Honest Neglect: Sleeping With the Enemy, #3

By Lexy Timms

Doing is never enough if you neglect being…

 

The McCarthys have kidnapped Lily—but if they think I'm just going to let them steal her from me, they've got another think coming.

 

As my love for Lily grows, so does her ex Tony's determination to bring her down and stop her exposing his crimes. But he and his father don't know what they're up against. A storm is gathering around them, more people than I could have ever imagined taking our side to help bring them down for good. 

 

But they're not going down without a fight. They're trying to take everything from Lily—her dog, her home, her life—and I won't let them ruin her life all over again. This time, I'm on her side, and I'm going to bring hell down on their heads like they've never known before...

 

Sleeping With the Enemy Series

• Book 1 – Sharp Lies
• Book 2 – Clever Deceit
• Book 3 – Honest Neglect

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dark Shadow Publishing
• Release date: Feb 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224007189

Lexy Timms

"Love should be something that lasts forever, not is lost forever."  Visit USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR, LEXY TIMMS https://www.facebook.com/SavingForever *Please feel free to connect with me and share your comments. I love connecting with my readers.* Sign up for news and updates and freebies - I like spoiling my readers! http://eepurl.com/9i0vD website: www.lexytimms.com Dealing in Antique Jewelry and hanging out with her awesome hubby and three kids, Lexy Timms loves writing in her free time.  MANAGING THE BOSSES is a bestselling 10-part series dipping into the lives of Alex Reid and Jamie Connors. Can a secretary really fall for her billionaire boss?

Book preview

Sleeping With the Enemy

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Book 1 – Sharp Lies

Book 2 – Clever Deceit

Book 3 – Honest Neglect

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Honest Neglect Blurb

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DOING IS NEVER ENOUGH if you neglect being...

The McCarthys have kidnapped Lily—but if they think I’m just going to let them steal her from me, they’ve got another think coming.

As my love for Lily grows, so does her ex Tony’s determination to bring her down and stop her exposing his crimes. But he and his father don’t know what they’re up against. A storm is gathering around them, more people than I could have ever imagined taking our side to help bring them down for good. 

But they’re not going down without a fight. They’re trying to take everything from Lily—her dog, her home, her life—and I won’t let them ruin her life all over again. This time, I’m on her side, and I’m going to bring hell down on their heads like they’ve never known before...

Contents

Sleeping With the Enemy

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Honest Neglect Blurb

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Epilogue

Sleeping With the Enemy

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Chapter One

Warren

STARING AT THE HOUSE, I pulled my phone from my pocket and planted it down on my lap. Dialing Lily one more time, I took a deep breath. This was my last chance to get in touch with her before I walked into that guy’s house and showed him just what I thought of him.

And I didn’t intend to waste it.

I had roared all the way down to Tony’s place before I could stop myself the moment I realized Lily wasn’t where she said she was going to be. I was scared. Really, really scared. I couldn’t let anything happen to her, not when it felt like we were just beginning to build something real. I would never have been able to forgive myself.

No answer. I listened to the call ring out and go to her inbox, and tried not to wince at her chirpy tones. They sounded so out of place right now when I knew she could be in danger.

I got out of the car and slammed the door hard behind me. It must have alerted Tony to my presence because, a moment later, he stepped outside, leaning in the doorway and grinning at me.

And to what do I owe the pleasure of your company? he asked.

Don’t bullshit me, Tony, I snarled at him as I took another step toward him. If he thought he could scare me away from here, he had a whole host of other things coming.

Where’s Lily? I demanded, shoving him back toward the door. He let out a grunt, and I could tell I had caught him off guard. Good. Maybe that way, he would be more willing to spill the information I needed without putting up too much of a fight.

He smirked at me, gathering his composure.

Oh, maybe she’s just figured out what’s good for her, he remarked with a shrug. A rush of rage ran through me, and I grabbed him by the collar, pulling him toward me. I wanted him to see just how fucking serious I was about this, and just how little I wanted to be messed around by him. I’d had enough. He had put me through enough.

Where is she? I asked him again, giving him the chance to answer. If he just handed her over to me, I would leave. That would be far from the end of it, of course, but I would leave right now and get her to safety before I came back here to do what I needed to do.

He shook his head. I have no idea.

