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“HERE, SWEETHEART, SIT down,” Mom told me, running her hand over my hair to try and calm me. It felt hollow—I didn’t see how anything was going to be able to calm me after what had just happened.
“You need to rest, Mom,” I told her, almost robotically. I needed something to focus on, something that wasn’t the burning, aching pain deep down in my chest now my dog had been taken from me.
“Honey, don’t worry about me right now,” she replied, guiding me to a seat. “Warren, can you get her some water?”
“You stay here, I’ll get it,” Barry offered, and he hurried out of the room as Warren crouched down beside me.
“Hey,” he murmured, tilting my chin up so my eyes could meet his. “It’s going to be okay.”
I wanted to believe him. I really, really did. But how could I, when Silver had just been taken from me? That dog was an innocent in all of this; she had never done anything wrong in her life. Another creature who’d been pulled into my mess of a life, and who was probably now struggling because of it. I hated this. I just wanted it to end...
He put his arm around me, but before he could say anything else, I heard the sound of wheels crunching on the driveway outside.
“Who’s that?” I asked fearfully, not even sure if I wanted to know the answer. It felt like everything that happened today was just one piece of bad news after another.
“I’ll check,” Warren replied as Barry returned with the water, handing it to me. I sipped on it shakily, feeling sick to my stomach as I listened to hear who was at the door.
A few moments later, Frank and Rocco strolled in to the living room. They glanced around at our faces, and Rocco shook his head.
“What the hell happened here?” he asked. “Is everything okay? I heard a commotion on the fire scanner, and when I saw it was your place, I wanted to come down and make sure everything was okay...”
“He stole Silver,” I replied, my voice bubbling with tears before I could stop it.
“He stole—who stole what?”
“Her dog,” Warren explained. “Her ex, Tony McCarthy, turned up here and pretended Silver attacked him. He called animal control and got her taken away. Tried to get me taken away too, but he just settled for the dog in the end.”
“That dog is usually safe?” Frank asked.
“She would never hurt anyone,” I replied at once. “She’s so gentle and sweet. I just don’t understand why he would do this to us...”
“Because he wants to hurt you,” Warren told me. “It’s not about Silver. He doesn’t even care about that dog, he doesn’t want anything to do with it—”
“Why would he have been targeting you?” Rocco asked, sounding confused. “With respect, Lily, I thought whatever you two had was over a long time ago.”
“It was,” I admitted. “Or at least, I thought it was. But I...I had to come back here recently, to help my mom after the accident, and I started seeing him again. And the way he treated me before, I...I just couldn’t handle it. I reached out to some other women who had been involved with him and I found they all had the same stories that I did. So we’re making a case against him. Hopefully his father, too, because he seems to be in on it.”
Rocco stood there for a moment, then let out a long, low whistle between his teeth.
“Damn,” he muttered. “That explains it.”
“Yeah,” Warren agreed, squeezing my knee as he crouched down beside me. I could tell he was really concerned about me, and I felt guilty for taking the attention when I knew full well what was going on with Silver, but I just couldn’t help it. I felt like my heart had shattered into a million pieces, and I didn’t know how I was going to put it back together.
“You have anything on the McCarthys and how they use their money in this town?” Warren asked, glancing up at Rocco and Frank hopefully. They exchanged a glance.
“We have some information,” Frank replied carefully. There were a whole lot of layers to what he was saying right now, I could sense it, as though the two of them might have spoken about this before, but chosen to put it aside until they had more to work with.
“You do?” I perked up. I would take something, damn near anything right now. Anything that would let me believe for an instant that there was a way out of this, when it felt like the walls were closing in on us.
“So does he know you’re planning this?” Rocco asked, pressing for more information before he shared anything they had.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I know he’s been following me for a while, and I don’t know exactly how far that stretches.”
I shivered at the thought, trying not to let it linger in my mind for too long. I didn’t even want to think of everything he had seen, everything he had been watching me for.
“But he doesn’t know the details, right?”
“Unless one of the women who spoke to us about it has come to him with any of them,” I replied. “And trust me, I don’t think that’s likely.”
“Then we have to move fast,” Rocco replied. “We need to start pooling information as quickly as possible. The more people we can get in on this, the better. Are any of the women who came to you willing to testify in court?”
“A couple,” I replied.
He winced. “Not enough,” he remarked, shaking his head. “These guys have roots that run really deep in this town. It’ll take a hell of a lot to uproot them.”
I nodded, but before I could stop myself, I found my face crumpling again. I couldn’t focus on any of this, not right now—not knowing that they had Silver, and they were likely doing who knew what to her right now.
“Hey, you’re all right,” Warren tried to comfort me, and I shook my head.
“No, I’m not,” I gasped, a sob finally escaping me. “They have Silver. And I just know that Tony and the animal control officer are going to be plotting to put her down the first chance they get.”
“Lily, don’t even say that!” Mom interjected. But she must have known I was right. I could hear the terror in her own voice, evident in how terrified she was at the mere mention of it.
“They’re not going to do that,” Warren told me firmly. “They can’t. Not without good reason.”
“Don’t you get it?” I exclaimed. “Tony doesn’t need a good reason. He never has, not for any of this. All that’s ever mattered is him getting what he wants. All it takes is his dad pulling a few strings, and then Silver will be...”
I clapped a hand over my mouth, not even daring to say the words out loud again. The thought of it ripped a hole through my chest. My dog, my sweet, precious dog, who had been my companion through so much of this—I didn’t know what I would do without her. Before Warren came along, he had been the only one I felt truly safe around, and he had been relying on me for the same thing. I had let him down, utterly and completely. I had totally failed him, and now, I knew there was nothing I could do to change that.
