16. Lilah #3
He takes my helmet from me and hooks it over the handlebar. "His dad'll get him eventually."
"Who's his dad?"
Kai glances across the lot. "That's the problem, not sure whose kid that is."
I laugh and follow him toward the clubhouse. Music spills through the open doors, and I can smell food before we even get inside, along with something that is definitely burning.
Kai sniffs the air. "Inferno."
"You can tell that from the smell?"
"Yeah."
"Should someone check on him?"
"No point."
We make it three steps inside before Natalia spots us. "There you are." She comes straight toward me, gives Kai a brief glance, and points across the room.
"Go away."
Kai looks at her. "Fuck off."
"I'm stealing Lilah."
"She's not yours to steal."
Natalia hooks her arm through mine. "She's ours now."
Kai looks at me as though he expects me to object. I don't. "Traitor," he mutters.
"Apparently."
Natalia starts pulling me toward the far end of the room where Willow and Evangeline are sitting. "Come on. We need another opinion."
"Don't get involved," Kai calls after me.
I look back over my shoulder. "You know that's not going to happen."
His mouth curves as he shakes his head and heads toward Ghost.
Natalia deposits me beside Willow and Evangeline and points at the wall behind the bar. "Tell them I'm right."
"About?"
"The color. I want to repaint."
Willow takes a drink. "She wants green."
"Sage."
"It's green."
I look around the main room. Dark wood, black leather, gray walls, club photographs, and the huge Saint’s Outlaws emblem behind the bar.
"What does Ghost think?"
Natalia raises an eyebrow. "Why does Ghost get a vote?"
"Because he's the Prez?"
"So?"
I laugh. "Okay. Deep green."
Natalia points at me. "See? She works with color."
"I work with flowers."
"Same thing."
Before I can argue, Wren, Rogue and Willow’s daughter, climbs onto the bench beside me and immediately launches into an explanation about a school bridge-building competition and why Rogue is being completely unreasonable by refusing to let her use his tools.
"I broke one thing," she tells me.
"You broke three," Rogue says from behind us.
Wren ignores him and studies my face. "You're prettier than your photos."
I blink. "My photos?"
Willow closes her eyes.
"Dad had loads."
"Wren," Willow admonishes.
"What?" I turn to find Rogue standing there with a plate. "What photos?"
"Investigation."
"He printed some."
Rogue looks at his daughter pointedly and she smiles. "You did."
"I print things." He shrugs.
Willow snorts. "You don't print anything."
"I print important things."
Wren nods. "That's what I said."
Rogue looks around the table, realizes nobody is helping him, and turns away. "I'm getting food."
"You have food," Willow calls after him.
"More food."
We're still laughing when Sophie, Tempest and Evangeline’s daughter, appears beside me. "Are you the flower lady?"
"I work with flowers."
"Mom said I can pick whatever ones I want."
Evangeline winces. "I may have told her about the shop."
Sophie stretches her arms as wide as they'll go. "I want this many."
I take in her pretty dress. "Pink?" I ask.
"And purple. And blue."
"Blue might be difficult," I warn.
Her little face turns serious. "I like a challenge."
I laugh. "Apparently so do I."
She runs off, and Natalia gives me a look. "What?"
"Nothing."
I know what she's seeing, though. A few weeks ago, I could barely sit in this clubhouse without checking every person who walked through the door. Now, I'm giving paint color advice and promising children enough flowers to bankrupt Petals.
"So," I say, picking up my drink. "Deep green?"
Natalia grins. "I knew I liked you."
Jinx catches me later. The bandage is gone and the cut at his temple has mostly healed, but he shoves his hands into his pockets when he reaches me.
"I'm sorry."
"For getting hit over the head?"
"I was supposed to be watching you."
"You were."
"Apparently I'm shit at watching alleys."
"Definitely shit at watching alleys," Kai says, appearing beside us.
Jinx flips him off. I laugh, but when I look back at him, I'm serious. "I don't blame you."
He studies me for a second before nodding. "Okay."
"Okay."
That's enough.
When most of the food is gone, Rogue finds me again. "I got the last of the information back from Calloway and Webb."
My stomach tightens.
"It's clean, Lilah. We've got everyone. There's nobody else."
"You're sure?"
"I'm really fucking sure."
I stare at him. No other watcher, there’s nobody sitting outside Petals, and nobody waiting for the right moment. It's over.
"You okay?"
The answer comes easier than I expect. "Yeah. I actually am."
I step outside for some air.
From the doorway, I can see almost the whole clubhouse: Natalia beside Ghost, Rogue with Wren on his lap, Hades trapped beneath a sleeping Lily, Venom and Inferno still arguing over the barbecue.
Then I find Kai. I always find Kai.
He's talking to Sniper when he glances toward the door and spots me. His eyebrows pull together for half a second, checking, before I smile and his expression eases.
Lucy would have loved this.
I can picture her in there, asking questions nobody wants to answer and making herself at home within five minutes.
When you get out of here, live enough for both of us.
For three years, I thought she meant survive, to run, to breathe, and to keep going. Maybe for a while, that's exactly what I needed it to mean.
But now I have a life. I have Petals. I have women dragging me into arguments about paint and children planning enormous bouquets. I have an entire motorcycle club that crossed state lines to bring me home.
And I have a man who's moved into my apartment without officially moving a single box.
Kai steps outside. "You hiding?"
"No."
He comes to stand beside me and his hand finds mine.
"I was thinking about Lucy."
"Good or bad?"
"Good." I look through the doorway. "She told me to live enough for both of us."
His fingers tighten around mine.
"I thought she meant staying alive." I lean against him. "I don't think she did anymore."
Kai follows my gaze into the clubhouse.
"I think she meant this."
"This?"
"People, work, friends. Coming home and tripping over your boots."
His mouth curves. "You love my boots."
"I tolerate your boots."
"Same thing."
I smile and look back inside.
"I think she'd be happy I found this."
Kai presses his mouth against my hair.
"Yeah," he says. "I think she would."
"LILAH!" Natalia's voice carries through the open door. I laugh. "Come settle this!"
Kai shakes his head. "Don't get involved."
I turn toward him. "You know that's not going to happen."
His grin comes then, the full one that still gets me every time. "Yeah, I fucking do."
I kiss him, his hand still wrapped around mine, before heading back inside, pulling him with me.
Lucy told me to live enough for both of us. I finally am.