Page 21 of Clever Deceit

Which would have meant that his house never would have burnt down. He wouldn't be on a list of people to watch for the local cops, and he wouldn't be putting himself in harm's way trying to protect me.

The things I was thinking must have been showing on my face because he only waited one more moment before deciding I wasn't going to answer him. He slipped his fingers under my chin and tipped my face up so I met his eyes.

“Lily, who are the flowers from?” he asked quietly.

“Tony McCarthy,” I said, unwilling to lie to him.

He closed his own eyes briefly, then pulled me back in for another hug. “I should never have left you here alone,” he breathed. “I'm so sorry. He was here to drop those off, and anything could have happened. I never should have left. But it's not happening again. From here on out, I'm with you no matter what. I'm going to protect you from that man no matter what it takes. I'm going to take him down. And his father with him.”

I didn't answer.

I was too busy wondering how much danger he'd be in if he started actually going after Mark and Tony McCarthy.

CHAPTER 11

WARREN

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I GOT HER UP OFF THE floor—which was no place to be sitting in the first place, and certainly no place to have this conversation—and led her to the kitchen table. She flinched when she saw the windows, and I followed her wide eyes, wondering if she'd actually seen anything out there. If she'd seen something, though, I was certain she would have told me. More likely she'd come to the conclusion—same as I had—that if the flowers had been delivered after I left, it was probably because he'd been watching from somewhere.

Waiting for me to leave.

Waiting until she was here alone.

I wanted to punch myself. Dammit! I was stupid. What had I been thinking, leaving her here on her own when I knew for a fact that Tony and his father were both gunning for her? Sure, she'd been in the house, and in theory that made her safe, but we'd also been in my house when Tony tried to burn it down around our ears.

If he loved the girl, he had an awfully screwed-up way of showing it.

Probably because he was broken in the head.

“I'll get the curtains,” I told her quietly. I sat her down and moved toward the windows, drawing the curtains as quickly as I could and then hitting the lights so the kitchen was still bright and as cheery as it could get when a psycho killer might be outside hiding in the bushes.

I wasn't going to share that last part with her.

I pulled one of the other chairs close to her and dropped into it, then put my hands on her knees. To my surprise, she pushed my hands off and climbed into my lap instead, sitting like a little kid with her head against my chest.

She must be really frightened. She was doing a good job of hiding it, but Lily almost never asked for physical support like this. What exactly was going on in that brain of hers?

“Tell me,” I said quietly. “Tell me everything.”

She started talking without any further prompting and told me about the first day she'd been here, when she ran into Tony at the bakery and he’d tried to sweet-talk her. How he'd turned aggressive and then demanding and how he'd followed her all the way back out to her car, trying to bully her into giving him another chance.

Sure, I'd already known some of this. But it looked a whole lot different now that we were in a situation where he'd actually tried to burn a house down and then kidnap her when we escaped.

“I just don't know what he wants,” she said in a small voice. “He was so mean when we were together, and he and his father literally ran me out of town. Paid me to leave and never come back. Then as soon as I get back he tries to convince me to date him again? That doesn't make sense, right? Why would he pay me to leave and then try to get me back as soon as I was in town?”

Because he doesn't like the idea of anyone else having you, I didn't say.

Because he wants to have you all to himself.

And most of all, because he wants to possess you, not love you.

I'd seen the type before. Men—and women—who didn't actually like a person but became fixated on them and then couldn't stand the thought of them belonging to anyone else. People who thought they could own another person and do whatever they wanted with them, including hurt them as often as they liked. Men who would destroy anyone who tried to take that person away from them.

I'd seen them when I was a kid, in fact. My dad had been that way with my mom and had killed her instead of letting her get away from him. And then he'd tried to control me the same way—until I got away from him.

I wasn't going to let Tony do that to Lily. The girl was strong enough to take care of herself, for sure, but also sweet enough that she'd never understand anyone else wanting to hurt her. Which meant she wouldn't see him coming until it was too late.