Deadly Infatuation

Chapter 46

Max

"How are Lily and her mom doing?" my dad asks over the phone.

His question takes me back to earlier in the afternoon when Lily called me on the phone crying her heart out, unable to form a coherent sentence. I left the office and rushed straight to her mom's place to find Bailey on their kitchen floor dead with Lily and Julie kneeling by his body. I shiver as I recall the blood caked in Bailey's fur and on the kitchen tiles. The horrific sight had caused my face to turn ashen, and I had to hold my hand against my mouth to suppress myself from being sick. I only had to take one look at his wound to know that this was no accident and when Lily could get her sobs under control, she filled me in on what had happened before she broke down in tears again and all I could do in that moment was hold her as she wept in my arms.

I squeeze the back of my neck as I answer him. "Lily stopped crying about an hour ago and her mom went to the guestroom with Milo to try to get some sleep."

After what had happened in the woods, I knew Lily and her mom were no longer safe there, so I brought them to my home. My parents did offer for us to stay with them, but I didn't want to burden them or lead Sarah there. I'm hoping that my electric gates and high fences will be enough to keep Sarah out for the night and then, as soon as this storm passes, we'll get out of this town and shelter somewhere safer. For now, I have Kane and Miller watching the front and back side of the house in their cars while Blake and Johnson cover the inside of the house.

"It can't have been easy for them to find him like that."

"No, they were both beside themselves. Sarah killed their fucking dog. What kind of deranged lunatic does something like that?"

I hear my dad sigh down the line, also at a loss for words on how to handle this ever increasing fucked up situation. "I know, son, I know. We just have to pray that the police find her before she tries anything else."

"Well, she better fucking not because if I see her I'll kill her myself," I growl.

With the detectives confirming that the blood and hair sample belong to Sarah, it means we now know without a doubt that she's the one doing everything, and over the last couple of hours I've been thinking about everything that we know Sarah has done; the burglaries and damage to property, attacking Lily, setting fire to the vineyard, and now killing an innocent animal. Those are things that people do before they are ready to kill a human. Only Sarah has done it on a much faster scale while other criminals build up to this over years, which means she must have lost it more than we originally thought. I press the palm of my hand against the loaded gun that is attached to my hip, feeling comforted by its presence. I've never had to carry it on my person before because I've never needed a reason to. It's normally locked away in my safe, but after I brought Lily and Julie here, I headed straight to my office to retrieve it.

"Max, please don't do anything stupid," my dad pleads. "She's a very dangerous woman."

I rest my hand against the cool glass and look out into the night, the sound of the unrelenting storm reverberating through the glass. Sighing heavily, I try ease my dad's concern, "I won't. I'm just mad, that's all. But if she tries to make a move on us, I'm ready for her." I don't really want to shoot Sarah, but now that she's killed Bailey, who's saying that her next target won't be one of us?

"Just be careful," he warns. "I don't want anything bad to happen to you or anyone else. Keep indoors until the morning and then we'll figure out what to do from there. Until Sarah's caught, I don't want you or Lily going to work. You're too easily accessible there."

"I've already thought about that. If it wasn't for this storm, I'd have driven us out of town where Sarah can't find us."

"Hmm, that might be a wise choice to get out of town for a bit. I'll let you go. You must be exhausted, stay safe and give my love to Lily and her mom."

"Will do. Bye dad."

I end the call and slip the phone in my pants pocket. Checking the time on my watch, I see that it's just gone midnight. With a yawn I decide to exit my office and go look for Lily who was in the living room last time I saw her. As I pad along the corridor in bare feet, I can hear Lily talking in hushed tones and I decide to lean against the door jamb to wait for her to finish her call and find her curled up on the couch in front of the fire, her doe eyes lifting to meet mine. "Thanks Paige. You're the best," she sniffles, wiping her nose.

My heart clenches realizing that she has probably been crying again since I left the room. She nods her head in response to something Paige says and sniffles again. "I'll try. I'll speak to you tomorrow."

As she ends the call, I push off the door and walk over to Lily and sit next to her on the couch, taking her cold hands in mine. "How are you doing?"

"Better. Paige suggested I try to get some sleep."

I give a small smile and rub my hands over hers to warm them up. "That's a good idea. You look exhausted, babe."

"I feel exhausted. It's just every time I close my eyes I see him, I see Bailey."

"Lily," I breathe, pulling her into my arms. I hold her head to my shoulder and use my other hand to rub small circles on her back. "I'm so sorry you're going through this right now. If I could take your pain away, I would in a heartbeat."

"I know you would."

"What can I do to help?"

She tilts her head up so that we're looking at each other. "Just hold me for a while longer."

I nod my head in response. "As long as you need me to, I will."

We sit together on the couch for the next ten minutes, both silent, both holding onto each other for support. When we finally separate, I take hold of Lily's hand and guide her up to the bedroom. Without saying a word to each other, we strip out of our clothes, both needing this intimate connection. Lily lays down on top of the bed and I cover her body with mine and gently slide inside her, her lips parting slightly as I do this. We unhurriedly take our time with each other, only soft gasps and sighs filling the room. When we finish, I hold Lily in my arms and watch her tired eyes eventually fall closed. Whispering my love for her under my breath, I softly kiss her creased brow and place my head beside hers and close my eyes.