Page 10 of Lily and her Mercenary (CHANGING OF THE GUARDS)

Lily

A fter putting Mabel in her cat carrier, I turned around in my seat, grateful that her claws were no longer piercing my thighs.

I didn’t blame her; she was terrified, and it broke my heart.

Tears blurred my vision as I stared out the windshield while Ryker drove out of the forest and stopped at a STOP sign, watching for traffic.

When he looked my way, he must have seen my tear-stained cheeks because he put the car in park, “You okay?”

His voice was gentle, too gentle, and that tipped me from terrified tears into embarrassed hiccups. “Yeah. Totally fine.” Another hiccup. “Just never been chased out of a house by a bear before. Or been the direct cause of a kindergarten class nearly exploding on a bus.”

“You’re not the cause. Both times, you kept control. I think you’re underestimating yourself, Lily.”

“You know what I miss?” I said quietly, as Ryker merged onto the road and left the wilderness behind us. “My classroom. The way Monday mornings feel. The certainty of it. Even the chaos of twenty-seven kids and a bad day. I miss my routine. And I miss knowing what the hell is coming next.”

He nodded as if he understood. “I get that. Before all this, I always knew exactly where I stood. Who to trust, who to watch out for. It was simple.”

I looked over, studying the profile of the man driving my life straight off a cliff and feeling strangely safer for it. “What changed?”

He glanced at me as his hand found mine in my lap. “I was assigned to watch a beautiful woman from afar. Only I couldn’t. And now all I want is to keep you alive and in one piece, even if it means getting killed in the process.”

He was serious when he said it. Unflinching.

“So now what?” I asked, my voice so small I almost didn’t recognize it. “We just keep running until the bad guys get bored?”

“No,” he shook his head, that stubborn streak lighting up his features. “We draw them out. Find out who’s after you and why. Finish this, so you can go back to your old life—or whatever version of it you still want.”

“For a mercenary, you’re very optimistic,” I said, a real laugh slipping out this time.

He squeezed my hand. “For you? Maybe I am.”

We drove for miles in silence, the landscape turning less forested, more open. Eventually, hunger and exhaustion wore us both down. We stopped at a roadside diner with faded signs and Formica tables stuck in the 70s.

Inside, we ate burgers and milkshakes while Ryker texted furiously on his phone. I watched him, the way his jaw tightened every time he got a new reply. The way he looked up at me in between, like I was the only other person in the universe.

Finally, he set the phone down and leaned in close. “We need to get to the city,” he said in a hushed voice. “Royal’s got a contact who says there’s a team looking for us. Matheson’s people.”

“Matheson?” I’d never heard of the name before.

“Yeah.” He said it like a curse. “He’s not just after a payday. He’s got something personal. And he knows we’re together.”

I gripped my mug, knuckles white. “So what do we do?”

“We go to ground,” he said. “We find Royal, and then we turn the tables.”

I nodded, because what else was there to do?

Ryker paid, and we loaded into the car again. The highway stretched ahead, every mile a chance for us to disappear or to get caught. I glanced at Mabel, now quiet in her carrier, and then at Ryker, solid and unwavering next to me.

For the first time since this all started, I thought maybe—just maybe—we could win.

∞∞∞

We made it to the city just after dusk. Ryker drove through a maze of alleys and backstreets before finally pulling up outside a low-roofed warehouse. Royal was waiting for us, leaning against a wall and pacing until he spotted the Jeep’s headlights.

He opened the door before we could knock, pulling us inside. He and Ryker hugged in a way that looked more like a wrestling match, then turned their attention to me.

Royal stuck out his hand, a crooked half-smile on his face. “You must be the trouble magnet. Lily, right?”

“That’s me.” I shook his hand in awe. He looked so much like Ryker, even sounded like him. The only difference I could see was that he had a tattoo on his right arm. “Sorry for ruining your brother’s peaceful retirement.”

Royal snorted. “He’s lucky I don’t send him to a monastery.”

Ryker explained what happened at the cabin, and Royal just shook his head. “Bears and assassins. You don’t half-ass anything, do you, bro?”

My breath caught in my throat. “Hold up. Did you say assassins?! As in plural?” A shaky laugh escaped past my lips, one that was borderline hysterical. “I’m a kindergarten teacher for Christ’s sake. WHY would anyone want me dead?”

Royal looked at me, then back at his brother. “Rumor is, you're wanted as bait.”

I blinked. “Bait?”

Royal’s face softened a little. “You got a sister, right?”

I nodded. “Mia. But I haven’t seen her since I was like three.”

“Doesn’t matter. Declan got in touch with me, and he says that Matheson’s after you because of Mia. They are tied up in something bigger, government-level. And she went rogue. He wants to flush Mia out and have her back on his side.”

My hands were shaking. “You’re saying I’m a— a pawn in some sick and twisted game?!”

Ryker slid a chair behind me, pushing me into it before my knees could give out. He crouched down to my level. “It’s not going to happen,” he said. “We’ll stop them before it gets that far.”

He stood and focused on the whiteboard in the corner, littered with photos, maps, and bits of red string. “What’s the plan?”

Royal pointed at the photos. “Matheson’s crew landed in Vancouver yesterday. They’re using docks on the east side to move their people around. Surveillance camera got three different faces, all ex-military. No one local.”

Royal leaned closer, his tone all business. “You’re going to have to trust us.” He looked at Ryker, and for the first time, I saw something more than banter. Loyalty and a kind of fear.

“Do you trust me?” Ryker’s voice was so quiet, so serious, I thought the whole world was on pause, waiting for my answer.

I looked at him, then at Royal, then at the messy sprawl of evidence and plans on the board. Maybe I was still the same scared girl from the cabin. But in that moment, a new version of me took shape—one that was brave enough to say, “Yes. I trust you.”

Even if what scared me most was how true it was.

Royal grinned, then handed me a burner phone and a black hoodie from a box marked “disguises.” “Welcome to the team,” he said.

Ryker squeezed my shoulder, letting his hand linger for just a second. “We’ll keep you safe,” he promised, and against my better judgment, I almost believed him.

Outside, the night pressed close, full of possibility. And the three of us formed a new kind of family: the kind that ran towards trouble, not from it.

Ready or not, we were going to war.

∞∞∞

That first night, I barely slept. Ryker paced the warehouse, checking the doors and setting up small booby traps for anyone who might get clever.

Royal sat by the window, watching for headlights.

In the stillness, I started to wonder if I was the same person who’d stood in a classroom last week, worrying about spelling bees and glue sticks.

I wondered if Mia even remembered me. I thought about her, the mysterious shadow I’d loved despite not recalling what she looked like.

The one who’d disappeared when our mother died.

If I were the bait, did that make her the trap?

The bullet, or the target? I couldn’t decide, and the not-knowing made my heart thud so loudly I wouldn’t be surprised if they could hear it.

I must have drifted off at some point because I woke to a hand gently shaking my shoulder and Ryker’s whisper in my ear. “Time to move.”

Royal was already up, loading bags into a back exit. Mabel was zipped into her carrier, her green eyes blinking at me with disapproval for all this mess.

Ryker’s hand hovered at the small of my back as we hustled into a battered sedan and drove fast, lights off, down a side alley. “They know where we are,” he said to Royal. “How?”

Royal didn’t look away from the road. “No clue. The only thing I can think of is that they had to have bugged the van. Hence why I boosted this beater,” he said, smacking the dashboard.

Ryker’s jaw tensed. “They’re close?”

“Within ten minutes.” Royal glanced at me in the rear-view. “You ready to be a decoy, Lily?”

I should have hesitated. But I nodded, throat tight. “Let’s do it.”