Chapter 42
Harvey drove up and parked in front of where Lily was standing. Then he got out of his car. “Everything all right, mo bhreáthracht? You look a little pale.”
“No, everything isn’t all right. You need to leave.”
“Sorry?” he asked, staring at her.
That noise inside her was definitely her heart breaking, or maybe it was internal screaming from the pain at what she had to do.
But it was better than him being hurt. Or worse.
Make it believable.
“I changed my mind. This isn’t going to work.”
“You changed your mind?” he said slowly. “Just like that, huh?”
Lily shrugged. “Well, I took off on you just like that, didn’t I? Ran off without leaving a note or calling you. Don’t you think that if I wanted you back in my life, I would’ve called you?”
He gaped at her, as though he couldn’t understand the words that she was saying. She couldn’t understand it herself. She just knew she had to get them out.
“I would have called you if I wanted you, Harvey, but I don’t.
You need to go, and not contact me, don’t come back.
I’ve realized that I want nothing to do with you.
I don’t need you in my life. You were just there at a convenient time to take care of me, but now I’m moving on.
I want to stay here. So please, turn around and leave. ”
This hurt. It hurt so damn much.
But if it saved him, it was worth it.
Harvey scowled. “I will not leave. You can’t just change your mind like that on a whim.”
“Of course I can. And If you don’t leave, I’m going to call Jaret’s brothers to come over here and forcibly remove you, so go.”
“You can’t be doing this.”
“I don’t love you, Harvey. I don’t want you.”
For a moment, she thought he was still going to refuse, but then a look of anger came over his face. Her stomach tightened.
She had to remain calm. She had to keep the pain off her face.
He spun around and stomped off to his car.
Why was he going? Why was he giving up on her?
Wait, no. She wanted that.
It wasn’t until he was in his car and had turned away, driving off, that she let herself crumble. She fell onto her knees and a sob broke free.
“Don’t cry over him,” the cold voice said from behind her. “He’s no one to you. From now on, I’m everything.”
She turned and glanced up at him. “Who are you? What do you want?”
Lily knew she should get up, that she couldn’t just kneel there, staring up at him. But she couldn’t seem to make herself move. It was like she was giving up.
Remember the animals. You have to protect the animals. They’re all like Clem’s family.
Right, she had to look after the animals. Getting up, she glanced around. What was she going to do? How was she going to make him go away?
“You know who I am,” he said.
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I really don’t.” She didn’t know why she was apologizing, but she guessed it was a good idea to keep him happy.
Drumstick made a loud, angry noise, and she glanced over at where he was sitting on the roof of the barn.
“Fucking bird nearly gave me away,” he snarled. “I should shoot it.” He held up his gun as though he was going to take a shot.
Her breath caught in her chest, but then he lowered it.
Oh God. Oh God.
Her heart was racing so fast and hard that she felt ill.
“Don’t need to bring any attention to us, do I? Not until we’re far away from this place, my love.”
My love? Why was he talking like he knew her? Who was he?
“It’s sad that you don’t know who I am, Lily, when I’ve spent so much of my time looking at you, at your naked body. He recorded those videos just for me. I was the only one who got to see you like that, except for him, of course. He got to touch you, move you. I didn’t like that.”
There was hatred in his voice now. And she gaped at him. He’d seen those videos of her. Wait . . . was he saying that Doctor Wallace recorded those videos of her for him?
“I was trying to find you when the video was late. When I contacted him, he said it was coming, but that wasn’t good enough.
It wasn’t the agreement. I needed you to keep me calm.
Without that video of my love, I became very, very angry.
So I tracked him down. I found where he lived and I waited in hiding for him. ”
Her mind was scrambling to keep up with everything. “You tracked down Doctor Wallace because he was late with the video?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, like I said, you were the only one who kept my anger at bay. I waited for him at his house. After he told me your name, I killed him. Unfortunately, I should have asked him for more information about you. Like where you lived.”
“You really killed Dr. Wallace?” she asked, struggling to keep up.
“Of course. Unfortunately, then I had to leave the doctor’s house quickly because that man turned up. Your boyfriend. How dare you have a boyfriend, Lily? You’re meant to be mine, all mine,” he snarled
Oh God.
Clearly, this man was deranged, and she should do her best to stay on his good side. This was going to be hard, but she had to do whatever she could to keep him calm. To stop him from hurting anyone else.