I know you’re lying, I snapped. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move in the house. A shadow passing by one of the windows. Lily!

Hey! I yelled, temporarily letting go of Tony while I tried to catch the attention of the figure I had just spotted. But it was no good. They couldn’t hear me and vanished back into the house.

Leave her alone, Tony snarled at me, and he lunged for me, shoving me to the ground. He caught me unaware and I landed on my back, the air knocked out of me. Normally, I would never have let someone like this get the jump on me, but I was so distracted by what he might have been doing to Lily that I didn’t have time to react.

Who’s in there? I asked him, managing to push him off me and spring back to my feet. Is it her? Is it Lily?

It’s none of your damn business, he spat back, and he swung his fist at me. Instead of connecting with my jaw, as he obviously intended, it crashed into the side of the house, and he let out a howl of pain.

All at once, the door opened, and sure enough, there was a woman standing there. She looked to be about ten years younger than Tony, and she clearly didn’t really know what was going on. Her hair was a mess, and she was wobbling on the spot, gripping onto the doorframe for support.

What’s happening? she mumbled, rubbing her hand over her face as she looked at the scene in front of her. Another flare of rage hit my system. So, this was what he was doing? Bringing women back here, doing who knew what to them. He was already lining up new victims, even as his old ones finally came after him.

What’s your name? I asked her urgently, ignoring Tony.

Don’t speak to her, Tony ordered. She’s got nothing to do with this.

Arielle, the woman whispered, her eyes wide. She looked around. Where are we?

She didn’t even know where she was. I hated to think what Tony might have done to her, what he might have slipped her to get her into that state, but it didn’t matter now. All that mattered was getting her out of there and making sure she never had to deal with this monster again.

Tony tried to grab me, and I spun around and pinned him against the door.

Run! I yelled to Arielle. She just stood there for a second, too shocked to move, but when I turned to give her a hard stare, it finally hit her just how serious I was being. She took off toward the road, her feet bare, her eyes still bleary from the unconsciousness she had just been forced into.

You’re a sick bastard, I told Tony, narrowing my eyes at him. He grinned, flashing me that shark-like smile. He looked like a predator, on the hunt for his next prey, even if this one had just managed to escape him.

I think I can live with that, he replied, and suddenly, I heard the sound of cars behind me. Spinning around, my heart sank when I saw who it was—cops.

And from what I understood, most of the cops in this town were well and truly in the McCarthys’ pocket.

I tried to put some distance between us so they couldn’t try to do me for assault, but I figured that ship had sailed. Who knew what Tony had spun to the police when he had seen me here. He must have called while he was still inside the house. Even at this hour, the cops were willing to run out here to deal with whatever mess he had gotten himself into.

And I still hadn’t gotten inside his place to see if he had taken Lily. Or worse.

I felt rough hands pulling me away from Tony, and I glowered at him as my hands were pulled behind my back and shoved into tight cuffs.

Tony took a step toward me, and the police attending this call didn’t even try to stop him, as though they knew their jobs depended on playing by the rules this psycho had set.

Don’t mess with the McCarthys, Warren, he told me, his voice laced with threat. It’s not going to end well for you.

Before I could get out anything in return, I was being dragged toward one of the cop cars and slammed in the backseat. My head was reeling. How had this happened? I should have put a little more thought into it when I had come racing out here to find Lily. I should have known Tony would take any chance he could to pull us apart, and locking me up in prison was a damn good way to make it happen.

Somewhere he knew I wouldn’t be able to protect her.

I scanned the roads for Arielle, and I couldn’t see her. Good. That probably meant she had managed to put enough distance between herself and Tony as to never see him again. I couldn’t believe he was so brazenly making moves on women who were in no fit state to consent. He had probably picked her up at a bar in front of everyone, but this entire town was too chickenshit to do anything about it.

I had to hope that he wouldn’t have been stupid enough to bring Lily back to that place with another woman there. He might have been reckless, but he had seen how his victims had started banding together. No way was he going to risk them doing it right inside his own home.

I tried to explain to the arresting officer what had actually happened as we drove, but they just turned off the intercom and rolled up the divide so they couldn’t hear what I had to say. Might make it harder for them to be so far up the McCarthys ass if they knew what they were actually defending.

