Matthew nodded absently, staring at the scene before him.
Luke disappeared around the side of the stables and came back carrying two cans of gasoline. “They’re empty,” he said. “Any of you know where they came from?”
Matthew eyed the metal cans and shook his head. “All the fuel containers we use here on the ranch are plastic. Those aren’t ours.”
“Then I’d say this fire wasn’t just a matter of somebody carelessly smoking a cigarette or tossing a match,” Luke replied grimly.
“Looks like we’ll be in the market for some carpentry work,” Luke said. “The damage is mostly contained to the back wall. We should be able to salvage some of it.”
Matthew nodded absently. He wasn’t surprised by the fact that the fire was obviously purposely set.
“Where’s Lilly?” Clara asked, a touch of alarm in her voice.
Matthew looked around.
“She wasn’t with us,” April said. “Last time I saw her she was carrying a hose around the side of the stable.”
“I just walked around the building. She wasn’t anywhere that I saw,” Luke replied.
A stab of fear swept through Matthew as he looked around frantically. “Abby, would you mind going up and seeing if maybe she went to her room?” he asked.
Luke’s wife nodded, turned and hurried into the house. A moment later the window in Lilly’s room opened and Abby stuck her head out. “She’s not up here. She’s not anywhere in the house.”
Dread ripped through Matthew as he looked around once again. Where was Lilly?
“Maybe we should spread out and call for her,” Mark suggested.
Immediately they all fanned out, crying Lilly’s name. A cold chill gripped Matthew’s heart with each minute that passed and there was no answering call to their cries, no sign of her anywhere.
Had the fire been a ruse? A distraction? He thought of the snake in her bedroom, the mysterious rose that had been left for her. Terror gripped him. Where was Lilly? Dear God, where in the hell was Lilly?
He’d done it! He moved a chair closer to the side of the bed where Lilly lay, her hands tied to the iron bed frame. She was his. All his.
He leaned forward and sniffed her hair, her face, her neck, loving the fresh, sweet scent of her. He wanted to touch her face, run his fingers across her soft, silky skin. But that could wait.
Leaning back in the chair, he congratulated himself.
Setting the fire had been a divine inspiration. The diversion the fire had caused was just what he’d needed to accomplish his goal.
And the fact that it had all been so easy simply assured him that he and Lilly truly were destined to be together forever. He’d watched the Delaneys all arriving for the family meeting and he’d sneaked into the stables, splashing gasoline along the wall.
His hands had trembled while he worked, trembled with need, with desperation. It had been three days since he’d seen Matthew and Lilly making love, three days since he’d realized he had to act before he lost her to the handsome cowboy.
But in those three days there had been no opportunity to get to Lilly. She’d stayed close to the house, and with the party decorating going on, there had always been somebody with her.
But as he’d set the match to the gasoline, seen the flames leap to life with a whooph, he’d had a good feeling that this was going to work.
He couldn’t believe his luck when she’d walked around the side of the stables by herself, nobody else in sight.
He’d known it was a sign from heaven, that now was his chance to take what should have been his years ago. He’d approached her and tried to get her to come with him willingly.
As she had realized his intent, she had fought with him, and when she’d opened her mouth to scream, he’d sent an uppercut to her chin that had knocked her out cold.
He’d scooped her up in his arms and had carried her away from the burning stable, away from the people who had no right to her, and had placed her in his waiting truck.
The basement of his house had been ready for her for days. The narrow windows were covered so nobody could peek in, the floor had been scrubbed and the bed made with clean, pretty sheets.
On the nightstand next to the bed was a bouquet of flowers and on the walls were several pictures. He’d wanted the place nice for her. He’d even bought fluffy new towels for the nearby bathroom.
He leaned forward again, noting the faint blue bruise that was beginning to appear on her chin. He hoped he hadn’t hit her too hard, hoped he hadn’t broken anything.
