Page 59 of Creeping Lily
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JUSTIN
Iforce down the bile clawing up my throat, the bitter taste of it burning all the way down. Lily’s not wrong. I do have secrets—more than she could guess—and one in particular that will shatter everything between us if it ever comes out. The kind of truth you can’t come back from.
And I can’t think about it now.
Can’t think about her face when she realizes I’ve been lying from the very start, when she puts together how I maneuvered my way into her life with all the precision of a con artist.
Instead, I fix my focus on Goliath. On the bastard who calls himself my handler.
He rang me—no,orderedme—midway through a term paper and told me to get my ass down to the café because Lily was being cornered by some stranger. I’m not going to pretend I didn’t run. I did. But I still don’t know why I was the one pulled for this. Goliath isn’t short on men who can handle a simple extraction.
The paper? Not an issue. Goliath’s been covering my loose ends since day one, cleaning up my messes before they even hit the ground. That’s not what’s eating me alive.
What’s eating me is the fact they knew what was happening to Lily before Bethany even had the chance to call me. By the time she did, I was already two minutes away. Which means Goliath has eyes on her.All. The. Time.
They’re watching her harder than they’ve ever admitted. And that means one of two things—either Lily is tied to them in a way she doesn’t know… or she’s walking straight through a minefield and no one’s bothering to tell her.
Is that what happened the night I found her bolting out of the library, adrenaline pouring off her like sweat? Was that fear in her eyes… or was it one of Goliath’s shadows failing to do his job? My handler swore it wasn’t the latter, since I was the one tailing her that night. But I’m not so sure anymore. The pieces don’t fit.
After dropping Lily back at her dorm, I head across town to the cathedral—Goliath’s sanctum. The place looks holy from the outside, but inside it’s anything but. The original landowner donated it after Goliath found his granddaughter’s murderer, and they converted it into their headquarters, keeping the façade of reverence while filling it with the tools of war.
The lower level greets me with a silence so heavy it almost hums. Eyes follow me from every corner. They don’t even try to hide it. Conversations drop to murmurs, as if my arrival is a variable they didn’t factor in today. Something’s happened here—something big—and everyone’s on edge.
I pass the boxing ring, empty now, but still smelling faintly of sweat and canvas. Then I reach the glass-paneled office. The assistant—Clara—meets me with her usual tight-lipped smile before swinging the door open.
Inside, my handler is at the corkboard, studying whatever’s pinned there. At the sound of my steps, he flicks his wrist and slides the whole thing into the wall, hiding it away. Not that Icould’ve seen much from here, but the move makes me itch to know what’s on it.
He turns, and even behind the mask I can see the edge in his expression. The tension in his shoulders. The silent weight pressing between us.
“Sit down,” he says, voice low.
“I’ll stand.”
“Not a request, Collins,” he says, as he drops into his own chair.
The way he says my name makes my jaw clench, but I finally take the chair, the leather cold under my palms.
“Two things.” He holds up two fingers like I’m slow.
I smile without humor. “Thanks for the visual aid. I can keep up.”
He doesn’t like that, I can tell. His gaze sharpens as he leans forward, steepling his hands.
“Bentley Walker.”
I sit back, pulse ticking higher. Bethany already told me all about him—how he appeared at the café like a ghost, how Lily’s face gave her away. She was rattled. Not happy to see him.
“What about him?”
“Bentley Walker is exactly the kind of man we keep away from Lily Snow.”
“And if she doesn’t want to stay away from him?” I ask.
His jaw shifts, anger tightening his tone. “She doesn’t get a choice, Collins. We have strict orders to keep him away.”
“Orders from who?”
