Liam’s Lily

by Dale Mayer

  Logan nodded. “If Dad is on the case, things will move forward quickly.”

  As they drove around a corner, Liam saw flames coming up over the rise. “Jesus Christ,” he roared. “That’s her place.”

  Harrison said, “Do you know what building that is? Are there any animals around it?”

  “It’s Lilianna’s cabin,” Liam almost yelled. “She’s got the dogs with her, thank God.” The truck raced up the hill toward her cabin, stopping a decent distance away. It was too late to save anything. “We haven’t even been gone twenty minutes,” he roared.

  “Either somebody came in behind you, or somebody was already there and waited for you to leave.”

  Harrison got out of the truck. The other vehicle pulled up behind them. A man raced toward them from the other side of the cabin. It was Daniel. His face was covered in soot; his clothing was covered in dirt.

  When he saw Liam, he cried out, “I got hit from behind. When I woke up it was already on fire.”

  “Do you have any big equipment here?” Harrison asked desperately. “A tractor, something to make a dirt boundary to stop the fire from spreading?”

  Daniel nodded. “Yes, this way.”

  The two men raced off. There wasn’t much the others could do but stand and watch and wait.

  “Are we expecting anybody to set one of the other buildings on fire?” Logan asked.

  “It could happen.” Liam’s voice was hard, angry. “I don’t trust anybody at this place anymore. There’s no way to know. I don’t know who the hell lit this fire.”

  Rhodes was with Flynn as they stepped up. Flynn asked, “Do you think Daniel had anything to do with it?”

  Liam raised his hands. “Honest to God, I don’t know the man.”

  “Her mom’s quite the bitch,” Logan said suddenly. “Do we know where the hell she’s at?”

  Liam spun to look at him. “No clue.”

  “You’re not missing much if you’ve never met her,” Logan said.

  Just then the sound of a tractor came up the hill. Daniel drove, Harrison standing on the back. The tractor had forks on the front and a bucket-loader with teeth on the back.

  All they could do at this point was set up a dirt guard about twenty feet from the cabin to stop the fire from spreading to the trees or the grass. The cabin would burn to the ground. There wasn’t anything anybody could do about it.

  “That’s the original worker’s cabin on the property,” Logan said. “Her father won’t be happy about this. The problem is, it could be the main house next.” He turned to look around, but Rhodes and Flynn had all spread out, each taking up a spot to watch the other buildings from. “The elephant barn is the most worrisome. We can always rebuild a house. But it takes a lot of money to get another barn like that built.”

  Knowing that the cabin was gone, and Daniel and Harrison were tending to the fire while Rhodes and Flynn were keeping watch on the inhabited parts of the property, Liam and Logan ran toward the elephant barn. Almost instantly Liam could smell gas. He called Harrison on the phone. “There is gas all around the elephant barn. Bring the tractor,” he cried.

  Just then a figure ran from the barn up to the far side. Logan dashed after him.

  Liam found water spigots on the outside of the barn and doused the gasoline to thin it down. It could still burn. If they could soak it enough though, whoever would try to light it couldn’t make it go up. He saw Daniel and Harrison bringing the tractor as fast as it could trundle toward them.

  Harrison was driving now—probably a good idea with the hit to the head Daniel just received—and plowed back the dirt around the barn and the entranceway. These buildings were mostly metal, but, if hay was inside, and feed and sawdust in the stalls, it would be a nightmare. Liam was so glad he and Lilianna had helped Daniel move the animals out of the barn earlier before someone decked him.

  Liam entered the barn and looked around. Without any animals, it looked like a skeleton cage set to hold some kind of prehistoric dinosaurs, it was so vast. It was amazing just how much space the elephants needed. But what he had to do now was make sure nobody else tried to set this place on fire. He sent out a wild bird call, hoping Logan would hear him. There was an answer off to the left. Liam wondered if that meant whoever Logan was chasing was still nearby. Liam slid to his side, crouching beside the hay bales. He dove in beside Logan.

