Page 95 of His to Possess
I spoke with Lilah’s brother directly after leaving his father’s house earlier, but I hadn’t gotten very far. The kid was clearly suspicious of me and refused to give me anything helpful. Not that I could blame him—it’s not like we ever spent time together when our parents were neighbors. He doesn’t know me, and I respect his insistence on protecting his sister.
But if he’s calling me back right now, maybe something has changed.
“Christopher?”
“Hey.” Just from that one word I can tell he’s worried. “I talked to Lilah a little while ago and…I don’t know. I have a bad feeling.”
Same here, kid.That conversation with Jane has me more on edge than I’ve been since Lilah left the club.
“What happened?”
“Nothing, really,” he says, then sighs. “Look, I still don’t know if I trust you. But your sister was always cool to me and…”
“I would never do anything to hurt Lilah,” I assure him. “I just want to make sure she’s alright.”
He takes an audible breath and seems to come to some conclusion. “She called me an hour ago. She told me to get some things ready because she’s coming to get me tomorrow.”
I frown. “She’s coming to get you?”
“It’s something we’ve talked about for a while. Me moving out with her. Our stepdad is…well, he’s not a great guy.” Understatement of the damn year. “She’s been telling me that she has a plan to get the money we need for a while now, but she never gave me any details.” Dread hits my stomach. “But now all of a sudden she says she’ll be ready tomorrow and—”
“Hang on,” I say. “You’re sure she said tomorrow? Not Sunday?”
“She definitely said tomorrow. Lunch time. Mom and Howard—our stepdad—always play golf at the club on Saturday. So it would be a good time to take off without them noticing.”
My heart is pounding so hard I can barely hear the kid. My worst fear, when Lilah left, was that she was going to go back to that auction. I’d already been planning on camping out in front of Club Rendezvous all day tomorrow to stop her, if we hadn’t found her first. But the auction is definitely not supposed to be until tomorrow night. So why in the hell is she telling her brother she’ll have the money by lunch time?
“She sounded off,” Chris continues, and I force myself to focus on him. “Kind of…desperate. I didn’t like it.”
“You did the right thing calling me.”
“Look, our stepdad is an asshole. Neither of us can stand him. But Lilah…she really hates him. Like,hateshim.” He swallows. “I think she’s afraid of him.”
Of course she fucking is. He’s a predator.
“It’s really important to her to get me out of the house,” he continues. “It’s all she ever talks about. And I don’t…I don’t know what she would do to get the money, you know? I don’t know if she’d do something stupid.”
Something stupid. Dread grows in my chest and I make an abrupt turn, cutting off two cars and nearly getting into an accident as I speed off in the opposite direction. Her brother is right—Lilah is desperate. And she would do anything for that money.
“Christopher, I’m going to find her before she does anything stupid. I promise. Can you do something for me, though?”
I explain what I want him to do and he listens without comment. “I know we don’t know each other well,” I tell him when my request is met with silence. “But you said Veronica was cool to you, right? You would trust her? I’m going to have her call you. She’ll tell you that you can trust me and—”
“You don’t have to do that,” he says, voice determined. “I’ll do it.”
Thank fuck. I end the call, letting him know I’ll be in touch, then book it toward Club Rendezvous. I groan when I hit a red light—I would absolutely blow it if there weren’t cars in front of me—but use the opportunity to dash off a quick text to Jane, letting her know what I need done in regards to Christopher. She texts back that her guy at Rendezvous located the stepfather, who appears to be sitting on his own, having a drink.
Me:Make sure he doesn’t lose him again. Are you at the club yet?
Jane:Just pulling in.
I take a deep breath, fear rising in my chest, then type another message.
Me:I think Lilah is on her way there.
* * *
The last timeI’d been here, just the sight of Club Rendezvous was enough to make me feel slightly ill. Tonight I only feel relief. I made it before something awful happened.
