Page 34 of Clever Deceit

If he'd assaulted people, though, that should do the trick. And if he was in jail, he wouldn't be able to come after us.

If he didn’t have too many allies in the police department. That was something we’d have to consider, and it could be a major roadblock in gathering enough evidence to take this to trial. There would be so many cops who were willing to look the other way based on the handouts the McCarthy family had given them, and they might dismiss anything we put in front of them to protect Tony.

The thought made my stomach twist with anger. I had blamed myself for so long, but what chance did I stand against the power that Tony had here? He pretty much had free run of this town. I could have come out with everything back when it had first happened, but I doubted they would have paid any attention. At least I had managed to get some money out of him to start a new life—if I’d chosen to go straight to the cops, I might have been chased out of town without a penny to my name, and I had no idea what I would have done.

But with more people to stand against him, they couldn’t just deny us. They would have to make a report, if nothing else, and it might be enough to spark some action from the members of the police force who weren’t in Tony’s pocket.

Of course, this meant I had to actually find all those other girls and get them to agree to testify against him, and that was what had kept me up most of the night. I knew of Madison and the girl that had filed for the restraining order, and I wasn't positive I could use either one of them. Frank had said his niece had history with Tony, so that might be one extra, but I couldn't be sure she'd actually file a report, either.

I was going to need to find the girls and then talk them into being brave, and I had no idea how I was going to do either of those things. Some of them might have been hurt more recently than me, and I knew how long it had taken me to finally pluck up the courage to come back. I doubted I would have even done it had it not been for my mother’s accident. Some of them would still be nursing the scars, refusing to entertain the idea of even thinking about him again in case it ripped them open once more.

And I knew I wasn’t just talking about their emotional scars, either. Not a chance.

I opened my eyes and looked down at Silver, who was wearing the dog equivalent of a grin as she looked up at me. We weren't spending as much time together as I'd like, and I'd promised her—and myself—that from here on out, I'd take her on daily walks to the small, wooded area near my house. It would get her some exercise and give us some time alone together, neither of which was a bad thing. We'd spent years living out of my tiny van, just the two of us, and I missed that sense of us against the world.

Or us on an adventure together, which was just as good.

We started forward and were barely down the driveway when my phone rang. I groaned, thinking that my day with Silver had already been interrupted, but when I looked down I saw that it was my mother calling.

She'd had her surgery late in the afternoon yesterday, and though I’d talked to her right after, she'd still been groggy and incoherent.

“Mom,” I breathed, beyond happy to hear from her. “How are you feeling?”

“Better than the last time you talked to me,” she said with a laugh. “What did I say yesterday? I can barely remember. Do I need to be embarrassed?”

I laughed, already feeling better. “Only if you want to be embarrassed about telling me you couldn't feel your body and didn't think you should be talking right now. How are you? Able to feel all your limbs normally?”

“Yes, thank goodness. The nurse told me I made it through the surgery with a gold star, though I'm not sure that I had anything to do with it. I mean, I was asleep the whole time.”

This made me laugh even harder, and Silver and I stepped onto the shoulder of the road and started toward the woods. I was planning to get her there and let her off the leash so she could really stretch her legs, and if my mom was feeling good enough to be on the phone, that would give us some time to really talk.

“But more importantly, how are things there? How are you holding up?”

The buoyant feeling inside of me punctured and deflated. “Good,” I lied. “Calm. You know. Uninteresting. Maybe everything's taken a turn for the better.”

It was a flat-out lie. Not even close to the truth. But my mom had also just come out of surgery, and the last thing I wanted was to tell her that a member of the police force had approached me with a story about his own niece and an offer to help take Tony down. I also wasn't going to tell her what that led to, in my mind: more confrontations with Tony and danger for us. She didn't need to know about any of that, and she definitely didn't need the stress it would bring on her body.

We got to the forest, and I let Silver off her leash, turning the subject to something more harmless while Silver raced off. I was just laughing at something my mother had said when I saw Silver come to a sliding stop, her head low and her hackles rising up. I thought at first that maybe she'd seen a squirrel or raccoon, but moments later, she was growling and putting her tail between her legs.

Silver didn't growl at squirrels.

“Mom, I have to run. Can I call you back in a bit?” I asked, forcing my voice to stay normal.

“Of course. I don't exactly have any place to be.”

I tried to smile at that. Really, I did. But I already knew that Silver had found trouble, and all of my attention was on the trees in front of her. I hung up without telling my mother goodbye and called out for Silver to come back.

Instead, she took three threatening steps toward the forest, her lips lifting in a snarl over her teeth as her growl turned even more threatening.

What the hell was going on here?

I glanced at the trees, wondering, and had just turned in that direction when Tony himself stepped out from behind the largest trees, his hands up and a wicked snarl of his own on his face.

“Best keep that mutt under control, Lila, or I'll have to put it down for you.”

I stared at him, my words failing and my breathing ragged. What the fuck was he doing all the way out here, and so close to my house? What was he doing hanging out in the forest? Had he been waiting for me?

He wouldn't actually hurt Silver, would he?