Ruthless Games

I give him the respect of a serious answer. “I understand. And for your information, I have no intention of breaking her heart. I’ll protect her. I promise.”

Teddy relaxes slightly, but he doesn’t get a chance to say anything else before Lily is back with our lunch.

“Roast beef, no mayo, hold the pickle,” she says, giving Teddy his bag. “And you get the Italian,” she tells me with a grin. “No complaints.”

“I wouldn’t dare,” I say, glad just to see her smiling. Hell if I know how long it’ll last, but after the stress of the past few hours, I’m relieved to see her happy again.

“Hey!” a guy calls to Teddy. “You still in for the lake?” There’s a whole group of them heading for the parking lot, with coolers and beach gear.

Teddy curses. “I forgot. But it’s fine,” he says quickly to Lily, “I’ll go with them another time.”

“No, don’t be silly. Go.” Lily gives him a grin I know is forced. “You should have fun with your friends. We probably need to be getting back, anyway.”

Lily pulls him into another hug, holding on for a long time. I can tell that she doesn’t really want to leave him, but there’s not much a choice. He’s an adult, even if he’ll always be a kid in her mind and heart.

“Be safe,” she tells him. “And for God’s sake, keep your phone charged!”

She watches him bound off to meet his friends, and then turns to me. Her eyes are damp.

“Hey,” I pull her into a hug. “He’s fine. False alarm.”

“I know.” She hugs me. “But what if it hadn’t been?”

I can’t answer that. I don’t want to. The danger of my world has always been a given to me. It was how I was raised.

But Lily and her brother… They’re outsiders. They deserve better than this.

Which is all the more reason I need this truce with the Kovaks to work. Get out of the criminal game, and keep the Feds off my back, all in one fell swoop.

“C’mon,” I tell her, guiding her away.

“Where are we going, back to New York?” she asks, looking tired.

I get an idea. I still feel a little bad for pulling that stunt in San Francisco, hijacking our day out to set up the meet. “I told my guys I’d be gone for the weekend; we don’t have to be back so soon.”

“You want to stay here?” she looks surprised.

“Maybe your brother and his friends had the right idea.” I smooth back her hair. “Let’s go get lost—somewhere nobody will find us.”

Lily smiles, and it makes my whole damn day. “That sounds perfect to me.”

I driveus out of town a couple of hours, until there’s nothing but fields and trees around. I turn off the highway, taking back roads until I reach a stretch of lakeshore, surrounded by trees. We walk through the woods until we reach the water, settling on a patch of grass by the edge of the lake.

I take a deep breath, finally relaxing. There’s nobody for miles around, and I kept an eye on the rearview the whole journey here to check if we were being tailed.

We’re completely alone.

I look at Lily. She’s been quieter than usual for the whole drive, and I don’t like it. I watch as she picks up small pebbles, tossing them in the water.

“You OK?” I ask.

“I don’t know. This has been a hell of a day,” she says, brushing her hair back out of her face.

“But it turned out OK in the end.”

She nods slowly. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it,” she says, looking frustrated. “All this drama and worry because I thought something terrible had happened, instead of regular teenage fun.”

“It’s not your fault. I jumped to the same conclusion.” I remind her.