Addicted After All (39 page)

The three of us share a look, undecided on our next route of action. If we reveal ourselves, she could call the cops anyway. Once she learns the famous heiresses from that trashy reality show toilet-papered her yard, she’ll take revenge. They all do.

There’s only one solution.

I pull out my cell.

{ 38 }

LOREN HALE

In the basement gym, I sit on the edge of the weight bench, not even going for another rep. I steal a glance at the baby monitor, paranoid that my son needs me and I’m two floors below.

“He’s fine,” Connor says, taking off his gloves.

“Did you develop magical powers in the last five minutes, love?” I ask, knowing it will irritate him.

He doesn’t even blink. “Process of deduction,” he tells me. “If you can’t hear him crying, it means he’s still sleeping. There’s no magic involved in that.”

Ryke drops down from the pull-up bar and picks up his water bottle. “Move,” he tells me. “I need the bench.”

I check my watch. “Aren’t you going a little hard there, bro? It’s past midnight.” He’s already lifted thirty minutes ago, and he usually prefers a core workout in the gym since his arms are pushed to the max when climbing.

“Just move.” His jaw muscles tic.

And then it clicks, and I break out into a grin. “Is this you working off your sexual frustration?”

He runs a hand through his damp hair. “I don’t know why you’re fucking smiling at me. You aren’t getting laid for four more weeks either.”

“What can I say, I like when people share in my misery.”

He throws his dirty towel at my face. I catch it in the air just as Connor switches the television channel.

“What about you?” I ask Connor. “You angry Rose is doing this pact?”

“Angry, no,” Connor tells me. “She says it’s her way of being supportive of Lily, but she’s doing it to one-up me.” He combs his fingers through his hair, fixing the wavy strands. “She forgets that I can wait without a problem, even if I don’t enjoy it. If this win makes her feel better, then I’ll give it to her.”

He’s lucky Rose isn’t here. She’d kill him for that last line. I don’t think she likes being handed a “win.” I shake my head at him as I switch the weight bench with Ryke. “Rose would gouge out your eyeballs for that.”

He grins. “I know.” He sets his gloves aside. “I’m going to make up for the lost time in one night. She’s not going to like me by the end of it.”

Ryke mutters, “I don’t even want to know what that fucking means.”

I point at Connor. “Kinky. Hardcore.” 

Connor leans against the treadmill with a larger grin. “You forgot infallible genius.”

I open my mouth to play into his arrogance, like I usually do, but my cell rings on the floor. I quickly pick it up, already seeing the caller ID: LILY.

Ryke shoots to his feet, and Connor is by my side in seconds. My brother won’t admit it aloud, but half the reason he’s working out until exhaustion is because Daisy’s sleeping outside. Without him. The first time in a while. He’s worried about her.

I put the phone to my ear.

“Lo,” Lily whispers, so softly that I can barely hear. “Lo, are you there?” Her voice edges on alarm.

My muscles constrict. “Why are you whispering?” Maybe there’s a bobcat outside or some kind of animal. I scratch the back of my neck and take a deep breath, forcing myself not to jump to conclusions.

“We’re on a mission…” she trails off. “We need backup. STAT. Over and out.”

What. The. Fuck.

I hear Rose’s voice. “Not
out
,” she hisses. “You didn’t even give him our location.”

“Lo, you still there?”

“Yeah—”

Ryke tries to grab the phone, to put it on speaker. I shove him back and press the button, just in time for Lily’s reply.

“We need a getaway ride. We’re at the neighbor’s house. The big stone one. You can’t miss it. There’s…um…”

“Toilet paper,” Daisy finishes in a whisper.

“Okay. Bye,” Lily says and hangs up.

Ryke sets his hands on his head. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. All of them?”

I walk past my brother to grab the baby monitor. “She was whispering. They must be hiding behind a tree or a bush.” I hand the monitor to Ryke. “You stay here.”

“No
fucking
way,” he curses, his muscles just as tight as mine. “If they get caught—”

“They’re not getting caught,” Connor says calmly, trying to ease the tension in the room. But if these people press charges, the girls could be booked for vandalism.

“
You
fucking stay here then,” Ryke retorts.

“I’m not staying back,” Connor says firmly. “Rose will be the first one arrested—”

“You
just
fucking said they weren’t going to get caught.”

