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I TURNED THE PAGE OF the book and stared at the text, trying to focus on what I was supposed to be reading. It was a good book. I knew because I'd read it before and been really, really into it. The action was good, and the romance was even better, and when I'd realized that I had an afternoon to just sit and enjoy some quiet time, this was the first thing I'd pulled from the shelf.
I'd loved this book the last time I read it.
And yet I'd been sitting here turning pages without taking in any of the text for at least half an hour now.
The problem was I couldn't get my freaking mind to turn off. Things had been bad since I got back to town, and they felt like they were only getting worse. The first run-in with Tony had been terrifying, but it had been nothing to the run-in I'd had this morning with his father. Mark hadn't said anything outright threatening, but the look on his face when I drove away from him had left little doubt in my mind.
He didn't like that I was back in town. He didn't like that I knew what he'd done to run me out of town in the first place. And he definitely meant to do something about it.
Maybe if I'd accepted Tony's olive branch in the first place, it would have protected me. Maybe I would have gone back under the McCarthy umbrella and been able to shelter there. Get my feet under me and figure out how I was going to handle being back in the same town as them. But instead, I'd essentially told Tony he could shove it and that I was never giving him the time of day again.
I mean, I hadn't been lying. But looking back on it now, I wondered if that had been the smartest move. After all, it would have been a lot more comfortable to let him think that I was his friend. It might at least have offered me some protection.
Instead, he'd been coming after me night after night, busting into my house and then busting my windshield. Setting the cops after me... and setting Warren's house on fire. And now Mark was telling me that we needed to be careful.
I believed him.
I just didn't know what to do about it.
I flipped the page I'd just turned back so that I was at the start of the chapter... and tried to focus on actually reading. Mom was on her way into town to see a friend for lunch before she left for her next operation, and Warren was out running errands. I had the house to myself for a short period of time. I was bound and determined to take advantage of it to try to relax a little bit.
If only I could get my mind to shut up for five seconds.
I'd just settled down to reading the first line of the chapter again, forcing myself to focus on it, when there was a pounding at the door.
I jumped up and whirled around to look at the doorway that led from the living room into the foyer, my heart pounding in my ears and my breath suddenly short. Who the hell was knocking on the door? It wasn't my mom, I knew that much. This was her house, and she never knocked. And it wasn't Warren. His knock was soft and tickling, like he was trying to be gentle with the wood, and he was living here now, too. He'd only knock if he needed help carrying something in.
Or if he needed help.
What if he was out there hurt and I was sitting here with my head spinning off my neck trying to figure out who was knocking on the door? The memory of Mark warning me that my boyfriend needed to calm down screamed through my head, and I was heading for the door before I even realized I'd given my feet the order to move. What if something had happened to him? What if they'd gotten to him while he was out there and defenseless against them? I'd told him what Mark had said but hadn't given him the full extent of my worries, so if he'd been caught unawares because I didn't tell him the whole truth...
I got to the door and jerked it open, then squinted against the bright sunshine outside. Damn, it was sunny out here. The house was so dim I'd forgotten it was still midday outside, and now that I had the door open, I was blinded by the amount of light pouring in. I put my hand up to shield my eyes and breathed, my eyes still half-closed. I could barely see through the door, but if I just waited a moment longer, my eyes would adjust.
When they did, I saw that there wasn't anyone at the door.
There wasn't anyone in the driveway, either. There were no cars that didn't belong there. Not even a bike.
The driveway was deserted.
What in the...?
I looked down at the step, wondering whether someone had delivered a package or left a note, and saw a bouquet of bright red and yellow sunflowers.
My favorites.
I grinned and dropped down, scooping the flowers up to my chest and looking out into the driveway again. They must be from Warren. He knew how stressed I'd been lately and must have thought he'd bring flowers home to me to make me feel better. He knew how much sunflowers cheered me up. It felt like it would be impossible to look at them without feeling better about everything in life.
I still didn't see him in the driveway, though, and I cocked my head. What had he done, dropped them off and hidden? Had he paid someone else to deliver them as some sort of surprise for me?
I mean, if he had, that was incredibly sweet.
But something felt off here.
I stepped back slowly, my eyes still on the lack of cars in the driveway, and closed the door in front of me. It wasn't like Warren to play games—even the kind that he thought might make me smile. The man was incredibly straightforward, and though we hadn't really talked about his childhood, I got the idea that someone had played too many games with him when he was young. He wasn't about to replicate the process.
So where had these flowers come from?
I walked into the kitchen, where the afternoon sun was streaming through the windows, and set the bouquet down on the counter, frowning at it. They were my favorite flowers, and that made them feel personal, but now that I was thinking about it, pretty much everyone I'd ever met knew that sunflowers were my favorites. I'd been wearing them in my hair ever since I was a kid and had decorated my childhood bedroom with the design. This was a small enough town that most people would have known that I liked them.
But who would have sent them to me?
And why?
I reached out, got the scissors from a drawer, and cut the plastic wrapping from the flowers, thinking that I needed to get them into some water. I might not know who sent them, and they might feel strangely dangerous, but that wasn't their fault. They didn't deserve to stay thirsty just because I didn't know who'd sent them.
