Page 76 of Deathless & Divided

“Oh?”

“Lily seems to like spending time with my granddaughter. I’m sure over the next little while they’ll be together a lot, given Abriella is in the wedding. I’ll have an extra guard on Abriella. But otherwise, I expect you to be their shadow at every point when they are together.”

Joel scoffed, obviously still pissed and reeling over the information he learned today. “And he’s so fucking good at being in those, right?”

Damian acted like Joel didn’t say a thing. “Will do, Boss.”

“Good,” Terrance said.

Tribute went forward as it always did every month. The men paid their seventy-percent due to the boss without question. No one was short. No one ever was. All the while, Damian couldn’t help but notice how the mood had changed between the men. Where some would chat away in comfortable groups usually, most were off by themselves.

The paranoia had set in already.

All it took was a suggestion of something that nobody had even confirmed: inside job.

CHAPTER TEN

Lily blindly waved her hand over her nightstand while her face was still shoved into a pillow. She didn’t know what that god awful ringing was, but it needed to go away. Finally, she found the cell phone ringing and pressed the home key, knowing it would ignore the call.

She eyed the alarm clock on her stand, noting the early morning time. Whoever was calling at six in the damn morning could make their way straight to hell where a person like that deserved to go. Waking her up at this time was unacceptable. Especially since the last few days had been just about as stressful as they could be. Lily’s dreams had been plagued with memories of the blood and broken glass at the restaurant. Her days were filled with her friend’s heartache and the confusing mess happening to the people around her in the Outfit.

No one trusted anyone.

She understood that much at least.

Groaning, Lily turned back in the bed and promptly dozed off again.

Not thirty seconds later, her phone began to screech with another call.

Damn it.

She should have just silenced the stupid thing.

Knowing the caller might be Evelina, Lily forced herself to wake up again. More frustrated and tired than ever, Lily reached over and grabbed the phone, dragging it to her ear before answering the call.

“Hello?” Lily asked, her voice gravelly with sleep.

“You sound like a real winner in the morning.”

The dark molasses tenor of Damian washed over Lily’s senses. His voice still had the strangest effects on her insides and she didn’t know why. Lily chose not to question it.

“God, Damian, do you know what time it is?”

“You know, that only sounds good when you’re saying it to me in bed, Lily.”

Lily’s cheeks heated and she tried to bury her face deeper into the pillow. “Shut up. I am in bed, okay.”

“Not mine.”

“Stop. It’s too early for this.”

“Never too early for that.” Damian hummed deeply. “I’m trying to perk you up, Lily.”

She grinned into her sheet, pulling it higher over her head. This man was such a serious mind-fuck for her. He didn’t have to be sweet and funny or anything like that, but he was. Especially with her. They might have slept together, but that didn’t mean anything when Lily considered the fact she was still being made to marry Damian whether she wanted to or not.

It was hard to hate someone when you liked them.

“What are you doing?” she asked.