Page 42 of Honest Neglect

He sneered at me. “You really think it’s that easy?” he demanded. “That’s the problem with people your age; you think it’s all just waiting to be handed to you on a platter. You have no idea what it means to actually struggle or fight to get what you want.”

I glared at him. How could he say that to me, knowing what I had been through, knowing what he and his son had done to me? I tried to control my breathing, not wanting my rage to get the better of me. Now more than ever, I needed to keep my head, or I was going to lose everything.

Mark let the gun drop down by his side, pacing back and forth.

“That was Tony’s problem,” he muttered. “He never understood how hard I worked to get us where we were. How much I had to do to cover up the shit he would dump on my lap.”

“Like what?” I prompted him. The more information we had, the better, and it seemed like Mark might finally be tired of defending his son.

He shot a look at me.

“You don’t know the half of it,” he replied. “The bullshit he put me through. Knowing I was always going to be there to pick up the pieces for him. He could never keep his hands or his dick to himself, and it caused this family more trouble than I ever could have imagined. I thought I raised a better son than that, but he’s useless. Doesn’t know how to control himself. And now it’s gotten him locked up. Who knows what they’re going to dig up about him now that they have him in custody. Probably going to drag up everything around that girl again...”

“That girl?” Warren asked. I slowly began to slip my hand down his back, moving it toward the zip ties binding his wrists and starting to tug at them. I didn’t know if I could get him out, but even a little give might be enough for him to escape. Mark was so distracted with his rant he couldn’t even pay attention to what was going on between us. It wasn’t like before when I had been here, when he had been gloating and ready to prove to me just how bad this was. No, he was losing it, spinning out of control, and we could exploit that.

“He spilled some shit to her about tax issues we’d been having and then spent the next few weeks beating the hell out of her to try and keep it a secret,” he muttered. Marcy? Were they talking about Marcy? Or was this—was this about the girl who had turned up dead? I didn’t know.

“What was her name?” I asked as I felt Warren flex his hands against the plastic of the ties. He was much stronger than I was, and I could already feel them starting to give beneath his grip. He was going to be able to get out, I was sure of it. Mark turned to us, and I whipped my hand away from him, clasping my fingers in front of me so Mark wouldn’t suspect anything.

“What the hell does it even matter?” he replied. “He’s done now. But I’m not.”

He lifted his gun again, aiming it at me. My stomach twisted, but I didn’t move.

“You really think killing me is going to change anything?” I asked, my voice trembling. Leroy and his men were right outside, but if Mark pulled that trigger, there would be nothing they could do to stop this—it would be over. I would have a bullet lodged in my chest, and I was too far from anywhere to get treatment in time to save myself.

“No,” he reasoned. “Not for Tony. But if you think I’m going to let you tell anyone what I just said, you’ve got another think—”

Before he could finish what he was saying, though, Warren was on his feet. In a split second, he had dived toward Mark and knocked the gun from his hand, snatching it up and aiming it at the older man. My heart throbbed in my chest as I watched him taking control away from Mark before he could finish me off.

And that’s when I saw it—in his back pocket, the very last thing I had been expecting. His phone. And it was switched to record. I could see the seconds counting up on the timer as it took in everything that was happening in this room, everything Mark had just said.

And, as Mark lifted his hands reluctantly over his head, Warren shot a look at me, a grin on his face that looked like he could barely contain it.

Just like he had promised me—it was over. It was really, truly over.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Warren

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“GO,” I ORDERED MARK as I jammed the gun into the small of his back. My finger wasn’t on the trigger, but he didn’t have to know that. I wasn’t going to kill him, of course I wasn’t. I was going to hand him over to the cops and make sure he paid the price for everything he had done. No matter how tempting it might have been to take the shot as soon as I had the weapon in my hand, seeing him aim it at Lily like that, I wasn’t going to let my emotions get the better of me—not like he had.

I had a long-ass recording of everything he had spilled to me while we had been in that warehouse. I had started it when he had forced me into his car at the bar, figuring at least I would leave behind some evidence if he did decide to finish me off.

But I had felt strangely calm when he had brought me up here, even though I knew I was in some serious danger. Because at the back of my mind, I knew nothing was going to happen to me. No matter how sure Mark might have been that he had me where he wanted me, I could tell things were spinning out of control for him, and he couldn’t hang on to the power he’d once had. His son was locked up, the person he had done this all for thrown in prison—what reason did he have to go on? He had built a family name because he thought there would be someone to hand it down to when the time was right, and he must have known he had lost that now Tony had compromised himself so completely.

And when I had seen Lily walking in, I’d known for sure we were going to win. I didn’t want her here, but there was no way she would have stayed away—the same way I had come for her, she had come for me, and she knew as well as I did that we had Mark right at the edge. All it would take was a little nudge, and we could ruin him.

“Outside, now,” I ordered Mark as I shoved him to the door of the warehouse. As soon as we stepped into the cold night air outside, Leroy descended on us, followed by a handful of his men.

“Frank’s on his way,” he told me as he grabbed Mark and shoved his arms up behind his back, slapping on a pair of cuffs. I didn’t know where he had gotten them from, but I didn’t care. I still needed to get to the bottom of what he and his men were really up to, but right now, as I put my arm around Lily and she leaned into me, I couldn’t have cared less about it. Mark grunted as he was dragged toward the road, and Lily just stood there for a moment. I could feel her trembling, and I pulled off my coat and draped it around her shoulders.

“Are you okay?” I asked her. She smiled up at me a little sadly.

“I should be asking you that,” she murmured, lifting her hand to cup my face. “You’re the one who just got kidnapped.”

“I’m fine,” I assured her, and she closed her eyes and rested her head against mine.