“But I didn’t know about you. If I had then I wouldn’t have had a boyfriend. But I was in a bad situation with my mother. She was forcing me to marry someone else, and Harvey took me. That’s why I was with him. He basically kidnapped me.”
He narrowed his gaze as if trying to figure out whether she was telling him the truth. Lord, she hoped he bought it. The last thing she wanted was for him to go after Harvey.
“I had no clue that you existed. I thought that Dr. Wallace was selling those videos to a lot of people.”
“I wouldn’t have allowed that,” he told her. “Those videos of you were only for me. Doctor Wallace knew that you were meant to be mine, but he kept you from me. He had to die. And because he touched you. Nobody touches you but me. Did that guy touch you?” He nodded toward the driveway.
“No, no,” she said quickly. “I’ve been too traumatized for that. He hasn’t touched me at all.”
“I’m not sure I believe you,” he said suspiciously.
“It’s the truth, believe it or not. I guess that’s up to you.”
Shoot. Be nice, Lily.
“What are you planning to do now?” Lily asked.
“We’re going to walk to where my truck is parked. Let’s go.”
And then she spotted him. She didn’t know how he got out of his paddock. And at that moment, she really didn’t care. Not when she saw him start to paw at the ground.
She started walking, watching Chuck out of the corner of her eye.
When Chuck started running toward them, she let out a scream and took off. “Watch out, he’s charging.”
“What? Oh, fuck.”
He fired his gun and she cried out.
Please don’t let him hit him. Please don’t let him hit Chuck.
She looked over her shoulder, but to her shock, Chuck had managed to slam his head into the guy’s side. He must have caught him by surprise as he went flying through the air and the gun fell onto the ground.
Turning, she raced toward the gun. She had to get it. She couldn’t risk any of the animals getting shot. Picking the gun up, she glanced around, wondering what she was going to do.
That’s when she saw the ladder resting against the side of the barn. Jaret had been up on the roof fixing it, and the llamas were tucked away safely in a paddock.
So she took off racing for the ladder. She just had to get there before he caught up to her.
She kept hold of the gun as she raced up the ladder. It wasn’t easy and holding the gun slowed her down. She heard yelling from behind her and she looked down.
He was nearly at the ladder. She wasn’t going to make it. This was hopeless. Her only chance was to shoot him with the gun, which absolutely terrified her.
But to her shock, Chuck charged at the guy again. He slammed into the man and the ladder just as she threw herself up onto the roof.
She lay dangling there, terrified that she was going to fall, or that she would set the gun off.
“Come on, Lily. You can do this.” She swung her hips from side to side then managed to get her foot up high enough to hook it onto the roof. Then, inch by agonizing inch, she pulled herself up.
It was insane, and she shouldn’t have been able to do it. She could only think that fear and adrenaline managed to get her up onto that roof.
Once she was up there, she realized one problem though—the ladder was still down there, and he could easily set it back up again once he got rid of Chuck.
Oh God.
She was going to have to shoot him. She stared down at the gun. Her entire body was shaking, her heart racing.
Could she do it?
Do you have any choice?
There was movement out of the corner of her eye and she glanced over to find a car coming down the driveway again.
Relief filled her followed instantly by anxiety.
Harvey jumped out of his car just as she spotted Chuck Roast attempting to head butt that guy again. He yelled, dodging out of the way.
“What the fuck? Lily? What is going on?” Harvey demanded.
“That guy held a gun on me,” she yelled down at him. “He threatened to kill Piggy Wiggy if I didn’t send you away. He’s the one that killed Dr. Wallace. He’s dangerous. Be careful.”
But Harvey obviously didn’t feel like heeding her warning as he threw himself at the guy. To her surprise, Chuck backed off as Harvey and the guy wrestled.
It looked evenly matched and fear filled her. She slid to the end of the roof and sat there, watching worriedly with the gun held in her hand.
Did this thing have a safety? How did she even work it? What was she going to do? She was too scared to fire it in case she hit Harvey.
But suddenly, Harvey landed a heavy smack onto the guy’s face, and he dropped to the ground, unconscious. For a long moment, Harvey just stood there with his hands on his hips, breathing heavily.
Then he took off his belt and rolled the guy onto his front before tying his hands behind him. He glanced up at Lily. He looked rugged and messed up. So sexy she could barely breathe.
Now isn’t the time, Lily.
“Is there rope anywhere?”
“Yes, there’s a loop of it in the barn, hanging on the wall.”