Page 33 of Sharp Lies

“It’s not my house,” I informed her, walking toward her and giving her a hug when she stood up. “It would be rude not to at least knock before I came in.”

She gave me an arch-browed look. “What do you think you’re going to do, walk in on me in my underwear? Find me in the midst of a passionate embrace with a man?”

I laughed at that, unable to stop myself. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that. I don’t want that image even trying to get into my brain.”

She shrugged primly. “I haven’t always been single, you know.”

“Aunt Susan! Did you not hear me say I didn’t want to think about things like that?” I asked, smacking her gently on the arm. “Now what do you have for me?”

“Coffee, of course,” she said, pushing the carafe and a mug toward me. “And pastries, though I’m sure they won’t compare to the stuff you bake in your own shop. The bigger question is what you have for me. You said you needed to talk.”

Right. Directly down to business, then. How typical of Aunt Susan. She could be funny as all get out, but she also didn’t beat around the bush. I’d told her I needed to talk and get some advice and had driven all the way down here specifically for that.

I guessed we were jumping right into it.

I poured myself a cup of coffee, then added cream and sugar and took a croissant, just to kill some time while I tried to get my thoughts and feelings under control. And then I started talking. I told her about the situation with Tony five years ago, which she’d only ever heard about second-hand from my mother. Or, I guessed, third-hand, since my mother had heard it from me. And I definitely hadn’t given her all the details because I hadn’t wanted her to worry.

Now I didn’t hold back on those details. I told Susan everything that had happened and all the fear I’d carried around on my shoulders when I was with Tony. I went into how furious he’d been that night and how frightened I’d been, and then the fight and his hands on my throat and my head hitting the cupboard.

Her hand snapped out and took mine, and she held it so firmly it was almost painful. “Lily,” she whispered. “Why didn’t you tell someone? Why didn’t you tell the doctors at the hospital?”

“You know why,” I answered. “It would have put me in even more danger, and it would have guaranteed that they’d go after my mom. Besides, who was going to believe me? We’re talking about the richest family in the area, here, and a town girl who’d been living with Tony for some time. They’d just think I was breaking up with him and mad, or that I wanted something he’d told me no over. There was no way anyone was going to believe me, so I’d be branded a liar, in trouble with Tony, and in even worse shape than I was before. And then Steve McCarthy came in and offered me money if I left town and dropped the whole thing. And I saw a way out.”

My aunt already knew about that, though, so I jumped right to what had happened to my mother, noting that she’d been on a deserted road with no one else around and that it had seemed awfully suspicious right from the start. The ideas I’d had that she’d actually been run off the road by someone else.

Someone who didn’t bother to stick around and make sure she was okay, but left her there to either die or give warning to what would happen if I stepped out of line.

At this, she just nodded, looking thoughtful. “I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought of the same thing,” she finally noted.

I jerked in surprise. I’d thought I was insane and paranoid for thinking something like that, but if Susan had thought the same...

“You did?”

“Of course I did,” she said, her mouth turning down a bit. “She was on a road where no one saw or heard anything, driving on her own. She wasn’t drunk and she damn sure wasn’t on drugs. So how did she just happen to slide off the road and into the one tree in that area? Your mother’s a lot of things, girl, but she’s not stupid, and she’s not reckless. She’s also a reasonable driver. There’s no way she got into that crash on her own.”

“Right,” I said quietly. “That was what I thought, too.”

My mind had gone completely blank at her agreeing with me about it, though, and there was a long pause. I’d thought I would have to convince her of that particular conspiracy theory.

“Anything else?” she asked, her face full of questions.

There was. I told her about Tony barging into my house and making demands and Warren coming to save me and taking me to the cops. And then I went into what had happened there, with me trying to make a report with Warren there to act as witness to everything, and Jim Layton sitting there and blowing me off. Doodling a picture of a damned dog rather than taking notes about what I’d just told him, and then getting in a fight with Warren when Warren called him on it.

“He didn’t even care,” I finished. “He was writing me off before I even finished telling him what had happened. And then the other night when I was out with Warren, one of the doctors from the hospital came by. One of the doctors that treated me. And he acted like it was the worst news he’d ever heard when I told him I was planning to stay in town with Mom. He told me straight-out that I should think long and hard about that. He said I was vulnerable here. But what does he know about it? Why would he even care?”

My aunt stared at me for a moment, her eyes going narrow and thoughtful, and when she spoke, her voice was quiet and intense. “Because he’s worried that you’re setting yourself up for trouble, girl, and I’m afraid he might be right. The hospital should have reported your injuries, but they didn’t. Or if they did, the cops didn’t do anything about it. And from the sound of it, they’re not going to do anything about Tony trespassing into your house and threatening you, either. And I’m thinking I know why.”

I knew why, too, though I wasn’t going to say it. This was the reason I’d come all the way down here to see her. I wanted to hear her thoughts before I gave her mine.

“The McCarthy men own that town, Lily,” she said quietly. “I’ve seen it for years. They do whatever they want and count on their money to get them out of trouble. They don’t care about anything but their own pleasure. And they’re sure as hell not going to let anyone stand in their way. So if they think you have information that could bring them down...”

“They’re going to do whatever they can to keep me quiet,” I finished for her.

She nodded. “Pretty much. And you’re not the only one. I’ve seen other families lose their businesses and lives in that war, and I’ve seen other women run out of town. Why do you think I was so against the idea of you dating that boy in the first place?”

I huffed out a laugh. Susan had warned me against it right from the start, but I’d been sure I knew what I was doing. I hadn’t thought anything could happen to me.

More fool I.