Page 43 of Sharp Lies

But she hadn’t come to talk about how happy her life was now. Not if she’d already brought up what had happened before I left.

I walked her coffee over with the carton of cream and the bag of brown sugar and put it all down on the table. “Help yourself. And get to telling me what you’re here for, because I don’t think it’s to talk about your trailer. Or your roommate.”

Madison gave me a quick look and a wry twist of her mouth. “You’re quick, Lil. You always were.”

“Sometimes,” I agreed.

She sighed... and then she started talking. “I heard you were back in town, and I meant to come see you. But then I heard that you’d had a run-in with Tony at the bakery. And I heard what he said to you. I heard he was shouting at you and threatening you.”

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t know how much she knew, but I didn’t want to interrupt her story with the fact that he’d also attacked me in my own home and then put an axe through my windshield.

“I’ve heard rumors, see,” she continued, looking up through her dark lashes at me. “I knew you were with him before you left, and I have a friend who works at the hospital you ended up in. I... I heard about the marks on your throat.”

Ah.

So she was either here because she wanted gossip, or because she had something important to share. I was guessing it was the latter.

“The truth is,” she whispered, “he was already sort of talking to me when you left. I’d seen him around town, and he’d been... well, I guess you could say he was pursuing me. More flirting with me than anything,” she corrected herself, looking at me like she was worried I was going to judge her. “And I wouldn’t have done anything with him. I knew he was with you. But it’s nice to be flirted with sometimes, you know? He’d come around the bar and leave good tips and was always really nice, and...”

“And it’s awfully hard to say no to someone that good-looking when he’s going out of his way to charm you,” I finished. I put my hand out and laid it over hers. “I get it.”

Her face turned relieved at my words. “Exactly. I wouldn’t have done anything with him, but if he was going to be sweet to me I wasn’t going to stop him. I was flattered. And when you left, he turned it up about one hundred notches. Came to the bar every night. Took me out on weekends. Gave me fancy presents.”

“And told you he’d been waiting for a girl just like you, I’m sure,” I noted.

“Exactly. But it wasn’t long before... before...” She stifled a sob, like she was still going through it, and I squeezed her hand.

“What did he do to you?”

When she looked at me again, her eyes were wet and frightened. “He hit me. A lot. I never moved in with him—hell, he never even asked me to—but he’d come to my house drunk, and we’d get into it and it was all fists with him. I had to start lying about taking up boxing to explain the bruises.”

I gasped and pulled her to me, holding her while she sobbed into my shoulder. She was smaller than me and had always been frail, and the thought of Tony going after her...

Dammit, I wanted to kill him. I wanted to kill him for what he’d done to me, but the thought that he’d done it to someone else as well made me absolutely furious. What the hell was wrong with him?

And why hadn’t anyone ever done anything about it?

“But you got away,” I whispered.

“I never told anyone that it was happening, but it didn’t matter. He left me for someone else.”

“And you’re better off without him.”

She nodded at that. “I was glad he left. But when I heard you were back, I figured you would understand. And I couldn’t keep quiet anymore. I wanted to come talk to you, and tell you to be careful.”

“Careful?”

Madison nodded quickly. “He talked about you all the time, even when we were together. And every girl he’s dated other than me looks like you, Lily. They could all be you. I don’t think he’s ever gotten over you. I think he’s still in love with you. And I don’t want to see you get hurt. You got away from him, and that should be enough. But if he has his way...”

“If he has his way, he’ll get to do whatever he wants, and no one will stop him,” I finished for her.

She nodded again. “The police here don’t care what he’s doing. They keep away from him. Like he’s untouchable or something.”

I remembered what my mother had said about Warren and smiled. “He’s not untouchable, Madison. I just have to have someone on my team tougher than him. And these days, I do.”

I just hoped Warren would be the hero I was expecting him to be.

Though something told me he would jump at the chance.