Page 33 of Clever Deceit

He paused for a moment like he was seriously considering that, and then simply said, “Why?”

Right. He was going to let me call the shots here.

I'd thought I wanted him to tell me what to do, but now that we were here and I was facing the decision, I realized I preferred it this way. I didn't want to be told. I wanted to have a say in what our decision was.

“I'm not sure it works, to be honest,” I told him frankly. “I appreciate Frank thinking he can take the statement and turn it in at another police department where Tony doesn't have any sway, but what then? Will they have the right to do anything when the incident happened here, not there? And even if they do and take the statement all the way to filing for a restraining order, who's to say Tony will respect that? He doesn't have to follow the law in this town. He just has to count on his pet cops to get him out of any trouble he gets into. And if he finds out I've filed a police report and tried to get a restraining order...”

I stared at him, my eyes big and the words refusing to form in my mouth.

“He might come after you just for that,” he said quietly.

“Yes,” I whispered. “It might be the only reason he needs to come after me. Or you. Or Mom. It might be what he's waiting for. And it might be why Richard can't find that other girl. You know, the one who did get a restraining order put through.”

He bit his lip and thought about it for a moment. “You think she's dead?”

I shivered at the sound of those words. I had tried not to imagine that, but it was a fair question. We had to consider it as a possibility.

“I think it's pretty strange that Richard can supposedly find anyone he wants to find and yet can't find her. And I think it might be less that she's good at hiding and more that there's nothing to find. Surely Tony and Mark knew she'd filed that restraining order. And Tony would never be able to just ignore something like that. He'd take it as a personal insult. Something he needed to punish her for.”

Warren nodded slowly, then reached forward and dragged me suddenly back into his arms. I didn't know what was going on, but I went willingly because saying the words out loud had made them a whole lot more real.

“It doesn’t mean they got her,” he pointed out. “It could be that she just made a new life for herself. Changed her name, made a new start somewhere...”

The fear had already started to set in for me, though, and I couldn’t stop my mind racing as I pieced together all the very worst case scenarios.

“What if they got her?” I asked him. I needed him to tell me it was going to be okay. I needed him to convince me there was a way through this, a way through it the victim who had taken out the restraining order might not have been able to find.

“If they got to her, it just means one thing,” he whispered against my hair.

“What?” I breathed. “That she wasn't careful enough?”

“That she didn't have someone like me protecting her. Because I don't care what they do, Lily. I don't care how mad they are or how much power they think they have. I will never let them have you. I'll spend my last breath defending you and keeping you safe, you understand me? I'll never let them hurt you.”

I closed my eyes and let his words sink in. He'd keep me safe no matter what. I didn't have any doubt of that. I'd known him for about a week, and I already knew he'd protect me with everything he had.

But I was really hoping he wouldn't have to go that far.

Getting a restraining order might not work. But something had to. Something had to be big enough to put Tony and his dad behind bars. Something that didn't include putting Warren and my mom in danger.

There had to be a way to get him out of our lives while protecting the people I loved.

I just had to figure out what it was.

CHAPTER 16

LILY

––––––––

“LET'S GO, GIRL,” I said, opening the door and making my way out onto the porch. It was a bright, beautiful day with that faded-blue look the sky gets when it's particularly warm, and I smiled up into the sunshine, letting it soak away the worries that had kept me from sleeping. I still wasn't over the idea that if I did the police report—and got a restraining order—Tony would find out about it and come after me. It meant that particular avenue of action was probably closed to me, which was frustrating, to say the least.

Though that didn't change my larger goal. I needed to find more girls who had experience with Tony and go to the police as a group. I still thought that if there were enough of us speaking out against Tony, the cops would have to take us seriously. If I had other girls backing me up, then I might take advantage of Frank's offer and do the police report. I might try to get it in front of a judge.

Make sure Tony was taken down by the girls he'd worked so hard to silence.

That was what was keeping me going right now, the thought of finally bringing to an end the reign of terror he’d had over me and so many other women over the years. He had been walking around, acting like he had nothing to worry about, but he hadn’t counted on me coming back into his life. He thought he had scared me off with the fire, but he didn’t know just how many people there were out there who would do anything it took to see him crash and burn.

I was pretty sure it would still be dangerous, but I was also hoping we could move quickly enough that he'd be in jail within hours of us having gone to the cops. Yes, Richard had told us that there was financial fraud as well, but from what I knew, that wouldn't get him thrown into jail immediately.