Deadly Infatuation

Chapter 38

Lily

Because we're caught up in our own bliss, it takes all of us a few seconds to register the muffled shouting coming from outside the house. Max releases my lips to listen to the noise and as I stand frozen in his arms, I can just make out that the voice belongs to Johnson. My ears strain to hear what he is saying, though with him being too far away, I am none the wiser. Yet with the urgency he is shouting, I can tell it's not good.

Max must reach the same conclusion as I do as he springs into action and releases me from his arms and races to the front door, swinging it open with such force that it crashes loudly against the wall. I shout after him, worried about what he might run into, but my cries are useless as he disappears outside to investigate the cause of the commotion. Before I have time to catch my next breath, Max's dad, Oliver, and Peter quickly brush past me as they follow Max out the door.

"Lily, what's wrong?" Paige asks, her hand gripping my arm as she notices my paling face.

There's only one reason I can think of why Johnson would shout and that's because we have an intruder. After a week of calm, why today of all days is something bad happening again? Memories of being back at the apartment invade my mind and my blood goes cold. The destruction I was met with, the defaced photos covered in blood on the floor, the knife and rose that was also present at the break-in at the shop and the immediate pain that I felt when I received the two blows to the back of my head. Bitch, bitch, bitch. The words echo around in my head in the voice of the woman who has been causing me such misery. I look into Paige's bewildered eyes, seeing the confusion there. She doesn't know what's been happening. She has no clue why I'm worried. "Sarah could be outside."

"Sarah?" she asks puzzled, her brow furrowing, but then her expression suddenly changes and her mouth falls open. She grips my arm tighter with urgency. "Lily, is Sarah the reason behind your bodyguard?"

Unable to form anymore words, I nod my head once. Paige lets go of my arm and she glares toward the open door. "She's not getting away with this any longer," she says vehemently.

Before I can find any words, she runs for the door and I call after, not wanting to her go outside either. My efforts are in vain though as she carries on running and I chase after her, not wanting her to be in any harms away. When I make it outside, I don't see any of the guys, just our cars sitting idly in the driveway. I can hear voices coming from behind the house in the vineyard's direction, and Paige is already running in that direction to find out what is happening. Beth and Taylor soon join me by the door, looking as confused and worried as I am, and while my mind tries to work out what could be happening, Beth tilts her head up to the sky and gasps lightly.

I lift my eyes to see what has caused this response from her and notice a cloud of thick black smoke is rising high into the fading sunlight and it's then that I can smell the foul, intoxicating odor of something burning. Judging from where the voices are coming from and from where the smoke is appearing from behind the house, I put two and two together and realize with horror that the grapevines are on fire. "We need to get down there," I say in a loud panicked voice, already moving towards the trail of smoke.

Beth and Taylor run closely behind me, our shoes crunching against the gravel, and as we make our way around the house and the vineyard comes into view, I gasp in horror when I see that rows upon rows of the grapevines are set alight, blazing across the acres of land at a sickening speed. Even though we've been having intense heat these past few days which is capable of causing wildfires, it shouldn't be burning so fast like this. My immediate thoughts turn dark and I know, I just know Sarah has done this.

My chest constricts as I realize that if the fire spreads any further, it will have a devastating impact on their business. It could even jeopardize their European expansion plans. Max and his dad have worked so hard on achieving this and for it to all go up in flames, literally, would be beyond awful.