Chapter 30 – Lily #2
He shrugs like it doesn’t matter, but I see the truth in his eyes. “I do his dirty work, and I can’t disobey direct orders. It’s…miserable, but it’s manageable. How are you doing?”
“Miserable,” I say, slumping against the doorway. “I can’t work, I’m too afraid to sleep, and I’m pretty sure Lazaro is eventually going to force me to do something for that bribe he gave me.”
His brow furrows. “What bribe?”
“Hush money or something. A quarter of a million dollars just appeared one day.”
Understanding dawns on his face. “That was me. I didn’t want you to worry about work while you were dealing with everything else. I wanted you to have enough to…to be free, in whatever way you could be.”
The revelation breaks something loose in my chest. While I’ve been thinking the worst of everyone’s motives, he’s been quietly trying to take care of me from a distance. Also he’s apparently very wealthy. Either that, or he just robbed a bank.
“You have a quarter of a million dollars just lying around to give away?” I ask. “And for our one and only date, you took me to…the Jackalope?”
The joke temporarily pierces the heaviness between us, and for the first time in the conversation, he smiles. A warm, genuine, gentle smile that cracks across his face and restores the light in his eyes for a moment.
He shrugs. “I heard the fried pickles were great. Next time I’ll take you somewhere special.”
My breath catches, but I mask it, careful not to break the spell and kill the moment. “Oh yeah? Where are you taking me?”
“Anywhere you want,” he says quietly. “I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”
We stay silent for a while. Both of us drinking the fantasy in, allowing ourselves to enjoy the dream of it despite it feeling impossible and so far away.
I imagine us sitting across from one another, pressed linens on the table, soft lighting and hands tangled together.
Laughing, talking, sharing a moment of peace.
But the peace is painful.
“Did you get the other thing, too?” he asks sheepishly.
“What other thing?”
He flashes a toothy grin. “The fangs? The ones in the box. Roel’s fangs.”
I frown. “I thought Lazaro sent them?”
“He did. I’m just the one that removed them. Along with the rest of his limbs,” he informs me, gazing up at me through his lashes like butter wouldn’t melt.
The thought should sicken me, but it doesn’t. It warms me. I’ll sleep a little easier tonight knowing that at least one of the men that hurt me is gone forever.
“Your family,” I say, dragging myself back to the other pain. Reality. “If we were together, they’d kill me?”
“Yes.” No hesitation. “My father doesn’t make idle threats, and in the past, when other women got too close, he killed them.
Human, vampire, it doesn’t matter. That’s the price for betraying a Valbruna.
” He looks down at his feet. “It was painful at the time, but it would be nothing compared to the pain of losing you.”
My heart aches. “And Lazaro will keep trying to manipulate his way into getting my cooperation?”
“Probably. He’s patient, and he doesn’t give up easily.”
I step closer, until there’s barely a foot of space between us. “So if I choose to be with you, I’m putting myself in danger from your family. And if I stay under Lazaro’s protection, I’ll never really be free.”
“Lily, don’t—”
“Those are my options? Danger or captivity?”
“I won’t let you risk your life for me. Not after everything I’ve put you through.”
“That’s not your choice to make.”
Before he can protest further, I close the distance between us and kiss him.
His lips are cold, but they warm under mine as he melts into me with a sound that’s part relief, part desperation.
My tongue finds his, and they tangle together, brushing against the sharp points of his distended fangs.
His hands tangle in my hair, and mine claw at the leather stretched over his bicep, the stubble in his beard.
When we break apart, his forehead rests against mine.
“I’m so thankful,” I whisper. “For your sacrifice. For protecting me even when I told you I never wanted to see you again. But I’m done being protected if it means living in a cage.”
“Lily—”
“I intend to fight for you, Cassini. For us. Even if it means putting myself on your family’s radar.”
“They’ll come for you.”
“Let them come.” I take his hand in mine, cold fingers threading through warm ones. “I’m not the same woman who stumbled into your tattoo shop, afraid of what she was. I’m much stronger now. And I’m tired of being afraid.”
He stares at me like he can’t quite believe what he’s hearing.
“Besides,” I add, stepping back toward the door, “I have a vampire protector who watches over me every night. I hear he’s pretty dangerous.”
A huge smile—the kind that lights the darkness of my kitchen—crosses his face. “He’s completely devoted to you. Dangerously so.”
“Then maybe he’d like to…?” I gesture to the house with my head and give him a sly wink.
His smile falters. “Are you sure? Once I cross that threshold…”
“Everything changes. I know.” I squeeze his hand. “I’m counting on it.”
He hesitates, then takes a breath. Weighing the whole world that sits on his shoulders, then he reaches out to cup my face.
“Ask me,” he whispers.
There’s nothing I’ve ever been so sure about in my life.
“Cassini Valbruna. Please come in.”