The Marked

Chapter Fifteen

Ryder and Tristan both pull into the Diner around the same time, they both park and Ryder gets out first waiting for the others.

Casey climbs out walking over to Ryder, "let's get one thing clear, we are not going in there to interfere, we're going in there to keep an eye on our friend." Ryder nods as Tristan reaches them, the trio walk into the Diner and Ryder immediately looks around for Lily.

Once he spots her he walks over to a table where he can see her, Casey follows behind Ryder leaving Tristan at the counter to order.

Lily lifts her head up and spots the two of them, meeting Ryder's eyes, "you have got to be kidding me."

"Everything okay?" Zion asks as Lily looks over to the counter spotting Tristan before moving her gaze back down at the table.

"Not exactly," Lily sighs, "the three musketeers have arrived and one of them has a staring problem."

Zion chuckles before looking behind him, he spots the girl from the park the other day and Ryder, giving him a smirk as a third person joins the table, "didn't you plan on meeting them here?"

"That's supposed to be later on, him and Tris usually do something before we meet and I thought we'd be done by the time they got here." Lily explains.

"What do you suppose we do?" Zion asks.

Lily thinks for a moment, she hasn't even had chance to question him about why he's interested in all this, "you okay to come back to my house for a bit, you don't have to. It'll just give us chance to keep talking without being watched."

"I don't mind at all," Zion smirks at Lily who laughs back at him.

Both of them stand up, "I'll pay while you get the car ready," Lily tells Zion, he looks at her oddly but decides not to question it. He trails out the door ignoring Ryder.

Lily makes her way to the counter and pays Ralph, but before she gets out the door she's stopped by Ryder, "where are you going?"

"Back to my house." Lily answers.

"Aren't Mason and Caden gonna be there, why are you going back to yours?" Ryder questions her.

"Mason is at work tonight and won't be picking up Caden from Casey's until later, as for my reasoning it's because we haven't finished talking and you can't seem to keep your eyes off of us." Lily answers again.

"Haven't you thought about this? He could be anybody..." Ryder pressures.

"I have, and I've decided that he hasn't done anything to harm me yet. Besides, if he hurts me at my house my brothers a cop." Lily smiles, "I'll text you when I get there, if I don't you can call Mason and he will make it a priority to find me, there are people out there a lot less safe than I am."

Ryder gives in moving out of her way, "I'm serious if you don't text I will call Mason."

Lily smiles and nods before walking out the door of the Diner and climbing into Zion's car.

"He not okay with me coming over?" Zion asks.

"He's my over protective best friend, what do you think?" Lily smiles, Zion looks at her smile for a moment, before he faces the wheel and starts the car.

Ryder sits back at the table and gets glared at by Casey, "what's with the glare? I just wanted to know where she was going."

"She'd probably still be here if we hadn't turned up early, I wonder what he thinks about her." Casey thinks.

"That's not exactly my main priority, he could be anyone. He's new to town, no one knows anything about him." Ryder points out.

"What? Because he's new here and not everyone knows his business yet Lily can't be around him. How's she meant to meet anyone with you breathing down her neck." Casey argues.

"She shouldn't be anywhere near him." Ryder grunts, Casey rolls her eyes, stands up and makes her way over to the toilets.

"I can't help you if I don't know the full story of what's going on." Tristan tells Ryder, who suddenly looks worried.

"What do you mean by full story, I know what you know." Ryder lies, not making eye contact with his friend.

"Like I said before, there's something you're not telling me," Tristan reminds, "something that's making you act like this, so I'd guess it's got something to do with the guy Lily's with right now."

"Tris, I can't..." Ryder stops, "let me figure things out in my head first, I'm probably just being paranoid."

"And if you're not?" Tristan asks.

"I can't tell you everything..." Ryder tells Tristan, "but what I can say is that we need to make Lily realise herself that he isn't good for her. Only problem is we can't tell her that, she has to come to the decision on her own."

"Why? What's going on?" Tristan asks.

Ryder hears the main door to the toilets so he turns around and sees that Casey is coming back to the table, "we can't talk about this right now, I'll tell you later."