Page 8 of Clever Deceit

Something inside me melted at the words, and I recognized it as the tension I'd been carrying with me for the past week, the fear and fatigue and the knowledge that everything could go sideways at any moment, and that I might not be able to handle it on my own. He was right; even if Mom and I woke up in time to catch Tony before he did anything, the chances of us being able to get in touch with Warren, if he was anywhere other than here, were minimal.

And if Tony decided to get violent, my mom and I wouldn't be enough to stop him.

“You'd do that?” I breathed.

He pressed a kiss to my forehead and slammed the door behind him, closing out the dead squirrel and the horrible roses, and the expanse outside that was hiding Tony McCarthy.

“In a fucking heartbeat,” he murmured. “I'm not letting him have you back, Lily. I'm not giving you up.”

I leaned my cheek against his chest and wrapped my arms around him, breathing in his scent and letting it settle me.

Warren living here. Warren standing with me when I faced Tony McCarthy.

Keeping me safe. And me keeping Warren from his loneliness.

Yeah, I thought. I could live with that.

“Yes,” I whispered.

Because as long as Warren was here, I thought, we could figure everything else out.

CHAPTER 5

LILY

––––––––

“HOW LONG DO YOU THINK you'll stay?” I asked, as

He stooped down, picked up the new clothes he had gotten in town, and lifted an eyebrow in my direction. “I'm not even moved in yet and you're already trying to get rid of me?”

“No!” I spluttered. “I just... I mean... This is all just...”

He walked to my side and planted a sweet, soft kiss on my cheek, then moved his lips to my ear. “There's no pressure. This doesn't mean anything about anything. It's me putting myself in a position to take care of you, and that's all. Don't overthink it, Lily.”

Don't overthink it.

Easier said than done.

A couple weeks ago, I'd been in California, living the life of a nomad and going wherever I pleased. Just me and Silver and the empty road in front of us. No ties except to the love we both had of carne asada fries and a good milkshake. No one to take care of, no one to go home to.

No one to threaten us.

I'd moved home when my aunt called me to tell me my mother had been in a car accident and needed someone to watch over her, and the moment I stepped foot back in my hometown, everything had changed. I'd had immediate suspicions that my mother's crash hadn't been random but had been the work of the men who'd driven me out of town in the first place, and that suspicion was strengthened when those men—my ex, Tony McCarthy and his father, Mark—had immediately started haunting my footsteps. I'd had a run-in with Tony almost immediately, and then another, and then another, and had found out that he and his father essentially owned the town's police department. I'd weathered a rock through the windshield of my van and a nighttime visit from Tony himself, when he threatened me and my mother if I didn't give him another chance.

And I would have left town again just to get away from him, if it hadn't been for the fact that I'd gone from having no one to care about to having multiple people to take care of.

Because somewhere in the midst of all the drama, I'd found Warren, and he'd become...

Really, really important.

Which was a complication, because I knew that if I cared about him, it made him a target for Tony and his father, too.

So now there were four of us—me, my mom, Silver, and Warren—and we were all in the McCarthy crosshairs. All in danger, in one way or another, until we figured out how to make it stop.

So yeah, I was wondering how long Warren was going to be staying at the house I shared with my mom. I was worried about my mother and me, and our safety... and I was worried about Warren himself.

“I'm not overthinking it,” I told him seriously. “I'm wondering how long you're going to let me protect you.”