Page 10 of Deathless & Divided

“Dino,” she mocked, knowing damn well she sounded contrite and childish.

Lily couldn’t even bring herself to care.

Lily DeLuca liked to be on the move. She was the kind of girl who didn’t like to stop. Maybe that was why traveling appealed to her more than settling down into a stable life did. Now that her oldest brother forced her back from Europe, the only thing Lily seemed to want to do was nothing. Drag her feet, sleep in until noon, and ignore the world she would rather be seeing.

Chicago was pain to Lily.

She was nearly six when her parents were killed but she still remembered them. In her mind, their memories were vivid. The dreams she had of them were even more so. She despised how everyone else around them, including her brothers, acted as if the people who gave them life didn’t exist; as if the people they called family didn’t take them away.

She spent more time than she wanted to admit running from life and reality just so she didn’t have to feel pain. Chicago had been the last thing on Lily’s mind. If she could’ve helped it, she wouldn’t have ever came back.

Dino didn’t give her a choice.

“All right, this is fucking ridiculous,” Dino grumbled.

Lily felt the blanket yanked from her body before a good cupful of cold water rained down on her face. It might as well have been ice. She spluttered and screeched, throwing her arms up to dodge the attack. It was pointless.

Dino just laughed above her. “Get up, I said.”

“I hate you,” Lily spat, soaking wet and sad in her heart.

“Time to make face at church, little one.”

Lily scowled. “Don’t call me that.”

For a brief second, Dino’s face darkened. “What happened to us, huh? We used to be close, Lily.”

She didn’t even have to think about it.

“You’re just like everybody else. You didn’t care, Dino.”

Sighing, Lily sat straighter and stared forward at the priest of the parish as he took his place, dressed in his robes, and began the rite of Mass. Lily couldn’t say church was particularly her favorite way to spend a Sunday, but she didn’t know anything different.

Even when she backpacked across Europe, she always managed to find a Catholic church to say her grace, pray if needed, and do her penance. Lily wasn’t an angel, but she believed in God. If she didn’t believe in something, then she was supposed to accept those who passed on were forever gone.

She couldn’t do that.

“Are you paying attention?” Dino asked at her side.

“Yes,” Lily replied. “Stop hovering, Dino. I am fine.”

“I’m just checking, Lily.”

“I am fine.”

Fine was a relative term that didn’t apply to Lily. Dino pissed her off by forcing her home when she was doing so well out on her own without the Trentini, DeLuca, Conti, and Rossi families surrounding her. Her oldest brother put her through private school, let her spend most months out of the year away from home, and then signed over a quarter of her inheritance for Lily to use as she saw fit after graduating.

What changed?

Why did he force her back to a place where he should know she didn’t want to be?

“Will you talk to me, now?” her brother asked. “You’ve ignored me for the last two weeks.”

For good reason.

If Lily didn’t ignore Dino, she’d try to rip his throat out with her fingernails.

“I was staying out of trouble, Dino,” Lily said, trying to keep the heat out of her tone. “I checked in like you wanted me to.”