Chapter 141 *
Scarlett's POV
Three days back in New York and I'd almost started to believe life could stay quiet for a while.
Montana had cracked something open in me. The cemetery. The house. Damon holding me while I fell apart. And then what happened after, in that narrow bed with the faded purple comforter, where nothing between us was fake anymore.
I was still processing all of it when my phone went off at seven in the morning.
I groaned into the pillow. Reached blindly for the nightstand. My fingers closed around the phone.
The screen said Lily Creek.
I hadn't heard from Lily in almost four months. We'd texted here and there.
I hit answer. Held the phone to my ear. "Lily, it's seven AM."
"I know what time it is!" Her voice came through at full volume. Bright. "I've been up since five because my dad's crew starts pouring concrete at dawn and the trucks sound like the apocalypse."
I rolled onto my back. Stared at the ceiling. "Why are you calling me at seven AM?"
"Because I'm in New York, bitch!"
I sat up. "What?"
"Dad moved the company here! We've been here for like three weeks and I don't know a single person in this entire city. I'm going insane, Mari. I went to a bodega yesterday and the guy behind the counter was the longest conversation I've had all week."
"What?" Lily's voice faltered for a second.
"It's Scarlett now. I go by Scarlett."
There was a pause on the other end. Then a nervous laugh.
"Oh my God. Right. Scarlett. I'm so sorry." She let out an awkward giggle. "I've been calling you Marina for literally twenty years and my brain just... automatically went there."
"It's fine. Just... Scarlett is what everyone here knows me as." A smile tugged at my mouth. I couldn't help it. Lily had that effect on people. "So your dad's company is in New York now?"
"Yeah, he landed some contract with a big developer. Moved the whole operation out here. We've got a little office in Queens." She paused for exactly half a second. "Anyway, that's not the point. The point is you're taking me to brunch today. And then we're going shopping. And you're not allowed to say no because I literally have no friends here and if I have to spend one more Saturday alone in this apartment I will lose my entire mind."
I glanced at the clock. Then at the empty space beside me in bed. Damon had left early for something at the office.
"Where do you want to meet?"
Lily squealed so loud I had to pull the phone away from my ear.
"I knew you'd say yes! Okay, there's this place in SoHo that has avocado toast for twenty-three dollars, which is criminal, but the aesthetic is incredible and I need content for my Instagram."
"You're paying twenty-three dollars for toast so you can take a picture of it?"
"Don't judge me. I'll send you the address. Eleven o'clock. Bring your appetite and your credit card."
She hung up before I could respond.
Lily Creek. My oldest friend in the world.
We'd met in preschool in Montana. Same class, same street, same bus stop every morning. She'd been the first person to share her juice box with me when I showed up at school with nothing in my lunchbox. We'd stayed inseparable through elementary school, middle school, all the way until I left.
Her family wasn't rich. Her dad ran a small construction outfit, mostly residential stuff. Driveways, foundations, the occasional kitchen remodel. But the Creeks were good people.
If anyone in my old life deserved to know I was okay, it was Lily.
I threw the covers off and headed for the shower.
The restaurant was exactly what I expected. Exposed brick, hanging plants.
Lily was already there when I walked in. She spotted me from across the room and launched out of her chair like she'd been fired from a cannon.
"Oh my God, look at you!" She grabbed me by the shoulders. Held me at arm's length. "You look amazing. Like, annoyingly amazing. What happened to you?"
I laughed. "Nice to see you too, Lily."
"I'm serious!" She pulled me into a hug so tight my ribs creaked. "You've got this whole New York glow thing going on. It's disgusting. I hate you."
We sat down. Ordered. Lily talked at approximately three hundred words per minute about everything and nothing—her dad's new contract, the apartment in Queens that smelled like old carpet, her failed attempt to use the subway alone.
I listened. Smiled. Let her energy wash over me like a warm current.
It felt normal. Beautifully normal.
Then Jake walked in.
Lily's older brother was two years ahead of us in school. Tall, broad, with the kind of permanent tan you got from working outside your whole life. He had his dad's build—arms like rope, hands like shovels.
But the look on his face was wrong. His jaw was tight. His eyes were scanning the room like he was checking for exits.
"Hey, Scar." He pulled up a chair. Didn't smile. "Good to see you."
"Jake." I looked between him and Lily. "I didn't know you were coming."
"He insisted," Lily said, rolling her eyes. "I told him it was a girls' thing but he got all weird and said he needed to talk to you."
Jake leaned forward. Dropped his voice low enough that the tables around us couldn't hear. "You went back to your parents' house. In Montana."
My stomach tightened. "How do you know that?"
"Because Bobby Slade knows."
The name hit me like cold water.
Bobby Slade was the kind of person every small town had and nobody wanted. Mid-thirties. Meth-adjacent. He'd been in and out of county lockup since he was sixteen. The type who'd steal copper wire from a church if nobody was watching.
"What does Slade have to do with anything?" I kept my voice level.
Jake pulled a folded napkin out of his jacket pocket. Set it on the table between us. "Someone's been paying him. A thousand bucks a month. Cash."
I stared at the napkin. "Paying him to do what?"
"Watch your parents' house." Jake's eyes were dead serious. "He's supposed to report back the second you show up. Photographs, timestamps, who you're with, how long you stay."
My blood went cold.
"The night you were there, Slade was supposed to be parked down the road. But he got wasted at the bar and passed out in his truck." Jake shook his head. "Didn't wake up until the next morning. By then you were already gone."