Page 2 of Clever Deceit

“Are you going to be okay?” she asked me, eyes wide as she looked up at me in the dark.

“Of course I will, Mom,” I assured her. “The fire’s out, and—”

“Not just the fire,” she corrected me. “I mean...everything else. With Tony.”

She did her best not to speak his name if she could avoid it, but the way it hung in the air between us now made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I didn’t know what to say to her. I wished I could tell her that, yes, it was all going to be all right, she had nothing at all to worry about, but how could I say that and really mean it? I had no idea how far he was going to take things, and the thought of that scared the shit out of me. I would never have imagined he would go this far, burning down Warren’s house, but I was sure this had something to do with him.

I just had to find a way to prove it.

“Yes, Mom,” I promised her, and she pulled me into a sudden, tight hug—gripping on to me with all her might, like she never wanted to let me go.

“You stay safe, sweetheart,” she murmured to me, and I quickly blinked back tears before she could spot them.

“I will,” I breathed, hoping she believed me. I couldn’t imagine how horrifying this was to her. I had protected her from as much as I could, but seeing her face with something like this—it was beyond what I could have imagined, and I hated that it had had to happen like this.

“You get some sleep,” I told her, pulling back and heading for the door. She reached down to pet Silver, and I pulled the door shut behind me, leaning against it to catch my breath.

I couldn’t stop the tears falling then. I knew they wouldn’t do me any good, but I couldn’t stop myself. I wanted to go and find Tony right now, I wanted to wring his neck and tell him that he would never get away with what he had done to us, but what good would it have done? He was getting away with it. At every turn, he was winning, and I wasn’t sure if there was anything I could do to change that.

I pulled myself together. Warren needed me now, and the last thing that would have been any good to him was if I came out there bawling my eyes out and needing his support. He was the one who had lost his home, after all—he was the one who needed all the help he could get.

I inhaled a deep, shaky breath, wiped my eyes, and headed down the stairs. This was no time for crying.

No, this was time for action.

CHAPTER 2

WARREN

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“ARE YOU OKAY?” LILY asked me, and I managed to nod. Of course, it was a total lie. I felt like I was never going to be okay again after what had happened tonight. It was the early hours of the morning now, and I could still smell the smoke in the air, the way it clustered around the house as though it was squeezing in on us.

“I will be,” I replied. It was the best I could give her right now, and even that wasn’t a lot. I wished there was something more I could say, something I could do to assure her that I was going to be all right, but there was no way I could pull that off with my house burned down next door.

“You should get some rest,” Lily told me gently. I didn’t know how I could rest, when I was sure the only thing I would be thinking of was the way my house had been swallowed up in flames.

But worse than that, Lily had almost been hurt. I had been so distracted by the fire that I had let it draw my attention, and Tony had gotten his hands on her. I should have been there for her, but I had failed, and I was furious with myself for letting him get that close. If I hadn’t gotten to them in time, who knew what might have happened—how it might have ended. I shivered at the thought.

She slipped onto my lap and rested her head against my shoulder. Her body was soft, exhausted, all the tension gone after the stress of tonight. How could it get any worse? I had no idea. But I had a feeling that Tony wasn’t going to let us off that easily.

“You’re going to stay here for a while, right?” she asked quietly. I lifted my head to look at her.

“You don’t mind?”

“Warren, I’m the one who got you into all of this,” she reminded me, raising her eyebrows pointedly. “I’m not going to kick you out on the street after what he did to you.”

“That would be great,” I sighed with relief. That was one less thing for me to think of, at least. I still didn’t know what I was going to do. I would have to rebuild the house pretty much from scratch, and the thought of that seemed to stretch out endlessly in front of me. I felt like I had just begun to build my life up into something I actually wanted it to be again, only for this to come along and rip me apart once more.

I nuzzled into her neck, inhaling the scent of her and trying to forget about what was waiting for me beyond the four walls of this house. Even after what had happened, I felt like she was worth it—she was worth every little bit of struggle that came with her, because she had made me feel alive in a way nobody had in a long time. It wasn’t her fault she had this past and this ex following her around. It didn’t matter. I could handle that.

I just couldn’t handle losing her.

“You’re going to need help doing that place up again, huh?” she remarked.

I nodded. “I really will.”

“Well, I’m right here,” she offered. “And I’m pretty good with a hammer.”