Page 28 of Honest Neglect

“I hope not,” I replied, attempting a smile, but I was pretty sure it came off more as a wince.

“Better to be safe than sorry,” he told me, and before I could say another word, Silver seemed to take her cue to come bouncing onto the bed next to us. We both laughed, and she nuzzled herself down in between us, resting her head on her paws and gazing up at us.

“Yeah, guess she’s getting used to sleeping in the bed,” he remarked as he petted her. “You think that’s going to be a problem when she gets home?”

“I think after what she did for me, she can sleep wherever she wants,” I replied. “And have all the treats she ever wants for the rest of her life.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Warren agreed, and he laid his head down on the pillow. “Come on, Lily. I know it’s not easy, but you have to try and get some sleep.”

I closed my eyes and reached out to take his hand beneath the covers. Knowing he was there certainly made sleep come a little easier.

Though I knew it would be a long time before I got a good night’s sleep again.

Chapter Sixteen

Warren

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I STOLE ANOTHER GLANCE at Lily in the rearview mirror. She didn’t look happy.

We were on the road, heading back to Oakville—back to Diane’s place, where we could recoup and figure out what our next move was. We were meeting with Paul, Marcy’s dad, later in the day, but I still didn’t know how that was going to go, or what exactly I wanted to ask him.

Lily had hugged Grace tightly before she left, squeezing like she didn’t want to let her go. I could tell she was unsure about making this trip, though she had done her best to act as though she was happy about it, telling me how much she was looking forward to getting to spend some time with her mom and leave behind all her worries. I didn’t know if she actually believed that, but she was doing her best to put on a brave face so I didn’t get too worried.

But now, in the quiet car, with Silver draped over her lap, she couldn’t hide how scared she was. I gripped the wheel a little tighter and turned my attention back to the road.

“We could go to the feds,” Leroy had suggested last night, when the two of us had been drinking together. I’d shaken my head.

“I don’t trust them.”

“It’s not like the cops back in Oakville,” he urged me. “They’re not going to be working with the McCarthys—”

“Yeah, but they still let people like Tony get away with stuff like this all the time,” I pointed out. “I don’t have any faith in them not to look at Lily and try to make out like she’s some crazy, jealous ex.”

I could tell Leroy had wanted to argue with me, but he thought better of it. I was digging my heels in about this. There was no way I would hand over control of this to anyone else, not when things had gone so wrong before. Everyone who knew about this, I wanted to have met them personally so I could vet whether or not I thought they were an acceptable addition to our team. We had to think tactically about this, no matter how tempting it might have been to let emotion get the better of us.

But it was hard not to feel emotional when I looked at Lily back there. We were going to her mom’s place, and she should have been happy, but instead, it looked as though she wanted nothing more than to burst into tears and curl up in a ball, her face pressed against Silver’s fur.

She had gotten so lucky the first time around. No, not just luck—some of it had been her fight, her willingness to stand up and do something for herself, but Silver coming all the way to find her and leading her to Leroy and Grace had been a hell of a dose of good fortune. We couldn’t rely on something like that happening again, and she knew it. If they moved in to strike once more, there might be no way to stop them, and I didn’t know if she would be lucky enough to escape a second time.

Leroy was on the road behind us right now. I had offered to bring him in my car, but he had refused, telling me he wanted to drive himself. I guessed it was so he could make a quick getaway if the time came, but I wasn’t going to bring that part up.

As we rounded the hill that led us into Oakville, she sat up again, staring straight forward.

“We don’t have to do this,” I murmured to her. Much as I knew this was the right thing to do, I wasn’t going to push her beyond her limits. I didn’t want her to feel like there was no choice—how would I have been any better than Tony if that was how I treated her?

But her face steeled, and she shook her head.

“No, we do,” she replied, and she crossed her arms over her chest and looked out of the window until we pulled up at her mom’s place. Diane was already standing on the doorstep when we got there, and Lily climbed out of the car and rushed over to give her mom a hug. Silver followed close behind, greeting Diane as though there was nowhere else in the world she would rather have been.

“Oh, it’s so good to see you, sweetheart,” she murmured as I approached the two of them. She smiled at me and gestured for us to come inside.

“I have a pot of coffee brewing,” she told us. “And we have visitors.”

Visitors? Lily and I exchanged a glance, but she followed her mother into the house. Diane would never have led us into a trap, I knew that much, and when I saw who was there waiting for us, I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Who’s this?” Leroy asked as he stood behind us in the corridor. He didn’t know there was no reason to fear Frank or Barry, but I was certain they were there to help.