I wake up with my face mashed against my pillow and my skin stuck to the damp fabric by a semi-dry pool of spit.
Fuck.
I died in my sleep and woke up in hell.
I open my eyes and then quickly close them again.
Yep.
Hell.
Groaning, I roll onto my back and brace myself as a bolt of pain shoots through my skull. What the fuck happened to me, and why does my mouth taste like someone threw up in it?
I press my palms into my eyes and let out another groan as the events of the previous day slowly come together in random order across my poor, abused brain.
Finding the burned-out shell of the UFO Hotel.
Dakota Joe driving me to the hospital, where the doctor insisted I stay overnight for observation and my subsequent refusal.
Arguing with Jack about Lily.
The swinging ‘No Vacancy’ sign squeaking in the breeze.
The human remains in the car.
Lily’s…
I sit up with a rush.
Lily’s charm bracelet.
Fighting back nausea and a serious case of brain pain, I glance around my room for the bracelet, relaxing when I see it beside me on the nightstand. I reach for it, and an overwhelming sense of loss washes over me as I pick it up.
I let out a deep breath and wait for the ache to pass. I stare at the bracelet, my fingers gliding over the Red Cross charm as I let myself return to the little UFO Hotel and to Lily. Her beautiful face swings before me. Those sea-green eyes beckoning to me. Those lush, pink lips breaking into a smile that has left an irreparable scar on my heart. And it’s in that moment I realize, without a doubt, that she is still alive.
The body in the car? Yeah, it wasn’t hers.
It was more than likely Odin’s, and I’ll use my contacts in the medical examiner’s office to confirm that later. Not that I need them to because I know in my heart, she’s still alive.
And the bracelet? Max knew I’d come back with reinforcements—that’s why he burned the place down before we got there—and probably forced Lily to leave behind her bracelet as a fuck you to me when it was found.
Yesterday, I wasn’t thinking straight.
Today, despite a raging hangover, I have much more clarity.
Fire erupts inside me, and I climb out of bed to hit the shower.
I know what I have to do.
I have to find my girl.
It takes Paw exactly one hour to find out where Lily lives. Maiden Forks, Tennessee, is a quaint little town near the border of North Carolina.
It’s a three-hour drive, but I make it under two and a half with Jack and Ares in tow.
Back in the clubhouse, Paw treats this as a missing person case and does what he can to find out anything about her. By now, he’s probably got her phone records and is ringing every number on it.
While in Maiden Forks, we roar through the main street on our way to Lily’s home. Maiden Forks is one of those towns that should be on an Appalachian postcard. It’s picturesque with quaint buildings, clean streets, and a backdrop of the Great Smoky Mountains in the distance.
Lily lives on Camelot Drive, a neighborhood of charming cottages with white picket fences and rose garden yards. There’s a car in the driveway, a Prius, but after knocking on the door several times, it’s obvious no one is home. While I peer in through the front windows, Ares and Jack check around the back.
“Can I help you with something?” comes a frail voice from over my shoulder. It belongs to a little old lady standing on her porch next door. She looks concerned, so I do my best to appear harmless but probably fail. I’m hungover as fuck and look like a wild mess.
“Yes, ma’am. I’m looking for Tiger Lily… she lives here.”
“Not anymore, she don’t.” The old lady takes a step closer to the porch railing. “What business do you have with her?”
“Well, it’s personal, ma’am. Lily and me… well, I just want to make sure she’s doing okay, is all.”
Her eyes narrow. “You that ex-boyfriend who cheated on her?”
“No, ma’am. I met Lily after that particular incident.”
“I see. Good riddance to him, I say. Like I told her, no point crying over spilled milk… especially milk that’s gone sour.” Clearly, the little old lady knows enough about Lily to know all about her ex-boyfriend.
“Do you know where she is?” I ask.
“Sure do! She came by yesterday with her daddy and her brother. They loaded up a U-Haul, and off she went.”
If Lily came by yesterday, then I was right. The body in that car wasn’t hers.
The relief I feel almost sends me to my knees.
“Are you sure it was her, ma’am?”
“Yes, course, I’m sure. I may be old, sonny, but I ain’t stupid. She stood right about where you are now. Why do you ask?”