She continued blithely. “After her death, you were sent into foster care. Anyway, you excelled in sports. Played football and basketball—you were better at football. You dated the high school prom queen. May I add that is totally cliche?”
“Yeah,” he said. It was a little unnerving to hear someone tick away his life.
“You went to college and obtained a degree in finance. Boring. Then you got your master’s. Even more boring. Went off to work for some firm that paid you beaucoup bucks. Had some life-changing epiphany that made you decide to be a police officer.”
“You know, that is really creepy.”
Lily winked. “Did I miss anything? Oh, yes. You were busted for fighting when you were in college. Your drunk-off-his-ass friend decided to take on an entire bar. You got caught in the middle. Sucks being sober, doesn’t it? By the way, Nephilim can’t get drunk.”
He blinked. “Well that explains that mystery.”
She continued. “But there is this plant that is totally the equivalent of ten tequila shots, but that is neither here nor there. You’ve never been engaged. You did come close to some pretty little blonde in college, but she totally slept with your roommate.”
He dropped the blade. “How in the hell do you know this stuff?”
Lily flashed a smile. “I’m all knowing—omnificent.”
He stared for a minute. “You mean omniscient.”
“Whatever.” Her grin remained.
He shook his head, picking up the blade. “Anything else you want to tell me about my life? Step up that creep factor a little more?”
She looked straight into his eyes, and as casually as if she’d been asking him to pass the salt, said, “Your mom didn’t kill herself.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Everything seemed to stop, even Michael’s heart. He stared at her, dumbfounded. “What did you say?”
“Your mom didn’t kill herself,” she repeated. “She had defensive wounds on her hands that indicate she put up a good fight.”
He couldn’t think. All his life he denied what everyone told him: that his mother had killed herself. He could never reconcile the memories of her with the body he had found on the bathroom floor. That hadn’t been his mom.
It wasn’t until he became a police officer and saw one suicide victim after another that he swallowed his pride. People did crazy things, and no one knew why. There weren’t always answers, and sometimes people’s problems ran so deep no one could ever see them. Now Lily stood there and told him she hadn’t done it. She had been murdered.
He still couldn’t think.
Blindly moving, he grabbed her arm. He ignored the warning that flashed in her eyes. “Who killed my mother?”
She glared at him. “I don’t know.”
“I don’t believe you.” His grip tightened. The knowledge of his mother’s true fate ignited a war of emotions: happiness, despair, sorrow, and fury. “You know everything else but not who killed her? Bullshit.”
Lily jerked her arm, but he held on. “Why would I lie to you about that? I don’t know. No one does. And I’ve looked into it, trust me.”
He knew he was hurting her but couldn’t get his hand to release her. His chest was squeezing. “Tell me who killed my mother, Lily.”
Rafe and Remy entered just then. The two Nephilim slowed as they sensed the tension in the room. “Hey, what the hell is going on?” Rafe called out, his pace picking up.
Lily forced a smile. “Nothing,” she said tightly. “I was just showing him a move.” In a much lower voice, “Let go of me now, or I will break your face.”
Michael’s lips thinned, but he dropped her arm. If all those terrible emotions weren’t rolling through him, he would have been ashamed at the angry red marks he had left on her arm. “This isn’t over,” he whispered.
She threw down the knife; the blade sank through the mat. She started toward the door and spotted Luke hovering there. “Thank you for sticking up for me earlier,” she said as she breezed past.
“Hey, man, what was that about?” Remy asked as he plucked the knife out of the mat.
Michael stared at the door. Lily was gone. “What she said.”
Remy arched a brow, but he didn’t push it. Rafe launched into another round of training, but this time Michael went at it with a fierceness he had never displayed before. His anger and frustration gave him an edge he didn’t have earlier. It was the first time he knocked Rafe down, and Lily wasn’t even there to see it. Nor would she ever know she was the cause of it.
…
“What is going on?” Luke demanded the moment he reached Lily’s side.
She rubbed her arm absently. That was going to bruise. Why had she told Michael the truth like that? “What are you referencing?” she asked tiredly. “There are so many things.”
“Don’t be a smart-ass,” he said as he cast a dark look at one of the Nephilim. “You know exactly what I am talking about. What the hell is going on?”
She sighed as she walked beside him. “You know what happened. You were there—for part of it at least.”
“Is that where you were all day yesterday?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she walked past him.
“You were with him, weren’t you?” His question exploded through the hallway like gunfire. Several Nephilim en route to the training room stopped. Some were openmouthed, while other’s watched with morbid fascination. This wouldn’t be the first argument they witnessed between Lily and Luke. Their spats were legendary.
“Jesus,” she muttered, picking up her pace.
“What the fuck you looking at?” he yelled at a group of enthralled Nephilim. “Lily, what are you thinking?” he asked, and this time his voice was, thankfully, much lower. “Damn it, Lily, slow down.”
She came to a complete stop. “Is this better?”
He towered over her. “I’m supposed to bring you to Adrian, you little idiot. I would like to know exactly what happened before then.”
“Yeah, he said he wanted to talk earlier,” she responded blandly. She pushed the button for the elevator. “Are you going to tell me where we need to go?”
“The rooftop,” he answered. “Lily, I don’t think you understand how serious this is.”
She was starting to get the hint. Really, she was. She was just so freaking annoyed that she couldn’t muster up the concern. She waited with a sullen expression on her face.
“On top of everything else, Gabe returned this morning with his brother,” he explained, darkness settling over his face as he pushed the button to close the elevator. “Two more Nephilim children were taken.”
She rubbed her hands across her thighs. “Shit.”
“Exactly. So you can understand why the circle is a bit pissed right now.” He pushed the emergency stop button.
“Luke?” She turned to him, exasperated.
“Now you are going to tell me what you did to piss off Nate, and I mean besides the fact you attacked Micah over that Fallen.”
“His name is Julian. He has a name. He doesn’t answer to ‘that Fallen’ or whatever. It’s Julian.”
Luke stared at her. “Do you even hear yourself?” He didn’t wait for an answer, which was good because it was going to be a whopper of a smart-ass response. “He has a name? Well fucking la-di-da! That doesn’t change that he’s the enemy last time I checked.”
Her irritation grew. “Luke, I know. I know you’re concerned, but don’t ask me anything about him. You won’t
