Chapter 33 Lily
LILY
Iguess it doesn’t matter how old you are because a day spent outside in the sun will tire you out.
Max didn’t tell me what exactly was going on with Logan and only said I should avoid mentioning anything superhero-related around him. And that bringing up dads is also pretty high up on the no-no list.
The look on Logan’s face almost made me want to drown myself in the lake and hand over my lifeless body as a formal apology, but the outburst Max expected never came. Instead, Logan just sat there, smoking cigarette after cigarette for at least twenty minutes.
On most days, talking to him feels like navigating a minefield, and against my better judgment, I still take step after step, ignoring the possible consequences.
When I leave the bathroom after a lavishly long shower, sliding a strand of wet hair behind my ear, Max almost gives me a heart attack. Splayed out on my bed, he grins at me, reminding me that I need to talk to the guys about the sleeping arrangement.
Carefully, because I don’t want to cause a second fistfight in 48 hours. I do have to admit I would love to daydream about their last fight a little. Go over it in my head again and again, preferably with my hand down my pants, but privacy is scarce in this cabin.
“Lily?” Max asks, and I shake my head to get rid of these thoughts.
“Hm?”
“I asked if you had fun today,” he says, laughing as he pulls me onto the bed.
I try to keep my towel from slipping all the way off, bunching it around my breasts as Max drags me down with him until we’re lying face to face.
“Haven’t had this much fun in ages,” I whisper against his lips.
He smells so sweet as if he’s made out of pure sugar.
But that’s just how he is. Max, who feels like an endless summer, like peaches and saltwater, like running into the waves while the setting sun casts everything in a golden glow.
He’s like laughter that makes your stomach hurt, a person who makes every day feel like Christmas morning, and it’s at this moment I realize I lost my heart to him the first day we met, no matter how wrong it may be.
“What you said earlier before Logan called you over…”
“Lily, I—“
“I think I love you, too.”
He exhales in relief before his lips land on mine, and his grip on me tightens.
“I wish I could show you what you mean to me. What you do to me. How you make my head spin whenever you look at me with your big eyes, how my heart is close to exploding from joy when you hold my hand.”
Max pulls back for a moment, cradling my face before he continues.
“Simply hearing you laugh makes me the happiest man on earth, Lily, and I promise to take care of you for the rest of my life.”
A smile spreads on my lips, and I search for the right words. “Hard to top that,” I whisper, and Max laughs, stroking my cheek.
“Sorry, I've had this brewing inside of me for a while now,” he says before he leans in for another kiss. “Oh shit,” he says all of a sudden as if he just remembered something important. “You need to eat. Salad with chicken nuggets is fine for you?”
“Only if they are dino nuggets,” I joke, focused on how the muscles on Max’s back flex as he reaches for a shirt.
“Baby, do you really think I would buy nuggets that aren’t dino-shaped? And here I thought you knew me by now.”
“Can you forgive me?”
“I’d forgive you for anything,” he says, leaving to prepare our lunch.
It doesn’t take long until Max comes back, making me wonder how many meals he made this morning.
The plate in his hand is huge, just like the bowl, and I pull the blanket over our legs before he sets everything down.
“We’ll share,” I state, and he shrugs, grabbing a chicken nugget.
I don’t know how he does it, but Max has a way of making things so delicious they just override any feeling of fullness.
“Get some rest,” he says once all the food is gone. “Need you at maximum energy tonight. Logan said he wants to go stargazing.”
“Stargazing?” Letting out an amused huff, I cuddle closer to Max. “Isn’t that way too boring for him? Too little violence,” I add, making Max laugh.
“Guess he found a new constellation he wants to show us. The great destroyer.”
After putting the dishes on the floor, Max snuggles up against me, and it doesn’t take long for sleep to pull me under.
When I wake up, the sun hangs low in the sky—and the other side of the bed is empty. The sheets are crumpled, Max’s scent still lingering on the pillow, and I burrow my face in it while I lose myself in the memory of his sweet words, wondering if Logan will ever tell me something similar.
In the living room, the men are talking.
Their voices mix with the sound of the running TV, but it doesn’t sound like they are fighting.
Just chatter and the occasional breathy laugh from Max.
I hope it stays like this. I have nothing to compare it to, but there is a nagging voice in my head that keeps telling me I am the cause of their never-ending conflicts.
Since Max told me to get some sleep, I decide to roll over and follow his order, and the next time I wake up, it’s because of a weird feeling on my thigh.
My foot collides with something as I kick my leg to try to get rid of the unknown sensation.
“Ooof.”
“Sorry,” I mumble, rubbing my eyes.
The moment I open them, Max is already hovering over me, propping himself up on his elbows.
It’s dark outside, the sun long replaced by a full moon, its ghastly white light reflecting on the eerily still surface of the lake.
“I picked an outfit for you. Hope you don’t mind,” he whispers, a mischievous grin on his face.
As I see the array of clothing items lying at the foot end of the bed, I understand why. Max pulls me up, and I inspect his choices with a frown on my face.
“Isn’t this a bit—“ I struggle to find the right, polite words to describe the outfit.
“Short? You're welcome to have my sweater if you get cold. Hot? Definitely.”
“Impractical,” I say as I put on a bra before pulling the tight white shirt over my chest.
