by Dale Mayer
“What do we do with it all?” she asked her father.
Liam heard a truck. He walked out to the front entryway, checking who it was through a window, relieved to see it was North. Motioned for him to come on in.
North walked in the front door and said, “Anything else we’re taking?”
Liam returned to the home office. “Does your father want these? They could all belong to Carlos.”
“He wants all the files.” She looked around and pointed to several discarded banker’s boxes off on the side, lying at odd angles and obviously empty. “We’re to take everything we can.”
Liam nodded. “What about from the sanctuary office?” He only half listened as he packed up the complete contents of the filing cabinet. Thankfully there were enough banker’s boxes to empty it out. Then he walked over to the desk and pointed at the file drawers here.
This time she had no hesitation. “Pack it all up. They can go through their lawyers to get any of this back, if and when any of it’s allowed to return to them.”
He nodded. “Good enough for me.” He needed to give Levi an update. As soon as we get out of here. It took them fifteen minutes to pack up the remaining files.
With all the files loaded into the bed of the truck, they still had to hit the sanctuary office again, and they wanted to get off the property before anybody came back. He walked back inside and saw her standing there. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I am, but at the same time I’m not.”
“Understood. We’re all set here, but I’m worried we missed something in the business office.”
She nodded. “Let’s head down there and see.”
Outside, she closed the door but left it unlocked as she always had. She motioned at the truck. “I’ll walk down with the dogs.”
Liam nodded. “I’ll come with you.” He gave a hard pat on the truck to let North know he could carry on.
North turned on the vehicle and slowly drove it to the office. With the two dogs joining them, tails wagging furiously, Lilianna and Liam walked in the back door of the tourist building to see Daniel pouring coffee.
“Hey, what’s going on?” he asked. “Sounds like something’s up.”
She grinned and said, “The best thing of all is up.”
“What’s that?”
She couldn’t keep the grin off her face, and Liam loved to watch her light up like a candle as she spoke.
“My father. He’s back to normal, and he’s returning home tomorrow or the next day.”
Chapter 12
Lilianna’s face took on a complete look of joy. As far as Liam could see, it was natural.
Daniel grabbed her in a great big hug and twirled her around the room. “Are you serious? The new medication worked?”
“Actually he’s off all medications now.”
“Fantastic. I know he was given something months ago. I was hoping that it would work, but it seems like he’s been gone for so long.”
“Well, he’s back now,” she said, teary-eyed. “He’s staying with a friend for a couple days while he regains some strength, and we’ll grab some of the files from the office here to bring him up to date on what we’ve done for the last couple years.”
Daniel nodded. “That’s a good idea,” he said. “Everything should be digital anyway, right? So take the laptop too. And, if you’ve got any paper files, maybe just scan them all in right now, take the paper copies with you. Then, if anything happens, we still have the digitals.”
She stopped, struck by the sense of that. “That’s what we always used to do, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, but, once Brianna took over in the office, she stopped doing it that way.” He walked with her to the back office, opening a closet door and pointing out the boxes of folders. “I hadn’t realized how much paperwork is here. It will take hours to digitize all this.”
She shook her head, raising both hands in frustration. “If you do it at the time, it only takes a few minutes.”
“I know.”
“I don’t think I have time right now. And Dad wants to see everything.”
“Well, everything should have been entered into ledgers in the accounting system,” Daniel said. “So, in theory, it should all be online.” His voice was doubtful.
“What we can do,” Liam said, “is take in the originals. There should be a scanning company in town. We’ll drop the boxes off and get them all digitally scanned while we have lunch and talk to your father. We should be able to get them all back here again before long.”
She frowned. “But it’ll still take hours.”
Daniel was already opening one box, frowning. “This one’s almost empty.” He pulled out the stacks. “I can feed this through right now. He walked over to the scanner, placed in the papers. He pushed the Scan button and ran them through.
While he was doing that, Lilianna opened up the next box. She looked at Liam. “Do you think we have an hour?”
He frowned, considering the option.
“I don’t have a whole lot of choice. We could take it to town, but I think it’s safer and easier if done here.”
He nodded. “While Daniel scans this stuff, you go through the desk and see if there’s anything else your father wants.”
Switching places, Lilianna sat down at the desk to read through the files while Daniel continued to shove stacks of paper through the scanner. Liam was right though. They needed to get this done.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what’s the panic?” Daniel asked.
“My sister. I think she’s pulling a fast one on the sanctuary.”
“Do you know anything about that?” Liam asked.
Daniel shrugged. “She’s my boss, and I can’t really say anything bad against her.”
“If she’s stealing from the sanctuary you can,” Liam said, crossing his arms over his chest. “And she very well could be.”
Daniel hesitated for just one second, then nodded. “You know that almost makes sense. She kept telling us there was no money, no money, and yet it seemed like there was lots of money the last time I looked at the accounts. Next time it was empty and never refilled again. And then I was locked out about a month ago. She told me that she was keeping a tighter grip on the account in case somebody was helping themselves.” He gave Lilianna a resentful look. “At the time I was pretty upset, like she was accusing me, but, when she gave me access again, I didn’t think anything about it anymore.”
