Deadly Infatuation

Chapter 39

Max

For fuck's sake! How have we been outsmarted by Sarah yet again? I had Johnson monitoring the house, for Christ' sake. It overlooks the fucking vineyard! If my lungs didn't feel as if they were on fire, I'd give him hell for it.

I tighten my grip around Lily's waist, pulling her as close to me as I can as we walk back up the path, scanning the surrounding area, on high alert for any signs of impending danger so that I can pull her out of harms way if I have to. Heaven knows where Sarah is right now. For all I know, she could be watching us.

I look towards the trees in the distance that surround the vineyard, wondering if Sarah could use them for coverage to watch us, reveling in her planned destruction. But unfortunately, with the sky darkening, I can only see the shadows of the trees.

At least the fire is close to being put out now. From the looks of it, we've lost about 4 acres of grapevines to the fire, a small dent compared to the 500 acres total we own across our three sites, but still it'll have an effect on our harvest not only for this season but for the next few seasons. It'll take time to grow them again and to the quality that we use for our range of wines. I'll need to make to a phone call to the other sites to ramp up on security for the time being. I can't trust that this was a one-off event and I can't risk losing any more of our product.

I suddenly cough harshly into my elbow, my lungs protesting from the smoke I've breathed in and Lily rubs her hand against my back like she did earlier. It comforts me know that she's trying in her own compassionate way to help me and I thank her once I can breathe normally again. Hell, maybe she's right that my dad and I need to get checked out at the hospital.

"Mr. King, I think you need to see this, sir," Johnson calls up ahead.

Lily and I have only just made our way around the house, and so far, I see nothing untoward. Five huge fire trucks surround the driveway, but as we pick up the pace to see what has got Johnson rattled; I see him standing by Lily's blue Ford, his face full of fury. I glance down at Lily's car and my lips part as I make out under the porch lights of the house that her windshield has been smashed and in the center of the screen is a knife plunged into a white rose.

Fuck!

"My car!" Lily cries as she rushes forward to see just how much damage has been inflicted on it. "It was fine when I came out here to follow you guys."

"Don't touch anything, Miss Hail," Johnson advises her as she reaches her hand out to touch the glass. "There's a small patch of blood on the screen. It could belong to the culprit."

"Are you sure?" my dad asks behind me with hope in his voice.

"Yes, sir. I'll phone it to the police now so they can check it over."

"Good."

Johnson moves to the side of the drive to make the call and I quickly assess the rest of the vehicle and see that nothing else has been done to it thankfully. Perhaps with the amount of people rushing around the place, Sarah only had a small window of opportunity to cause this damage and let it be known that it was her. I still don't understand why she uses a knife and rose as her signature, though these crazy antics from her were once a surprise to me, so why not them? She may even use a white rose to toy with Lily even more, seeing as she sells flowers for a living.

My spirits lift minutely as we finally may have evidence that can put Sarah behind bars for good. "Let's hope this will be blood that belongs to Sarah and not one of the firefighters if they came to look at the damage themselves," I murmur, eyeing the speck of blood myself.

"But how could she have been able to do this? The police are supposed to be watching her," Lily wonders quietly, her brow drawing together.

Johnson and I exchange a look which doesn't go unnoticed by Lily. "What am I missing? Max?"

I give a small, uneasy cough and look at her. "The police pulled all monitoring of her this morning."

"What?! Why didn't you tell me?" she asks incredulously, her hands flying up in the air.

Shit, maybe I should have told her.

"I was going to tell you tomorrow. I didn't want it to get in the way of your evening with Paige."

"Well, it clearly has," she shouts. "You should have told me. First my shop, then my apartment, and now my car. What else does she have to destroy of mine?!" She looks at her ruined car again and runs her hands through her hair out of frustration. "What else haven't you told me?"

I bite my cheek, knowing that I need to come clean now about confronting Sarah before the business trip to Paris. If I don't, Lily could probably learn this from Sarah herself, and that's not a scenario I would like to play out.

"There is, isn't there?" she says sadly. "I thought we weren't keeping secrets from each other."

"I just didn't tell you because I wanted to protect you. The day after you were assaulted, I went to Sarah's home to warn her to stay away. I needed to do something."

She sighs and her shoulders droop. "There is no talking to her. She'll never stop."

"Lily, I'm sor-"

"Just don't Max," she murmurs. She turns her back to me and steps toward Johnson as he ends his call. "Can you take us to the hospital, seeing as my car is no longer fit to use?"

I can tell from the way she has her arms crossed over her chest and from her clipped tone that she's mad at Johnson, too. Though I'm also mad at him for potentially missing Sarah entering the grounds, I know he was only following my orders on this.

"Yes ma'am," he replies quietly, his head bowed.

Lily walks towards his black Mercedes and Johnson follows behind her and opens the front passenger door from where she's standing. I groan, knowing that she's sitting in the front to avoid being close to me. In all the time we've been together, Lily and I have never had a fight, which in hindsight is exceptional, considering everything that has happened. Though now she doesn't even want to be near me and I hate this. I thought I was doing the right thing for her by keeping this information from her for one day, but now I wish I had told her. It wouldn't change what has happened tonight, but she has a right to know if Sarah is able to move around Oregon freely with no restraints.

"She'll come around, son," my dad tells me as he places his hand on my shoulder.

"I hope so."