  “Somebody is on the far side.”

  Liam nodded. “I’m going after him. The last thing we want is for someone to toss a match in here.”

  “You go left. I’ll go right,” Logan said.

  They jumped to their feet. Liam could only hope nobody had a weapon. Of course, it was Texas, and they all had guns.

  The first shot rang out as a warning over his head. But instead of going down, he picked up his speed, and, instead of running around the hay—he judged the depth to be too deep—with direct propulsion, he plowed into the top two bales, sending them flying over the side. A woman’s voice cried out, and he jumped over the last of the tumbling bales and landed near her.

  She had a lighter in her hand. She grinned. “Go ahead. I’ll drop this, and the place will go up in flames.”

  Liam studied her. “I guess you’re the ex-wife and the mother then, huh?”

  She raised an elegantly trimmed eyebrow and said, “Of course.”

  “So how did your son die?”

  Here face twisted in fury. “None of your business.”

  He nodded with a sad smile. “Lilianna will have a hard time when she finds out you killed her brother, your own son. Why did you do it? To hurt Jim?”

  Like watching her face disintegrate, this previously calm woman holding a lighter in her hand became a raving maniac, screaming and shouting obscenities about Keith.

  Until Logan stepped up behind her and clipped her hard on the side of the head.

  She dropped the lighter, which closed and fell harmlessly to the floor.

  Liam stared down at her. “What the hell was that?”

  “That was Jim’s nightmare of a wife,” Logan said. “He couldn’t get rid of her fast enough, but she was somebody who wouldn’t stay gone.”

  “And she killed her own son to hurt her ex?”

  “I don’t know the details,” Logan said. “But he died in a fire, I do know that.”

  As they looked at the damage she had caused today, Liam said, “She does appear to have a firebug issue—someone definitely needs to check deeper into her son’s death.”

  Logan grabbed a lasso from the barn wall, rolled her over, tied her wrists behind her back, and then wrapped the rope tightly around her legs, looping the end back into the ropes at her wrists, a typical hog-tie maneuver.

  “Check her for weapons too,” Liam said. “That bitch is somebody you can’t trust in any way.”

  Logan nodded. “She’s packing a handgun, I believe. Check her pants at the waistband.”

  Liam found it and pulled out an ankle holster revolver as well. “Do you think it’s safe now? Was she working alone?”

  “I don’t know,” Logan said, “but we haven’t seen anyone else. I presume we saw her running away earlier. We are limited on manpower, but I can send out Harrison, once he’s finished digging a ditch around the barn, and maybe take Flynn off guard duty, now that the cabin and the barn are dealt with as much as we can do right now. As a two-man team, they can check the public lands in the front of the property to make sure.”

  “How did she get here? There’s no vehicle. She doesn’t look like the kind of woman to walk very far.” He kicked the heeled boots she wore. “These won’t go very far either.”

  Several men gathered around. Daniel introduced the two newcomers to Liam as their local hired help. Daniel took one look down at their feet and cried out, “Oh, my God! She’s back?”

  “Did you see a vehicle?” Liam said.

  Daniel nodded. “I thought I heard one up on the hill. But, with the tractor going, I couldn’t be sure. I saw the lights and went to lo
ok because there shouldn’t have been a vehicle there.”

  The tractor was working hard out front, making sure the residue of gasoline couldn’t cause further harm. Harrison was still dragging a burn-resistant pathway up and around the elephant barn.

  Liam looked at Daniel and said, “Show me.”

  Logan joined them long enough to say he was going for the truck to traverse the property as fast as they could. He left the sad excuse for a mother on the barn floor with a warning to the two local employees to make sure, if she regained consciousness, to clip her a healthy one so she went out again.

  Once they made it to the back of the property, they found an SUV with four-wheel drive. But the tracks leading to it didn’t come from the established ranch road. They came from the direction of the trees on the left.

  “What do you want to bet someone has built a basic road from the lake?” Logan asked.

