Page 40 of Sharp Lies

“Okay, so you haven’t,” my mom noted, her voice still pointed. “Then I won’t butt in. I will, however, insist on knowing what happened in the driveway of my house, and what it has to do with my daughter. Which one of you is going to tell me?”

In the end, we both did. I sat on the couch next to her, and Warren took one of the chairs—far enough away that neither of us was tempted to try to hold the other’s hand, I thought—and we started talking. I told my mom about the run-in with Tony in town, which I’d mentioned but not really detailed, and she already knew about him having broken into our house that night. She knew that Warren had come to my rescue, but I hadn’t told her about Layton and how he’d refused to take us seriously when we went to file a police report.

I hadn’t told her about the way he’d laughed when we said Tony’s name, or the feeling he gave both Warren and me that this wasn’t the first time Tony had gotten out of trouble because he’d paid the right people.

I’d also managed to avoid mentioning my visit with Aunt Susan and what she said about the McCarthy family hurting plenty of other people. And the doctor from the ER who’d acted so nervous when he found out I was planning to stay in town.

In the end, it turned out there was quite a bit I hadn’t told my mother, and by the time I was finished listing it all, I was feeling pretty guilty about keeping her in the dark.

“I didn’t want you to worry,” I finished up. “And none of it is really a smoking gun. Like... So Layton didn’t want to take a report, and Susan thinks lots of people have been hurt by that family. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything. And that doctor could have just decided he didn’t like Tony and be reacting to that, right? It’s not necessarily a sign of anything. I didn’t want you to worry about something that could just be me overreacting.”

She reached out and grabbed my wrist. “Were you overreacting when you called me and had me come pick you up at his house?”

“No,” I whispered. “I was terrified.”

“And were you overreacting when you refused to tell the doctors what had happened because you were afraid he’d come after you again if he found out you were telling people?”

“No. I didn’t realize...”

“Of course I knew,” she scoffed. “I watched them asking questions and could virtually see the thoughts going through your head as you refused to answer them. And I thought you were right. Why do you think I agreed to you leaving town like that, in the middle of the night and with no idea where you were going?”

“I thought you were just letting me go out and live my life,” I replied weakly.

She leaned in and held my gaze. “I wanted you as far away from that man as you could manage, Lily. I wanted you someplace he could never find you, and when you told me you were on the road, I was happy. That meant you didn’t have a house he could hide in or an address where he could track you down. I’ve been in this town trying to keep my head down and keep an eye on him at the same time, to make sure he wasn’t heading out there to try to find you. I know what he did to you, and what he’d do again. Now what was that noise in the driveway?”

My heart had melted and was puddling somewhere in my stomach at her words, and if I’d felt guilty before, I felt even worse now. I hadn’t had any idea that she’d known all of that, and I certainly hadn’t thought she’d let me leave town because she wanted me out of Tony’s reach.

“He put an axe through my van’s windshield.”

I hated that my voice was shaking when I said it, and that I could feel myself shivering and on the edge of tears. But I couldn’t seem to stop that particular reaction to Tony having touched anything that was mine.

“I’ll kill him,” she hissed.

“That’s not necessary.” Warren broke in. “I mean I’m all for burying bodies when the situation calls for it, but it’s pretty messy. And I think I have a better solution.”

Warren, it turned out, had a friend from the Marines who’d started a private investigation company and specialized in tracking down people’s backgrounds. He wanted to have his friend look into Tony and Stephen McCarthy and see what he could dig up. Some of the cops who were protecting them, too. He wanted to do this the legal way, he said.

If you counted setting a PI on the people you didn’t like ‘legal.’

When I said something to that effect, he just smiled at me and kissed me on the forehead. “Sleep, Lil,” he said. “We’ll figure out what to do about your van in the morning. Lock your door after me and don’t look out the windows. I’ll be over for breakfast.”

He left without saying anything else, and I locked the door behind him.

Though I then watched through the glass as he crossed the lawn, went through the gate, and made it to his own patio.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” my mother said quietly behind me.

I turned and gave her a long, considering look. “What do you mean?”

“Only that that man is going to settle down and love a woman with his whole heart, once he finds the right girl,” she replied. “And that I hope you know that. Don’t lead him on if you’re not going to stay in town, Lily. He’s broken enough already.”

I leaned back against the door and thought about her words, though it didn’t really take all that much thought.

If Warren was the man for me, I didn’t think I’d want to leave town again.

I liked the idea of staying here with him too much to want to leave.

CHAPTER 19