“Should I be concerned about your plans for tonight, baby? Did you want to go hunting? Rock-climbing?”
“No,” I groan, nudging him with my foot as I try to close the zipper of the horribly short skirt.
Outfits like this are way out of my comfort zone.
The bikini had already brought me to the brink of having a fit, but if I’m honest, there really is nothing to be ashamed of.
Both men have seen me naked, put in rather compromising positions, and not once has one of them covered their eyes and ran away screaming bloody murder.
“You’re going to be the hottest girl in the entire forest,” Max says, making me twirl around for him.
As long as he looks at me like this, I’ll happily run around the woods in this getup.
Max leads me out of the bedroom and right to the living room, where Logan is busy tucking the legs of his cargos into his boots.
He stares at me, his expression unreadable as his gaze wanders over my body. Up and down and back up, heating up every sliver of skin like he has laser vision. Maybe Logan really is some kind of experiment, and the tattoos are only there to hide the scars that would confirm it.
“Approved.”
“That’s all?” Max huffs, his hands wandering over the tight fabric of my shirt. “Not even a compliment, Logan? A few kind words to show your appreciation?”
“I’ll show my appreciation later.”
Logan stands up straight and walks over to the kitchen counter, where he downs a cup of espresso like it’s a shot.
Slowly, I begin to wonder about the planned activities for tonight, because both men are dressed like hired killers. Black shirts and black cargos, the dimly lit room making it hard to see where the switch from pants to black boots happens.
As we step out of the house, my eyes struggle to adjust to the darkness around us. The patio lights that were on last night are now off, which makes the transition even harder.
Nervously, I reach for Max’s hand. He and Logan are basically invisible, and I curse myself for complaining about my outfit instead of demanding that all of us wear high-visibility vests. That, or one of those blinking things you put on dogs.
“Where are we going?” I ask, stepping behind Max as the path gets narrow, still holding his hand like my life depends on it.
And in a way, it really does because I don’t have the slightest sense of orientation. Not in the daylight, and especially not at night.
“Loneman Peak lookout,” Logan answers.
Maybe it’s the darkness or the way the trees and bushes mess with sounds, but it feels like he’s right behind me and ten feet away at the same time.
By now, I can no longer see the cabin or anything more than a faint hint of Max, who moves in front of me. With every step we take into a darkness so thick it prickles on my skin, my pulse quickens.
“Shit,” Max hisses to my left as he trips. He doesn’t fall, but he crouches down and tries to let go of my hand.
“Baby, I can do a lot with one hand, but tying shoelaces isn’t on the list,” he says with a chuckle, and I let go of him. Very reluctantly.
Logan is barely more than a speck in the darkness, but as moonlight finds its way through the trees, I can clearly see the grin on his face. Canines showing, his gaze sharp and fixed on me.
“Smile, little prey.”
A flash illuminates the darkness, coming so quickly I can’t shield my eyes from the attack. I stumble over uneven ground, trying to find Max, but Max isn’t near, and when I finally get my vision back enough to see the outline of my hands, I realize I’m alone.
“How funny,” I mutter to myself. “I admit it. I’m scared of the dark,” I say, a bit louder. “You can come out now.”
Silence.
Even the sounds of the forest have fallen silent. No breeze rushes through the leaves, and no small animals scatter around in the distance. It’s a deafening silence, one that acts like a blanket amplifying every beat of my racing heart.
Panic creeps up my spine as I turn to look left and right, trying to figure out which direction we came from.
But in the dead of night, everything looks the same. Trees and more trees, the shadows of their branches looming in the distance like hands waiting to reach out and grab me.
What makes my blood run cold is a single sound that cuts through the silence. Something crunches behind me, a branch breaking beneath the weight of something, and in a split second, I decide to go left.
Taking fast, uncertain steps over the damp, uneven forest ground until my jog turns into a full-blown sprint. Through the trees, I catch sight of a clearing I don’t remember passing, and my stomach clenches.
I turn, wanting to run back, but then another sound resonates through the woods. So close that whoever is on my tail would only need a few determined steps to reach me.
“What a pretty catch.”
Another flash of light robs me of my vision. Fuck running back to the cabin. I need to get away. Run, hide, wait it out, anything.
Blindly, I let my senses lead me, and they lead me right off the beaten path. Branches catch on my clothes, scratching my skin as I run deeper into the woods.
The moment I find myself in the clearing, my breath is stuck in my throat. Serving myself on a silver platter, a pretty catch, and oh so docile.
A dark figure emerges from the trees, stepping out into the clearing. Out of breath, I turn around to find a hiding place somewhere less exposed, but my body collides with a much bigger one.
Yelping, I want run away, but the grass is too slippery, my legs too shaky, and my pulse so high that every beat of my heart feels like the banging of a drum. I trip, so I try to crawl, when a big hand wraps around my ankle, dragging me back to my captor.
“Running is pointless,” the man behind me grunts as he heaves me toward him.
My shirt rides up, a shiver running down my spine as the chilly night’s air hits the sweaty sheen on my skin.
Tufts of grass tear from the roots as I try to hold onto them, and my hands go lax as the other man comes closer, his face hidden by the shadows.
Relief washes over me when the moonlight hits his face just right, but Max’s expression is anything but soothing.
Just like the blade that’s pressed against my neck.