Yeah, Connor was trying to convince Ryke to stay behind with our kids. None of us wants to wait here.

“We’ll bring the babies,” I say.

Ryke’s face darkens. “No, I’ll fucking meet you two—”

“Hey!” I shout at him. He is
pacing
. “She’s fine. It’s not Paris.”

Ryke is physically shaking.

“It’s
not
Paris,” I repeat, my eyes burning. I taste that night. The screaming. The paranoia. The uncertainty. The riot flares up in my mind. We just have to forget about it. Not imagine anything like it happening again. I place my hand on his shoulder. “Come help me get Maximoff into the car seat.”

Stiffly, he nods, his nose flaring as he tries to expel his emotions

Connor is already headed upstairs. It takes us five minutes to situate Jane and Moffy into Rose’s Escalade, and that’s at our quickest pace. The babies only stir when we buckle them in, falling back asleep when Connor pulls out of the driveway.

“By the time we fucking get there, they’ll either be caught or on their way home,” Ryke complains from the passenger side.

“Can you shut up?” I snap. “You’re going to wake the babies.” I sit beside Moffy’s car seat.

Ryke pinches his eyes. I get it. The last time Daisy came into contact with these guys, they scared her pretty badly.

Lily can’t even run. She just had our kid, so I’m worried she’s in pain or really anxious.

I don’t even blame them for hitting up the house tonight. I’ve had to convince myself more than once not to do anything in retribution. I’m honestly just surprised they snapped before Ryke, Connor, or me.

It takes one minute before we spot the house. Toilet paper drapes from nearly every tree limb, even the mail box and bushes hidden beneath layers. If I wasn’t worried, I think I might be proud.

“Fucking A.” Ryke’s voice freezes me over. I have to strain my neck to see past his headrest. The girls aren’t hiding anymore.

In the center lawn, illuminated by floodlights, stand Rose, Daisy and Lily in their pajamas, each holding their feather headbands like they’re ski-masks or something. A middle-aged woman in a white bathrobe jabs her finger in Rose’s volatile face, a volcano about to erupt.

I just hope they haven’t called the cops yet.

Connor parks the car, and he jumps out quickly with Ryke. I open my door, shoving it wide so I can have a clear view and hear the fight. But I hang back with the babies.

“You’re a grown
adult
,” the mother says coldly. “Act like it.”

“It’s toilet paper. We didn’t set your lawn on fire,” Rose combats. “And you’re so lucky I didn’t. I was
this
close.” She pinches her fingers together.

“Are you making a threat against me?” the mother sneers. Her husband walks down the porch steps with his cellphone to his ear. Jesus Christ.

“I used the past tense,” Rose snaps. “So
no
, I wasn’t threatening you.”

“We’re really sorry,” Daisy pipes in.

“No we aren’t,” Rose retorts. “Do you even know what your child has been doing to us?”

The mother looks disinterested in that story. It pisses me off, and I realize my hands are vibrating.
Goddammit.
I don’t want to drink. Even if somewhere deep, I do.

Ryke and Connor make the short trek up the lawn. I’d join but the babies—and Lily looks fine. She wavers beside her sisters with beady eyes, like a deer caught in headlights. I can tell she’d like to run away from this argument.

I shake my hands out and then cup them to my mouth. “Lily!” I try to shout in a whisper.

She whips around and relaxes at the sight of me.

“You
both
just had babies,” the mother suddenly snarls.
No.
Lily freezes cold, and Rose’s eyes flash murderously. Of course these people know about our kids. It’s everywhere.

“Don’t you dare,” Rose starts.

“You shouldn’t be here, vandalizing our property,” the woman continues. “It’s irresponsible. If you cared at all about your newborns, you’d be at home with them.”

Rose steps forward, fire in her gaze. “Who are you to say that to us—”

Connor wraps his arms around Rose’s waist, pulling her a safe distance away from the woman.

“Richard!” Rose screams, tears pricking her eyes.

“It’s okay, Rose,” Connor says in a soothing voice.

I shake out my hand for the second time and lick my lips. “Lily Calloway!” I call.

She spins around again like I startled her. This time she slowly retreats from the fight, aiming for me.

