Page 41 of Honest Neglect

A gun.

I had seen enough. I got up from the computer, my heart racing and my mind spinning as I tried to work out what I was supposed to do next.

“Where now?” the guard asked me.

“We need to get more of your men down here,” I instructed him. Normally, I would never have had this kind of confidence in the face of a nightmare like this, but I didn’t have a choice. This was Warren we were talking about, and something had happened to him. I wasn’t just going to sit back and let it. He needed me, and I would do anything I could to help him, no matter how terrified I might be.

He had done the same for me, come looking when I’d needed him most. But I had an idea of where he might be—and I was going to use every bit of strength we had on our side to get him out of there alive.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Lily

––––––––

“HERE, THIS IS WHERE they were keeping me,” I told the driver as we raced up the road to the forest where I had been trapped a few days before.

“You’re sure?” Leroy asked, his voice curt. I had gotten him and his men to come down to the bar and meet with me, showed him the footage of Warren and Mark, and then insisted we get out of town. I had a good idea where Mark might have taken him, and I figured he was relying on me to work it out. I needed to get to Warren, and soon. The more time that passed, the more likely it was that something terrible had happened to him, and I knew I would never be able to forgive myself.

The driver screeched the car to a halt, and I jumped out at once, wanting nothing more than to just take off into the forest and find out where he was. Leroy caught my arm.

“Hold on,” he told me. “We need to play this carefully. We can’t just go running in there—”

“You’re not,” I replied, trying to keep my voice steady. It was strange how clear-headed I felt right now, even despite what we were facing off against. I knew I was in so much danger, but I had a plan, and I would do anything to see it through.

Leroy frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I’m going to go in there alone,” I explained, steeling myself as I narrowed my eyes. “I’ll make Mark think it’s just me, that I’ve come up here by myself and he has both of us. And then, when he makes a move—”

“You’re putting yourself in a lot of danger,” he warned me. “Warren wouldn’t want this.”

“I know,” I sighed. “But I need to get him out. And if we all go in there guns blazing, Mark might panic, and I saw he had a gun...”

I shivered, pushing that thought to the back of my mind. The truth was that he could already have taken Warren out by now, but I didn’t even want to entertain that thought. If I let myself consider for a second that Warren was dead, I knew I couldn’t go through with this. I had to hang on to the belief he was still kicking so I could walk in there with the strength I needed to put an end to this.

“You guys follow me up to the warehouse, and then wait outside,” I instructed him. I could tell Leroy wasn’t exactly happy about taking instructions from me, but he knew better than to argue right now. I knew what needed to be done.

And I had to be the one to do it.

We cut through the forest quietly, and I traced the path back to the warehouse as best I could, crossing over the river I had lain next to when I’d thought it was all over. I could feel the same sensation tingling in my fingertips right now, but it was different this time—because Mark wasn’t the one who was going to finish this.

No, I was.

I saw the door to the warehouse open a few inches and nodded to Leroy to back off. He gestured to his men, who spread out around the outside of it, blocking any route Mark might have had to get away. I hesitated as I took a step toward the door, but then, I reminded myself who was waiting on the other side, and just what he would have done to get me out if I had needed it.

And I forced myself to push it open and step inside.

My eyes took a moment to adjust to the light in the warehouse, but the smell took me right back to the day I had woken up here, tied up to a chair, sure this was going to be my end. I pushed the sense memories from my mind, forcing them aside, and moved forward, walking slowly. I could hear Mark’s voice from somewhere deep within this place—if he was talking, that meant he had to have Warren alive, right?

Finally, I found them—Warren in the center of the room, bound to the same chair I had been when they had kept me here, still cemented to the floor. His hands were behind his back, presumably tied, and his eyes were fixed on Mark as he stood before him. Mark was still holding the gun, and I suddenly wished I had come in here with a weapon.

But I needed to remember why I was doing this. I didn’t want to spook Mark into letting off a shot. If he saw me or Leroy or one of his men coming in with a gun, he would start shooting, and I needed to make sure that didn’t happen. Warren’s eyes slid to me and then widened. His lips parted, as though he wanted to tell me to leave, but before he could, Mark spun around to follow his gaze. His face twisted with anger when he saw me standing there, and he leveled the gun at me.

“Don’t try anything, Lily,” he warned me. “You know I’ll blow your little boyfriend’s brains out if you try something clever.”

I nodded, and Warren and I locked eyes once more. There was a look on his face I couldn’t quite read—almost triumphant, but terrified at the same time. I wasn’t sure whether it was for him or for me, but I made my way to him, slipping a hand on his shoulder and gripping it tightly. Mark stared at us, but I could see dark circles beneath his eyes, and he exuded a kind of exhaustion I wasn’t sure I had ever seen from any of the McCarthy men before. Like...like he was finally starting to see that it was over, and there was nothing he could do to stop the wheels of justice turning—and crushing him and his son in the process.

“Just let us go, Mark,” I told him, keeping my voice as steady as I could.