Finding Lily

23- Alex

Memories of my last encounters with my father ran through my head. I hated him. Truly, truly hated him, even before he left me. He gave me no reason to believe he cared for me. Saving me from Felix must have just been out of guilt. I had to assume this was, too.

Still, it was an extreme measure to take just to keep me alive. Was this out of guilt too?

"Lily..."

"I told you not to call me that." I snapped. Luke was looking at my hand for some reason. I glanced down and realized I was clutching onto my knife, probably looking like I was about to murder someone.

I kept it out. Just in case.

"Tell me everything." I ordered.

"The mission wasn't about you at first. I really did get here a month before you did, before either of us knew for sure that you'd come. Dan sent me to do recon while he got a team ready to infiltrate. It was gonna happen as soon as I found the location of the girls so I could make sure they stayed safe during the raid. Even when you got here, we still wanted to go ahead with the plan. Working together without you knowing it, that kind of thing. Then you got captured."

My brain hurt trying to process everything. I knew now why Luke kept it a secret. If I had found out a couple of days ago, I might have killed him. My father betrayed me in a way I didn't think possible. Sending someone to save my life wasn't going to wipe that away.

"He told me what happened between you." Luke continued. "I thought it best not to bring it up."

"You were right."

Luke stayed silent as I went through everything one more time. It explained everything that had happened up until this moment but now what? Luke had a mission and I got in the way. Or my father did, since he demoted the guy who could take down Ray and turned him into a babysitter.

"Were you here to kill Ray or arrest him?"

"I was here to find the girls." Luke paused. "But then Dan was gonna kill him."

"Daniel knew I was coming. I told him my plans months before I left."

"He hoped to beat you to the punch. And when he didn't, he just wanted to get you out."

I didn't get it. It all seemed like one big show to prove he cared, despite a lifetime of proving the opposite. I shook it off cause Daniel wasn't here. He wasn't the current problem we were facing. "So because I'm here, the girls Ray kidnapped are fucked."

Luke faltered. "Not entirely-"

"We gotta do something. Now." I decided. "Before Dan gets here and this entire mission was wasted."

"What? Really?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

It was the second time I'd surprised Luke in the matter of twenty minutes. First with the kiss, then with this. Instead of trying to figure out why I was doing it, I started to wade into the dark waves. Luke followed eventually, strapping the bag to his back and wordlessly allowing me to take the lead.

We made it back to the mountain, back to where we had been before. We didn't bother to climb any trees. It was past midnight by the looks of it. Darkness was a friend of stealth, so close a friend that I was wondering why we hadn't taken advantage of it before.

Somewhere in the distance, an hour after we'd gotten there, I heard the sound of a heavy metal door open and close. It was near the mountain, maybe leading inside of it. I'd always guessed that was where they kept their stash. We just didn't know where said door was located.