“Lilly?” he whispered softly. How he loved the sound of her name on his lips. “Lilliana,” he said, using her proper name. “Wake up, darling.”
She didn’t move. There was no eye fluttering, no change in her breathing, nothing to indicate that she was anything but unconscious.
He sat back in his chair, content to simply sit and look at her and wait. He knew that she was going to be angry initially, that it might take her a while to realize they belonged together.
But he was patient. He’d waited seventeen years to finally have her, and now she was his. He had all of eternity to make her understand.
“It’s all right now, Lilly,” he said softly. “You’re safe here.” Maybe she’d be hungry when she awakened. He was a great cook, but decided maybe soup would be best for her after being unconscious. “I’m going to go upstairs and make you some nice hot soup. I’ll be right back.”
He stopped at the foot of the stairs and looked back at her, his heart swelling with the force of his love for her. He just hoped he could make her understand. He just hoped she would love him back. Because if she didn’t he would get angry. And his anger wasn’t a good thing. Sometimes his anger even scared him.
Chapter 13
“It’s all right, Lilly. You’re safe here.”
The words penetrated the fog of darkness inside Lilly’s head. The content of the words was apparently meant to soothe her, comfort her, but instead a wild panic surged up inside her before complete consciousness had taken hold.
As the darkness fell away, pain stabbed her jaw and she attempted to move her hand, wanting to touch the place that was so sore. A renewed sense of panic shot through her as she realized her hands were tied over her head.
With an effort she opened her eyes and gasped aloud. She was on a single bed, her hands tied to the iron bed frame behind her head.
What was happening? Where was she? Why was she here? How had she gotten here? She closed her eyes once again and tried to think, tried to find answers to the questions that whirled around and around in her head.
She remembered the scene with Matthew in his office, the humiliation of telling him she loved him, then going up to her room. She remembered crying with the pain of loving him and knowing he would never love her.
Then she’d gotten up and gone to her window and peered out. Fire! She’d seen flames eating at the stable and had raced down the stairs and into the family room to tell the others.
She frowned, her chin throbbing, making thinking difficult. Yes, she remembered the fire and she’d grabbed a hose to help douse the flames. While Matthew and Jerrod had worked on the front of the building, she had hurried to the side, thinking to attack the fire from another direction.
Her mind seemed to draw a blank there. She had a vague recollection of struggling with somebody, recognizing she was in danger. But that was all she could remember.
Whoever it was she’d struggled with at the stables had apparently brought her here and trussed her up like a calf. She pulled at the cord that bound her hands to the bed frame, but the knots were tight and the frame was sturdy. She tugged and yanked for several minutes, then stopped, exhausted and frustrated with the lack of success.
Did the people back at the ranch realize she was missing? Did Matthew know that she’d been kidnapped? “Matthew.” She whispered his name and prayed that he was looking for her this very minute. But where was she? If she didn’t even know where she was, how
did she expect the Delaneys to know?
A wave of hopelessness overwhelmed her and she felt the sting of tears at her eyes. She swallowed hard against them, knowing that crying would accomplish nothing. Tears trekking down her cheeks without the ability to swipe them away would drive her insane.
She couldn’t cry. She had to think. She had to figure out where she was and why she was here.
Her heart pounded as she heard the sound of footsteps above her. Then she heard the creak of a door opening and footsteps on the stairs. She quickly closed her eyes once again, feigning unconsciousness in an effort to come up with some sort of plan.
“Ah, my sleeping beauty,” a familiar voice said softly. Whose voice? She’d heard it before, but at the moment she couldn’t place it. She kept her eyes closed, afraid to open them and let whomever it was who held her know she was conscious.
Something cold touched the side of her jaw and she jumped and her eyes snapped open. “Ned!” she gasped in shock. Ned Sayville. Bewilderment momentarily usurped her fear. Why would Ned bring her here and tie her up?
