“We’ve been talking for more than two years. He came to visit me a lot, and I know it sounds sudden to you, but I’ve been wanting to know him my whole life.” Lily stepped up to Raven, taking his hands. But he pulled away from her and he was shaking. She didn’t understand it. “I promise, Raven, I was going to tell you. It just doesn’t feel right for me to stay with you, now that my mom’s…” She trailed off, letting the rest hang in the air. Her mother was dead. Her stepdad had never officially adopted her, and Raven had been away for three years. Once upon a time, Lily had wanted them to be a family, but they weren’t a family.

Her family was here, inside this house.

“So,” she went on, swinging the shears casually now. Drawing attention to them as if by accident. “I’ve told you my secret. Want to tell me why you’re huddled outside my window? How did you even find me here?”

Jack blushed and it looked genuine. Like she was embarrassed rather than guilty. “I went to see Belle this morning,” she began, and Lily’s head snapped up. Her fingers tightened on her weapon. “But when I got to the detention center, I saw you leaving in a hurry. I thought it might be better to talk to you before I interrogated Belle, so I followed you, assuming you were going home. When I realized you weren’t, I texted Raven to come meet me. He took driving lessons at the academy, and his dad didn’t even notice that he borrowed the car.”

“And then you crept up to the window instead of knocking on the door?”

Jack ran a hand through her auburn hair, smiling ruefully. “Okay, not my finest hour. But we’ve hardly seen each other in years, and I figured you’d do the same with me. Gather intel and then ask your questions.”

They stared at each other a minute, Jack reading Lily. Lily reading Jack. Finally, Lily’s lips curved into a smile, her grip loosening on the shears. “So we’ve all been sneaking around, spying on each other.” She chuckled, shaking her head. “It probably did look sinister to see me walking into a strange house and whispering with a strange man. But he’s my dad, and he’s a really good guy.”

“Are you sure?” Raven asked, toying with a thread on his jeans. He couldn’t stop fidgeting. Couldn’t stop looking at the house.

“Am I sure he’s my father, or that he’s a good person?”

“Either. Both. I just…” He swallowed, chewing on his bottom lip. “I don’t get a good feeling from him. I think he might be dangerous.”