“It’s not okay,” Rose snaps. “Her son has been harassing us but she wants to file a report about toilet paper.” She sets her glassy, heated gaze on the woman. “
Toilet. Paper.
”

The husband interjects, “If that’s what you want to tell the police...” He still has the phone to his ear, avoiding Connor, who stands a good five or six inches taller than him.

I want to yell something. My throat aches to intervene—but from past experience, I know I’d just make the whole thing worse. I stay glued to the curb. I recognize what keeps me here, more than anything. My eyes flicker into the dark backseat, where Maximoff sleeps, his lips parted as he breathes.

I whisper, “Thanks, little guy.”
You’re saving me from myself tonight.

“It won’t happen again,” Connor says, using his fake damage-control voice. “We’re sorry for waking you. If you could not press charges, we’d be extremely grateful.”

Rose is fuming. But this is what has to happen. They’re
not
going to jail over this. It’s dumb. Ryke is whispering to Daisy a few feet away from the woman. And Daisy suddenly spins out of his arms and says to them, “I’ll clean it up tomorrow. Just let my sisters off the hook for this.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Rose tells Daisy. “They should clean it up for be—”

Connor covers Rose’s mouth with his hand and whispers in her ear.

“Are they here? Are they okay? Lo…” Lily practically catapults over me to peer inside the car. I grab her tightly by the hips.

“They’re fine, Lil.” I hold her face between my two hands. And her big, round green eyes meet mine.

Fear spikes her voice. “I worried about him this whole time. I didn’t forget—”

“You don’t have to convince me, love,” I breathe. “You’re a good mom.” She’s not fucking negligent. “That woman can go to hell. She doesn’t know you or me or your sisters.”

Lily lets out a deep breath.

“Okay?” I ask her.

She nods and peeks past my bicep. After a short moment, she says, “He’s so cute.”

I roll my eyes, but my shoulders drop. Glad she’s not scratching her arms, biting her nails or crossing her ankles. I’d like a drink though.

Great.

“What’s that?” Lily breathes.

I follow her gaze to a second-floor lit window. Two teenagers are peeking out of the blinds. They must see us because one drops his pants and sticks his bare ass against the glass.

I grit my teeth. Classic.

“Do you remember when you peed on the side of Todd Border’s house?” Lily says with the tilt of her head in remembrance. Her words strangely ease the tension in my muscles.

I wrap my arm around her. “He was a dick,” I say. “And I drank way too much rum that night. I had to piss somewhere.” We were fifteen.

It’s weird. Revisiting bad memories doesn’t have the same impact on me that it did a year ago. I can touch them without splintering.

As I gauge Lily’s mental state, I realize the same can be said for her. While Connor tries to calm down the parents, I pull Lily even closer to me. She rests her cheek on my chest. “Hey, little criminal,” I murmur.

“So much for my getaway car, huh?”

“Sorry about that.” I tug at the red sleeve of her Marvel PJs. “You should’ve worn black, you know.”

She smiles. “All my favorite superheroes were supposed to protect me tonight, but I suppose I forgot the best one.”

“If you say a DC character like Green Lantern, we’re no longer boyfriend-girlfriend,” I tease.

She lifts her chin up at me. “I forgot
you
.”

I try hard not to laugh. “That…is the most rom-com thing you’ve ever fucking said to me. Take it back.”

She gapes. “I will not.” She hugs me tighter. I love being this close to her.

I kiss her temple, and that’s about when the man’s voice escalates. “Fine, fine. If someone cleans this up, then we won’t press charges.” He begins to head back into the house, but his wife lingers.

“You’re all exactly what they say.” She motions to Ryke and Daisy. “The jackass and the daredevil.” She points an accusatory finger at Lily and me. “The alcoholic and the sex addict.” Lily stiffens against my body. And the woman just keeps going, facing Connor. “The smartass.” When she turns to Rose, I think she won’t say anything. She’s using the labels from
Princesses of Philly
, and the producers called Rose a
virgin
. It doesn’t apply anymore.

The whole world knows it doesn’t.

“And you,” the woman briefly pauses, “the porn star.”

Lily’s jaw unhinges and mine tightens. That’s something
I
wouldn’t even say to Rose, under any circumstance.

Rose has enough. She lunges this time, and Connor lifts her up in his arms, restraining her easily. “We’re leaving,” he says loudly, shutting down the fight before it reignites.