiculous with him? Why did I even say the word “cartwheel”?
Was I this awkward when I first talked to Tristan Jackson? Somehow, I know I wasn’t.
I met Tristan at a Hollywood party when I was seventeen. I had BEGGED Adam to take me with him. He reluctantly agreed, and when he got called away by some producer or something, I was alone for a few minutes…until Tristan Jackson approached and started a conversation.
I don’t think I was awkward then. But I wasn’t myself, either. I had just enough self-awareness to make sure I pretended to be cool and collected, just like the other actressesand models who were there. Not that anyone would mistake me for a model when I have the height of your average twelve-year-old.
So if my memory serves me correctly, I wasn’t weird enough for Tristan to be immediately put off. Of course, he had ulterior motives in mind that I didn’t know at the time—revenge against Adam.
It’s so stupid thinking about it now. He’s like a villain in a rom-com—not actually dangerous, just evil enough to be annoying. What’s he really going to do to me?
Get me locked in a tower for a year and a half.