“Ah, Lilly. You’re awake.” He smiled at her and placed the hand towel he’d used to touch her face on the nightstand. “I was afraid maybe I hit you too hard. You’ve been unconscious for a while.”
“Ned?” she repeated his name, trying to make sense of this. He acted as if it was perfectly normal that she was tied to a bed in his basement.
“I’m sorry I had to hit you. You know I’d never hurt you unless I absolutely had to.” Again he smiled. “I’ve made you some soup.” He gestured to the serving tray on the nightstand. “I thought maybe you might be hungry.”
Hunger was the absolute last thing on her mind. “Why are you doing this?” she asked. “Why am I here?”
He leaned back in his chair, his gaze soft and gentle, and that only managed to frighten her more. “Because this is where you belong. With me.” He leaned forward, his breath hot and fetid on her face. “You’re my destiny, Lilly. You’re my life…my love. I lost you once, but then I got a second chance to make it right, to make you mine.”
He was insane. It wasn’t the kind of madness that screamed out loud. He wasn’t picking imaginary bugs off his skin or spouting nonsensical gibberish.
Ned’s madness was much more dangerous than that, much more insidious because it was hidden beneath a mask of normalcy. But she heard it in his crazy words, saw it shining from the depths of his brown eyes.
“Ned, you’ve made a mistake. If you untie me and let me go now, I’ll see that you get some help,” she said beseechingly. “I won’t press charges. You won’t be in any trouble.”
He grinned again, the guileless, innocent smile of a man sure of himself. “I knew you’d say that. I knew it was going to take some time to make you understand. But you see, I lost you before and I just can’t take that chance again.”
“What do you mean, you lost me before?” She tried to ignore the pounding pain in her jaw, the ice-cold fear that flooded her veins.
“Seventeen years ago.”
Again confusion swept through Lilly. “I don’t understand,” she replied. “I don’t know you, I didn’t know you seventeen years ago.”
He leaned back in the chair once again, his smile one of infinite patience. “But I knew you. The instant I saw you I knew you were the one I’d been waiting for, the one who could take away all my loneliness and make my life perfect.”
He laughed. “I can see you still don’t know where we met, so I’ll give you a hint. The Taylors.”
“The Taylors? But they were a foster family I stayed with,” she said slowly, racking her memories for some explanation to what was happening now.
He nodded. “You were there thirteen days and six hours, then you ran away.”
She stared at him for a long moment. The Taylors had had three foster children in their care at the time Lilly had been sent to them. There had been a young boy named Billy, a thirteen-year-old girl named Sarah and a seventeen-year-old boy named Edward.
“Edward?” she said hesitantly.
He nodded, obviously pleased. “Edward is my real name, but I like Ned better. When you ran away, I looked for you. I knew my life wouldn’t be right without you, but I couldn’t find you.”
Lilly’s head reeled and the pain in her jaw grew more pronounced as she struggled to put together all of the pieces. “How…how did you find me again?”
His face shone with joy. “It was fate. I was on my way home from work and decided to stop at a grocer’s I’d never stopped at before. There I was in the meat aisle, getting ready to grab a pound of hamburger and there you were, picking up some chicken breasts.”
He stood, as if the excitement of the memory made it impossible for him to sit still. “I couldn’t believe my eyes. I recognized you instantly and knew fate was giving me a second chance. I followed you for the next several days. I found out where you lived, what your schedule was, how often you visited your aunt. Then when I saw your aunt’s house for sale, I spoke to the real estate agent and found out you were bringing her here.”
He paced back and forth at the foot of the bed. “I came out here a couple of days before you and your aunt. I knew I had to be ready for our reunion.”
“Ned, please let me go. Please untie me,” she begged.
He stopped pacing and smiled sadly. “I’m sorry, Lilly, but I can’t do that. I’ve waited too long for this moment. I’ve waited too long for you.”
Once again he moved to sit in the chair at the side of the bed. “You know, I tried to forget you, I really did. I found two women who sort of looked like you and I tried to love them the same way I love you, but I couldn’t.”
