Page 12 of Clever Deceit

“What about it, girl? You want to go for a car ride? Evidently you're the price I have to pay to leave the house alone.”

She looked up and gave me a quick grin, letting me know she wasn't serious, but I didn't return it. She could joke all she wanted to—hell, maybe she had to, just to make herself feel more confident about going out there—but I didn't think this was a laughing matter. I'd heard about what Tony did to her when they were together, and I'd seen the long looks that passed between Lily and her mom when they talked about the car accident Diane had been in. I knew that Mark McCarthy had paid Lily to get out of town and told her not to come back.

I knew that he'd threatened her that if she did, she'd be sorry.

It didn't take much to put it all together to form a complete picture: Tony was an abusive man who hit the girls he was supposed to take care of, and his father not only condoned it, but also covered for him when he got caught. They'd paid off law enforcement and probably had an army of lawyers at their beck and call to get them out of trouble. They didn't believe in obeying the laws, and they sure as hell didn't believe in letting other people live if they decided they didn't like them.

By coming home to take care of her mother, Lily had planted herself right in their crosshairs, and as far as I was concerned, that was a problem.

But I didn't think I could force her to stay home and hide. She was too busy proving to Tony how much she wasn't scared of him.

And I sort of loved that about her.

Even while I was grinding my teeth at the thought of her putting herself out there, where I wouldn't be able to protect her.

I kissed her soundly and told her to be careful, then slapped her playfully on the butt when she left. And as I watched her get into her VW bus—the windshield now repaired—and back out of the driveway, I realized that maybe there was something I could do to protect her.

Because Lily might not want to confront Tony personally. She might still go all shaky and nervous whenever he was in the vicinity. But I didn't have that problem, and I knew exactly where Tony lived.

Maybe it was time Tony and I had a little conversation, man to man.

Maybe it was time for me to lay down the law and make sure he knew exactly what he was—and wasn't—allowed to do when it came to my girlfriend.

CHAPTER 7

LILY

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I PILED THE GROCERIES into the backseat of the VW—I'd bought enough to feed an entire army, more or less—and smiled to myself. I might have gone overboard, but it would mean none of us would have to go back to the store anytime soon. And with another mouth to feed in the house—and that mouth attached to a rather large man—I'd thought it better to err on the side of buying too much.

The smile on my face got even bigger at the thought of Warren being back home in the house waiting for me, and I marched around to the driver's side of the van, already thinking about what we were going to make for dinner. Then I saw the bakery on the other side of the road and paused. I hadn't been there since I’d first came back to town, and suddenly all I could think about was their shortbread. Buttery and flaky and sweet, they were better than almost anything else in the entire world.

I wondered if Warren liked cookies.

I wondered if he liked shortbread in particular.

I was betting he did.

I leaned in and rolled the window down a bit, then gave Silver a quick scratch behind the ears. “I'm going to the bakery for some cookies, girl,” I told her seriously. “Hold down the fort. I'll be right back.”

I didn't like the idea of leaving her in the car—hell, I'd taken her into the store with me for that very reason—but I didn't like the idea of taking her into the bakery. People were making things for other people to eat in there, and though this might be a small town with small-town sensibilities, people got weird when you had a dog in a place where they were cooking food. I just wasn't in the mood to make any trouble.

I had enough of that on my plate as it was.

I closed the door, looked both ways for cars, and dashed across the street, my stomach already growling. I couldn't remember eating much today, and the idea of getting something at the bakery, both for right now and for later, was starting to sound even better. When I got to the bakery's side of the street, I turned and glanced back at my bus, feeling slightly nervous about having left Silver there. The dog was sitting in the driver's seat with her head hanging through the window, tongue lolling and ears back, though, and looking like she was the queen of the world.

Silver had spent a lot of time sitting in that old bus by herself, I reminded myself. We'd lived in it for years, and she'd never had a problem with it. She'd be fine. Besides, I could see her from the bakery's windows and get there in seconds flat if anything went wrong.

Silver would be fine.

Turning, I stepped up onto the curb and reached for the door handle.

Amy appeared before I even got the door open and threw her arms around me, screeching in excitement. “Lily! I thought you weren't coming back!”

I laughed and managed to pull myself out of her grip. “Why would I not come back? I sort of live in town, Amy, in case you'd somehow missed that.”

Her smile dimmed a bit, and her eyes narrowed. “Oh, I know. But when someone comes to a bakery and has a bad experience, sometimes they don't come back.”