  Liam walked over to the vehicle, opened it and checked out the registration. “Look at that. Her name is Rianna.” He shook his head. “Lilianna, Brianna and Rianna. How bloody typical.”

  “Right?” In the back of the SUV they found several five-gallon gas cans and even more small propane bottles. They looked at each other with grim faces. “She came prepared.”

  “Is this a case of, if she can’t have it, nobody can?”

  “Did she hurt the elephants though?” Daniel cried out. “I have to check them. I moved them over to the far side, but that could be where the road is coming through from the development area.”

  “Chances are she didn’t because the elephants were bringing in money. But we do need to check on them.”

  Logan said, “I’ll bring my truck closer.”

  They stood here, waiting, searching the SUV for anything else they might find. Rianna’s purse was here and her cell phone. Liam turned on the phone and pocketed it when he found it locked. He also picked up her purse, so she couldn’t grab it if she managed to get free. Nothing else of any value was in the vehicle.

  With Logan driving toward them, Liam and Daniel jumped in the bed of the truck, and they took off toward the elephants. By now, dusk had settled in, but the night sky was lit bright from the cabin fire still raging on the side hill. But it was down to a simple heavy burn that hopefully wouldn’t go anywhere. Flynn, Harrison and Rhodes would continue to keep an eye on all of it.

  They were a good twenty minutes driving across land, following the tracks Rianna had used to get into the place, when Daniel said, “Stop over there.” He hopped out, walked over to a big secured gate. He crawled through the fence and walked a few feet, calling, “Mandy! Billie! Where are you?”

  Soon there was a heavy rumbling and an elephant cry in the night. Logan and Liam hopped out of the vehicle and walked into the fenced area to stand at Daniel’s side. A big female elephant walked toward them. Daniel reached up his arms when she got close, and she wrapped her trunk around him, hugging him close. Daniel scratched her face.

  “Mandy, there you are, girl. I’m hoping everything’s okay. Where are the others?”

  Mandy lowered to one knee, and Daniel hopped up. “She’s the only one that we can ride,” he said with a big grin.

  Logan said, “I’ll ride a horse but not an elephant. Let’s take a walk, and make sure the others are okay.”

  Slowly they moved at her side toward where the other elephants were. Liam marveled at the grace and beauty of the huge animal at his side. Mandy appeared to be completely content. As they came over yet another rolling rise, they found the other elephants waiting for them.

  Daniel called out, “All five are here.”

  And suddenly Liam was completely surrounded by elephant trunks, sniffing his jacket, his face, his hair.

  Daniel explained, “They’re just checking you out.”

  Liam stood quietly and let them. He reached up to pat trunks and faces, scratched the sides of heads and ears.

  “Do we have anything to feed them?” Logan said.

  “I’ve got watermelons back at the barn, but they’ve pretty well eaten everything I gave them earlier. We’ll have more to give them tomorrow. But not tonight.”

  “Good enough as long as they’re all safe.”

  “I think it’s safe to call it a night. … Or maybe not.”

  Another vehicle’s headlights shone in the darkening area. They walked to meet the truck. Two doors slammed shut, and a female voice called out, “Daniel?”

  It was Lilianna. North at her side.

  Daniel called back, “They’re all fine, Lilianna.”

  “Oh, thank God,” she cried as she raced toward them, her hands reaching up to stroke and cuddle the animals. She was evidently a favorite as all their trunks wrapped around her, touching, caressing, nibbling. She laughed. “We’ll have to come back in the morning with the rest of the watermelons.”

  “I know, right?” Daniel said. “For now we need to make sure the cabin fire didn’t spread.”

  Lilianna turned her gaze, looking from one man to the other, landing on Liam.

  “You,” she cried out. She walked over, hauled back and smacked him hard across the face. Then with both hands she pushed against his chest, sending him back one step at the unexpected move. “Don’t you dare do that again. Don’t you realize you could’ve been hurt? You had no business leaving me with North.” Then, as if giving up all her temper, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard.

  Liam went from experiencing shock to amusement to passion in a heartbeat. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back hungrily.