She shook her head. “I’m so sorry. That’s such a Brianna thing to do, throwing the blame on somebody else.”
“She did say you were taking your expenses and how you refused to take a pay cut,” he admitted.
Lilianna’s jaw dropped. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “Yeah, that’s what she said.”
“I take $500 a month for all the traveling I do.”
He stared at her. “That’s not even a wage.”
“No. But I understood no money was left, and I couldn’t figure out why.”
At that Daniel didn’t say anything.
“I think you both know why,” Liam said.
Daniel said, “I’ve downloaded the last year’s accounting, but I need something to copy it to.”
Liam stepped forward and gave him a USB key, stood over his shoulder to make sure it downloaded. As soon as it was, Daniel pulled out the key and gave it back.
Lilianna nodded. “You’re the one who always brought us back when we got into trouble.”
“I’m not just a pretty face,” Daniel joked.
When he was done, he stood and said, “Now Brianna can still see what’s there, but you can too. You have access to all the emails running through the sanctuary.”
“Okay, I’ve got my laptop. We’re taking all the paperwork. I still have one box to scan.” She stared at it with a frown.
“If you want, you guys can take off. I’ll scan all this stuff in. You should be able to access all the digital files from your laptops.”
“Sure,
but I kind of want the paper copies too.” She looked up as Liam walked back in and snatched another box of scanned paperwork and left. “Let’s just do this now.”
It took another fifteen minutes to get through the stacks. She was glad she had picked up a decent printer/scanner that could go through the pages at such a fast rate.
Finally they had them all scanned. She gave the last box to Liam, telling him, “There’s still more stuff here. I just want to make sure, if this place burns to the ground, I have everything I need to stay in business.”
Daniel froze, then exclaimed, “Is that likely?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m afraid of what could happen.”
Liam heard her. “That’s a good point.” He tapped his foot thoughtfully and pulled out his phone, calling Levi. “Levi, we might need some men here. To make sure nothing happens to the structures on the property. There’s the office, the big house, Lilianna’s cabin and the barn for the elephants. Not to mention all the elephant-proof fencing. The last thing I want is to have a fire here. If any one of the bad guys finds out what we’ve taken, there’s no telling what they’ll do.”
Lilianna stared at him, her mind filling with thoughts of what somebody who was angry could do to this sanctuary. She shook her head. “Jesus Christ! If that’s the case, I’m not leaving.”
Daniel reached out a hand. “Go. I don’t know what you’re up to, but I presume it’s important, and it has to do with keeping this place safe.”
She nodded. “It does indeed. We’re caught up in legal battles to stop Brianna and Carlos from getting their hands on the sanctuary.”
Daniel nodded. “That’s what I thought. Look. I’ll stay, and I’m sure I can grab the other two local guys and see if they’ll pull an all-nighter here with me.”
“Sure,” Lilianna said, “but what will you do if Carlos and Brianna come back? I also can’t be sure they won’t come back alone.”
Just then Liam said, “Levi is sending over four men.” He turned to look at Daniel. “If you’re willing to stay, those four will stand watch.”
“Are they the unarmed bodyguard type?” Daniel asked in a hard tone. “Because, if we’re talking about someone torching the elephant barn, I won’t tolerate that. I’ve got two rifles here on the property. I’m not afraid to use them.”
She watched as Liam eyed Daniel with an equally hard look. And then Liam nodded. “All four will be armed. They can be very dangerous. But they’ll be on your side.”
She could see the relief on Daniel’s face. He was a good man. He’d been there every step of the way. But he wasn’t a warrior until pushed to defend. He was the kind of man who healed.
“Maybe we should move the elephants to another pasture,” she said quietly. “Keep them away from the barn for now.”
Daniel thought about that for a moment, walked to the map and pointed to an area. “I presume the problem is this lovely lake area again?”
“Oh, it so is,” she confirmed. “But we need the water rights off that lake for the elephants.”
He nodded. “I’ll put them in this area. Moses and Joshua should be there now.”
She stood beside him at the map. “So it’s a matter of getting Billie, Mandy and Sally over there.”
“That’s easy. I’ve got another load of watermelons to feed them. I’ll load up a four-wheeler and the trailer. They’ll follow me if I have watermelons.”
“If you could do that now, that would be perfect. I’ll get back here as soon as I can.”
Liam interrupted. “I’ve got a worrisome inkling that we need to hurry up this process a bit. We should help you load up the four-wheeler, so we make sure the elephants are out of the barn before we leave the property.”
Lilianna bobbed her head in agreement. “I know I’d feel better seeing them heading off.”
Daniel nodded too. About fifteen minutes later, with the trailer full of watermelons, Daniel shared his thanks with Liam and Lilianna. As she was about to leave, Daniel called back to her, “Hey, you take care yourself. I don’t need to know what the hell is going on, but, just for the record, Carlos has never been friendly or willing to give an inch.” Daniel stopped, hesitated, then added, “You know your sister will never, ever let you win.”
