Page 19 of Liberating Lily

After sending a message off to Michaela, he got to work cleaning the scratches on her hands. The entire time, she didn’t even stir.

That definitely didn’t seem normal.

After her hands were wrapped, he sent a message to one of his guys. Hopefully, the cops had taken away Roberta and his guy could go in and get Lily’s handbag and medication.

Soon after, he got an alert that Michaela was at the gate. After checking the camera, he opened the gate.

He wasn’t even sure if Lily had taken note of the security measures around the cabin. The fact that she’d taken off running was indication that she probably hadn’t. What she couldn’t know was that she wouldn’t have gotten much further before she reached the fence he’d had installed.

Which had cameras and alarms all the way along it.

It was up for debate whether the security measures he’d installed were to keep her safe or to keep her in.

It was a bit of both.

He met Michaela at the door. “Thanks for coming.”

Michaela shrugged. “That’s what you pay me for.”

It was and he paid her well.

“Where’s the patient?” she asked.

“In here, she’s asleep. Which seems odd.”

“Not used to women falling asleep in your presence, huh?” she asked dryly.

No, he wasn’t.

They walked into the living area, and Michaela moved over to where Lily was lying. She stared down at her for a long moment.

“She’s pale. How long has she been sleeping?”

“About forty minutes. She tried to run off and fell over. I carried her back here, and she just sort of slipped off into a deep sleep.”

“She hasn’t stirred? She must be exhausted.”

“Yeah. She’s been under a bit of stress these last few hours.” Probably even longer, given her mother.

Michaela set her bag down.

He pulled a stool over for her to sit on, and she took hold of Lily’s wrist, taking her pulse.

“Pulse is good. I’m just going to run a few tests. What’s with the bandages on her hands?”

“She scratched them, then when she ran off, she fell in the dirt. So I cleaned and bandaged them.”

“She scratched them herself? Does she do that sort of thing often?”

“Not that I’m aware of.” It annoyed him that he didn’t know her well enough to determine if she’d been hurting herself all along and hiding it. “I’ve never seen any visible signs.”

“Right. That doesn’t mean that she doesn’t do it in secret and hide it. She could need a therapist.”

He knew that. He needed to do some research.

“I know.”

Michaela nodded and didn’t say anything more. That was what he liked about her, she knew when to stop talking.