Addicted After All(29)

What the hell?

Lily goes rigid in fright, her fingers gripping my biceps.

Climbing off her body, I instinctively position her behind me. “Lil, stay back.” My command is muffled through shouting outside, alarmed voices that echo into our bedroom.

“Come on, go, go!”

“Run. Run! He’s going to see us!”

My pulse is racing with blood-red heat as I start to piece together this incident. A prank. I grind my teeth. A stupid prank. I immediately stand off the bed, and Lily crawls to the edge.

I give her a warning look. “Lily, stay back.” Too much glass litters the floor, and I don’t want her near it. My eyes fall to her abdomen. I have someone else to look out for too. This must trigger a maternal impulse in Lily. She remains still, not following me.

With a pit in my stomach, I step around the sharp shards and pick up a brick, a note attached with a rubber band. I head to the window before I read it, my muscles in taut strands. Right outside, I spot about five teenagers in black hoodies, sprinting across our yard. Floodlights still illuminate the grass.

Only one of the guys turns to look back. And his eyes meet mine. Dead on. I feel how severely sharpened my face is—I sense the malice in my eyes. But it all bleeds away the moment I see the same exact expression in this teenager. The same guy that I grabbed in the street during the paintball prank.

I shake my head at him.

He inhales heavily. And then he sprints away, following his friends. My gaze falls to the cold brick. I snap off the rubber band and unfurl the white paper.

“What does it say?” Lily asks.

Roses are red.

Violets are blue.

Fuck your slut.

We all know your brother will too.

With white knuckles, I crumple the paper, my veins on fire. I suppress this irritation. I hate the three-way rumors, but what I hate more are the ones about our kid belonging to Ryke.

“Lo?” she says.

And what I can’t stomach—is Lily’s reaction to these things. It tears her down, and I want her to rise above it all. But it f*cking hurts. I know it. So I’m going to do my best to shield her from this shit.

I pull the velvet purple curtains closed, a lie already concocted in my head. “It’s a bad joke about small dicks. It’s not even funny.”

She nods, probably not even believing me, but she lets it go anyway. Her gaze travels to the glass, the broken window already concealed behind the curtain.

“I’ll clean it later,” I say the moment our door blows open without a knock.

“Hey,” Ryke says. “I heard a…” He sees the glass and then the brick in my hand.

“Here.” I step around the shards and hand him the brick and balled note. “Do what you want with this. It’s nothing to me.”

His shoulders tighten, and he unfurls the note, reading it quickly. His voice lowers so Lily can’t hear him. “This is f*cking wrong.”

“We’ve heard it all before,” I say. “I can deal with it.” I don’t need Ryke to threaten these guys on my behalf. I have a louder voice than him anyway. I’ve always been capable of lashing out. This is the route I’ve never taken before.

Wait and see. Be calm. Try to put my emotions aside to find the better option.

“Are you sure?” Ryke asks me, his eyes flickering to Lily on the bed and back to me.

“They’re not going to break our fragile hearts into little pieces,” I say dryly. “So no one needs to contact a realtor. We’re not moving.” Everyone’s lives have changed too many times because of outside forces. This house is supposed to be our stability, and these teenagers aren’t going to take that away.

We’ve lost way too much already.

“You feel like you need something, and you come to me, okay?” Ryke suddenly says. He means booze.

I play dumb. “Sure. Next time I need a shoulder to cry on, I’ll make sure to blow snot on your shirt.”

He flips me off, but we both end up smiling weakly.

I rub the back of my neck. “Can you just let everyone else know what happened? I want to be alone with Lily right now, and Rose hasn’t learned how to knock either.”

Ryke rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I’ll tell everyone to give you an hour—”

“Longer,” I say.

Lily inhales in surprise and partial arousal.

Both Ryke and I turn to look at Lil, her skin nearly blending into her red onesie. She flings a blanket over her head so Ryke can’t see her embarrassment. I can’t hold back a smile. Goddamn, I love her.