Lilianna smiled. “She doesn’t have to let me win. I just have to make sure she loses.” She turned and walked out, calling for the dogs. No way was she leaving them behind. Not when things were looking to get even uglier. Gunner would keep them for her until this was settled one way or the other.
*
They were ten minutes into the trip back to Gunner’s when Liam, his instincts pricking at him, looked at North and said, “I wonder how quickly Levi’s men are coming. I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Me too,” North said. “I don’t like the idea of leaving the place unattended.”
Lilianna snorted. “I’ve been saying that since the beginning,” she said from the back seat.
“I know. I’ll find out where they are.” Liam pulled out his cell phone and called Levi. “What’s the ETA on the men?”
“They should be there in about fifteen minutes.”
Liam nodded. “Okay, we’re about ten minutes away from the property. We were heading to Gunner’s, but I’m getting a really ugly feeling.”
“Can you turn back?” Levi asked.
There was never any questioning that sense of foreboding in their line of work, especially coming from their navy roots. When somebody said they had an ugly feeling, everybody jumped in to do what they could.
“We could, but we’re carrying a lot of money and all the paper financial documents.” There was an indrawn breath from the other end of his phone, and Liam understood how Levi felt. “If the guys are coming in a SUV, I could ride back with them, and North and Lilianna could go on to Gunner’s with all the boxes of cash and financials.”
“That might not be a bad idea,” Levi admitted. “How intense is the feeling?”
“Strong and getting worse.” He grabbed North’s shoulder. “Pull over.”
Levi’s voice was sharp, “That bad?”
“Hell, yeah. Call the men. Tell them that I’m on the side of the road, the same side they’re heading, and to pick me up.” He hung up. As North pulled off to the side, Liam said, “Get her out of here. Get all this documentation and the money out of here.” He jumped out, slammed the door, pounded hard on the truck to make sure North took off fast because he knew, in his heart of hearts, Lilianna would try to get out with him.
Sure enough, she called out, “What are you doing?”
He could hardly hear her over the dogs barking. He just waved her on. “Go,” he said.
And North gunned it back onto the highway. She was still screaming, “No,” in the distance.
The highway was pretty well empty. He crossed the road and ran alongside it, not able to stand still, too pumped up with adrenaline to just wait passively. The four men should be here within a few minutes. He didn’t know if he’d know who they were or not, but he’d take anybody right now. Any one of his unit would be a good deal. As long as North got Lilianna away from here so Liam knew she would be safe, then he didn’t have to worry about that.
It wasn’t dark yet, but the running lights of an oncoming truck bore down on him. He held up a hand and waved. He wasn’t sure who it was, but, if they stopped, he figured they had been expecting to see him. In fact, there were two trucks. They both pulled to the shoulder. He got in the back seat of the second one and smiled at Harrison and Logan in the front seat. “Glad to see you guys. Now drive…”
“What the hell’s going on?” Logan asked, his tone worried as the truck pulled back onto the highway. “Where is Lilianna? Is she okay?”
There was more than caring in his voice, and it stopped Liam in his thoughts. “She’s fine,” he said slowly. “Did you two have a thing in the past?”
Logan shook his head. “No, but she was always so damn quiet, so sweet compared to the rest of
the nightmarish women in that family. It was hard not to be nice to her. She’s kind of like a kid sister.”
Liam nodded. “I can’t say I feel the kid-sister thing at all, but she’s definitely a sweetheart.”
Logan shot him a look and then chuckled. “Wow. I should’ve seen that one coming.”
“North said something strange. He wondered how come it’s never his turn, and I just had to laugh because there was no warning, and suddenly Lilianna was right there in front of me. Only that’s changed. I need to make damn sure she’s okay.”
Logan nodded. “It happens that way sometimes.”
Harrison outright laughed. “With our group, it always happens that way. … Nothing, nothing and bam! There’s two of you where there used to only be one.”
“Any regrets?” Liam asked. “I’m just wondering how and if the efforts are worth it.”
“Absolutely it’s worth it. I think the danger of our assignment accelerates the relationship, making things happen faster, easier, because you get to the core of what is really important. And, if things have heated up between you really fast, that’s just following the same pattern as all the rest of us.”
Logan got them back to the more urgent matter at hand. “We’ve got Flynn and Rhodes in the other vehicle. So fill us in on what’s going on.”
Liam told them about the money they found in the safe, the handgun with more money, the files they’d digitized and what had happened to her father.
Logan was pissed when he heard that. “Jesus! Jim is an awesome guy. I was so upset when I found out what happened. Dad was absolutely devastated for days.”
“And it might all have been for naught,” Liam said. “As you know, he’s back to normal now, or maybe you don’t know. But he’s at your dad’s house, recuperating. We got him out of that assisted-care home real fast. The specialist your father brought in and Gunner’s lawyer are looking after Jim right now.”