The moment the plastic fell away, I saw that the flowers had come with a card.
My hands immediately started shaking, then, because I knew. Warren wasn't the kind of guy who'd send flowers with a card attached. It wasn't his style. He was up front and honest and forthright. He'd want to hand them to me in person with that crooked grin of his and tell me what he'd thought when he was buying them and why these were the ones he'd gotten.
He'd want to see the look on my face when I saw them for the first time.
Then again...
I glanced up at the window of the kitchen, then backed away into the hallway, where I was hidden from the window. Because I knew another man who'd liked to watch when he gave me news he knew I'd react to. Only he'd never bothered with good news.
No, he'd liked to say things that would upset me, just to see me try to cover up the panic they would send rushing through my body.
I looked down at the flowers in my hand again and reached slowly for the card. I knew who they were from now, and I knew the card was probably going to say something I didn't like. But I needed to see it. I'd sworn to myself that I wasn't going to hide from Tony McCarthy, and that included facing anything he sent to the house head-on.
He'd already sent a dead squirrel.
The card couldn't be any worse than that.
I took it from the stem of one of the flowers, set them down on the closest table, and pulled the card stock out of the envelope. Then, after a deep breath and a lecture to myself about being strong and facing this thing like the woman I knew I could be, I glanced at the writing inside.
Lils, I miss you so much. Do you miss me? That's good. Don't worry, though. You'll be seeing me soon.
It was signed with nothing more than a T.
But I didn't need anything more than that.
I backed up until I was standing against the wall and leaned there, letting it support me while my knees got weak and my stomach sank. I'd be seeing him soon. What did that even mean? It was a small town, and I saw a lot of people every time I went to the grocery store or the bakery. Hell, I'd seen his father just this morning. I might see him out driving around or when I took Silver to the vet to get a checkup. I might see him when Warren and I went out to dinner.
That was no big deal. I mean sure, it'd be awkward as hell and I'd rather not see him, but you learned to deal with these things when you lived in a town this small. It was impossible to avoid people.
No big deal.
It happened.
So why did this feel like a threat? Why did it feel like he was saying a whole lot more than just 'I’ll see you around town when you're getting groceries' or something like that?
And what the hell was he doing? They'd forced me to move out of town in the first place, and though Tony might have wanted me back then, that was five years ago. Why would he still want me back after all this time? He'd had other girlfriends, and surely that meant he'd moved on. What was going on here?
Why wouldn't he just leave me alone? He'd shoved his way into my house, done damage to my VW, and set Warren's house on fire. He'd tried to kidnap me.
What did he want?
And how could I get him to stop wanting it?
***
I WAS STILL IN THE hallway with my back to the wall, though I was at least now sitting on the floor, when Warren came back from getting some fresh air, whistling.
When he saw me on the floor, his eyes widened, and came running.
“Are you okay?” he asked, sliding to his knees and taking me in his arms. “Shit, Lily, what happened? Why are you in the hallway on the floor? Are you hurt?”
I reached up and quickly wiped the tears off my face. “Why would sitting on the floor in the hallway mean I was hurt?”
He drew back and gave me a look that said he thought my injury might actually be to my brain. “This isn't exactly a common place to hang out, you know. Besides...” He reached out and brushed the moisture on my cheek. “You've been crying. So sitting on the floor in the hallway with tears on your face means you have two marks against you just choosing to relax right here. What happened?” He looked down at the sunflowers now scattered on the floor, and his frown deepened. “Where did they come from?”
I breathed out slowly. I didn't want to tell him the whole story, and I definitely didn't want to tell him about all the things I'd been thinking—like that this would never have happened if I'd just given in to what Tony wanted that first time I saw him. I knew what Warren would say: that I didn't need to give that man what he wanted and that I was crazy for thinking I should.
But that didn't change the fact that if I'd given in to Tony, Warren and my mother wouldn't be in danger right now. And that idea was very, very tempting. But Warren would never accept it.
Hell, if I'd given in to Tony in the first place, I wouldn't even be with Warren. I might have met him, but I wouldn't have fallen in love with him, and I definitely wouldn't have slept with him.
Which would have meant that his house never would have burnt down. He wouldn't be on a list of people to watch for the local cops, and he wouldn't be putting himself in harm's way trying to protect me.
The things I was thinking must have been showing on my face because he only waited one more moment before deciding I wasn't going to answer him. He slipped his fingers under my chin and tipped my face up so I met his eyes.
“Lily, who are the flowers from?” he asked quietly.
“Tony McCarthy,” I said, unwilling to lie to him.
He closed his own eyes briefly, then pulled me back in for another hug. “I should never have left you here alone,” he breathed. “I'm so sorry. He was here to drop those off, and anything could have happened. I never should have left. But it's not happening again. From here on out, I'm with you no matter what. I'm going to protect you from that man no matter what it takes. I'm going to take him down. And his father with him.”
I didn't answer.
I was too busy wondering how much danger he'd be in if he started actually going after Mark and Tony McCarthy.
