14. Lilah #2
"He'll blame me," I say. "He always does, he’ll say I turned Lucy against him, that I ruined their relationship, and I made her leave. Somehow, every shitty thing Evan does ends up being someone else's fault."
"You don't understand."
"Then explain it to me,” I urge, but he’s silent. "Tell me what Lucy did that made her deserve what he did to her."
His shoulders tense, but yet again, he doesn’t speak.
"Go on," I say.
"Shut up, Lilah."
"What did she do?"
"I said shut up."
"She left him,” I scream, and Marcus turns around. I swallow against the ache in my throat. "That's it. That's what she did. She finally found the courage to leave him, and he killed her for it."
"Shut the fuck up." His voice cracks through the room this time.
I stop; not because he told me to, but because he's looking at me now, and for the first time since I found out who he is, Marcus doesn't look certain.
Evan comes back sometime in the early evening, at least, I think it's early evening. The light coming through the edges of the curtains has changed, and my throat is so dry it hurts to swallow. He picked me up off the floor and put me back upright in my seat. I’m sat facing him, watching him, and I hate every second of it.
He's calmer; that's the first thing I notice. There’s no pacing, no restless checking of the windows. He pulls a phone from his pocket, one I haven't seen before, and looks at the screen, and then he smiles. It’s a cocky, confident smile that causes my stomach to drop.
"They're moving."
"Who?"
He looks at me. "Your bikers."
My heart kicks hard against my ribs, his stupid grin making me feel sick. I pull against the restraints. "You've been waiting for this."
The smile widens. "Ever since I found you." He comes closer and crouches in front of me.
"I watched you move into that building. It was normal at first, but he’d look at you, watch you, and I knew he wanted you. Then he was always around you."
My skin crawls.
"You never let anyone close to you before him."
My heart is hammering against my chest. "Stop.”
"I watched you smile at him on the steps one morning." His head tilts. "You didn't smile much before he came along."
I swallow hard. "Shut up."
"I watched you change."
My wrists burn as I twist them against the restraints.
Evan smiles, and he turns to his brother. "Marcus put a listening device in your apartment a week ago."
Everything stops. "What?"
"I wanted to know what happened when the door closed."
I stare at him. No.
“He put it on after you started taking more notice of your biker.”
My stomach drops. "You're lying."
"Am I?"
All those hours with Kai, the nights on the sofa playing rummy, our first kiss, and last night when I asked him to come to bed.
Oh God.
"I heard everything, Lilah."
Nausea rolls through me. He heard us. Not just conversations through a wall or Kai coming and going. He heard the things that belonged to us.
Evan watches my face and smiles and then he says just one word.
"Kai."
My blood runs cold and I stop breathing.
"He told you his real name."
I say nothing. Fuck him and his bullshit.
"He doesn't give that to everyone, does he?"
"Fuck you," I spit.
Evan laughs softly. "There she is."
I look away.
"Does he know?"
My eyes snap back to his. "Know what?"
"That you're in love with him."
The words hit hard. How the hell did he know when I barely knew? I haven't let myself put it together because putting a name to something means admitting how much there is to lose. But I know that I’ve fallen for him.
Kai.
Fuck, I love him and I never told him.
Evan sees it. "Look at that."
I shake my head. "Don't."
Evan laughs. "He doesn't know."
"Shut up."
"You haven't told him."
"Shut the fuck up."
His smile disappears. "You took Lucy from me."
My chest heaves. "Lucy left you."
"Because of you."
"No." I stare straight at him. "She left because she finally understood what you were."
His jaw tightens.
"She chose herself, Evan. That's what you can't fucking stand."
He rises slowly, and for a second, I think he's going to hit me. Instead, he looks down at me with an expression that scares me more; it’s cold and calculating. "And now I'm going to let him watch."
I frown. "Watch what?"
"You."
My blood turns cold. He doesn't need to explain. I see Lucy, the chair beside mine, her hand reaching across the space between us, the knife covered in her blood.
When you get out of here, live enough for both of us.
"No,” I whisper and Evan smiles. "No." I wrench against the restraints.
He wants Kai here, he wants him in this room, he wants Kai to stand where I stood and watch someone he loves die in front of him.
"No!" I fight harder and the chair shifts beneath me. "Kai won't come alone."
"I'm counting on it."
I shake my head. "You don't know them."
"I know enough."
"You think they're going to walk in here and let you do whatever the fuck you want?"
"No." Evan steps back. "I think Kai will."
My stomach drops, because Evan has planned for that too, whatever happens when the Saints get here, he believes he can get Kai into this room, alone, and suddenly getting rescued isn't the thing I'm praying for.
I'm praying Kai stays the fuck away.
I hear them before Marcus does. At first, it's distant enough that I think I'm imagining it.
An engine, and then another, then more. My head lifts from where it's resting against the back of the chair just as Marcus looks over.
The sound gets louder, more engines join in until I can't tell how many there are, only that there are a lot.
Motorcycles.
My heart slams against my ribs.
Kai.
Marcus crosses the room and grabs the phone I’ve worked out is connected to cameras.
Evan doesn't move but he smiles, that horrific, sadistic smile that I’ve seen so many times in my nightmares.
The rumble grows louder, filling the silence outside until I can feel it through the floorboards.
The Saint’s Outlaws; they're coming.
Bike after bike coming up the road; relief hits me so hard my eyes burn. He's here, Kai found me. Of course, he fucking found me. Then I remember the sign, and the listening device, and Evan telling me he wanted Kai to come.
My relief disappears as quickly as it came.
Marcus is staring at the camera feed. "Jesus Christ."
Evan glances over. "What?"
Marcus doesn't answer. The first engine cuts outside, then another, and another. One after another until the roar that filled the house starts disappearing. There are so many it takes several seconds for the last bike to go quiet.
Marcus looks at Evan. "You said he'd come."
"He did."
"You said he'd come."
Evan's smile returns. "What's your point?"
Marcus turns the phone toward him. "He brought the whole fucking club."
Something twists in my chest. Kai didn't come alone, he brought his brothers just as I knew he would.
Marcus looks at the screen again. "They're spreading out."
Evan walks toward the window but Marcus catches his arm. "Did you hear me? They're surrounding the fucking house." Evan looks down at his hand and Marcus lets go. "This isn't what you told me was going to happen."
For the first time since I found out they're brothers, Marcus looks scared, but not for himself, for Evan.
And Evan? Evan looks fucking pleased. "This is exactly what I wanted."
Marcus keeps watching the cameras, his face getting tighter with every second. "They're at the front."
I stop breathing. Kai. He's right outside. I twist my wrists against the restraints.
"Kai!" Evan's smile disappears at my scream. I wrench against the restraints. "Kai! Don’t come in!"
He reaches me in two strides and grabs my face. "Enough."
I jerk away from him. "Kai, it’s a trap!"
His hand clamps over my mouth, but I bite down as hard as I can. "Fuck!" He rips his hand away.
"KAI!"
Evan shoves me so hard the chair tips sideways, and I hit the floor shoulder first. Pain explodes down my arm; I can't breathe, but I can still hear them. Closer now, so fucking close.
"No." I fight against the restraints, trying to get the chair upright even though there's no chance of me doing it from this angle. "Kai..."
Evan looks at me, then toward the front of the house, and smiles as he stalks toward me.