She rose and turned off the alarm before she removed her shoes, skirt, and shirt. Her head was stuck on what had occurred the night before, and she couldn’t get herself moving. A shower that normally took her ten minutes, took her twenty. Once she was finished, she stood in front of her closet in a towel with her hair dripping, but she wasn’t seeing her clothes. She saw Kyle.
Lily mentally shook herself and quickly grabbed a black long-sleeved shirt and a black skirt. She dressed and dried her hair. As she walked from her room, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She looked like she was going to a funeral.
Then again, it fit her mood perfectly.
Lily found it difficult to concentrate as she drove to Dreagan. It took her the entire drive before she convinced herself she was saving a life at Dreagan, as well as her brother.
Besides, what was the worst thing Dennis could do? It wasn’t like they wouldn’t catch him. And if he did get away with stealing whatever he was after, those at Dreagan had enough money to cover it. If it were as valuable as she expected, there would also be insurance for it.
Two lives were worth much more than some piece of art or jewelry.
Lily turned down the long drive to Dreagan. It was the first morning since she started work that she didn’t feel the excitement at being on Dreagan. Now she wished she’d never set foot on the land. She parked and turned off the car, but she didn’t get out. Instead, she sat in the car and stared out her window. Dennis had given her a day to find an entry point.
The idea that they—whoever the collective “they” were he worked for—pushed her to Dreagan seemed … improbable. There was no way anyone could’ve known where she would end up, especially not Dennis.
“Wanker,” she said aloud.
To think that at one time she had loved him. She had given up her family for him, given up herself for him. And for what? What did she have but scars, broken bones, and a fear of him that she wished she could cut out?
Lily might be na?ve at times, but she wasn’t a fool. If she did this for Dennis, he would return wanting something else. It was one of many reasons she had to kill him.
Then she needed to tell her family everything. Lies, even untold lies, were what had put her family in this position. Only truth could set everyone free.
She would need a weapon. Though she longed to plunge a knife into Dennis’s heart, he wouldn’t let her close enough. It was going to have to be a gun.
As long as she and Dennis had been together, there were things about her he didn’t know. For instance, he had no idea that her father had taken every one of his children hunting. Lily could shoot a handgun with deadly accuracy from fifty feet, and a rifle from 350 yards.
Dennis didn’t stand a chance.
Lily grabbed her purse and opened her car door. She would buy a gun after she got off work. Or perhaps during lunch.
She stepped out of the car and faced the store. It was no longer her refuge. Dennis had intruded upon her world once again. After today, she would leave, as hard as it would be to do.
She walked slowly to the store. As usual, the door was already unlocked. Lily stepped inside and heard Jane’s voice coming from the back. A moment later, Lily heard Elena’s as well. Lily put her purse behind the counter and grabbed the bag of money set aside for her. She opened the cash register and began to set up for the day.
“Morning,” Elena called.
Lily glanced up into Elena’s sage green eyes. “Morning.”
Elena walked toward the back with two bottles of thirty-year-old Scotch in her hands, her dark blond hair in a low ponytail. “I think it’s going to rain today.”
Lily paused in counting the money and looked down at her right wrist. She was so distracted she didn’t even realize it was hurting until Elena said something about the rain. “Yes, it is.”
“It is Scotland,” Elena said with a laugh as she placed the bottles on the shelf. “It rains almost every day.”
Lily forced a smile when Elena turned to her. “True enough. I used to think England got the most rain. Then I came to the Highlands.”
“Are you all right?” Elena asked with a frown as she approached.
“I didn’t sleep well last night.”
Elena’s frown deepened. “And the bruise on your cheek?”
“Bruise?” Lily touched the cheek Dennis had hit and winced when her fingers grazed the spot. She forced a chuckle. “I knew after such a spectacular fall that I wouldn’t get away without some kind of wound.”
“What fall?”
Elena was suspicious, and she had every right to be. Lily, however, was used to telling lies about her bruises. She was, she hated to admit, quite adept at it. “Yesterday when I went to my flat I stepped up on the curb, and my foot got caught in my skirt. I went down. Epically, I might add.” She finished it off with an embarrassed smile. “Wouldn’t you know there was a group of teenage girls who saw it all?”
Elena cringed. “They didn’t laugh, did they?”
“I was laughing,” Lily said with a grin.
“I’m just glad you weren’t seriously hurt.” Elena patted her hand and walked around the counter to the second register.