Page 55 of Sharp Lies

“I want to make sure you don’t kill him,” I said quietly. “Because it’s not going to do me any good if you’re in jail. You can’t protect me from in there, Warren.”

I waited, hoping that would be enough to calm the anger I could see rushing through him, and watched as his face went from manic and frantic to something a little less intense, and then finally to rational.

“You’re not trying to save him?”

I actually laughed at that. “Why the fuck would I try to save him? He just told me I wasn’t allowed to see you anymore! He can go to hell, for all I care, but I don’t want you to send him there. Let the cops deal with him.”

“You know they won’t.”

I wanted to argue with him and say that the cops would do their jobs, but I knew he was right. We’d already seen that the cops in this town didn’t want to do anything when it came to Tony and Stephen McCarthy.

Which just meant we had to find another way to take him down.

“So we’ll figure something else out,” I said. “We’ll find a way to take him down ourselves. Together.”

Warren reached up and took the hand that had been sitting on his shoulder. “We’ll find a way to take him down together.”

I smiled softly at him. “Definitely.”

In that moment, Tony twisted out from under Warren and got to his feet, one eye swelling shut and his nose bleeding. “You two are so freaking cute,” he snarled. “Take me down together? Please. You don’t have the resources or the money to take me down. And if you so much as try, I’ll make sure it’s the last thing you do. I wanted to give you a chance to do the right thing, Lily, but I can see you don’t have enough sense in your head to do it. So I’m only going to tell you this once. Either come back to me and keep your mouth shut, or you’ll regret it. You’ll both regret it.”

“I’ll never come back to you,” I said, pushing my chin out and glaring at him. “I’ve found someone better, Tony, and I don’t want to see you ever again.”

He stared at me for a moment, his face a mask of fury. “You’re going to regret that, Lily. I’ll make sure of it.”

And then he turned and was gone, leaving the threat hanging behind him.

But he didn’t seem to understand that Warren and I were together now. And whatever Tony did, we’d face it as partners.

We’d face it as two people who cared enough to have each other’s backs.

And that was something Tony would never have.

THE END

You’re scared you wasted your love on the wrong person...