Unforgivably Broken (The Broken Series Book Two) (41 page)

“Your mouth is going to get us arrested,” I said, kissing the top of her head as she looked up at me, stifling a yawn.

“Most likely, but it won’t be for that.” She ran her nails along the denim of my jeans, following the seam up the inside of my thigh.

Inhaling sharply, I caught her hand, pulling her fingers up to kiss them. “Don’t start something you can’t finish.” I kissed her fingers, fighting uselessly against my body’s reaction to her.

“Who says I can’t?” She sat up, glancing around like she was looking for something specific.

“Quit. You’re exhausted and I really don’t want to spend any more time in police custody in this state.”

I felt her quiet laugh as she curled back into my side and I was grateful we were at a point where we could joke about things again. It seemed the more time passed, the more comfortable she became.

When the shock of the verdict had finally worn off,
Lili and I had talked through everything that happened at the courthouse. I told her the formal sentencing would take place in a few weeks. She decided she wanted to go home as soon as we could. While she showered, I booked our plane tickets. I managed — with the help of Denni — to find two first class seats on a red eye from Austin to Vegas. While Denni was sad that Lili and I were leaving, she was hopeful that, with time, the relationship between her and her niece could be rebuilt.

After packing and showering myself,
Lili and I curled up on one of the beds, relaxing but not really sleeping until it was time to head to the airport and drop off the rental car. We’d both been awake for about twenty hours and I was hoping the second we were in the air, she’d feel safe enough to sleep.

“Do you need anything?”
the flight attendant asked in a whisper. I blinked up at her, my eyes crossing as I looked away from the screen of my iPad. Lili was asleep, curled almost halfway over the large armrest separating our seats, both arms wrapped around one of mine as she used my shoulder as a pillow. My fingers trailed absently along her leg where my hand rested, enjoying the normalcy of the moment.

“Coffee.
Strong coffee,” I requested quietly, giving a half-hearted grin to the girl as she looked between Lili and myself.

“Of course,” she said, nodding before walking away.

I set my iPad on my knee, using my free hand to wipe at my eyes. I had to blink a few times to refocus my contacts and I realized I should’ve taken them out before we came to the airport. I glanced at Lili, wondering if I could reach my glasses case without disturbing her.

Carefully, I stretched my leg, attempting to hook the strap of my bag with the toe of my shoe. Once I’d kicked it into the aisle, I leaned down, stretching my fingers to reach for the case in the front pocket. The flight attendant returned as I was grasping for the zipper. I froze when
Lili stirred, looking back over to make sure she stayed asleep.

“Allow me,” the flight attendant said, lifting the bag up to my lap so I could get what I needed. When I pulled the zipper closed, she stuck the bag at my feet, allowing me to push it back under the seat in front of me.

“Thank you…” I paused, glancing at her nametag, “Natalie.”

She smiled and nodded before turning to retrieve the coffee she’d set at the empty seat behind me. She lowered the tray from the seat in front of me and placed the coffee there before glancing between
Lili and me again.

“You know, you can sleep. We’ll make sure you’re awake. I promise we won’t take you to Tokyo,” she said, her teasing smile making me relax a little more. I glanced at
Lili, still too worried to sleep.

“I know I could
, but…” I trailed off, not really sure how to explain it to a complete stranger.

“You want to be awake in case she has nightmares,” she whispered. My eyes swung to hers, catching the look of contrition there. “I recognize her from the news.”

I blew out a heavy breath, having not considered this before. “I just need to make sure she’s okay until I get her home,” I answered honestly. Would it always be this way? People recognizing her? People staring as they tried to analyze her every move? Probably not, but it might be for a while. Surely the media would move on to something else soon. It wasn’t going to blow up into something huge. It was more Hunter they were talking about before I left Vegas than Lili.

“I grew up in Austin so I remember seeing it on the news when I was in high school.” I looked over at her, confused.
“When she disappeared. It was all over the news then.” I nodded, not sure what else to do. “I’ll leave you be. Just let me know if you need anything.”

I looked back at
Lili, finally sleeping soundly beside me, and felt the smile curving my lips. I knew she’d hate the fact that someone recognized her and I hoped, for her sake, it didn’t happen again. But she’d done it. She’d faced her past and was moving forward. Now I just wondered if I could do the same.

And the worry that always lingered in my mind, clinging to my happiness, was brought back to the front in sharp focus. Could I convince her to stay once she knew the truth?

I let Lili sleep until the plane began its descent into Vegas. With the time difference, the three hour flight had us landing just before five in the morning. The sun was barely coloring the horizon and the lights of the Strip shone brilliantly from the vantage point of the plane.

Even though she was tired,
Lili seemed perfectly at ease during the landing. I’d never thought before now about whether or not she’d done much traveling by plane. I hadn’t. The flight to Texas had actually been my first time.