“So was it you who vandalized the guest cottages?” she asked.
“That’s right, and I put the snake in your room, too.” He shook his head with a rueful grin. “That was sort of a gamble. I was hoping you’d see it before it actually had the chance to strike you. After I took it out of your room and left the rose in your bed, I thought you’d understand about me and you, but you didn’t.”
“And you fired the shots at us while we were at the creek?”
“I fired at him…Matthew. I saw the way he looked at you, and it wasn’t right. You’re mine, not his.” His eyes narrowed and the pleasant expression on his face transformed to one of anger. “I wanted him dead, but I missed.”
Thank God, Lilly thought. Thank God he had missed. Otherwise the man she loved would be dead. Remorse filled her up as she realized she was the cause of the misfortune that had haunted the ranch.
As she looked at Ned, she realized something was missing. “What happened to your necklace?” she asked, remembering the piece of jewelry she’d admired. And there was a vague memory of her fingers grasping that neck chain just before he’d hit her and knocked her out.
His hand shot up to his neck, and surprise widened his eyes. He jumped up out of his chair, his eyes glittering with a dangerous light. “You’d better hope it fell off in my truck,” he said. “’Cause if it’s lost I’m gonna be mad. And you won’t like me when I’m angry. Bad things happen whenever I get mad.”
As he turned and hurried up the stairs, Lilly fought back a burst of hysterical sobs. She didn’t know what to pray for—that she’d somehow managed to tear the chain off his neck and leave it on the ground outside the stable where somebody might find it, or that it would be in his truck and she wouldn’t have to face Ned’s wrath when he returned.
He returned a few minutes later, his face red with rage. He stalked over to the bed and slapped her hard enough that it made her ears ring and tears spring into her eyes. “You made me lose it,” he exclaimed. “My mother bought that chain for me and now it’s gone.”
He drew several deep breaths, then sat in the chair next to the bed and reached out to gently touch her cheek. Lilly felt her skin crawl at his touch and fought the impulse to turn her head away.
“I’m sorry that you made me slap you,” he said, then to her relief he remo
ved his hand from her face and leaned back in the chair.
Despite the sting of the slap, a tenuous hope appeared in Lilly. Had she managed to pull the neck chain off and leave it on the ground at the ranch? Would somebody find it and come here to Ned’s? Or had the necklace simply slipped off somewhere else, someplace where it would never be found?
She looked at the man who held her captive. What was he capable of? Would he rape her? The thought of him having sex with her made her want to throw up. Was he capable of killing her?
“Ned, you said that you found two women who looked like me and you tried to love them like you love me.” She needed to know what he was capable of, what she was up against.
“That’s right. Sarah was the first one. She worked in a bank and lived in an apartment not far from me in Dallas. I saw her on the street one day, and for a moment I thought it was you. But of course it wasn’t. Still, I figured she’d be better than nothing so I started following her, checking out her schedule.”
“So what happened to her?” Lilly asked in an effort to cut to the chase. She hoped he’d say nothing had come of it, that the woman named Sarah, who looked like her, was living happily in Dallas.
“To make a long story short, I started dating her and one night I talked her into coming to my place. That’s when I tried to tell her that I thought fate had sent her to me as a replacement for you. She got all upset and tried to leave me and I got angry…so angry.”
He shook his head, a sad smile on his lips. “She just wouldn’t listen. That was the problem with Loretta, too. She didn’t believe that she was mine and she made me angry. They’re both resting in an old oil field just outside of Dallas.”
He’d killed them. Two women whose only crime had been they had a resemblance to her. Her heart ached for the two women, but the ache was tempered by fear, the fear that he had killed before so there was nothing to stop him from killing again.
Matthew was frantic. Nobody could find Lilly. They’d searched the house, then had gone to Aunt Clara’s cottage to see if she might be there. They’d checked everywhere they could think of, but she was nowhere to be found.
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