Page 78 of A Violet Obsession

“I want to help if something happens. I can’t just sit here.”

I grip her chin gently between my thumb and forefinger, tilting her face until she has no choice but to meet my eyes. “Lily. I need you to listen to me. And I need you to actually hear it.”

“Okay,” she says carefully.

“If we’re discovered, or I have to defend us, I need to know you’ll run.”

She shakes her head immediately. “I’m not going to abandon you.”

I turn her by the shoulders until she’s facing the tree line. “You aren’t abandoning me—you’re getting to safety. If I tell you to run, you run. Don’t look back. Don’t wait for me. Just go.”

“Finn—”

“Downhill,” I say, pointing. “That direction. Keep the trees between you and whatever’s behind you. Don’t run in a straight line, and don’t stop until you hit the road. Stay off it, you’ll be too visible. Follow it from inside the tree line until you find a house. Do whatever you have to do to get them to let you use the phone, then call Elite. They’ll come for you.”

Her voice is small, worry clear on her face. “What about you?”

“I’ll be fine. But not if I’m busy worrying about what you’re doing.” I try for a smile. She doesn’t return it. There’s a weight on her chest I can almost see.

“You’re scaring me,” she whispers.

“Good. I’d rather scare you now than lose you because you hesitated.”

She swallows. “Do you really think we’re in danger up here?”

I take a moment, because I don’t want to lie to her.

“I don’t know,” I admit. “The police aren’t what worry me. If there’s a warrant, they’ll wait for you to come back to Atlanta. But Voss…” I shake my head. “The way you described him, the things he said, what he believes about you and that necklace—he sounds like a fanatic. And he’s got a reputation for being a sore loser. I’m not willing to roll the dice on how far he’ll go.”

28

LILY

Back inside, Finn builds up the fire while I settle onto the sofa. He puts on his glasses, opens his laptop, and starts working. I pick up my paperback, curl into the corner of the couch with a blanket, and pretend I’m not watching him out of the corner of my eye. Between the tattoos flexing on his forearms as he types and those black frames, I’m ready for another lesson. But I know he needs to focus, so I force myself to concentrate on the page in front of me.

After a while, Hera leaves her nest of blankets on the mattress by the fire and wedges herself between us, purring loudly. Finn reaches over without looking and scratches her ears. My heart does a slow flip in my chest.

Eventually he sighs, pulls off his glasses, and rubs the bridge of his nose. “I can only do so much with this thing.”

“What are you working on?”

He tips his head toward the laptop. “Not what I need to. I don’t have the bandwidth I need out here. And Sera still hasn’t sent me the security footage from the auction house. So, I’m working the edges, looking for a connection between you and the robbery—because someone has gone to a lot of trouble to involve you in it—but I keep running into dead ends.”

“You’ll find it.” If there’s something to be found, Finn will find it.

Frowning, he gives Hera another absentminded scratch and goes back to work.

I must have dozed off, because Finn is gently shaking my foot. “Lily.”

Rubbing my eyes, I pull myself up to a sitting position. “Sorry, was I having a nightmare?”

“No,” he smiles gently. “You’ve been asleep for a few hours.” He hesitates, and the look on his face makes my anxiety spike. “I need to ask you something.”

I sit up straighter, the blanket pooling in my lap. “What is it?”

“I’m—” He stops, then starts again. “I’m not sure how to say this.”

“What’s wrong?” I ask, my pulse picking up. “Is it Voss? Did Sera—Is it the police?”