One thing I was grateful about living in Vegas was the public transportation. We were able to get a cab from the airport easily and that saved me from having to drive in my current state of exhaustion. I’d wanted to go straight to Tish’s and get Conner so we could start the process of getting our lives back to normal
but between the ridiculously early hour and the fact that I knew I’d be passing out for half the day once we got home, it was obviously off the table.

Plus, before our lives could really move forward, there was one last thing to take care of. I had to tell
Lili the truth. I had to see if there was any way someone unrelated by blood could know what I’d done and still choose to be in my life. The only two people other than my family that knew, ended up betraying me like the joke I was to them. With the weight of Lili’s small frame against my side and my own exhaustion trying to overtake me, I worried that there would be no way she’d be this comfortable sitting with me tomorrow.

“I thought we were going to pick up Conner?”
Lili asked as I headed North on the Interstate instead of continuing East toward Tish’s house.

My fingers tightened on the steering wheel as I attempted to keep my voice even. “We will but I have a stop to make first.” I could feel
Lili’s curious gaze but I kept my eyes on the road, unsure of what else to do. I felt equal parts nerves and dread as I told myself, yet again, that she deserved the whole truth.

Apparently noticing my discomfort, she didn’t push. Instead, she remained silent, stretching out her hand and resting it on my thigh as the radio kept the car from being completely silent.

It was only a few minutes later, as I was lost in my own thoughts, that the soft sound of Lili singing about monsters drew me back to the present. If the sound of her actually singing hadn’t caught my attention, the lyrics would have. She must’ve heard this song before but I hadn’t, which was surprising. I could immediately recognize the band but it felt as if they were singing about my life.

I was turning into the gates of the cemetery as the song ended and again, I knew I had
Lili’s full attention. I followed the narrow, winding path around one curve and then a second before pulling over to the side, parking with the driver’s side in the grass, a spot that was all too familiar.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to gather the courage to look over at
Lili beside me but I realized I wasn’t ready to see her yet. I needed to tell her and I needed to do it today but I was terrified that if I saw her expression, I would back out.

“I’m going to tell you. Everything,” I said, tightening my fingers around the steering wheel in time with the vise crushing me from the
inside. “But you have to be patient. It’s not easy for me to talk about this.”

She reached for me but I swung out of the car, needing distance. I continued fighting to keep my breathing even as I listened to her soft footsteps approaching from the other side of the car. She seemed to understand my request for patience as she paused, leaving space between our bodies.

I started down the familiar row of grave markers, my eyes trained on the spot where I knew the small rectangle I was looking for would come into view. The dip of the missing grass where the tiny slab laid made it hard to swallow. I knew my steps were slowing but I continued moving forward, the added anxiety of Lili’s presence making me feel almost light-headed. Oxygen deprivation. I had to remind myself to breath.

When I approached the marker, I immediately dropped to my knees beside it. I could still feel
Lili and I knew she was standing behind me, giving me space.

“Hey
, Livvi,” I choked out, reaching over to run my fingers over the letters of her name. OLIVIA CANDICE TISHLER. The stone was clear of any normal dirt and debris and semi-wilted flowers laid in Tish’s corner. He must’ve come by to see her when he got back to town. We never talked about her or came to see her together; it was always something I’d done alone. I knew that he and Paige occasionally came together but I was separated from them by the guilt. Though they’d never admit it, I knew they wouldn’t want to mourn for Liv in front of me. I’d actually wondered more than once if they wished I wouldn’t come here.

D
ropping to sit on the warm grass, I pulled my knees up and rested my forearms on them. I could feel Lili behind me but I didn’t want to look back so I nodded toward the grass on the side of Liv’s headstone. Once she was settled, I glanced up, catching her reading the dates on the stone. Her eyes were sad when they met mine.

“You’ve heard us talk about her occasionally and you never once asked, at least, you never asked
me
what happened. I wouldn’t have answered with anything but anger if you had.” I blew out a breath, trying to stop the trembling in my hands. “Paige told you a little about my dad. He was a prick. From as far back as I can remember he beat on my mom, sometimes on us. My mom self-medicated with alcohol and drugs, though she was good about trying to keep his attention away from us when she was lucid.

“Tish, as you know, got kicked out when I was ten. I didn’t see him except a handful of times after that. Liv was thirteen. She was already counting the days until she could get out.” I paused, realizing how that sounded. “She was amazing. It wasn’t that she wanted to leave Paige
or me behind, she just hated conflict. She was always the peacekeeper between us kids and kept us hiding when dad was on a rampage. We all hated it there but she was different. She was kind and gentle and the one of us I knew would really make an impact in the world.”

My eyes had drifted down to my feet at some point as I spoke and I tugged at the grass, the weight of the guilt that always came when I thought about Liv seemed impossibly stronger as I described her to
Lili.