Page 183 of Liberating Lily

“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?