Warren wrapped his arms around me, knowing there was no more point in trying to argue with me. My emotions were too high, the mess in my head a million times more than I could take. I wanted to scream, I wanted to tear my hair out, I wanted to run out of there and go find Silver and show her that I would never let anything happen to her. That had been the responsibility I had taken on when I had gotten her, and I had failed at it.
And what else was I going to fail at, too? Was I going to let down Madison, Jane, Julia, Iris, all the women who had been hurt by Tony? I felt like I already had, by not doing more to stop him after he had driven me out of town. I had taken the money and run, and I wasn’t sure anyone would take me seriously knowing how easy it had been to get me to give up on what was right.
Warren rocked me, and nobody said a word. The only sound in the room was that of my heaving sobs. I wanted to control myself, and I knew I was looking a total fool in front of everyone, but I didn’t care. I was spiraling out, wondering if any of this had been worth it—wondering if I had been crazy to think for a second that I could fight off Tony and everything he brought with him.
Once I had managed to start breathing normally again, Rocco stepped forward.
“Now I’m not going to claim to know everything about this situation,” he remarked. “But I do know a little about animal control cases. And if Tony wants to bring this case against you, he’s going to need that dog alive.”
I lifted my head, a glimmer of hope at the back of my mind.
“Really?”
“Really,” Rocco replied with a nod. “He might want to do worse to her, but this way, he makes it so you have to keep contact with him. From the sounds of it, that’s exactly what he’s going to want.”
I tried to calm myself down. He was right. And I was sure he knew way better than me how this worked. But there was still something nagging at the back of my mind—the reminder that Tony and his father had always been able to get what they wanted, no matter how hard I fought against them to stop it.
“Thank you,” I replied, and I managed to get to my feet. “I really appreciate you coming around to check on us. And we’ll be in touch as soon as we can with more information about how we’re trying to move forward. But right now, we really need to rest. My mom just got back from the hospital, and she needs some peace and quiet.”
I was running on empty right now, forcing the words out of my mouth because I knew I needed to. I wanted to be alone right now—or at least as alone as I could be.
“I’ll go too,” Barry agreed, and he gave my mom a quick hug before he followed Frank and Rocco to the door.
“Don’t wait too long to get in touch with that information,” Rocco called to me just before he left. “Remember what I said—they're not going to give us much time.”
“I know,” I called back, my stomach twisting into a knot. The door closed behind them, and I slumped back down into my seat, letting out a breath I didn’t even know I had been holding.
“I’m so sorry, Lily,” Mom told me, pulling me into a hug. I couldn’t even feel it. I was numb, looking in on my body from the outside and trying to navigate how I felt about all of this. I just wanted Silver back, safe, where I could make sure Tony couldn’t get to her. I could still see the way she had been cowering when Tony had rounded on her again, and it scared me to think of what else he might do now he had her alone.
Warren insisted on making us something to eat, and I managed to get a few bites down before I headed to bed. Warren lay next to me, his arm wrapped around me protectively.
“Remember what they said,” he murmured to me. “They’re not going to do anything to Silver, not now. They need her alive to make a case against her, right?”
“Yeah, I know,” I replied, trying to keep my voice steady, but the truth was, I didn’t really believe a word of it. I wanted to scream, wanted to tear my hair out right now and just beg the universe to give her back to me, but I had to act like I was being logical about it. I didn’t want to worry Warren and my mom any more than I already had, and the only way to do that was to focus on getting some sleep and letting go for the evening.
Warren eventually dozed off beside me, but I stayed wide awake, staring at the ceiling, my mind racing. I couldn’t stop thinking about what Tony would do to Silver now that he had her alone. Was he hurting my dog? The sound of Silver’s whines played in my head, and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the images that were tormenting me, but it was no good.
I lay there for a long time, as it grew darker and darker outside, until the only light was the watery, pale blue moon pouring through the window opposite me.
I lifted my head to check that Warren was really asleep. His chest was rising and falling slowly, and he looked pretty out of it. I touched his shoulder and held my breath to see if he would react, but there was nothing.
As quietly as I could, I swung my feet out of bed and stood up, grabbing my clothes to get dressed. I knew there was no way I could just lie here and wait for something to happen. No, I had to do it myself—I had to get out of here, and I had to find Silver and make certain she was okay. I didn’t even want to think how scared she must have been at that moment, how terrified that I had left her behind.
But I would never do something like that. I had walked away from too much of my life as it was, I had allowed Tony to call the shots on way too much. I was going to stop that right here, right now. I was going to bring it to an end.
I didn’t even know what I was planning. But the anger, the rage, the fear, and the guilt were all clustering up inside of me, filling my guts until there was no room for anything else. Of everything he had done to me, this might have been the worst. Taking an innocent animal like that, knowing how much Silver meant to me, just to torment and torture her to further his abuse against me? Would he ever let go of me? Of wanting me under his control again? I had to pray the answer was yes, but I was getting less and less certain with every passing day.
I paused in the door and looked over my shoulder toward Warren. I knew he was going to worry if he woke up and saw me gone, but he couldn’t blame me. He knew how much Silver meant to me, and he would never have asked me to ignore that. He loved that dog, too, and seeing the two of them together again was a major driving factor pushing me to get my shoes on and get out the door.
I pulled on a jacket, grabbed a set of keys, and stole out into the night, making sure to double-check the door before I vanished. I didn’t know where I was going—but the longer I stayed lying in bed, the deeper my fear got.
