Page 34 of Sharp Lies

“So what do I do?” I whispered. “I don’t want to leave my mom. Me leaving town isn’t going to mean she’s safe from Steven McCarthy. And I don’t want her there by herself.”

“It’s got to be your choice, Lily. You have to decide what you’re going to do. But I’m telling you, fighting those men isn’t going to be easy. And you’re not going to be able to do it on your own.”

I wasn’t going to be able to do it on my own.

My mind flitted to Warren and the way he’d defended me against Tony, and I wondered. He’d told me he had a habit of defending people who might not be able to take care of themselves.

And I wondered if he’d defend me if I went up against the McCarthy men.

Because something told me he would, which meant I wasn’t going to have to do it on my own, after all.

CHAPTER 16

LILY

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I GOT HOME FROM SUSAN’S house and immediately went out into the yard to spend some time with Silver. I’d always done my best thinking with the dog at my side, and right now, I needed to think.

“What do you think, girl, stick or ball?” I asked, balancing one in each hand.

Silver looked from one to the other like she actually knew what I was asking—which she probably did—and finally lunged toward the ball, making her choice. I laughed and threw it, not even waiting for her to be ready, and she took off after the flying object, a gray blur streaking across the lawn.

Within moments, we were back in the pattern we’d built over several years together, her bringing the ball and dropping at my feet, then bouncing around impatiently as she waited for me to get my shit together and throw it for her again. Two minutes while she retrieved it, and then repeat. And then again, and then again.

And while we fell into our pattern, I let my brain roam freely over the things Susan had said, and what they added to my own personal read on the situation.

Tony and his father were trouble, but I’d always known that. Hell, I’d known that before I even started dating the guy, and it had just become even more obvious after I moved in with him. I’d been happy for about a week before I started seeing signs of his temper, and after that, I’d been afraid every time I heard the door opening and him coming home.

One would have thought I’d get up and leave, but by that time I’d been used to the lifestyle he offered me and the safety of having a larger house around me, and you’d be surprised how easy it is to get used to a new way of life.

How easy it is to make excuses for the man you think you love.

But that had all come crashing down, and though I’d run from him and thought I’d left that part of my life behind, now I was starting to think that I might have put myself back in danger just by coming home to Oakville. If I had, it was my own fault. I’d known Steven and Tony didn’t want me coming back to town. They’d paid me to stay away, and I was the one who’d broken the rules by coming home again.

But wait.

I took that statement and turned it, examining it more closely.

I’d come home, to my home town, to be with my mother after she got in an accident. I was allowed to come home. They couldn’t stop me.

They were the ones who’d hit me and then threatened me.

They were the ones who’d done wrong here. Not me.

And I was going to need to keep that in mind if I was going to stay here and fight them. I’d just come home to be with my mom. I didn’t care if they didn’t like it. They were the ones who’d broken the law. True, it was concerning what Susan had said about other people’s lives being thrown off-course by the McCarthy family, and I wasn’t saying they were people I could just shrug off, but still...

This was my home. I wasn’t going to let them force me out of it again.

“Got room for one more in that game of fetch?” a voice suddenly called out from my left.

I paused in the action of throwing the ball again, sending Silver into a frenzy of barks, and turned to see Warren leaning over the fence that separated his property from my mom’s.

His face, handsome and rugged in the sunlight, brought a smile to my lips, and I felt a sudden rush of adrenaline at his presence. Which was, you know, weird. He was just the neighbor I’d been spending time with, trying to get to know.

Just a man who’d looked like he could use a friend.

There was zero reason for my body to be reacting like he was someone I had a secret crush on.