  Chapter 13

  It was hard to explain the panic in her heart when Lilianna had urged North to drive faster and faster up the driveway. Her father and Gunner were behind them in Gunner’s vehicle. They’d gone to Gunner’s, dropped off the boxes and money and electronics, brought the men up to speed and raced back out again.

  When she’d seen her cabin in flames, she’d been so damn terrified somebody would get hurt. Of course, it was the old cabin, her place, that would have gone down first. It was sad, but it wasn’t the heartbreaking loss of a person or an elephant.

  Regardless she’d loved the cabin, and it had been a place to call home, but it had been literally one of the oldest buildings on the property. But to see the elephants, to know they were safe, to know Daniel was safe, and then to finally realize Liam too was safe, she’d just lost it—as if something had snapped inside—and she was all over him. She must have looked like a fool. But, at the moment, she couldn’t stop kissing him.

  His hands gently eased up and down her back, and then he just held her tight against him.

  She could feel the tremors rocking through her, but she no longer knew if they were passion or fear. She’d been so damn scared.

  He continued to hold her close until she calmed down.

  She recognized the sound of another truck arriving and could hear the other voices around them. New voices joining them. She looked up to see Gunner’s truck. Gunner and her father, plus three more men she didn’t know now surrounded them. Well, four men she didn’t know, eyeing the guy who had been here already with Liam and Daniel.

  Liam whispered in her ear, “That’s Flynn, Harrison and Rhodes who also work with me at Levi’s place. Plus Logan’s here.” Liam pointed to him.

  Daniel took one look at Jim and reached out with a hand. “Damn, do you look good.”

  Her father grinned and shook his hand. “I am so damn sorry, Daniel.”

  Daniel shook his head. “No. Don’t be. Just make sure you’re back this time. I don’t want to go through again what we’ve been through these last couple years.”

  “Neither do I.” Her father walked up to the elephants.

  Billie walked over and wrapped her trunk around Jim. He stood in her embrace, his arms wrapped around her trunk and held on for dear life.

  Gunner stood next to Liam and Lilianna. “I figured this was about the best healing he could get.”

  She smiled, tears in her eyes as she w
atched her father spend time greeting each of the elephants individually. They knew him and had missed him just as much as everyone else. When Jim returned to join them, he was brushing tears from his eyes. “I can’t believe I’ve lost two years of this,” he muttered. “I still don’t understand all of what happened.”

  “Did you stop at the barn before you came up?” Liam asked.

  “The men said you were up here. We came straightaway.”

  Logan looked over at Liam who looked down at Lilianna. And then he looked at her father. “I think it’s your ex-wife, Rianna. She’s tied up in the barn. Your two local employees are standing by.”

  “Tied up?” Lilianna stepped out of Liam’s embrace. “Why?”

  “Because she was trying to burn down the barn,” he said in a hard voice. “And she most likely is the one who lit the fire to your cabin.”

  She stared up at him wordlessly. How could she possibly even begin to process this? She turned to look back at her father. He looked shell-shocked but in a way not surprised. “Dad?”

  He glanced at her, diverted his eyes and sighed heavily. “I always suspected she might have lit the fire that killed Keith.”

  Lilianna shook her head. “No. Why? Why would she do that?”

  But her father couldn’t—wouldn’t answer.

  It was Liam who said, “I would imagine because she couldn’t get between Keith and your father. And it was also the best way to hurt your father.”

  Lilianna, her heart now wounded and aching at the thought, turned to stare at her father again. “Are you saying she did it on purpose?” She shook her head. “Please tell me that Keith wasn’t killed over a mother’s jealousy.”

  “It’ll be a while before we can get the truth out of your mother,” her father said. “But I highly suspect it was deliberate.”

  Lilianna turned toward her father. He opened his arms, and she raced into them. The two clung to each other like they should have done in the beginning. She gripped him hard, feeling the sobs shattering her inside. But her father was stronger than she was at the moment, and he just supported her.

  She looked up at him. “Did you know?”