I slumped back in my seat and prayed that, wherever she was, Lily was safe. I knew I had to trust in that. She was a strong woman, and that was why Tony was so afraid of her. That was why he struggled so much to keep her under control, because she wouldn’t get put down and made to shut up. One of the many things I loved about her.

At the station, they took my fingerprints, swiped my phone, and made me change into these ugly prison scrubs. I was only in jail, but they were trying to psych me out, trying to make me feel as though I was already hung, drawn, and quartered in their eyes. I wasn’t going to let it get to me. This was just another in a long line of mind games Tony played with the people he targeted, and now, unfortunately, I had managed to become one.

Pacing back and forth in the small cell they had me locked in, my mind went a million miles an hour. Trying to work out where Lily might have gone to, what the chances were that she was safe. Had I just managed to make things a whole lot worse by alerting Tony to the fact I was worried about her? I had pretty much just gone to his place and laid it all out on the line, told him that she was in trouble. If he took advantage of that now that he had me locked away? I didn’t even want to think about it.

After a few hours, I finally saw a friendly face. Frank. I breathed a sigh of relief and gripped the bars of my cell as he approached.

Frank, you have to get me out of here, I told him urgently. Lily’s in trouble, and Tony—

Frank was already shaking his head before I could even finish.

I’m sorry, he replied, his shoulders sagging down in defeat. I wish there was more I could do for you. I really do. But they’re pulling you up on charges of assault and stalking, and I don’t have enough clout here to get them dismissed without a damn good reason. You were on his property. You were confronting him when they got to the scene.

Yeah, because he had another woman locked up in that house! I exclaimed. Frank, she’s out there too. Arielle, that’s her name. She was in his place and it looked like she had been drugged.

Looked like? That’s all you have to go on, Frank reminded me. Remember who you’re dealing with here. They’re going to do everything they can to discredit you. Tony can just claim it was a consensual one night stand and they’ll forget you ever said anything about it. And put her in his sightline again.

I squeezed my eyes shut. I knew he was right, but the rage bubbling up inside of me was almost impossible to ignore. How could he keep getting away with this? How did this keep happening? How could this man, this evil man, just be walking around out there with no punishment for everything he had done?

I’m going to keep working on things for you, Frank promised me. And in the meantime, I’ll keep you as comfortable as I can. I know that McCarthy’s men will want to cause you trouble as long as they have you in here, but I’m not going to let that happen. Okay?

Okay, I muttered. I didn’t see what other choice I had. Frank paused for a moment, looking at me as though there was something else he wanted to say, but then he sighed, shook his head, and headed back down the corridor.

Leaving me in the quiet of my cell once more and wondering what in the name of holy hell I was going to do to get out of here.

Chapter Two

Lily

I CAME TO SLOWLY AND painfully, the agony coursing from the top of my head all the way down to consume my entire body.

Where the hell was I? I tried to open my eyes, but it felt like they had been glued shut, so heavy I could have sworn weights were dangling off of them. I managed to peel them open after a few seconds and tilted my head back, pulling in a long, ragged breath of fresh air.

No, not fresh air. The air in here smelled damp and dingy, the weight of it choking in my lungs. What was going on? I couldn’t remember. My brain felt fuzzy around the edges, and I wasn’t sure where to start with sorting through these memories.

I squeezed my eyes shut again. Okay, so what was the last thing that I actually remembered? I chewed on my lip. I could remember being in my car. Heading to the animal shelter and making my way out to find Silver. I knew I couldn’t get her back, but if I could at least see her, that would be something. If I could at least look at her and know she was going to be okay. I wanted her to know I was there for her and that there was no way I was going to let anything happen to her, no matter what. She meant the world to me, and the thought of her being taken from me—and the thought of Tony being the reason behind it—was almost more than I could wrap my head around.

I wanted to cry as I thought back to that feeling again, climbing out of the car and rushing toward the animal shelter. Pleading and begging out loud, muttering under my breath a million prayers to anyone who might have been listening out there. That was vivid, painted with bright color over the inside of my head, and I hated how clear it was in my mind.

But then, I had felt someone grabbing me. The pressure of something over my mouth. The shock of it had been so intense, I’d hardly had time to take any of it in before I had just passed out, my vision blacking as I slumped into my attacker’s arms,